In 1940, while much of the
world was headed on a devastating course towards World War, a new hero burst
into life in the pages of All-Americans Comics to “shed light upon dark evil.” And 75 years later the legacy of this
self-same hero continues to do just that.
In that time we have been introduced to literally hundreds of character
baring the moniker of Green Lantern but I thought it would be a fitting 75th
anniversary tribute to take a look back at where it all began.
All-American Comics #16 has a
cover date of July 1940 but according to that wonderful reference source Mike’s Amazing World of Comics the issue actually hit newspaper stands on May 21, 1940. The book was a collection of humour and
adventure romps that included original stories alongside reprints of older strip
comics. The cover art of most previous
issues promised readers a rollicking good adventure but nothing compared to the
thrilling noir of a masked, cloaked Alan Scott leaping perilously across an
exposed girder straight into the muzzle of a loaded tommy gun. The character’s origin tale is a whistle-stop
tour of everything that ever went into a ‘boys’ own adventure’.
The Green Lantern opens with an explosive train crash orchestrated
by a crooked businessman seeking revenge after losing out on a new construction
contract. The only survivor of the crash
is his rival who is protected by the supernatural light emanating from a
mysterious green railway lantern. The lantern speaks to the survivor, Alan
Scott, in “an ageless, toneless voice”, recounting the details of its own
magical history. It first came to earth
as a flaming meteor with prophetic abilities and was duly carved into a lantern
shape by Chinese lamp maker with a reputation for sorcery. Fearing the lamp was cursed, the lamp maker’s
associates killed him and burned his possessions own to meet their only
dreadful end to the mystic green flame.
The lamp next turns up many years later to grant sanity to a patient in
a mental asylum. The patient remoulds
the lamp into a modern railway lantern which finally passes into the hands of Scott
during that fateful train journey. The
lantern imbues him with extraordinary powers and recruits him to fight
evil. All this this in 3 pages of a
comic book! They don’t write ‘em like
that anymore…
Despite the many developments and new directions introduced with Green Lantern over the course of the last 75 years it is pleasing to note some of today’s core character traits were established in this very first story. The Lantern explains the nature of its gift to Alan, “Power shall be yours if you have faith in yourself. Lose that faith and you shall lose the energetic power of the Green Lantern, for will power is the flame of Green Lantern”. Without these words, penned by legendary writer Bill Finger, Geoff Johns might never have created the emotional spectrum and the landscape of the modern day Green Lantern universe might look very different indeed. How could artist Martin Nodell have know, when he devised this character at the age of 25 under the pseudonym Mart Dellon, that it would go on to become his most famous creation. Nodell didn’t want his works in comics to stigmatise his chances of an advertising career. And while we are discussing credits, much respect should be paid to Sheldon Moldoff for bringing us the gripping noir cover mentioned earlier.
Under the green flame’s instruction Alan Scott fashions a ring from its metal that manifests his powers for 24 hours before being recharged at the green flame’s lantern source. His first act as a newly appointed superhero is to swear vengeance on the saboteur responsible for the tragic deaths of his fellow train passengers. The ring immediately flies him through the air to the villain’s hideaway. It spirits him straight through the wall where he confronts the crook and his startled henchmen. The flames protective green aura renders Alan impervious to bullets and a steel blade but he unwittingly discovers the green energy’s ‘Achilles heel’ when he is struck over the head by a simple wooden billy club. This flaw in Green Lantern’s power set was published a full 3 years before Kryptonite was officially introduced to the Superman mythos and would be the forerunner to the Silver and Bronze Age Green Lantern Corps’ weakness to exert the powers over anything coloured yellow.
Of course, the hero was not
down for long and Scott immediately bounced back with a flying kick that Bruce
Lee would be proud of and a round of good old fashioned fisticuffs that soundly
took care of his would be attackers. Powered
by his ring, he whisked the criminal’s leader high into the sky and threatened
do drop him. Not surprisingly the bad
guy spilled everything and signed a confession before promptly dying of
shock. Poetic justice is served and Alan
feels destiny pulling him towards a life fighting evil wherever he finds
it. The saga ends with our protagonist declaring
he will become a dreaded figure sporting a costume so bizarre that he will
never be forgotten. With that he dons
the famous Dracula cloak and the red and green swashbuckling garb that has been
the original Green Lantern’s signature style ever since.
But what would Green Lantern be
without his oath? The traditional GL
oath has seen some changes and variations over the years but the solemn vow to shine brightly over evil has its roots right here in All-American Comics #16, “…And I will
shed my light over dark evil… for the dark things cannot stand the light… the
light of The Green Lantern".
I’m sure Martin Nodell and Bill
Finger could never have imagined how far Green Lantern would go. All of his earliest appearances pitted him
against hoodlums and petty criminals. He
stared down the barrels of revolvers and machines guns and slugged his way to
victory with a tasty right hook. It seems
another world from the cosmic level dramas of Zero Hour or Blackest Night,
from Kingdom Come or Lights Out. But all of these stories owe a huge debt of
gratitude to an 8 page pulp adventure from 1940 that intrigued and delighted
its young readers and kept them coming back for more. Then again, maybe the journey from street level
vigilante to galactic peacekeeper is not so unpredictable after all. For even in this very first story the mighty
power of Green Lantern came from a meteor that crashed to Earth from
space. Perhaps it’s only fitting that
one day it would return to the stars once again.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You can enjoy the early
adventures of Green Lantern for yourself in DC
Archive Editions: The Golden Age Green Lantern, Volume 1, available from
Amazon and all good comic book stores everywhere.
If you enjoyed this post please
do keep coming back to Flodo’s Page through June and July 2015 when we will have some other great surprises to
celebrate 75 years of Green Lantern.
For more anniversary awesomeness
with everybody’s favourite Emerald Gladiator make sure search the hashtag #GL75TH
across social media
platforms.
Until next time, “Beware Our
Power!”
