| Green Lantern | |
|---|---|
 Cover ofGreen Lantern: Rebirth #6 (May 2005) Pictured left to right:Guy Gardner,Kyle Rayner,Hal Jordan,John Stewart, andKilowog. Art byEthan Van Sciver. | |
| Publisher | DC Comics |
| First appearance | All-American Comics #16 (July1940) |
| Created by | Alan Scott: Martin Nodell Bill Finger Hal Jordan: John Broome Gil Kane John Stewart: Dennis O'Neil Neal Adams |
| Characters | Alan Scott Hal Jordan Guy Gardner John Stewart Kyle Rayner Simon Baz Jessica Cruz Sojourner Mullein |
| See also | Green Lantern Corps |
Green Lantern is the name of severalsuperheroes appearing inAmerican comic books published byDC Comics. They fight evil with the aid of rings that grant them a variety of extraordinary powers, all of which come from imagination, fearlessness, and the electromagnetic spectrum of emotional willpower.[1] The characters are typically depicted as members of theGreen Lantern Corps, an intergalactic law enforcement agency.
The first Green Lantern character,Alan Scott, was created in 1940 byMartin Nodell with scripting or co-scripting of the first stories byBill Finger[2] during theGolden Age of Comic Books and usually fought common criminals in Capitol City (and later,Gotham City) with the aid of hismagic ring. For theSilver Age of Comic Books,John Broome andGil Kane reinvented the character asHal Jordan in 1959 and introduced the Green Lantern Corps, shifting the nature of the character from fantasy to science fiction. During theBronze Age of Comic Books,Dennis O'Neil andNeal Adams introducedJohn Stewart, a new member of the Corps who was one of DC's first Black superheroes. Other notable Green Lanterns includeGuy Gardner,Kyle Rayner,Simon Baz,Jessica Cruz andJo Mullein.
The Green Lanterns are among DC Comics' longest lasting sets of characters. They have been adapted to television, video games, and motion pictures.
Martin Nodell (initially using the pen-name Mart Dellon) created the first Green Lantern in collaboration withBill Finger. He first appeared in theGolden Age of Comic Books inAll-American Comics #16 (July 1940), published byAll-American Publications, one of three companies that would eventually merge to formDC Comics.[3]
This Green Lantern's real name wasAlan Scott, a railroad engineer who, after a railway crash, came into possession of a magic lantern which spoke to him and said it would bring power. From this, he crafted amagic ring that gave him a wide variety of powers. The limitations of the ring were that it had to be "charged" every 24 hours by touching it to the lantern for a time and that it could not directly affect objects made of wood. Alan Scott fought mostly ordinary human villains, but he did have a few paranormal ones such as the immortalVandal Savage and the zombieSolomon Grundy. Most stories took place in New York. Green Lantern rings are made from magic.
As a popular character in the 1940s, the Green Lantern featured both in anthology books such asAll-American Comics andComic Cavalcade, as well as his own book,Green Lantern. He also appeared inAll Star Comics as a member of the superhero team known as theJustice Society of America.
AfterWorld War II the popularity ofsuperheroes in general declined. TheGreen Lanterncomic book was cancelled with issue #38 (May–June 1949), andAll Star Comics #57 (1951) was the character's last Golden Age appearance. When superheroes came back in fashion in later decades, the character Alan Scott was revived, but he was forever marginalized by the newHal Jordan character who had been created to supplant him (see below). Initially, he made guest appearances in other superheroes' books, but eventually got regular roles in books featuring the Justice Society. He never got another solo series, although he did star in individual stories and in the single-issue 2002 comic bookBrightest Day, Blackest Night.[4] Between 1995 and 2003, DC Comics changed Alan Scott's superhero codename to "Sentinel" in order to distinguish him from the newer and more popular science fictional Green Lanterns.
In 2011, the Alan Scott character was revamped. His costume was redesigned to be all green and the source of his powers was changed to that of the mystical power of nature (referred to in the stories as "the Green").
In 1959,Julius Schwartz reinvented the Green Lantern character as a science fiction hero namedHal Jordan. Hal Jordan's powers were more or less the same as Alan Scott's, but otherwise this character was completely different from the Green Lantern character of the 1940s. He had a new name, a redesigned costume, and a rewritten origin story. Hal Jordan received his ring from a dying alien and was commissioned as an officer of theGreen Lantern Corps, an interstellar law enforcement agency overseen by theGuardians of the Universe.[5]
Hal Jordan was introduced inShowcase #22 (September–October 1959).Gil Kane andSid Greene were the art team most notable on the title in its early years, along with writerJohn Broome. His initial physical appearance, according to Kane, was patterned after his one-time neighbor, actorPaul Newman.[6]
With issue #76 (April 1970), the series made a radical stylistic departure. Editor Schwartz, in one of the company's earliest efforts to provide more than fantasy, worked with the writer-artist team ofDenny O'Neil andNeal Adams to spark new interest in the comic book series and address a perceived need for social relevance. They added the characterGreen Arrow (with the cover, but not the official name, retitledGreen Lantern Co-Starring Green Arrow) and had the pair travel through America encountering "real world" issues, to which they reacted in different ways — Green Lantern as fundamentally a lawman, Green Arrow as aliberaliconoclast. Additionally during this run, the groundbreaking "Snowbirds Don't Fly" story was published (issues #85–86) in which Green Arrow's teen sidekickSpeedy (the later grown-up heroRed Arrow) developed aheroinaddiction that he was forcibly made to quit. The stories were critically acclaimed, with publications such asThe New York Times,The Wall Street Journal, andNewsweek citing it as an example of how comic books were "growing up".[7] However, the O'Neil/Adams run was not a commercial success, and the series was cancelled after only 14 issues, though an additional unpublished three installments were finally published as back-ups inThe Flash #217–219.[8]
The title saw a number of revivals and cancellations. It changed toGreen Lantern Corps at one point as the popularity rose and waned. During a time there were two regular titles, each with a Green Lantern, and a third member in the Justice League. A new character,Kyle Rayner, was created to become the feature while Hal Jordan first became the villainParallax, then died and came back as theSpectre.
In the wake ofThe New Frontier, writer Geoff Johns returned Hal Jordan as Green Lantern inGreen Lantern: Rebirth (2004–05). Johns began to lay the groundwork for "Blackest Night" (released July 13, 2010)[9]), viewing it as the third part of the trilogy started byRebirth. Expanding on the Green Lantern mythology in the second part, "Sinestro Corps War" (2007), Johns, with artistEthan van Sciver, found wide critical acclaim and commercial success with the series, which promised the introduction of a spectrum of colored "lanterns".
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The series and its creators have received several awards over the years, including the 1961Alley Award for Best Adventure Hero/Heroine with Own Book[10] and theAcademy of Comic Book ArtsShazam Award for Best Continuing Feature in 1970, for Best Individual Story ("No Evil Shall Escape My Sight",Green Lantern (vol. 2) #76 byDennis O'Neil andNeal Adams),[11] and in 1971 for Best Individual Story ("Snowbirds Don't Fly",Green Lantern (vol. 2) #85 by O'Neil and Adams).[12]
Writer O'Neil received the Shazam Award for Best Writer (Dramatic Division) in 1970 for his work onGreen Lantern,Batman,Superman and other titles, while artist Adams received the Shazam for Best Artist (Dramatic Division) in 1970 for his work onGreen Lantern andBatman.[11] InkerDick Giordano received the Shazam Award for Best Inker (Dramatic Division) for his work onGreen Lantern and other titles.[11]
InJudd Winick's first regular writing assignment on Green Lantern, he wrote a storyline in which an assistant of Kyle Rayner's emerged as a gay character inGreen Lantern (vol. 3) #137 (June 2001). InGreen Lantern (vol. 3) #154 (November 2001) the story entitled "Hate Crime" gained media recognition when his friend Terry Berg was brutally beaten in a homophobic attack. Winick was interviewed on Phil Donahue's show on MSNBC for that storyline on August 15, 2002[13] and received twoGLAAD Media Awards for his Green Lantern work.[14]
In May 2011, Green Lantern placed 7th on IGN's Top 100 Comic Book Heroes of All Time.[15]
DC Comics has been involved in two disputes concerning Green Lantern trade marks before the United States Patent and Trade Mark Office, the first in 2012 and the second in 2016.[16]
Each Green Lantern wears a ring that grants them a variety of abilities. The ring is powered by willpower. The full extent of the ring's abilities has never been rigorously defined in the stories, but two consistent traits are that it grants the power of flight and that all of its effects are accompanied by a green light.
In issue #9 of the original Alan ScottGreen Lantern comic book, scriptwriterAlfred Bester, best known as a majorscience fiction novelist of the 1950s (and one who had included rhymedcouplets in his work) introduced the Green Lantern Oaths:[27]
In brightest day, in darkest night
No evil shall escape my sight!
Let those who worship evil's might
Beware my power ― Green Lantern's light!
This oath was revived for the Hal Jordan version of the character.Alan Moore andGeoff Johns introduced variants.[28] Oftentimes "darkest night" is changed to "blackest night", which inspired the name of the crossover eventBlackest Night. In reference to the oath, the sequel to Blackest Night was calledBrightest Day.
Hal Jordan made his live-action debut in the 2011 filmof the same name, portrayed byRyan Reynolds.[29] The film originally intended on launching a new DC Comics cinematic franchise with a sequel and an untitledFlash film, but due to the film's failure, nothing moved forward.
John Stewart was scheduled to appear inZack Snyder's director cut ofJustice League, portrayed by Wayne T. Carr, but the scene was reworked withMartian Manhunter, portrayed byHarry Lennix, at the request of Warner Bros.[30]
In the live-action television seriesStargirl,Alan Scott's power battery is shown in a flashback to when theInjustice Society attacked theJustice Society of America's headquarters. JSA memberPat Dugan hid his power battery in his basement. In thesecond season, Alan Scott's daughterJennie-Lynn Scott finds Alan's power battery and activates it. She absorbs the battery's energy and breaks it. She then leavesBlue Valley to find her missing brotherTodd Rice.
A live-actionGreen Lantern television series was announced to be in development atHBO Max set to feature theAlan Scott,Guy Gardner,Jessica Cruz, andSimon Baz versions of Green Lantern along with an original character Bree Jarta withFinn Wittrock andJeremy Irvine portraying Gardner and Scott respectively.[31] The series will be set in multiple time periods focusing on a separate story for each of the Green Lanterns for that time.[32] In October 2022, it was announced that the series had instead been extensively redeveloped into a solo project centered around John Stewart.[33] In December 2022, sources claimed the series was scrapped, but James Gunn say the series is still in production.[34][35] The series' title was revealed to beLanterns in January 2023. The version with Berlanti was confirmed to have been cancelled, with this new series focusing on Stewart andHal Jordan as part ofDC Studios' newDC Universe.[36] In October 2024,Kyle Chandler andAaron Pierre were cast as the DCU's Jordan and Stewart.[37][38] The series is set to release in 2026.[39]
Some political pundits and academic political scientists use the phrase "Green Lanternism" (or "political Green Lanternism") to refer to the common tendency to demand perfection or omnipotence from political leaders, and to blame actually unsolvable or inevitable problems on political leaders' alleged weakness or malice, as if political office-holders' powers and abilities, like Green Lantern's powers and abilities, were limited only by their personal strength of will.[40][41]
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