Green Lantern – Page 4 – Now Read This!

February 20, 2018February 19, 2018

Green Lantern Sector 2814 volume 1

By Len Wein, Dave Gibbons & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-3689-2

Since the dawn of American comics’ Silver Age, where and when The Flash kick-started it all to become the fast-beating heart of the revived genre of superheroes, his fellow jet-age re-tread Green Lantern has always provided the conceptual framework for the comprehensive, pervasive magic of the DC Universe’s monolithic shared continuity.

Hal Jordan was a brash young test pilot in Coast City, California when an alien cop crashed on Earth. Mortally wounded, Abin Sur commanded his power ring – a device which could materialise thoughts – to seek out a replacement officer, honest and without fear.

Scanning the planet, it selected Jordan and brought him to the crash-site. The dying alien bequeathed his ring, the lantern-shaped Battery of Power and his professional vocation to the astonished Earthman.

Jordan grew to be one of the greatest members of a serried band of law-enforcers. The Green Lantern Corps has protected the cosmos from evil and disaster for billions of years, policing vast numbers of sentient beings under the severe but benevolent auspices of immortal super-beings who consider themselves the Guardians of the Universe.

These undying patrons of Order were one of the first races to evolve and dwelt in sublime, emotionless security and tranquillity on the world of Oa at the very centre of creation.

Green Lanterns are chosen for their capacity to overcome fear and are equipped with a ring that creates solid constructs out of emerald light. The miracle weapon is fuelled by the strength of the user’s willpower, making it one of the mightiest tools in the universe.

For eons, a single individual from each of the 3600 sectors of known space was selected to patrol his, her or its own beat.

As the series progressed The Guardians’ motives and ineffability increasingly came into question by many of their once-devoted operatives and peacekeepers, who too frequently saw the formerly infallible little blue gods exposed as venal, ruthless, doctrinaire and even capriciousâ€¦

Even as his fame and repute grew, headstrong Hal had endured an extremely tempestuous relationship with his bosses which eventually resulted in them accusing him of neglecting his space sector – 2814 – to concentrate on Earth’s problems and criminals.

This led to the Oan overlords banishing Jordan: compelling him to scrupulously patrol his appointed interstellar beat and never again set foot on Earthâ€¦

This fabulous cosmic Fight’s ‘n’ Tights trade paperback compilation – also available in eBook editions – gathers Green Lantern #172-176 and 178-181. It spans January – October 1984 and celebrates the end of that exile as new writer/editor Len Wein united with illustrator/letterer (and vanguard of a â€œBritish Invasionâ€ of talent that would reshape the comicbook industry) Dave Gibbons to bring the wanderer homeâ€¦

After a year way performing heroic service across the starways, Jordan stridently petitioned his master on Oa where a phalanx of his comrades supported his request to be allowed back to his birthworld. His ‘Judgment Day!’ gave him everything he wanted but when Jordan returned to Coast City he quickly discovered that the world had moved on without himâ€¦

Reunited with lover Carol Ferris, Hal tries to readjust in ‘Old Friends, New Foesâ€¦!’ but an unsuspected rival at work is as nothing compared to the covert machinations of an unsuspected observer and power-broker known as the Monitor (yes, that guy! Check out Crisis on Infinite Earths for more detail) who supplies the mystery villain with a selection of super-powered mercenariesâ€¦

The first of these is a German maniac with a penchant for high-tech trick spears who attempts to kill the Emerald Crusader and vaporise Ferris Aircraft in #174’s ‘I Shot a Javelin into the Airâ€¦!’

GL #175 offers a fraught reunion with old pal Barry Allen – AKA the Flash – before a predatory mutant archenemy resurfaces to turn Hal’s city and friends into ‘Shark Bait!’

The Shark‘s mental assault consumes the hero’s mind, leaving the Emerald Gladiator brainwiped, comatose and dying, but in #176 (inked by Dick Giordano and lettered by Ben Oda) the indomitable personality of Hal Jordan battles his way out of the paranormal predator’s cerebral gullet and back into action through a series of ‘Mind Games!’

The enigmatic enemy in the background still wants GL gone and Ferris obliterated, however, and subsequently commissions more high-tech hirelings in #178: specifically, a squad of construction-worker themed wreckers dubbed the Demolition Team.

Throughout the period of these tales, ferocious deadlines plagued the creative team, with Gibbon’s preference to draw, ink and letter the stories perpetually confounded by the fact that he was generally receiving scripts three pages at a time. In an era before the internet when the fax machine was the acme of technological communication, something had to give, and after a fill-in issue (#177 and not included here) failed to solve the problems, two last all-Gibbons issues were followed by a separation of rolesâ€¦

Before that though, just as Ferris is battered and shattered by ‘A Bad Case of the D.T.s!’, Green Lantern is called way from Earth by the implacable Guardians to save an exploding planet. Heartbroken and terrified, Carol sees her company practically destroyed until a new, brutally vicious protagonist steps in to stop the Demolition Team in #179’s ‘Let Us Prey!’ (both by Wein & Gibbons).

By the time Jordan returns to view the ‘Aftermath!’ (GL #180 with Mike DeCarlo inking and Ben Oda on letters) the damage has been done both to the factory and Hal’s now-crippled friend Clay Kendell. Appalled at his own dereliction of duty and personal failures, Jordan consults with a number of Justice League colleagues before heading to Oa in #181 (Mark Farmer inks & John Costanza letters) and telling the Guardians to ‘Take This Jobâ€¦ And Shove It!’

They accept, precipitating one of the biggest events in DC historyâ€¦

To Be Continuedâ€¦
Â© 1984 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

January 2, 2018December 31, 2017

Green Lantern: The Silver Age volume two

By John Broome, Gardner Fox, Gil Kane, Mike Sekowsky & various (DE Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-6-7107-7

After their hugely successful revival and reworking of The Flash, DC (or National Comics as they were) were keen to build on the resurgent superhero trend.Â ShowcaseÂ #22 hit the stands at the same time as the fourth issue of the new Flash comicbook – #108 – and once again the guiding lights were Editor Julie Schwartz and writer John Broome. Assigned as illustrator was action ace Gil Kane, generally inked by Joe Giella.

Hal Jordan was a brash young test pilot in California when an alien policeman crashed his spaceship on Earth. Mortally wounded, Abin Sur commanded his ring – a device which could materialise thoughts – to seek out a replacement officer, honest and without fear.

Scanning the planet, it selected Jordan and brought him to the crash-site. The dying alien bequeathed his ring, the lantern-shaped Battery of Power and his profession to the astonished Earthman.

In six pages ‘S.O.S Green Lantern’ established characters, scenario and narrative thrust of a series that would increasingly become the spine of DC continuity. Now that the concept of the superhero was swiftly being re-established among the buying public, there was no shortage of gaudily clad competition.

The better books survived by having something a little â€œextraâ€. With Green Lantern that was primarily the superb scripts of John Broome and Gardner Fox and the astounding drawing of Gil Kane – ably abetted by inker Joe Giella – whose dynamic anatomy and deft page design was maturing with every page he drew, but the concept itself was also a provider of boundless opportunity.

Other heroes had extraterrestrial, other-dimensional and even trans-temporal adventures, but the valiant champion of this series was also a cop: a lawman working for the biggest police force in the entire universe. As such his support team was necessarily composed of some of the brightest talents in American comics.

This fabulous paperback compilation gathers Green Lantern #10-22 (January 1962-July 1963) and reveals how a Space Age reconfiguration of the Golden-Age superhero with a magic ring replaced mysticism with super-science and opens with ‘Prisoner of the Power Ring!’ as the hero responds to a distress call from inside his own emerald wonder-weapon.

Blending Atomic Cold War anxiety with the rescue of a scientist’s family from subatomic exile, GL saves the refugees from their own folly before back up yarn ‘The Origin of Green Lantern’s Oath’ reviews three of the hero’s earliest exploits.

These cases led to him constructing the piece of doggerel he uses to time his ring’s recharging periodâ€¦

Although neither tale is a blockbuster, the increasingly loose and expressive artwork of Kane, especially on the latter (with Murphy Anderson on inks) are an unalloyed delight of easy grace and power.

The readers were constantly clamouring for more on the alien Corps Jordan had joined and ‘The Strange Trial of Green Lantern’ introduced another half-dozen or so simply to court-martial Hal for dereliction of duty in a saga of cataclysmic proportions, whereas ‘The Trail of the Missing Power Ring!’ focuses on drama of a more human scale when a young boy finds the power ring Hal has foolishly lost.

Issue #12 returned GL to 5700AD as brainwashed Solar Director Pol Manning to thwart an interplanetary coup in ‘Green Lantern’s Statue goes to War’ engineered by an envious magicianâ€¦

A balance between cosmic and candidly personal stories was developing in those issues sporting two stories, and ‘Zero Hour in the Silent City!’ highlights engineer/grease-monkey Tom Kalmaku‘s close friendship with Hal against the backdrop of bank robbers with a super scientific gimmick.

Green Lantern #13 was a true landmark as an interdimensional invasion led to a team-up and lifelong friendship between our hero and fellow Showcase alumnus the Flash. Controversial for the time, ‘The Duel of the Super-Heroes!’ sees them share each other’s secret identities; a rarity then even among the close comrades of the Justice League of America.

This full-length thriller was followed in #14 by the introduction of Balkan ultra-nationalist super-villain Sonar as ‘The Man Who Conquered Sound!’: a traditional frantic fist-fest complemented by the return of Jim Jordan and snoopy girl reporter Sue Williams.

In the frothy romp ‘My Brother, Green Lantern!’ it’s revealed that she’s now romantically involved with the youngest Jordan sibling and – due to a slight mishap with the boy’s fraternity rings – more certain than ever that her intended is the dashing Emerald Gladiator.

Sinestro once more escapes the justice of the Guardians of the Universe to return in #15’s ‘Peril of the Yellow World!’ a cosmic duel testing GL’s bravery and fortitude as much as Space Race thriller ‘Zero Hour at Rocket City!’ tests his wits. The next issue took the Hal Jordan/Green Lantern/Carol Ferris romantic triangle to a new level. ‘The Secret Life of Star Sapphire!’ introduces the alien women of Zamaron.

Readers of contemporary comics will be aware of their awesome heritage but for the sake of this review and new readers let’s keep that to ourselves. These questing females select Carol as their new queen and give her a gem as versatile and formidable as a power ring, and a brainwash make-over too.

Programmed to destroy the man she loves, Star Sapphire would become another recurring foe, but one with a telling advantage. The second story then solves a puzzle that had baffled readers since the very first appearance of the Emerald Crusader.

Gardner Fox contributes his first tale in ‘Earth’s First Green Lantern’ as Hal finally learns why his predecessor Abin Sur crashed to Earth in a spaceship when all GLs can fly through hyperspace and the interstellar voids on ring power alone. A stirring tale of triumph and tragedy, this short yarn is one of GL’s very best.

Also written by Fox, ‘The Spy-Eye that Doomed Green Lantern!’ again revolves around test pilot Jordan’s personal involvement in the US/Soviet race to the stars, and is a fine example of a lost type of tale. In those long-ago days costumed villains were always third choice in a writer’s armoury: clever bad-guys and aliens always seemed more believable to the creators back then. If you were doing something naughty would you want to call attention to yourself? Nowadays the visual impact of buff men in tights dictates the type of foe more than the crimes committed, which is why these glorious adventures of simpler yet somehow better days are such an unalloyed delight.

Green Lantern #18 (January 1963) led with ‘The World of Perilous Traps!’ by Broome, regular penciller Gil Kane and inker Giella who teamed to produce another cracking, fast paced thriller featuring the renegade GL Sinestro, whilst Mike Sekowsky penciled the end of the intriguing ‘Green Lantern Vs. Power Ring’ wherein Broome engineered a startling duel after larcenous hobo Bill Baggett takes control of the green ring, necessitating a literal battle of wills for its power.

Green Lantern #19 saw the return of radical nationalist Sonar in ‘The Defeat of Green Lantern!’ (Broome, Kane & Giella) a high-energy super-powered duel nicely counter-pointed by the whimsical crime-caper ‘The Trail of the Horse-and-Buggy Bandits!’ by the same team, wherein a little old lady’s crossed phone line led the Emerald Gladiator into conflict with a passel of crafty crooks. Issue #20’s ‘Parasite Planet Peril!’ by Broome, Kane & Anderson then triumphantly reunites GL with the Flash in a full-length epic to foil a plot to kidnap human geniuses.

One of the DCU’s greatest menaces debuted in #21’s ‘The Man Who Mastered Magnetism’. Broome created a world-beater in the dual-personality villain Doctor Polaris for Kane & Giella to limn, whilst ‘Hal Jordan Betrays Green Lantern!’ is the kind of action-packed, cleverly baffling puzzle-yarn Gardner Fox always excelled at, especially with Anderson’s stellar inks to lift the art to a delightful high.

Fox also scripted the return of diabolical futurist villain Hector Hammond in ‘Master of the Power Ring!’ (Giella inks) before Broome turns his hand to a human-interest story with the Anderson-inked ‘Dual Masquerade of the Jordan Brothers!’, with GL playing matchmaker, trying to convince his future sister-in-law that her intended is in fact Green Lantern!

These costumed drama romps are in themselves a great read for most ages, but when also considered as the building blocks of all DC continuity they become vital fare for any fan keen to make sense of the modern superhero experience.

Judged solely on their own merit, these are snappy, awe-inspiring, beautifully illustrated captivatingly clever thrillers that amuse, amaze and enthral both new readers and old devotees. This lovely collection is a must-read item for anybody in love with our art-form and especially for anyone just now encountering the hero for the first time through his movie incarnations.
Â© 1962, 1963, 2017 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

November 28, 2017November 27, 2017

Green Lantern/Green Arrow

By Dennis O’Neil & Neal Adams, with Elliot Maggin, Frank Giacoia, Dick Giordano, Dan Adkins, Berni Wrightson & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-3517-8

After the successful revival of The Flash in 1956, DC (or National Comics as they then were) was keen to build on a seemingly resurgent superhero trend. Showcase #22 hit the stands at the same time as the fourth issue of the new Flash comicbook (#108 if you’re the kind who keeps count) with the architects of the Silver Age – editor Julie Schwartz, writer John Broome and artists Gil Kane & Joe Giella – providing a Space Age reworking of a Golden-Age superhero who battled injustice with a magic ring.

Super-science replaced mysticism as Hal Jordan, a young test pilot in California, was transported to the side of a dying alien policeman who had crashed on Earth. Mortally wounded, Abin Sur commanded his power-ring – a device which could materialise thoughts – to seek out a replacement ring-bearer; honest and without fear.

Scanning the planet, it had selected Jordan and brought him to an appointment with destiny. The dying alien bequeathed the ring, a lantern-shaped Battery of Power and his noble profession to the astonished Earthman.

Having established the characters, scenario and narrative thrust of the series that would become the spine of DC continuity, a universe of wonder was opened to wide-eyed readers of all ages. However, after barely a decade of earthly crime-busting, interstellar intrigue and spectacular science fiction shenanigans, the Silver Age Green Lantern became one of the earliest big-name casualties of the downturn in superhero sales in 1969, prompting Editor Schwartz to try something extraordinary to rescue the series.

The result was a bold experiment which created a fad for socially relevant, ecologically aware, mature stories which spread throughout DC’s costumed hero comics and beyond; totally revolutionising the industry and nigh-radicalising many readers.

Tapping relatively youthful superstars-in-waiting Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams to produce the revolutionary fare, Schwartz watched in fascinated disbelief as the resultant thirteen groundbreaking, landmark issues captured the tone of the times, garnering critical praise, awards and valuable publicity from the outside world, whilst simultaneously registering such poor sales that the series was finally cancelled anyway, with the heroes unceremoniously packed off to the back of marginally less-endangered comicbook The Flash.

America at his time was a bubbling cauldron of social turmoil and experimentation. Everyone and everything were challenged on principle, and with issue #76 of Green Lantern (April 1970 and the first issue of the new decade) O’Neil & Adams utterly redefined super-heroism with â€œIssuesâ€-driven stories transforming complacent establishment masked boy-scouts into uncertain, questioning champions and strident explorers of the enigma of America.

At least the Ring-Slinger was able to perceive his faults, and was more or less willing to listen to new ideasâ€¦

Reprinting the contents of Green Lantern #76-87, 89 – barring the all-reprint #88 – and the emerald back-up strips from The Flash #217-219 and 226, this crucial Trade Paperback (and eBook) compiles all the legendary and lauded landmark tales in one spectacular and unmissable volume.

It all kicks off with ‘No Evil Shall Escape My Sight!’ (inked by Frank Giacoia): a true benchmark of the medium, utterly reinventing the concept of the costumed crusader as newly-minted, freshly-bankrupted millionaire Oliver Queen challenges his Justice League comrade’s cosy worldview. All too soon the lofty space-cop painfully discovers real villains wear business suits, have expense accounts, hurt people just because of skin colour and will happily poison their own nests for short-term gainâ€¦

The specific villain du jour is a wealthy landlord whose treatment of his poverty-stricken tenants isn’t actually illegal but certainly is wickedly immoralâ€¦

Of course, the fact that this yarn is also a brilliantly devious crime-thriller with science-fiction overtones doesn’t exactly hurt eitherâ€¦

‘Journey to Desolation’ in #77 was every bit as groundbreaking.

At the conclusion of the #76 an immortal Guardian of the Universe – known as â€œthe Old Timerâ€ is assigned to accompany the Emerald Duo on a voyage to â€œdiscover Americaâ€: a soul-searching social exploration into the dichotomies which divide the nation – and a tremendously popular pastime for the nation’s disaffected citizens back then.

The first stop brought the trio to a poverty-stricken mining town run as a private kingdom by a ruthless entrepreneur happy to use agent-provocateurs and Nazi war criminals to keep his wage slaves in line. When a young protest singer looks likely to become the next Bob Dylan and draw unwelcome publicity, he has to be eliminated – as do the three strangers who drive into town at just the wrong momentâ€¦

Although the heroes provide temporary solutions and put away viciously human criminals, these tales were always carefully heavy-handed in exposing bigger ills and issues which couldn’t be fixed with a wave of a Green Ring; invoking an aura of helplessness that was metaphorically emphasised during this story when Hal is summarily stripped of much of his power for no longer being the willing, unquestioning stooge of his officious, high-and-mighty alien mastersâ€¦

The confused and merely-mortal Green Lantern discovers another unpalatable aspect of human nature in ‘A Kind of Loving, a Way of Death!’ when newly-widowed Black Canary joins the peripatetic cast. Seeking to renew her stalled relationship with Green Arrow, she is waylaid by bikers, grievously injured and taken in by a charismatic hippy guru.

Sadly, Joshua is more Manson than Messiah and his brand of Peace and Love only extends to white people: everybody else is simply target practiseâ€¦

The continuing plight of Native Americans was stunningly highlighted in ‘Ulysses Star is Still Alive!’ as corporate logging interests attempt to deprive a mountain tribe of their very last scraps of heritage, once more causing the Green Knights to take extraordinarily differing courses of action to helpâ€¦

GL/GA #80 then returns some science fictional gloss in a tale of judicial malfeasance when ‘Even an Immortal Can Die!’ (inked by Dick Giordano), after the Old Timer uses his powers to save Green Lantern rather than prevent a pollution catastrophe in the Pacific Northwest. For his selfish deed he is chastised by his fellow Guardians and dispatched to the planet Gallo for judgement by the supreme arbiters of Law in the universe.

His earthly friends accompany him there and find a disturbing new administration with a decidedly off-kilter view of justiceâ€¦

Adams’ staggering facility for capturing likenesses added extra-piquancy to this yarn that we’re just not equipped to grasp all these decades later, with the usurping, overbearing villain derived from the Judge of the infamous trial of anti-war protesters â€œThe Chicago Eightâ€.

Insight into the Guardians’ history underpins ‘Death Be My Destiny!’ when Lantern, Arrow and Canary travel with the now-sentenced and condemned Old Timer to the ancient planet Maltus (that’s a pun, son: just type Thomas Robert Malthus into your search engine of choice or even look in a book).

They arrive on a world literally choking on its own out-of-control population. The uncanny cause of the catastrophe casts an unlovely light on the perceived role and worth of women in modern societyâ€¦

On a more traditional note #82 enquired ‘How Do You Fight a Nightmare?’ (with additional inks from Bernie Wrightson) as Green Lantern’s greatest foe unleashes Harpies, Alien Amazons and all manner of female furies on the hapless hero before Black Canary and Green Arrow can turn the tide, all whilst asking a few extremely pertinent questions about women’s rightsâ€¦

‘â€¦And a Child Shall Destroy Them!’ crept into Hitchcock country to reintroduce Hal’s old flame Carol Ferris and take a pop at education and discipline in the chilling tale of a supernal mutant in thrall to a petty and doctrinaire little martinet with delusions of ethical and moral grandeur.

Wrightson also inked #84’s ‘Peril in Plastic’: a staggering attack on out-of-control consumerism, shoddy cost-cutting and the seduction of bread and circuses with costumed villain Black Hand just along for the polemical ride, after which the comics world changed forever in the two-part saga ‘Snowbirds Don’t Fly’ and ‘They Say It’ll Kill Meâ€¦But They Won’t Say When!’

Depiction of drug abuse had been strictly proscribed in comicbooks since the advent of the Comics Code Authority, but by 1971 the elephant in the room was too big to ignore and both Marvel and DC addressed the issue in startlingly powerful tales that opened Pandora’s dirty box forever. When the Green Gladiators are drawn into conflict with a vicious heroin-smuggling gang Oliver Queen is horrified to discover his own sidekick had become an addictâ€¦

This sordid, nasty tale did more than merely preach or condemn, but actively sought to explain why young people turned to drugs, just what the consequences could be and even hinted at solutions older people and parents might not want to consider. Forty-five years on it might all seem a little naÃ¯ve, but the earnest drive to do something and the sheer dark power of the story still delivers a stunning punch…

For all the critical acclaim and astonishingly innovative creative work done, sales of Green Lantern/Green Arrow were in a critical nosedive and nothing seemed able to stop the rot. Issue #87 featured two solo tales, the first of which ‘Beware My Power!’ introduced a bold new character to the DCU.

John Stewart is a radical activist: an angry black man always spoiling for a fight and prepared to take guff from no-one. Hal Jordan is convinced the Guardians have grievously erred when they appointed Stewart as Green Lantern’s official stand-in, but after seeing how his proposed substitute responds to an openly racist US presidential candidate trying to foment a race war the Emerald Gladiator is forced to change his tune.

Meanwhile, bankrupted millionaire Oliver Queen faces a difficult decision when the retiring Mayor of Star City invites him to run for his office. Written by Elliot Maggin ‘What Can One Man Do?’ poses fascinating questions for the proud rebel by inviting him to join â€œthe establishmentâ€ he despises, and actually do some lasting good. His decision is muddied by well-meaning advice from his fellow superheroes and the tragic consequences of a senseless street riotâ€¦

Issue #88 was a collection of reprints (not included here) but the title went out on an evocative, allegorical high note in #89 as ‘â€¦And Through Him Save a Worldâ€¦’ (inked by Adams) balances jobs and self-interest at Carol Ferris’ aviation company against clean air and pure streams in an naturalistic fable wherein an ecological Christ-figure makes the ultimate sacrifice to save our planet and where all the Green Heroes’ power cannot affect the tragic outcomeâ€¦

Although the groundbreaking series folded there, the heroics resumed a few months later in the back of The Flash #217 (August-September 1972). ‘The Killing of an Archer!’ opens a run of short episodes which eventually led to Green Lantern regaining his own solo series. The O’Neil, Adams & Giordano thriller relates how Green Arrow makes a fatal misjudgement and accidentally ends the life of a criminal he is battling. Devastated, the broken swashbuckler abandons his life and heads for the wilderness to atone or dieâ€¦

The next episode ramps up the tension as a plot against the Archer is uncovered by Green Lantern and Black Canary in ‘Green Arrow is Dead!’ whilst ‘The Fate of an Archer’ sees Canary critically injured and GL hunting down Oliver just in time to save her lifeâ€¦

Adams moved on to other projects then but returned for one last hurrah with O’Neil and Giordano in Flash #226 as ‘The Powerless Power Ring!’ reveals that the mightiest weapon in the universe is useless if the man wielding it is not up to the taskâ€¦

As well as these magnificent, still-challenging epics – superbly recoloured by Cory Adams and Jack Adler – this chronicle also reprints the seven all-new Adams covers created for a 1983 reprint miniseries and completing the experience of challenging tales of social injustice which signalled the end of comics’ Silver Age. This volume closed one chapter in the life of Green Lantern and opened the doors to today’s sleek and stellar sentinel of the stars. It’s ageless and evergreen and should have pride of place on every Fights ‘n’ Tights Fanboy’s most accessible bookshelf.
Â© 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1983, 1992, 1993, 2012, DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

December 5, 2016December 3, 2016

Green Lantern: The Silver Age volume 1

By John Broome, Gardner Fox, Gil Kane, Mike Sekowsky & various (DE Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-6348-5

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Timeless Wholesome Entertainmentâ€¦ 9/10

After their hugely successful revival and reworking of The Flash, DC (or National Comics as they were) were keen to build on the resurgent superhero trend. Showcase #22 hit the stands at the same time as the fourth issue of the new Flash comicbook – #108 – and once again the guiding lights were Editor Julie Schwartz and writer John Broome. Assigned as illustrator was action ace Gil Kane, generally inked by Joe Giella

This fabulous paperback compilation gathers Showcase #22-24 (September/October 1959 to January/February 1960) and Green Lantern #1-9 (July/August 1960-November 1961) and reveals how a Space Age reconfiguration of the Golden-Age superhero with a magic ring replaced mysticism with super-science.

Hal Jordan was a young test pilot in California when an alien policeman crashed his spaceship on Earth. Mortally wounded, Abin Sur commanded his ring – a device which could materialise thoughts – to seek out a replacement officer, honest and without fear. Scanning the planet it selected Jordan and brought him to the crash-site. The dying alien bequeathed his ring, the lantern-shaped Battery of Power and his profession to the astonished Earthman.

In six pages ‘S.O.S Green Lantern’ established characters, scenario and narrative thrust of a series that would increasingly become the spine of DC continuity, leaving room for another two adventures in that premiere issue. ‘Secret of the Flaming Spear!’ and ‘Menace of the Runaway Missile!’ were both contemporary thrillers set against the backdrop of the aviation industry at a time when the Cold War was at its height.

Unlike the debut of The Flash, the editors were now confident of their ground. The next two issues of Showcase carried the new hero into even greater exploits. ‘Summons from Space’ sent Green Lantern to another world: saving an emerging race from a deadly threat at the behest of the as-yet-unnamed leaders of the Green Lantern Corps, whilst ‘The Invisible Destroyer’ pitted the neophyte Emerald Gladiator against the earthbound but eerie menace of a psychic marauder that lived on atomic radiation.

Showcase #24 (January/February 1960) featured another spy-ring in ‘The Secret of the Black Museum!’ but Jordan’s complex social life took centre-stage in ‘The Creature That Couldn’t Die!’ when the threat of an unstoppable monster paled before the insufferable stress of being his own rival. Hal’s boss Carol Ferris, controversially left in charge of her father’s aviation company (a radical concept in 1960 when most women were still considered faint-fodder fluff) won’t date an employee, but is deliriously happy for him to set her up with the glamorous, mysterious Green Lantern.

Six months later Green Lantern #1 was released. All previous tales had been dynamically drawn by Kane & Giella, in a visually arresting and exciting manner, but the lead tale here, ‘Planet of Doomed Men’ was inked by the uniquely gifted Murphy Anderson, and his fine line-work elevated the tale (more emergent humans in need of rescue from another monster) to the status of a minor classic. Giella returned for the second tale, ‘Menace of the Giant Puppet!’, in which GL fought his first – albeit rather lame – super-villain, the Puppet Master.

The next issue originated a concept that would be pivotal to the future of DC continuity. ‘The Secret of the Golden Thunderbolts!’ featured an Antimatter Universe and the diabolical Weaponers of Qward, a twisted race who worshipped Evil, and whose â€œcriminalsâ€ (i.e. people who wouldn’t lie, cheat, steal or kill) wanted asylum on Earth. Also inked by Anderson, this is an early highpoint of tragic melodrama from an era where emotionalism was actively downplayed in comics.

The second story ‘Riddle of the Frozen Ghost Town!’ is a crime thriller highlighting the developing relationship between the hero and his Inuit (then â€œEskimoâ€) mechanic Tom ‘Pieface’ Kalmaku.

The Qwardians returned in the all-Giella-inked Â #3, leading with ‘The Amazing Theft of the Power Lamp!’ and Jordan’s love-life again spun out of control in ‘The Leap Year Menace!’, whilst GL #4 saw the hero trapped in the antimatter universe in ‘The Diabolical Missile from Qward!’ (Anderson inks) nicely balanced by the light-and-frothy mistaken-identity caper ‘Secret of Green Lantern’s Mask!’ This last apparently crafted by a veritable raft of pencillers including Kane, Giella, Carmine Infantino, Mike Sekowsky and Ross Andruâ€¦

Issue #5 was a full-length thriller which introduced Hector Hammond, GL’s second official super-villain in ‘The Power Ring that Vanished!’: a saga of romantic intrigue, mistaken identity and evolution gone wild.

This was followed by another, pure science fiction puzzler ‘The World of Living Phantoms!’ (Kane & Giella) which introduced avian Green Lantern Tomar Re and opened up the entire universe to avid readersâ€¦

Having shown us other GLs, Broome immediately trumped himself with the next episode. ‘The Day 100,000 People Vanished!’ brought the Guardians of the Universe into the open to warn of their greatest error: a renegade Green Lantern named Sinestro who, in league with the Qwardians, had become a threat to the entire universe. This tense shocker introduced one of the most charismatic and intriguing villains in the DCU and the issue still had room for a dryly amusing, whimsical drama that introduced Tom Kalmaku’s fiancÃ©e Terga in ‘Wings of Destiny’.

In the early 1960s DC production wizard Jack Adler created a process to add enhancing tone to cover illustrations. The finished result was eye-catching and mind-blowing, but examples, such as the cover of #8, really don’t work with the glossy pages and digitised colour-tints of modern reproduction.

Never mind, though, since the contents of that issue, ‘The Challenge from 5700AD!’ comprise a fantasy tour de force: the Emerald Gladiator is shanghaied through time to save the future from a invasion of mutant lizardsâ€¦

Sinestro returned in the next issue – the last in this astounding cosmic collection – with his own super-weapon in ‘The Battle of the Power Rings!’ (with Anderson once more substituting for Giella) but the real gold is ‘Green Lantern’s Brother Act’ which introduces Hal’s two brothers and a snoopy girl reporter convinced young Jim Jordan is the ring-slinging superhero. This wry poke at DC’s house plot-device shows just how sophisticated Schwartz and Broome believed their audiences to be.

In those long ago days costumed villains were always third choice in a writer’s armoury: clever bad-guys and aliens always seemed more believable to creators back then. If you were doing something naughty would you want to call attention to yourself? Nowadays the visual impact of buff men in tights dictates the type of foe more than the crimes committed, which is why these glorious adventures of simpler yet somehow better days are such an unalloyed delight.

These Fights ‘n’ Tights romps are in themselves a great read for most ages, but when also considered as the building blocks of all DC continuity they become vital fare for any fan keen to make sense of the modern superhero experience. Judged solely on their own merit, these are snappy, awe-inspiring, beautifully illustrated captivatingly clever thrillers that amuse, amaze and enthral both new readers and old devotees. This lovely collection is a must-read item for anybody in love with our art-form and especially for anyone just now encountering the hero for the first time through his movie incarnations.
Â© 1959, 1960, 1961, 2016 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

September 24, 2016September 22, 2016

Time Masters: Vanishing Point

By Dan Jurgens, Norm Rapmund, Rodney Ramos & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-3047-0

After the cosmos-crunching Crisis on Infinite Earths re-sculpted the DC Universe in 1986, a host of characters got floor-up rebuilds for the tougher, no-nonsense, straight-shooting New American readership of the Reagan era. The decluttering exercise also made room for a few superheroes of types previously unknown at the company â€œWhere Legends Liveâ€.

Disgraced sports star Michael Carter came back from the 25^th century to our era, tooled up with stolen technology, determined to recreate himself as a superhero. As Booster Gold he made a name for himself as a mid-level hero and supreme self-promoter and corporate shill.

Created, written and drawn by Dan Jurgens, the saga featured a brash, cockily mysterious apparently metahuman golden-boy jock setting up his stall as a superhero in Metropolis. Here he actively sought corporate sponsorships, sold endorsements and hired a management team to maximise the profit potential of his crusading celebrity.

He was accompanied everywhere by sentient, flying, football-shaped robot Skeets.

Their time came and went and Booster’s title folded, but he lived on as part of Justice League International where he became roughly half of comics’ funniest double-act, riffing with the equally light-hearted lightweight Blue Beetle.

Booster and Ted Kord (technically the second Blue Beetle) were the class clowns of billionaire Maxwell Lord‘s League: a couple of obnoxiously charming frat-boys who could save the day but never get the girl or any respect.

When Lord murdered Beetle, precipitating an Infinite Crisis, Booster was shattered. Eventually, though, he recovered and redefined himself as a true hero through a succession of multiversal conflagrations. In landmark weekly maxi-series 52 and later Infinite Crisis, his intriguing take on Heroism diverged down strange avenues when Booster – traditionally only in it for fame and fortune – became a secret saviour, repairing the cracks in Reality caused by all the universe-warping shenanigans of myriad multiversal Crises and uncontrolled time-travel.

Working at the instruction of enigmatic and irascible mentor Rip Hunter: Time Master, Booster relinquished his dreams of glory to secretly save us all over and over and over again as the protector of the time-line, battling incredible odds to keep history on track and continuity in order.

This time-bending full-colour collection gathers 6-issue miniseries Time Masters: Vanishing Point (from September 2010-February 2011), detailing how Rip, Booster and Skeets steer a small posse of superheroes through the uncanny and lethally mutable corridors of time in search of a missing comrade vital to the existence of everythingâ€¦

At the climax of a harrowing campaign of terror by The Black Hand and following Earth’s invasion by the New Gods of Apokolips, Batman was apparently killed at the conclusion of Infinite Crisisâ€¦

The world at large was unaware of the loss, leaving the superhero community to mourn in secret whilst a dedicated army of assistants, protÃ©gÃ©s and allies – trained over years by the contingency-obsessed Dark Knight – formed the Network to police Gotham City in the days which followed: marking time until a successor could be found or the original restoredâ€¦

Most of the Bat-schooled battalion refused to believe their inspirational mentor dead. On the understanding that he was merely lost, they eventually accepted Dick Grayson (the first Robin and latterly Nightwing) as a stand-in until Bruce Wayne could find his way back to them. The more cosmically endowed super-friends weren’t prepared to wait, howeverâ€¦

Batman, of course, is the most brilliant escape artist of all time and even whilst being struck down by the New God of Evil had devised an impossibly complex and grandly far-reaching scheme to beat the devil and save the worldâ€¦

The chronally-fluctuating epic opens with elderly time guardian Booster sharing a few moments of educational bonding time with his son before Rip Hunter shakes off the happy memories and gets back to the immediate task at hand: reminding Superman, Green Lantern Hal Jordan and a blithely oblivious prime-of-life Booster of the dangers involved in interfering in historical events, no matter how tragic or cruel they might beâ€¦

Meanwhile, at the End of Time mystery hero Supernova is finding inviolate citadel Vanishing Point has been destroyed by incalculable forces and, after consulting with his unseen boss, grimly sets off in search of Ripâ€¦

The rescue mission for Bruce Wayne is Hunter’s idea. He tracked the hero to various time periods, where the Dark Knight briefly materialised before plunging back into the time stream again. Rip now hopes to extract him with the assistance of some of the Gotham Guardian’s oldest allies, before his random trajectory causes irreparable damage. He also fears enemy interference from enemies as yet unknownâ€¦

In Rip’s 21^st century Arizona lab, Booster’s sister Michelle is confronted by two likely suspects as â€œTime Stealersâ€ Per Degaton and Despero break in. The battle looks lost until Supernova arrives to turn the tables, but after driving off the villains the mystery man vanishes; still intent on finding the reason for Vanishing Point’s destruction and the time-stream’s increasing instabilityâ€¦

In the 15^th century the rescue squad’s search ends in frustration, but as Rip prepares to bring them home a chronal disruption seizes them, propelling them all on an uncontrolled trip through time and also across dimensionsâ€¦

On arrival Rip is confronted by a barbarian warrior with a demonic right hand (DC’s short-lived 1970s sword-&-sorcery star Claw the Unconquered), and Hunter’s thoughts go back to another salutary lesson delivered by his father on the crucial nature of his self-appointed mission. After a short battle he finally convinces the enraged swordsman that he is neither wizard nor foe.

As they join forces against a common threat, in another time and place Booster, Superman and Green Lantern have arrived in the middle of a war between humans and aliens. Unable to obey Hunter’s admonition not to get involved, the heroes engage the invading Mygorgs, unaware that in a distant time-pocket Degaton and Despero have met with their allies Ultra-Humanite and Black Beetle.

The consensus is that some outside force is destabilising time and it must be stopped if their own plans for domination are to succeedâ€¦

The superheroes’ resistance ends when Booster encounters a sword-wielding woman warrior named Starfire (another star of DC’s short 1970’s dalliance with sword-&-sorcery) and a tenuous alliance is formed just as a dragon-riding witch captures Superman and Green Lanternâ€¦

Although separated by dimensional walls, both Rip and Claw and Booster’s team are facing similar perils: held by unearthly wizard Serhattu and his accomplice sorceress Skyle whilst the mage attempts to control of time and escape his extra-dimensional realm using the out-worlders’ scienceâ€¦

And in the ruins of Vanishing Point, the Time Stealers find a cell and free Hunter’s greatest foes: former comrades and fellow Linear Men Matthew Rider and Liri Leeâ€¦

As Serhattu and Skyle prepare their campaign of conquest and their captives struggle against mind-bending mystic shackles, at Vanishing Point Supernova attacks but is unable to stop the Linear Men and Time Stealers getting away.

In the other-dimensional realm, Hunter takes a huge chance and the heroes escape imprisonment but are sucked into a time vortex. The gamble succeeds and the liberated champions recover in time to chase Serhattu and Skyle to the site of the first Atomic Bomb test and stop their attempt to steal the awesome unknown power for themselves.

After returning Starfire, Claw and the mages to their rightful places, the heroes press on, unaware that the Black Beetle has betrayed the Time Stealers and Linear Men to steal the time-warping powers locked in remains of chronal-energy being Waveriderâ€¦

Hunter’s team are again diverted however by time-travelling psychopath Professor Zoom, the Reverse-Flash who wants the Omega energy causing Batman’s time-ricochets for his ownâ€¦

As they battle the super-fast maniac, elsewhen Supernova attacks Black Beetle, and another player co-opts the Waverider power. With time in flux the battles bleed into one another and Hunter’s heroes meet the Time Stealers, Linear Man and Supernova for one final catastrophic clashâ€¦

Fast-paced, deviously compelling and extraordinarily convoluted, this is the kind of Fights ‘n’ Tights clash die-hard comic fans live for: a complex saga full of fights, inside jokes or references and impossible situations all surmounted by bold heroes in full saviour mode. It’s just a pure shame that such excellent work excludes so many readers who would certainly enjoy it if only they had the neceassry background history to hand.

Furious fun and thrills for those in the know, or anyone willing to trade comprehension for non-stop actionâ€¦
Â© 2010, 2011 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

October 20, 2015

Crisis on Multiple Earths: the Team-Ups volume 2

By John Broome, Gardner Fox, Mike Friedrich, Neal Adams, Murphy Anderson, Gil Kane, Carmine Infantino & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-1228-5

Super-Editor Julius Schwartz ushered in the Silver Age of American Comics with his Showcase successes Flash, Adam Strange and Green Lantern, directly leading to the Justice League of America which in turn inspired Fantastic Four and the whole Marvel Empire and changed the way comics were made and readâ€¦

Whereas the 1940s were about magic and macho, the Silver Age polished everything with a thick veneer of SCIENCE and a wave of implausible rationalistic concepts quickly filtered into the dawning mass-consciousness of a generation of baby-boomer kids.

The most intriguing and rewarding was, of course, the notion of parallel worldsâ€¦

It all began, naturally enough, in The Flash, flagship title of the Silver Age Revolution. After ushering in the triumphant return of the costumed superhero concept, the Crimson Comet, with key writers Gardner Fox and John Broome at the reins, set an unbelievably high standard for superhero adventure in sharp, witty tales of technology and imagination, illustrated with captivating style and clean simplicity by Carmine Infantino.

Fox didn’t write many Flash scripts at this time, but those few he did were all dynamite; none more so than the full-length epic which literally changed the scope of American comics forever.

‘Flash of Two Worlds’ (Flash #123, September 1961) introduced the theory of alternate Earths to the continuity which grew by careful extension into a multiversal structure comprising Infinite Earths. Once established as a cornerstone of a newly integrated DCU through a wealth of team-ups and escalating succession of cosmos-shaking crossover sagas, a glorious pattern was set which would, after joyous decades, eventually culminate in a spectacular Crisis on Infinite Earthsâ€¦

During a benefit gig Flash (police scientist Barry Allen) accidentally slips into another dimension where he finds the comic-book hero upon whom he based his own superhero identity actually exists. Every adventure he had absorbed as an eager child was grim reality to Jay Garrick and his comrades on the controversially designated â€œEarth-2â€. Locating his idol, Barry convinced the elder to come out of retirement just as three Golden Age villains were making their own wicked comebackâ€¦

The floodgates were opened, as over the months that followed many Earth-1 stalwarts met their counterparts either in annual collaborations in the pages of Justice League of America or in their own series. Schwartz even had a game go at reviving a cadre of the older titans in their own titles. Public approval was decidedly vocal and he used DC’s try-out magazines to take the next step: stories set on Earth-2 exclusively featuring Golden Age characters.

Showcase #55 and 56 saw Doctor Fate and Hourman as a dynamic duo battling Solomon Grundy and the Psycho-Pirate and, still searching for an concept that would support its own series, Schwartz, Fox and Murphy Anderson debuted the team of Starman and Black Canary in The Brave and the Bold #61 (September-October 1965); the first of two stunning sagas which somehow led to nothingâ€¦

All those stories can be found in the previous edition (Crisis on Multiple Earths: the Team-Ups volume 1) whilst this second splendid collection – chronologically re-presenting The Atom #29 & 36, Flash #170 & 173, Green Lantern #45 & 52 and The Spectre #3 , cumulatively spanning October/November 1965 to April/May 1968 – opens with Brave & Bold #62 and a second Starman/Black Canary case wherein the resurgent champions ferociously face off against husband-and-wife criminals Huntress and Sportsmaster who had been stalking superheroes for kicks and profit. By the time Feline Fury Wildcat became their victim our heroes were on the case and ready for anythingâ€¦

This compelling thriller was originally augmented by a text feature biography of the original Starman and that is reprinted here before Earth-2 Emerald Gladiator Alan Scott reunites with â€œourâ€ Hal Jordan (Green Lantern #45, June 1966, by Broome, Gil Kane & Sid Greene) to thwart ‘Prince Peril’s Power Play’ as Scott’s comedy foil Doiby Dickles was romanced by an alien princess. The only fly in their ointment was a gigantic and ambitious space warrior who needed her to cement his own plans for conquest, but judicious use of green energies soon taught him that nobody likes a pushy tyrant…

Earth-2’s Tiny Titan was Al Pratt, a short man with super-strength, whilst we had size changing physicist Ray Palmer. When they met in Atom #27 (February/March 1967, by Fox, Kane & Greene) it was for an all-out cataclysmic clash between the Mighty Mites and one of the most dangerous villains of DC’s Golden Age in ‘The Thinker’s Earth-Shaking Robberies!’

With Green Lantern #52 (Broome & Kane, April 1967) Alan Scott and Doiby popped over from Earth-2 to aid Hal against the scurrilous return of his arch nemesis Sinestro in camp-crazed and frankly rather peculiar fight-frenzied fist-fest ‘Our Mastermind, the Car!’ after which a brace of Scarlet Speedsters at long last reunited in Flash #170 to face the ‘The See-Nothing Spells of Abra Kadabra!’ (May 1967 by Broome, Infantino & Greene) which found the Vizier of Velocity hexed by the cunning conjuror and rendered unable to detect the villain’s actions or presence.

Sadly for the sinister spellbinder, Jay Garrick was visiting and called on the services of JSA pals Doctors Fate and Mid-Nite to counteract the wicked wizard’s wilesâ€¦

Promptly following, Flash #173 (September 1967 by Broome, Infantino & Greene again) featured a titanic team-up as Barry, Wally â€œKid Flashâ€ West and Jay were sequentially shanghaied to another galaxy as putative prey for alien hunter Golden Man in ‘Doomward Flight of the Flashes!’

However, the sneaky script slowly revealed devilish layers of intrigue and his Andromedan super-safari concealed a far more arcane purpose for the three speedy pawns, before the wayward wanderers finally fought free and found their way home againâ€¦

Eventually Schwartz finally achieved the ambition of launching a Golden Age hero into his own title; sadly just as the superhero bubble was bursting and supernatural stories were again on the rise…

After three Showcase appearances and many guest-shots, The Spectre won his own book at the end of 1967. From #3 (March/April 1968) comes this all Earth-2 team-up by neophyte scripter Mike Friedrich and artistic iconoclast Neal Adams which exposed the ‘Menace of the Mystic Mastermind’ wherein pugilistic paragon Wildcat confronted head-on the inevitable prospect of age and infirmity even as an inconceivable force from another universe possessed petty thug Sad Jack Dold and turned him into a nigh-unstoppable force of cosmic chaosâ€¦

This fabulous peek into forgotten worlds and times concludes with one of the very best team-up tales of the Silver Age as the Earth-2 Atom returns in ‘Duel Between the Dual Atoms’ (April/May 1968, by Fox, Kane & Greene) wherein a radiation plague plays hob with victim’s ages on both worlds simultaneously. Sadly the deadly situation also turns normally hyper-rational Ray Palmer into an enraged maniac and almost more than his aging counterpart can handleâ€¦

Still irresistible and compellingly beautiful after all these years, the stories collected here shaped the American comics industry for decades and are still influencing not only today’s funnybooks but also the wave animated shows, movies and TV series which grew from them. These are tales and this is a book you simply must have.

June 27, 2013June 26, 2013

Golden Age Green Lantern Archives volume 2

By Bill Finger, Martin Nodell & Irwin Hasen (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-56389-794-8

Following the invention of the superhero genre and the early innovations in Superman and Batman at DC/National Comics, an avalanche of costumed crusaders erupted onto the nation’s newsstands. At the head of that gaudy tidal wave, thanks to innovative publisher Max Gaines and his comics mastermind Editor Sheldon Mayer, All American Comics (who co-published in association with and were eventually absorbed by DC) produced many of the new industry’s greatest and most memorable characters.

Most prominent was the first comicbook super-speedster who took off in Flash Comics (which also featured Hawkman and Johnny Thunder), followed a few months later by evergreen, immortal Green Lantern, the world’s original superhero coalition in the Justice Society of America, capped by the creation of the greatest female hero of all time – Wonder Woman.

Superman started the ball rolling and was the undisputed star of the medium, but the editors at All American truly understood it and the wide-eyed readershipâ€¦

The Emerald Avenger debuted in the sixteenth issue of the company’s flagship title All-American Comics, just as superheroes started to dominate, supplanting newspaper strip reprints and stock genre characters in the still primarily-anthologised comicbooks.

For the duration of the war and a few years beyond it, GL and his mystery man amigos Red Tornado, The Atom, Sargon the Sorcerer and Doctor Mid-Nite stole the show with only celebrated gag-strip Mutt and Jeff or exceptional military strips Hop Harrigan and Red, White and Blue remaining to represent merely mortal stars.

All too soon, however, they would vanish as tastes changed and costumed champions were superseded by cowboys, cops and private detectivesâ€¦

Devised by up-and-coming cartoonist Martin Nodell (and fleshed out by the incredible Bill Finger in the same way he had contributed to the success of Batman), Green Lantern became AA’s second smash sensation six months after The Flash and preceding by a year and a half the unprecedented success of the Amazing Amazon.

He won his own solo-starring title less than a year after his premiere and feature-starred in many anthologies such as Comics Cavalcade and All Star Comics for just over a decade, before he too faded away in the early1950s, having first suffered the humiliating fate of being edged out of his own comicbook by his pet, Streak the Wonder Dogâ€¦

This second engagingly impressive hardcover Archive edition – collecting the Viridian Vigilante’s appearances from Green Lantern Quarterly #2-3 (Winter and Spring 1942) and All-American Comics #31-38, from October 1941 to May 1942 – opens with rousing reminiscences, intriguing comparisons and tantalising trivia titbits, courtesy of the Foreword by godfather of American fandom Dr. Jerry Bails, before the procession of pictorial peril beginsâ€¦

Ambitious young engineer Alan Scott survived the sabotage and destruction of a passenger-packed train due only to the intervention of a battered old railway lantern. Bathed in its eerie verdant glow, he was regaled by a mysterious green voice with the legend of how a meteor fell in ancient China and spoke to the people: predicting Death, Life and Power.

After bringing doom to the mystic who reshaped it into a lamp and, centuries later, sanity to a madman, it now promised incredible might to bestow justice to the innocent. Instructing the engineer to fashion a ring from its metal and draw a charge of power from the lantern every 24 hours, the ancient artefact urged the engineer to use his formidable willpower to end all evil – a mission Scott eagerly embracedâ€¦

The ring made him immune to all minerals and metals, and enabled him to fly and pass through solid matter amongst many other miracles, but was powerless against certain organic materials such as wood or rubber which could penetrate his jade defences and cause him mortal harmâ€¦

After wandering the country for months, Scott eventually settled in Capitol City and took a job as first engineer and eventually radio announcer at the APEX Broadcasting System whilst he fruitlessly pursued feisty reporter Irene Miller. Before long he even had a trusted sidekick in the flabby form of Doiby Dickles, a rotund, middle-aged Brooklyn-born cab driver originally intended as a light foil for the grim, poker-faced Emerald Avenger.

Soon, however, the bumbling buddy grew to be one of the most popular and beloved comedy stooges of the era; sharing covers and even by-lines with the star who, thanks to scripter Finger (who wrote all the stories in this volume), was a grim, brooding and spookily mysterious figure of vengeance weeding out criminals and gangsters. Moreover, just as with the early Batman sagas, there was always a strong undercurrent of social realism, ballsy sentimentality and human drama.

The action starts with All-American Comics #31’s ‘The Adventure of the Underfed Orphans!’ illustrated by Martin Nodell, wherein Alan and Irene investigate food poisoning at a municipal children’s home, and uncover a shocking web of abuse and graft leading to the upper echelons of City Hall and the grimiest gutters of the underworldâ€¦

Most of the All-American GL tales were untitled such as #32, drawn by Irwin Hasen, which revealed how a veteran beat cop’s son fell in with the wrong crowd. Framed by his boss and arrested by his own dad, vengeful Danny was only stopped from ruining his life forever by the Emerald Avenger and Doiby who helped him get the goods on Gardenia and reconcile with his grateful dad.

The next issue (by Nodell) struck close to home as gangster Pug Deagan tried to take over the Taxicab Drivers’ union and Doiby called on his Grim Green friend to clean up the racket and expose the real brain behind the operation, whilst in All-American #34, the Dynamic Trio of Alan, Irene and Mr. Dickles investigated a collapsing building and were drawn into a colossal construction scandal involving the Mayor, culminating in the horrific failure of Capitol City’s biggest and busiest bridge.

Always one of the most powerful characters in comics, this tale especially demonstrated the sheer scope of Green Lantern’s mightâ€¦

All-American Comics #35 found Doiby wracked by toothache and haplessly stumbling into a grisly murder at the dentist’s office. Once again racketeers were trying to take over a union and only GL and Dickles could stop them. That tale concluded with the cabbie having that tooth punched out and learning the secret of Alan Scott – an even bigger shock!

A huge hit from the start, the Emerald Crusader was fast-tracked into his own solo title, where the creators were encouraged to experiment with format. Green Lantern Quarterly #2 was cover-dated Winter 1942 and offered ‘The Tycoon’s Legacy’ by Finger & Nodell: a 4-chapter â€œnovel-length storyâ€ which saw radio engineer Scott promoted to roving man-with-a-microphone, promptly rushing to the assistance of a poor but honest lawyer and a porter swindled out of a five million dollar bequest. Both cases deliciously intertwined like a movie melodrama, and also saw a framed man freed from the asylum to challenge the swindling estate executors who had trapped him there.

Events took a murderous turn just as Alan’s emerald alter ego got involved, and before long Green Lantern was cracking heads and taking names in the hunt for the mastermind behind it all – a man known only as ‘Baldy’â€¦

Bill Finger was a master of this type of socially redeeming mystery thriller, and the unrepentant fan in me can’t help but wonder what he could have accomplished with such a prodigious page count on his other â€œDark Avengerâ€ assignment Batman and Robinâ€¦

Hasen illustrated the remaining All-American yarns in this collection, beginning with #36 (March 1942) which took GL and Doiby to the motor racing circuit to foil the machinations of mobsters murdering drivers of a new type of car. With no clue as to how the killings were accomplished, Doiby volunteered to drive the ill-fated Benson Comet himself, trusting in his pal â€œDa Lantrinâ€ to save the day as usualâ€¦

Issue #37 found the heroes helping a disgraced pilot whose crashed plane cost America its greatest scientific minds. A closer investigation revealed not only Fog Blake‘s innocence but that the Brain Trust had been cunningly abducted by Nazi agentsâ€¦ but not for long, after which issue #38 pitted the Emerald Guardian against a diminutive criminal strategist who organised America’s gangs like ‘Another Napoleon’ before facing his own Waterloo in a blaze of green lightâ€¦

With America freshly put on an all-encompassing war-footing, superheroes at last tackled the world’s latest monsters full-on, and with great verve and enthusiasm this blistering compilation concludes in another novel-length epic from the third Green Lantern Quarterly deliciously crafted by Finger & Nodell.

It begins with ‘The Living Graveyard of the Sea’ as Alan and Irene (and stowaway Doiby) take ship for Australia only to be torpedoed by a gigantic German super U-Boat. Although Green Lantern fights off the air and sea assault the liner is lost. The survivors take to life boats and the one with Doiby, Irene and Alan is drawn into a vast impenetrable fog-bankâ€¦

The clouds conceal an ancient wonder: a Sargasso Sea enclave of mariners from many eras who have, over the centuries, evolved into a truly egalitarian, pacifist society. However the lifeboat contains a cross-section of modern America, all horribly infected with greed, pride, arrogance and prejudice and, although welcomed, the newcomers soon disrupt the idyllic microcosm.

Things take an even worse turn when another U-Boat surfaces within the sea city and fanatical Kapitan Schmidt attempts to annexe the realm and convert the ancients to ‘The Nazi Dream’. The stakes are raised even further when he finally gets a message through to Berlin and Hitler himself demands that the strategically crucial secret island be taken at all costsâ€¦

The fantastic finale comes as Irene and Doiby redeem their selfish fellow Americans and rouse the calmly neutral Sargasso citizens to fight for freedom and liberty in ‘Utopia vs. Totalitarianism’ whilst all Green Lantern has to do is sink the entire Nazi naval and aerial armada tasked with taking the hidden sea worldâ€¦

I sometimes think – like many others I know – that superhero comics were never more apt or effective than when they were whole-heartedly combating fascism with explosive, improbable excitement and mysterious masked marvel men.

The most satisfyingly evocative and visceral moments of the genre all seem to come when gaudy gladiators soundly thrashed – and please forgive the contemporary offensive colloquialism – â€œNips and Nazisâ€, and the staggering denouement depicted here is one of the most expansive and breathtaking ever seenâ€¦

Complete with the stellar covers by Nodell & Hasen, this riotous vintage assembly of classic Fights ‘n’ Tights fare is enthralling, engrossing and overwhelmingly addictive – even if not to every modern fan’s taste – and no lover of Costumed Dramas can afford to miss out on the fun â€¦
Â© 1941, 1942, 2002 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

June 13, 2013June 12, 2013

Superman: The Return of Superman

By Dan Jurgens, Karl Kesel, Jerry Ordway, Louise Simonson, Roger Stern & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-2-56289-149-6

Although largely out of favour these days as all the myriad decades of Superman mythology are inexorably re-assimilated into one overarching all-inclusive multi-media Film-favoured DC continuity, the stripped-down, gritty post-Crisis on Infinite Earths Man of Steel as re-imagined by John Byrne, and marvellously built upon by a succession of immensely talented comics craftsmen, resulted in some genuine comics classics.

Most significant of them was a three-pronged story-arc which saw the martyrdom, loss, replacement and inevitable resurrection of the World’s Greatest Superhero in a stellar saga which broke all records and proved that a jaded general public still cared about the venerable, veteran icon of Truth, Justice and the American Way.

The dramatic events also provided a spectacular springboard for a resurgent burst of new characters who revitalised and reinvigorated more than one ailing franchise over the next decadeâ€¦

This final landmark collection features material which originally appeared in Action Comics #687-691, Superman: the Man of Steel #22-26, Superman #78-82 and Adventures of Superman #500-505, plus Green Lantern volume 3 #46, spanning cover-dates June-October 1993 and originally published as the braided mega-saga â€œReign of the Supermenâ€.

Written by Dan Jurgens, Karl Kesel, Louise Simonson & Roger Stern with art by Jon Bogdanove, Tom Grummett, Jackson Guice, Jurgens, Brett Breeding, Doug Hazlewood, Dennis Janke & Denis Rodier, it details the stunning events which led up to the resurrection and return of the one and only Man of Tomorrow – although just who that might be was the subject of much debate at the timeâ€¦

After a brutal rampage across Middle America a mysterious monster dubbed Doomsday had only been stopped in the heart of Metropolis by an overwhelming and fatal effort on Superman’s part.

Dying at the scene, the fallen hero’s body was the subject of many legal battles before it was ostensibly laid to rest in a tomb in Metropolis’ Centennial Park. However as Earth adjusted to a World Without a Superman rumours began to circulate that, like Elvis, the Man of Tomorrow was not deadâ€¦

It all began with a series of teaser ‘First Sightings’ (from Adventures of Superman #500) as, across America, four very different individuals appeared, saving lives and performing good deeds as only the departed defender could.

Then events start to properly unfold in ‘Born Again’ (Action #687 by Stern, Guice & Rodier) as scientists in Antarctica experienced unnatural power manifestations whilst, deep below the polar crust in the Fortress of Solitude, a confused creature more energy than matter manifested.

The bizarre being remembered dying in battle against Doomsday and, after flicking across the world in an eye-blink to explore an empty tomb in Metropolis, it reasonably concluded he was Superman reborn through Kryptonian technologyâ€¦

He was however much reduced and changed. Unable to covert solar radiation into strength, he was so painfully sensitive to light he had to wear a protective visor. This Man of Tomorrow only manipulated energy and, after returning to Metropolis to resume his â€œnever-ending battleâ€ against chaos and injustice, soon displayed a callous disregard for the humans he protected when he executed a rapist and crippled a car-jackerâ€¦

The â€œDirty Harry with a capeâ€ soon attracted the attention of apparently benevolent billionaire Lex Luthor II (actually the wicked original in a cloned body) and Supergirl, but received his most telling confirmation when he met Lois Lane and disclosed things only Clark Kent could knowâ€¦

In Man of Steel #22, ordinary construction worker John Henry Irons – who had been saved by Superman in the past – felt compelled to carry on the hero’s mission and built a high-tech suit of armour to facilitate his crusade. ‘Steel’, by Simonson, Bogdanove & Janke, found the urban inventor cleaning up the streets of Metropolis and searching for a gang who used a deadly new form of super-gun dubbed â€œtoastmastersâ€ – a weapon Irons had designed in another lifeâ€¦

Tracking the munitions enabled him to save the life of a fortune-teller and brought him into savage conflict with White Rabbit – a new criminal major player in the city – but life only got more complicated the morning after, when Psychic Rosie went on TV claiming Steel was possessed by the unquiet soul of Supermanâ€¦

Superman # 78 (by Jurgens & Breeding) offered another apparent pretender. ‘Alive’ saw a Superman grotesquely bonded with mechanical appendages raid the top-secret genetics lab Cadmus Project to take the comatose Doomsday from rogue Director Paul Westfield, before dispatching the deadly mystery monster into deep space where no Earthly agency could exploit it.

When the partially amnesiac Cyborg-Superman subsequently met Lois, her suspicions were shockingly quelled by the few facts he could recall: the name Kent, a farm in Kansas, his feelings for herâ€¦

And when she took him to see maverick inventor Emil Hamilton, the Action Ace’s personal scientific advisor pronounced the bionic additions to be Kryptonian machines whilst the fleshly parts of the modern Prometheus comprised Superman’s unique DNAâ€¦

The final contender for the S-shield cropped up in Adventures of Superman #501 as ‘â€¦When He Was a Boy!’ by Kesel, Grummett & Hazlewood revealed the secret history of a brash and cocky kid who wore an adaptation of the Man of Tomorrow’s outfit and claimed to be a clone of the deceased hero, escaped from Cadmus.

After alienating everybody at the Daily Planet the horny, inexperienced juvenile latched onto ambitious journalist – and hottie – Tana Moon and fell under the spell of corrupt media mogul Vinnie Edge. Soon the kid was fighting crime live on TV to boost ratingsâ€¦

As the world reeled from news that their defender was back, the fallen champion’s intimates and enemies were forced to wonder which – if any – of the newcomers was the real dealâ€¦

After hard-line hero Guy Gardner clashed with the visored energy Superman in Action #688, the former Green Lantern determined that the Kryptonian vigilante’s brutal treatment of offenders in ‘An Eye for an Eye’ (Stern, Guice & Rodier) proved that, even if he wasn’t exactly like the old guy, he was the kind of champion criminals deserved to meet.

In Man of Steel #22 (Simonson, Bogdanove & Janke), the spiritual successor of Superman barely survived an insidious ‘Ambush!’ Even with Toastmasters, street-gang the Sharks proved no match for Steel’s armoured might, but after a contentious clash of wills with the juvenile Krypton clone, Irons met White Rabbit and discovered she was an old flame from his Army weapons building days.

Caught off-guard he almost perished until â€œDon’t-call-me-Super BOYâ€ flashed in to rescue himâ€¦

Jurgens & Breeding took an experimental tack in Superman #79 as Daily Planet reporter Ronald Troupe reviewed all the facts on the quartet of newcomers in ‘Prove It.’ After the Cyborg crusader spectacularly saved President Clinton from assassination he – and the Federal Government – could reach only one conclusionâ€¦

Meanwhile in Adventures of Superman #502, ‘Boy Meets Girl’ (Kesel, Grummett & Hazlewood) followed the impetuous clone as he clashed with – and perved over – Supergirl before tangling with hired gun Stinger, commissioned by Vinnie Edge to perk up the viewing figures whatever the collateral costsâ€¦

Action and mystery expanded exponentially in #689’s ‘Who is the True Hero?’ by Stern, Guice & Rodier. Metropolis reeled from the devastation caused by the clone’s clash with Stinger, with Supergirl and the horrified kid frantically saving survivors, whilst in the Antarctic Fortress a fifth Superman emerged from a Kryptonian regeneration matrixâ€¦

Although barely stronger than an ordinary human, the reborn Kal-El quickly began catching up on what had happened since his demise, courtesy of the battery of alien machines in the icy citadelâ€¦

Back in Metropolis the merciless avenging Superman cataclysmically clashed with his ethical opposite Steel with Lois and Jimmy Olsen utterly unable to calm them down.

The combat carried over into Man of Steel #23, but the furious heroes were blithely unaware that an horrific alien conqueror was approaching Earth in ‘Impact!’ by Simonson, Bogdanove & Janke. Also oblivious to the impending disaster, the forces of Luthor and White Rabbit bloodily battled for control of the cityâ€¦

‘Deadly Alliance’ (Jurgens & Breeding) in Superman #80 found Earth’s authorities made too-suddenly aware of the alien intruder. They responded by sending the Caped Cyborg to intercept it.

En route the officially recognised hero joined forces with his energy-based alternate – only to kill him and allow 77,000 space mines to explosively erase Coast City and its seven million inhabitants from the face of the planet.

As the planet shuddered the invader was revealed as cosmic conqueror Mongul – but nobody on Earth knew he was simply a pawn and the devoted servant of the Cyborgâ€¦

The drama kicked into overdrive in Adventures of Superman #503, with ‘Line of Fire!’ (Kesel, Grummett & Hazlewood) showing the bionic betrayer eradicating survivors before luring the clone to ground zero and disposing of him as he had the Avenger, whilst in Antarctica the merely mortal Kal-El climbed into a Kryptonian war-suit and headed for the disaster zoneâ€¦

‘Lies & Revelations’ (Action #690, by Stern, Guice & Rodier) saw the visored vigilante framed for the mass destruction by Cyborg Superman and Mogul as they sought to divert the attention of the Justice League and Earth’s other heroes.

The allies-in-atrocity had a plan and a timetable. Planning to raze Metropolis too, they would construct colossal world-moving engines in the craters and turn the planet into a War-World capable of dominating the galaxy and populated by the army of extraterrestrial soldiers they had amassedâ€¦

As Kal-El approached his hometown and the site of the next horrific Engine City, in Antarctica the swiftly-fading visored vigilante learned his true origins at last and, re-energised, headed back to the remains of Coast Cityâ€¦

Man of Steel #24 featured ‘The Return!’ (Simonson, Bogdanove & Janke) as Super-clone broke free and attempted to warn the world, even as Steel and Supergirl intercepted the war-suited warrior and discovered that the one true Metropolis Marvel was back â€¦

Superman #81 ‘Resurrections’ (Jurgens & Breeding) revealed the secret origin of the Cyborg and his pact with Mongul, as Kal-El, Steel, Supergirl and the Superboy rocketed to California and a desperate ‘Assault on Engine City!’ (Adventures of Superman #504 Kesel, Grummett & Hazlewood)

It all culminated in a cross-continental chase and the clone kid seemingly sacrificing himself to destroy the city-smashing space-ordinance in the skies above Metropolisâ€¦

Action #691 revealed the heroes’ late-arriving and extremely angry ‘Secret Weapon’ (Stern, Guice & Rodier) just as the war in Engine City roared to a blockbusting climax, after which ‘Blast Off!’ (Man of Steel #25, Simonson, Bogdanove & Janke) saw Kal fall to the merciless fists of Mongul as John Henry used his own armoured body to wreck the heart of Engine Cityâ€¦

Such an epic storyline naturally had repercussions outside Superman continuity and Green Lantern #46 intersected with the ongoing epic. GL Hal Jordan was a Coast City native and his inability to save his home, family and friends shattered him. (In fact these events would lead to his becoming manic mad mass-murderer Parallax and destroying the entire Green Lantern Corps â€“ but that’s a tale for another tomeâ€¦)

Arriving in ‘Death City’ (by Gerard Jones, M.D. Bright & Romeo Tanghal) just as Mongul prepared to deliver a killing blow, the Emerald Avenger saved Kal before venting all his wrath on the genocidal monster.

This savage assault allowed the restored Caped Kryptonian to reclaim his name and save the world once again in Superman #82’s ‘Back for Good’ (Jurgens & Breeding)â€¦ but only after one of his well-meaning pretenders surrendered everything he wasâ€¦

This Earth-shattering epic winds down with a brace of excepts designed to re-establish the natural order, beginning with the first two pages of ‘Reign of the Superman’ (from Adventures of Superman #505 by Kesel, Grummett & Hazlewood) as the one and only Superman at last returns to his grieving widow, before ‘Epilog: â€¦And Who, Disguised as Clark Kent’ (from Action #692 courtesy of Stern, Guice & Rodier) clears up the last little details by â€œfindingâ€ the mild-mannered reporter in the subterranean basement he had been trapped in since Doomsday’s rampage through Metropolis months previously.

This powerful if ponderous epic perfectly embodies all the human drama and cosmic spectacle of the Superman mythology: evocative, tense, drenched in action and spilling over with great ideas and characters

This enthralling classic served as a valuable and necessary expansion of the legend, introducing a plethora of Supermen in a bold and long-term push to revitalise the venerable franchise, whilst the positively manic public interest beyond the world of comics took everyone by surprise and made the Man of Tomorrow as vital and vibrant a sensation as he was in the earliest days of his creation.

Best of all, it looks beautiful and reads great.

Together with the previous two volumes in this truly magnificent triptych, this saga is possibly the greatest Superman story ever told. What more do you need to know?
Â© 1993 DC Comics, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

May 20, 2013May 19, 2013

Golden Age Green Lantern Archives Volume I

By Bill Finger, Martin Nodell, E.E. Hibbard, Irwin Hasen & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-56389-507-4

Thanks to comics genius and editorial wunderkind Sheldon Mayer, the innovative fledgling company All-American Comics (who co-published in association with and would eventually be absorbed by DC) published the first comicbook super-speedster in Flash Comics and followed up a few months later with another evergreen and immortal all-star.

The Green Lantern debuted in issue #16 of the company’s flagship title just as superheroes began to dominate the market, supplanting newspaper strip reprints and stock genre characters in the still primarily-anthologised comicbooks. He would be swiftly joined in All-American Comics by The Atom, Red Tornado, Sargon the Sorcerer and Doctor Mid-Nite until eventually only gag strips such Mutt and Jeff and exceptional tough-guy military strips Hop Harrigan and Red, White and Blue remained to represent mere mortal heroes.

At least until tastes changed again after the war and costumed crusaders faded away, to be replaced by cowboys, cops and private eyesâ€¦

Devised by up-and-coming cartoonist Martin Nodell (and fleshed out by Bill Finger in the same generally unsung way he had contributed to the success of Batman), Green Lantern soon became AA’s second smash sensation.

The arcane avenger gained his own solo-starring title little more than a year after his premiere and appeared in other anthologies such as Comics Cavalcade, All Star Comics and others for just over a decade before, like most first-generation superheroes, he faded away in the early1950s, having first suffered the humiliating fate of being edged out of his own strip and comicbook by his pet Streak the Wonder Dogâ€¦

However that’s the stuff of future reviews. This spectacular quirkily beguiling deluxe Archive edition opens with a rousing reminiscence from Nodell in a Foreword which discusses the origins of the character before the parade of raw, graphic enchantment (collecting the Sentinel of Justice’s appearances from All-American Comics #16-30 – covering July 1940 to September 1941 and Green Lantern #1 from Fall 1941) starts with the incredible history of The Green Flame of Lifeâ€¦

Ambitious young engineer Alan Scott only survived the sabotage and destruction of a passenger-packed train due to the intervention of a battered old railway lantern. Bathed in its eerie emerald light he was regaled by a mysterious green voice with the legend of how a meteor fell in ancient China and spoke to the people: predicting Death, Life and Power.

The star-stone’s viridian glow brought doom to the savant who reshaped it into a lamp, sanity to a madman centuries later and now promised incredible might to bring justice to the innocentâ€¦

Instructing Scott to fashion a ring from its metal and draw a charge of power from the lantern every 24 hours, the ancient artefact urged the engineer to use his formidable willpower to end all evil: a mission Scott eagerly took up by promptly crushing the corrupt industrialist Dekker who had callously caused wholesale death just to secure a lucrative rail contract.

The ring made Scott immune to all minerals and metals, enabled him to fly and pass through walls but as he battled Dekker’s thugs the grim avenger painfully discovered that living – perhaps organic – materials such as wood or rubber could penetrate his jade defences and cause him mortal harmâ€¦

The saboteurs punished, Scott determined to carry on the fight and devised a â€œbizarre costumeâ€ to disguise his identity and strike fear and awe into wrongdoersâ€¦

Most of the stories at this time were untitled, and All-American Comics #17 (August 1940) found Scott in Metropolis (long before it became the fictional home of Superman) where his new employer was squeezed out of a building contract by a crooked City Commissioner in bed with racketeers. With lives at risk from shoddy construction the Green Lantern moved to stop the gangsters but nearly lost his life to overconfidence before finally triumphing, after which #18 found Scott visiting the 1940 New York World’s Fair.

This yarn (which I suspect was devised for DC’s legendary comicbook premium 1940 New York World’s Fair Comics, but shelved at the last moment) introduced feisty romantic interest Irene Miller as she attempted to shoot a gangster who had framed her brother. Naturally gallant he-man Scott had to get involved, promptly discovering untouchable gang-boss Murdock even owned his own Judge, by the simple expedient of holding the magistrate’s daughter captiveâ€¦

However once Alan applied his keen wits and ruthless mystic might to the problem Murdock’s power – and life – were soon forfeit, after which in All-American Comics #19 Scott saved a man from an attempted hit-and-run and found himself ferreting out a deadly ring of insurance scammers collecting big payouts by inflicting â€œaccidentsâ€ upon unsuspecting citizens.

Issue #20 began with a quick recap of Green Lantern’s origin before instituting a major change in the young engineer’s life. Following the gunning down of a roving radio announcer and assassination of the reporter’s wife, the hero investigated APEX Broadcasting System in Capitol City and again met Irene Miller.

She worked at the company and with her help Alan uncovered a scheme whereby broadcasts were used to transmit coded instructions to merciless smugglers. Once GL mopped up the cunning gang and their inside man, engineer Alan Scott took a job at the company and began a hapless romantic pursuit of the capable, valiant Irene.

Thanks to scripter Finger, Green Lantern was initially a grim vengeful and spookily mysterious figure of vengeance weeding out criminals and gangsters but, just as with early Batman sagas, there was always a strong undercurrent of social issues, ballsy sentimentality and human drama.

All-American #21 found the hero exposing a cruel con wherein a crooked lawyer pressed young criminal Cub Brenner into posing as the long-lost son of a wealthy couple to steal their fortune. Of course, the kid had a change of heart and everything ended happily, but not before stupendous skulduggery and atrocious violence ensued.

In #22 when prize-fighter Kid McKay refused to throw a bout, mobsters kidnapped his wife and even temporarily overcame the fighting-mad Emerald Guardian. However, when one of the brutal thugs put on the magic ring he swiftly suffered a ghastly doom which allowed GL to emerge victoriousâ€¦

Slick veteran Everett E. Hibbard provided the art for #23, and his famed light touch framed GL’s development into a less fearsome and more public hero. As Irene continued to rebuff Alan’s advances – in vain hopes of landing his magnificent mystery man alter ego – the engineer accompanied her to interview movie star Delia Day and stumbled into a cruel blackmail racket.

Despite their best efforts the net result was heartbreak, tragedy and many deaths. Issue #24 then saw the Man of Light go undercover to expose philanthropist tycoon R.J. Karns, who maintained his vast fortune by selling unemployed Americans into slavery on a tropical Devil’s Island, whilst #25 found Irene uncovering sabotage at a steel mill. With the unsuspected help of GL she then exposed purported enemy mastermind The Leader as no more than an unscrupulous American insider trader trying to force the price down for a simple Capitalist coupâ€¦

Celebrated strip cartoonist Irwin Hasen began his long association with Green Lantern in #26 when the hero came to the rescue of swindled citizens whose lending agreements with a loan shark were being imperceptibly altered by a forger to keep them paying in perpetuity, after which the artist illustrated the debut appearance of overnight sensation Doiby Dickles in All-American #27 (June 1941).

The rotund, middle-aged Brooklyn-born cab driver was simply intended as light foil and occasional sidekick for the grim, poker-faced Emerald Avenger but grew to be one of the most popular and beloved comedy stooges of the era; soon sharing covers and even by-lines with the star.

In this initial dramatic outing he bravely defended fare Irene (sorry: irresistible – bad, but irresistible) from assailants as she carried plans for a new radio receiver device. For his noble efforts Doiby was sought out and thanked by Green Lantern and, after the verdant crusader investigated, he discovered enemy agents at the root of the problem. When Irene was again targeted the Emerald Avenger was seemingly killedâ€¦

This time, to save Miss Miller, Doiby disguised himself as â€œde Lantrinâ€ and confronted the killers alone before the real deal turned up to end things. As a reward the Brooklyn bravo was offered an unofficial partnershipâ€¦

In #28 the convenient death of millionaire Cyrus Brand and a suspicious bequest to a wastrel nephew led Irene, Doiby and Alan to a sinister gangster dubbed The Spider who manufactured deaths by natural causes, after which #29 found GL and the corpulent cabbie hunting mobster Mitch Hogan, who forced pharmacies to buy his counterfeit drugs and products; utilising strong-arm tactics to ensure even the courts carried out his wishes – at least until the Lantern and his wrench-wielding buddy gave him a dose of his own medicineâ€¦

The last All-American yarn here is from issue #30 (cover-dated September 1941) and again featured Irene sticking her nose into other peoples’ business. This time she exposed a brace of crooked bail bondsmen exploiting former criminals trying to go straight, and was again kidnapped.

This raw and vital high-energy compilation ends with the stirring contents of Green Lantern #1 from Fall 1941, scripted by Finger and exclusively illustrated by Nodell, who had by this time dropped his potentially face-saving pseudonym Mart â€œDellonâ€.

The magic began with a 2-page origin recap in ‘Green Lantern – His Personal History’ after which ‘The Masquerading Mare!’ saw GL and Doiby smash the schemes of racketeer Scar Jorgis who went to quite extraordinary lengths to obtain a racehorse inherited by Irene, after which an article by Dr. William Moulton Marston (an eminent psychologist familiar to us today as the creator of Wonder Woman) discussed the topic of ‘Will Power’.

The comic thrills resumed when a city official was accused of mishandling funds allocated to buy pneumonia serum in ‘Disease!!’ Although Green Lantern and Doiby spearheaded a campaign to raise more money to prevent an epidemic, events took a dark turn when the untouchable, unimpeachable Boss Filch experienced personal tragedy and exposed his grafting silent partners high in the city’s governing hierarchyâ€¦

Blistering spectacle was the result of ‘Arson in the Slums’, when Alan and Irene became entangled in a crusading publisher’s strident campaign to renovate a ghetto. Of course, the philanthropic Barton and his real estate pal Murker had only altruistic reasons for their drive to re-house the city’s poorest citizensâ€¦

Doiby was absent from that high octane thriller but did guest-star with the Emerald Ace in the prose tale ‘Hop Harrigan in â€œTrailers of Treacheryâ€’ – by an unknown scripter and probably illustrated by Sheldon Mayer – a ripping yarn starring AA’s aviation hero (and star of his own radio show) after which ‘Green Lantern’ and Doiby travelled South of the Border to scenic Landavo to investigate tampering with APEX’s short-wave station and end up in a civil war.

They soon discovered that the entire affair had been fomented by foreign agents intent on destroying democracy on the continentâ€¦

With the threat of involvement in the â€œEuropean Warâ€ a constant subject of American headlines, this sort of spy story was gradually superseding general gangster yarns, and as Green Lantern displayed his full bombastic might against tanks, fighter planes and invading armies,nobody realised that within mere months America and the entire comicbook industry were to metamorphose beyond all recognition.

Soon mystery men would become patriotic morale boosters parading and sermonising ad infinitum in every corner of the industry’s output as the real world brutally intruded on the hearts and minds of the nationâ€¦

Including a breathtaking selection of stunning and powerfully evocative covers by Sheldon Moldoff, Hasen and Howard Purcell, this magnificent book is a sheer delight for lovers of the early Fights ‘n’ Tights genre: gripping, imaginative and exuberantly exciting – even if certainly not to every modern fan’s taste.

May 15, 2013May 14, 2013

Green Lantern Corps: Emerald Eclipse (Prelude to Darkest Night)

By Peter J. Tomasi, Patrick Gleason, Rebecca Buchman, Christian Alamy, Prentis Rollins & Tom Nguyen (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-2529-2

The Green Lantern Corps has protected the cosmos from evil and disaster for uncounted millennia, policing vast numbers of sentient beings under the severe but benevolent auspices of immortal super-beings who dubbed themselves Guardians of the Universe.

These undying patrons of Order were one of the first races to evolve and dwelt in sublime, emotionless security and tranquillity on the world of Oa at the very centre of creation.

Green Lanterns are chosen for their capacity to overcome fear and are equipped and armed with a ring that creates constructs out of emerald light. This miracle weapon is fuelled by the strength of their willpower, making it one of the mightiest tools in the universe.

For millennia, a single individual from each of the 3600 sectors of known space was selected to patrol his, her or its own beat, but in recent years the Guardians have frequently changed their own rules and laws. Now two GLs are assigned to work in each stellar division.

The Guardians’ motives have also increasingly come into question by many of their once-devoted operatives and peacekeepers, who have frequently seen the formerly infallible little blue gods exposed as venal, ruthless, doctrinaire and even capriciousâ€¦

In the aftermath of the Sinestro Corps War, the universe was in turmoil at the revelation that Green was not the only colour and that an entire emotional spectrum of puissant energies underpinned and operated upon reality â€“ and could thus be appropriated and exploited.

Soon each colour was being wielded by a power faction such as Atrocitus‘ anger-charged Red Lanterns, Zamaron‘s love-manipulating Violet-powered Star Sapphires or the enigmatic Agent Orange. The Guardians themselves were clearly off-balance, constantly changing the adamantine Laws in their precious Book of Oa and obviously terrified that some ancient prophecy was coming to fruition despite all their coldly calculated effortsâ€¦

This volume (collecting Green Lantern Corps #33-39 from 2009) is billed as a â€œPrelude to Blackest Nightâ€ and if you’re particularly wedded to strict running order and overarching continuity there are other books you should read such as the aforementioned Sinestro War volumes (all three of them), Rage of the Red Lanterns, Green Lantern: Secret Origin and Green Lantern: Agent Orange at the very least. Heck, read them all – if you’ve come this far you’re clearly already intrigued by the sheer immensity and scope of it allâ€¦

The space opera/cop procedural opens here as two of the wearily battered but triumphant interstellar peacekeepers enjoy some downtime by painting a mural in their still-not-open â€œcop-barâ€ on Oa.

â€œHonor Guardâ€ Earth Lanterns Guy Gardner and Kyle Rayner are debating the Guardian’s latest emotion-crunching edict banning relationships between serving officers and how many of their fellows it will affect. Soon their paint party is augmented by dozens of others officers keen to contribute and chat; all blithely unaware that one of their venerated masters has been suborned to The Black and actively works to destroy them and all they cherishâ€¦

Meanwhile, on the violently xenophobic planet Daxam, the remnants of Sinestro’s Corps, now led by the sadistic superman Mongul II, is committing genocide for entertainment as the despot consolidates his leadership and plans to take his growing army of yellow fear-worshippers on a new crusade of terror and destruction.

On Oa resignations are up as many veterans choose love over duty and quit the Corps. Rayner has a personal stake in the new Law too: enjoying a clandestine – and now forbidden – relationship with fellow lantern Soranik Natu of Korugar. Even as the lovers discuss their insurmountable problem, in the distant depths of space GL Saarek meets a passion-powered Star Sapphire as he uses his unique ability on a fragment of the carcass of the once terrible multiversal menace The Anti-Monitorâ€¦

The dead speak to Saarek and his conversation with the Zamaron Miri is painful and portentous for both of them and the entire cosmosâ€¦

On Daxam the wanton bloodshed is temporarily halted when the monstrous Arkillo challenges Mongul for leadership of the Yellow Lanterns. This distraction allows a desperate survivor to flee offworld and alert the Sector’s GL team: Arisia of Graxos IV and self-exiled Daxamite Sodam Yat.

The fugitive is his own mother, but Yat is fiercely disinclined to help. As a star-gazing youth he yearned to visit other worlds but his family, like all Daxamites, brutally discouraged his dreams. When the boy actually encountered a shipwrecked alien his parents had the poor creature stuffed and mounted as a warningâ€¦

Once Yat finally escaped his fundamentalist, bigoted, supremacist world he swore never to return. It takes all Arisia’s efforts to convince him otherwise.

As Natu leaves Oa for Korugar, deep in the Guardians’ Citadel, the hundreds of horrors isolated in impenetrable Sciencells become agitated when Gardner, Salaak and Kilowog try to slam the door on newest inmate Vice.

The raging Red Lantern is barely locked in when Warden GL Voz is attacked. Deep in the bowels of Oa, the renegade Black Guardian had deactivated the Sciencells and soon a complete riot ensues, exacerbated when the captured yellow rings of Sinestro’s adherents are reactivated and returned to the rampaging prisonersâ€¦

With carnage erupting and deaths mounting, all GLs on Oa are dispatched to the penitentiary, whilst on Daxam Yat and Arisia have linked up with a band of surviving Daxamites and begun training them to fight back against the blood-crazed invaders.

A darker confrontation occurs on Korugar as Natu is ambushed by escaped megalomaniac Sinestro who reveals a shattering secret about her comfortable happy childhoodâ€¦

The riot on Oa finally subsides – after spectacular damage and catastrophic losses – with the Greens victorious even as, on Daxam, Yat loses a ferocious battle against Mongul but ultimately wins the war by making the most impossible of sacrificesâ€¦

And on Oa the once unshakable Guardians irretrievably shatter their already tarnished reputations by ordering the elite Alpha-Lanterns to summarily and secretly execute all the recaptured prisoners, prompting even their most devoted servants to lose hope and faithâ€¦

Now The Blackest Night begins and the universe itself will pay for the Guardians’ arrogance and duplicityâ€¦â€¦

Also featuring a beautiful and stirring gallery of covers and variants from Gleason, Buchman, Rodolfo Migliari and Glenn Fabry, this spectacular collection of plot threads and opening gambits combines all the spectacle, cosmic derring-do, tense suspense and blazing action fans adore, but even this â€œjumping onâ€ epic is not really a beginning and far, far from a neat and tidy end.

Although this bombastic yarn is highly continuity-dependent, determined newcomers should still be able to extract a vast amount of histrionic enjoyment out of the explosive, compulsive, compelling, pell-mell onslaught of actionâ€¦ and you could always find those other volumes and get fully in the pictureâ€¦
Â© 2009 DC Comics. All rights reserved.

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