Green Lantern is a 1960 superhero comic book from DC Comics, a long runner that ran until 1986.
The Silver Age Green Lantern first appeared in September 1959 in DC's Showcase series, issues 22-24. The Golden Age concept of a superhero fueled by willpower, using a ring and power battery to fight crime and injustice was revised and updated. Instead of Alan Scott, readers were introduced to Hal Jordan, test pilot for Ferris Air. Hal's supporting cast included Carol Ferris, his boss and love interest, and Tom "Pieface" Kalmaku, aircraft mechanic and Hal's best friend and confidant. The Showcase issues sold well and Hal was given his own series, titled Green Lantern. The first issue was dated July-August 1960 and would run for 200 issues through May 1986 before being retitled as Green Lantern Corps. Issues 76-122 would carry the title Green Lantern co-starring Green Arrow.
Instead of a mystical Earth-based hero with a mysterious power source of ancient origin, the new Green Lantern was more sci-fi, a member of an intergalactic peacekeeping organization, headed by the immortal and wise Guardians of the Universe. Hal was given his ring by a member of this organization, Abin Sur, who was dying after his spacecraft crashed on Earth. The ring searched out someone who was honest and fearless, and settled on Hal Jordan, bringing him to Abin Sur. After giving a brief set of instructions, Abin died and left Hal to discover how to use the ring. Unlike later retellings of his origin, in the original issues Hal had no training and had to learn via trial and error, much as Kyle Rayner would decades later. Green Lanterns had little contact with each other, and even the Guardians kept their existence shrouded in mystery, speaking through the power battery to give instructions to their agents.
So much of the modern Green Lantern mythology has roots in this era. Many of Hal's rogues gallery of enemies originated during the Silver Age. Hector Hammond, Sinestro, Black Hand, the Shark, the weaponers of Qward and many others all had their origins in the 1960s, though they would change quite a bit between then and the modern day. Likewise the Green Lantern Corps (not even called that until near the end of the 1960s) began as a small group and grew into a Corps of thousands patrolling the entire universe. The Green Lantern mythology grew and developed into something vast during this series. Guy Gardner and John Stewart first appeared in the pages of this Green Lantern series, along with Kilowog and many other familiar Green Lantern characters.
It came to an end with issue 200. The series was retitled the Green Lantern Corps with issue 201, which kept the numbering and ran through issue 224. Green Lantern would move to Action Comics Weekly after that, then to a series of one-shot specials before Hal's origin would be rewritten for the post-Crisis continuity with Emerald Dawn I and II. Nevertheless, most of the events of this series remained in continuity, even after Crisis on Infinite Earths, and would be revisited by later writers.
Green Lantern (1960) provides examples of:
- Alternate Universe: There are two of these that Hal visits from time to time. There is the anti-matter universe where Qward exists, where Sinestro was exiled and had the Weaponers construct his yellow power ring. The second is the universe where Earth 2 exists. Hal interacts with Alan Scott, the Golden Age Green Lantern, who is still active on his own Earth.
- Art Evolution: compare Gil Kane's art in 1959 to his art in 1969. Kane was the primary artist for most of the 1960s, drawing almost every issue for years, and his art evolved quite a bit over that time. The biggest change in style came after he took a sabbatical and returned, when he began drawing the book in a completely different style.
- Back from the Dead: Hal Jordan overrides the reserve power in the ring that protects him from mortal harm in order to save Tom Kalmaku's life, and as a result has no protection and is killed by Dr. Polaris. The Guardians bring his lifeless body to Oa and are actually overcome with emotion, as are a number of other Green Lanterns. This is no fakeout, Hal is genuinely dead, but fortunately for him, one of his periodic summons to the 58th century happens at exactly this time, and he is revived by 58th century science.
- Best Friend: For a long time Hal's best friend is Tom Kalmaku. Barry Allen and Oliver Queen are his other closest friends, though Oliver is more of a Vitriolic Best Buds given how often he and Hal butt heads.
- Big "WHY?!": In Issue #40, the Guardians of the Universe tell Hal Jordan to turn in his Power Ring and uniform, since he being replaced by Alan Scott. Hal reacts with a Big "WHAT?!" and rants about how invaluable he was for the Guardians up until then, ending with three consecutive "Why?"s, each bigger than the last.
- Bird People: The people of Xudar, represented in the Corps by Tomar-Re. Tomar is the first alien Green Lantern (other than Abin Sur) that Hal ever meets.
- Black Sheep: Doug "Hip" Jordan, the cousin from Tennessee, who is not above criminal activity at the expense of the rest of the Jordan clan.
- Brought Down to Normal: Hal Jordan when he resigns from the Green Lantern Corps. He finds before long that he really misses the power and the ability to dive into action. He made the choice due to choosing Carol over the Corps, but she is possessed by Star Sapphire and vanishes, leaving Hal without the woman he ended his GL career for.
- Calling the Old Man Out: Roy Harper blames Oliver Queen for Roy's own heroin addiction, essentially accusing Oliver of causing it by being an absentee mentor and father.
- Clark Kenting: Hal Jordan did this to protect his identity.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Several examples during Denny O'Neil's "current issues" era. These men don't care about pollution or the environment, just "progress" and profit for their company. Like many of his villains, these men are cliched strawmen, set up for Green Arrow and Green Lantern to take down, but if nothing else it makes loathsome villains for the heroes to fight.
- Dastardly Whiplash: Sinestro.
- Death by Origin Story: Abin Sur, who passes his ring on to Hal Jordan as he's dying. He does make several appearances over the course of the series via flashback, but remains dead in the present day.
- Drama-Preserving Handicap: This is the whole point of the 24 hour time limit on the ring's charge and the yellow weakness. Both prevent a Green Lantern from being pretty much invincible, and there are numerous examples of one or the other kicking in to cause difficulties for Hal or another Green Lantern so a problem or foe won't be too easy to beat.
- Early-Installment Weirdness:
- Hal's uniform was originally not made of the ring's energy, but was instead taken from Abin Sur after Abin died. Hal himself came up with the Green Lantern moniker, naming himself after the power battery. Hal's ring also didn't automatically translate alien languages, he had to figure out that the ring could translate and then make it happen. And he actually designed and built the flight simulator he was operating when Abin Sur's search beam found him, so he was a lot more technically adept than he's become in modern stories.
- Hal created the oath he recites when he recharges his ring, based on three early adventures he had as a rookie. Later on, every power ring user would be called a Green Lantern, and most of them used the same oath, leaving writers to retroactively explain these early discrepancies.
- The Green Lantern Corps is structured quite differently in early Silver Age issues. The first Green Lantern Hal ever meets apart from Abin Sur is Tomar-Re, who tells him that no one knows where the Guardians of the Universe live, and that most GLs work in isolation, receiving orders through the power batteries. A few issues later we see the first ever meeting of multiple Green Lanterns, and this time they do go to Oa in order to stop Sinestro. Every time the series deals with the Corps, the concept evolves just a little bit more.
- The isolation part was retained in Secret Origin, where the Lanterns aren't allowed to go into another's sector without permission from the Guardians. Sinestro breaks the protocol under orders from Ganthet to find Abin Sur. On arriving at Oa, Hal asks why this rule even exists. The Guardians just yell at him not to question them.
- For those who only know the Guardians for their modern, emotionless characterization, the sight of Guardians crying at the death of Hal Jordan at the hands of Dr. Polaris in issue #46 would seem very strange. The Guardians are as overcome with emotion at Hal's death as the rest of the Lanterns are.
- Engineered Public Confession: How Jubal Slade's illegal activities are uncovered. Hal uses the ring to disguise himself as one of Slade's thugs, and when Slade asks him about attempting to kill Green Arrow, the District Attorney is nearby with Green Arrow to hear the statement.
- Evil Counterpart: Sinestro for the Green Lanterns. There is also a short-lived Sinestro Corps in one Silver Age issue, and the Anti-Green Lantern Corps from GL #150.
- Evil Cripple: Baron Tyrano, the "menace in the iron lung" who tried to transplant his mind into Green Lantern's body and thus gain full mobility and power at the same time.
- The Exile: In issue #151, Hal Jordan is exiled from Earth for a year by the Guardians, as punishment for not responding to a distress call from Ungara because he was helping Carol Ferris with business problems. Normally such an offense would have meant expulsion from the Corps, but his exemplary record saved him from that fate.
- Face–Heel Turn: Sinestro, once a Green Lantern, until he abused his power to rule his home planet of Korugar and the Guardians expelled him from the ranks of the Green Lantern Corps. He was exiled to the antimatter universe of Qward, where he compelled the weaponers there to construct a power ring that manipulated yellow energy. Can definitely be considered the Arch-Enemy of the Green Lanterns during the Silver Age.
- The '50s: Hal Jordan was first published in 1959, and the conception of his character as a fearless test pilot can be traced to the space race and the cold war of that era.
- The Future: The distant Earth of the 58th century, where Hal is essentially abducted, subjected to amnesia due to the time travel method that is used, and given the identity of Pol Manning, Solar Director so that he could deal with some crisis. The series of linked stories set there are a continuing subplot of the 1960s Green Lantern where Hal would be taken out of time and not know what had happened. He would wake up in his own time and usually discover some artifact of the future on his person somewhere. He does eventually learn the truth and in later stories would travel to the 58th century under his own power.
- Good Old Fisticuffs: for a time after Hal leaves Coast City, he blames his job as Green Lantern for keeping him away from Earth and costing him Carol Ferris. He is determined not to rely on the ring, so he gets into a protracted fist fight nearly every issue. Gil Kane loved to draw these sequences, but in a book named "Green Lantern" one might expect more use of the power ring and less hand to hand fighting. It's a tedious stretch of the series to get through, and apparently readers in the late 60s thought so as well, given how sales were declining at the time.
- Heroic Willpower: Willpower is what fuels the Green Lantern rings.
- Honest Corporate Executive: Carol Ferris. There's never any indication that she's anything but honest and dedicated to running Ferris Air in a straightforward and ethical fashion. She's also scrupulous enough not to date employees, much to Hal Jordan's frustration.
- Humans Are White: Averted with Tom "Pieface" Kalmaku and his wife Terga, but otherwise mainly true throughout the 1960s. The first prominent appearance of a black man in the series is at the very end of the Silver Age when Hal returns to Coast City after a long absence and notes that among the other changes, they've elected a black mayor. The Green Lantern/Green Arrow era would make black and Indian rights and the racism they experienced a theme of several issues, even if the execution was somewhat clumsy. And of course, John Stewart, one of DC's earliest black superheroes, is introduced and becomes a Green Lantern in that same run.
- Hypocrite: John Stewart rightly condemning a racist Senator who is running for President, then turning around and calling Hal Jordan "whitey". Hal calls him out on it.
- Idiot Ball: Denny O'Neil hands this to Hal once Green Arrow is added to the series as a co-lead. The type of comic book writing that was used during the Silver Age doesn't make any character look particularly intelligent, but even so, Hal was often written as a thoughtful and clever character, working around the ring's limitations and figuring out different ways to use the power to accomplish his goals and to defeat dangerous enemies. But once Green Arrow enters the scene in issue #76, Hal becomes a naive, clueless follower of orders, albeit one who has good intentions, just to make Green Arrow look better by comparison. This does not last, and as the series goes on, Hal returns to something more like his earlier characterization.
- Imagination-Based Superpower: the Green Lantern rings, even more so in the Silver Age, when they can do a lot more than just create green constructs.
- Intrepid Reporter: Sue Williams of "Behind the Scenes" magazine, at least in her first few appearances. Sue is determined to learn Green Lantern's secret identity. Unfortunately, she zeroes in on the wrong Jordan brother, deciding that Jim Jordan is Green Lantern. Even after the two start dating, get married, and have a son, she still insists that Jim stop pretending and just admit he's Green Lantern, and poor Henpecked Husband Jim goes along, to the point that he wonders if he's Green Lantern and doesn't even know it.
- Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Guy Gardner around the time of the Crisis. He has no real redeeming qualities, responds to kindness with hostility, and seems willing to kill Hal Jordan for disobeying orders.
- Just Following Orders: Green Arrow is not impressed when Hal explains that he works for the Guardians and follows orders, accusing Hal of not being a hero or a man, and he even brings up the Nazi war crimes trials... all because Hal initially sided with a slumlord who was legally right but morally wrong.
- Living Dinosaurs: The Yellow alien Pterodactyls that Hal fights in his first off-planet mission.
- Loves My Alter Ego: Silver Age Carol Ferris won't give Hal the time of day, but is determined to get Green Lantern to marry her.
- The Masochism Tango: Oliver Queen and Dinah Lance's relationship. The two are definitely a couple, but they spend as much time fighting as they do in any sort of loving interaction. A lot of it has to be laid on Oliver's doorstep since he's abrasive and aggressive and just not a nice person in general. A few issues describe him in the more idealized way that Dinah sees him, but the readers rarely ever see that person, so his kindness and strength is more of an Informed Attribute.
- Muggle Best Friend: Tom Kalmaku is Hal's best friend during the early years of the Silver Age. He's also Hal's Secret-Keeper, being aware of the fact that Hal is Green Lantern. Tom keeps a record of Hal's adventures (his "Green Lantern Casebook") and even helps out from time to time. He saves Hal's life in issue #74 when the ring's charge has run out in the middle of a fight with both Sinestro and Star Sapphire, and Tom gets Hal's power battery to him so he can recharge.
- New Powers as the Plot Demands: The power ring gains various new abilities that weren't there before as needed by the plot.
- New Season, New Name: Happens several times as the book changed direction. The book goes from "Green Lantern" to "Green Lantern co starring Green Arrow" and then back to "Green Lantern", before ending as "The Green Lantern Corps".
- Omnibus: The entire Silver Age of Green Lantern, Showcase #22-24 and Green Lantern #1-#75, has been collected by DC in two very large hardcover volumes. A Green Lantern/Green Arrow omnibus covering the early years of the Bronze Age is due out in 2024.
- Overpopulation Crisis: In GL/GA #81, the original homeworld of the Guardians, Maltus, is suffering from overpopulation. It's not helped by Mother Juna, who is cloning people en masse because she can't have children of her own.
- Power Limiter: The Guardians of the Universe are themselves the Power Limiter in this series. While Hal is on a leave of absence during the early Green Lantern/Green Arrow issues, the Guardians deliberately reduce the power levels of his ring, to the point that he is no longer automatically protected from mortal harm. In-story it makes no sense for them to risk the life of a highly trained and effective member of their Corps this way, but it was a way for Denny O'Neil to cut back the overpowered Green Lantern abilities that would let Hal easily solve a lot of the problems that Green Lantern and Green Arrow encountered. Later Green Lantern series would show that Guardians have near complete control over the power rings if they choose to exercise it, down to instantly depowering a ring.
- Put on a Bus: Charlie Vicker, the second human recruited as a Green Lantern. He appears in two issues and is then assigned a space sector far from Earth.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: The Guardians of the Universe during the 1960s. They are wise, encouraging, friendly and helpful to Hal and all the other Green Lanterns. They even cry and are overcome with emotion when Hal Jordan dies during one story (he does get better). When Denny O'Neil became the main writer at the beginning of the Green Lantern/Green Arrow era, the Guardians changed into short-tempered and demanding bosses who made constant demands of their best Green Lantern while constantly telling Green Arrow how wise his advice was.
- Relationship Revolving Door: Hal and Carol, once she knows his secret identity in the Bronze Age. It's so much a part of these two that it's still going on in modern Green Lantern series as Hal and Carol get back together, break up again, get back together, break up again... wash, rinse, repeat.
- Riches to Rags: Oliver Queen's backstory. For most of his superhero career he was a wealthy businessman, but just prior to becoming the co-lead with issue #76, his business and fortune had been stolen, and he'd been left virtually penniless. It might explain his anger and cynicism when he first runs into Hal in Star City right before they start their road trip around America, given that it's only just happened to him. He's still adjusting to suddenly being on the other side after having wealth for many years of his life.
- Romancing the Widow: Oliver Queen dating Dinah Lance. Readers are reminded early on in the Green Lantern/Green Arrow era that Dinah is a widow. Her husband Larry died saving her life on Earth 2, after which she came to Earth 1 to get away from her grief and memories.
- Secret-Keeper: Tom Kalmaku for Hal Jordan.
- '70s Hair: John Stewart's afro.
- The Silver Age of Comic Books: If we accept Green Lantern #76 when Green Arrow was added to the book as the beginning of Green Lantern's Bronze Age, then the Silver Age for Green Lantern ran from September 1959 to March 1970. The Silver Age can be divided into two halves: The Showcase issues and Green Lantern #1-49 where Hal was a more old-fashioned hero, learning the ropes with his new power, taking creative problem-solving approaches to the enemies he faced, and engaged in his love life issues with Carol Ferris. Issues 50-75 see him leave Coast City and become angrier and more introspective and unmoored from his former supporting cast. The book was clearly taking some inspiration from Marvel's approach to superheroes and trying to update with the times by giving the hero more flaws and more issues to work through, and taking tentative steps into social issues of the day before diving in headlong with issue #76.
- Status Quo Is God: Averted several times over the course of the series. The first is when Carol Ferris becomes engaged and Hal leaves Coast City and his supporting cast behind in issue #49. He gets a temporary job as a tour pilot, then moves into insurance claims investigation in Evergreen City, and later into toy sales for the Merlin Toy Company. The series gets a another serious shakeup when it adds Green Arrow as a co-star in issue #76 and starts dealing with social issues of the day.
- Strawman Political: Denny O'Neil's first round of Green Lantern/Green Arrow practically ran on this trope. In the "Hard-Travelling Heroes" arc of the '70s, Hal was portrayed as an unquestioning tool of the establishment for Green Arrow to knock down.
- Superhero Team Uniform: In the Silver Age and for most of the Bronze Age, all Green Lanterns wear the same style uniform, which makes sense given that they are all members of the same police/quasi-military/peacekeeping organization.
- Taught by Experience: Hal is given the ring and power battery and a few instructions by the dying Abin Sur, and that's the extent of his training. He learns from experience both what the ring can and cannot do, and is constantly having to think on his feet when he lands in difficult situations.
- Translator Microbes: Interestingly, the ring doesn't automatically translate the alien language the first time Hal heads off to an alien planet. He has to think of the possibility and make the ring translate before it happens. Afterwards either it becomes an automatic function, or we just don't see him willing the translation.
- Two-Person Love Triangle: Carol Ferris and Hal in both his civilian and Green Lantern identities. Hal wants to date Carol, but since her father took a sabbatical and left her in charge of Ferris Air, she's the boss and will not date employees. However she's quite taken with the new superhero, Green Lantern, meaning Hal gets to date her as GL, while getting the cold shoulder as himself. He's his own rival, a fact that constantly irritates him, but he brought the situation on himself. This is only the situation during the early years of the Silver Age and changes first when Hal leaves Coast City in issue #49, and later during the Bronze Age once Hal reveals his secret identity to Carol.
- Tyrannical Town Tycoon: In Green Lantern/Green Arrow #77, Green Lantern and Green Arrow come across the town of Desolation, ruled over by the tyrannical Mine Owner Slapper Soams. His mine being the only employer in the area, grants Soams power to the point that the towns police are not only his goons but mercenary former Nazis. When a worker, Johnny, starts singing protest songs, Soams has him arrested, put through a show trial and sentenced to hang. Soams even sparks his workers to rebel, solely so his guards can kill a third of them and thus cow the remainders into permanent unquestioning obedience to him.
- Un-Cancelled: Green Lantern suffered from falling sales in the late 1960s, and the well-known Green Lantern/Green Arrow era by Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams was an attempt to save it. Despite the publicity and critical acclaim, it didn't work and the series was cancelled in 1972 with issue #89. Green Lantern became a backup feature in The Flash until 1976, when Green Lantern resumed publication with issue 90, picking up where it left off.
- The Unmasking: Hal finally removes his mask and tells Carol that he's Green Lantern in issue #83.
- Weaksauce Weakness: The mighty power of the Green Lanterns is useless against the color yellow. When written poorly, it's a too-easy crutch to stop GL from winning too easily and ending the story early. When written well, it forces Hal or some other Lantern to think their way out of a tricky situation and to work around the limitation. Various attempts are made over the years to explain why the "yellow impurity" is necessary.
- What If?: Guy Gardner's first appearance is a What If? story as Hal is shown an alternate version of events by the Guardians that resulted in Guy being chosen as Green Lantern instead of Hal. It ends badly for Guy, who dies of a plague in this scenario. Hal gets permission from the Guardians to introduce himself to the real Guy Gardner and the two part as friends.
