So Martin Nodell’s concept for his character — a superheroic Aladdin complete with lamp and ring — was an excellent one.
The “will power” business was, I suppose, a nod to the Protestant work ethic, a term that was coined in 1904 but a concept that had been knocking around at least since the 16th century.
Doesn’t do to have things too easy, even if they’re magical.
But when I finally read the original GL’s earliest adventures decades later, I found Alan Scott’s original costume attractively garish, with its sweeping collared cape and dominant purples and reds. But I was disappointed in the stories.
Beginning with the hero’s origin in All-American Comics 16 (July 1940), the art seemed crude, the opponents pedestrian. His vast, fantastic powers seemed to be deliberately played down, as if dullness was supposed to be the point of the stories.
As with many DC Comics superheroes, the stories produced after World War II, in the twilight of the Golden Age, were much better. The whole tone of the comics improved considerably.
With talented writers like John Broome and the Hugo Award-winning Alfred Bester and accomplished artists like Carmine Infantino, Alex Toth and Irwin Hasen, Green Lantern now faced memorable menaces like the unstoppable swamp zombie Solomon Grundy and the cheeky rogue Harlequin, who diverted GL’s crusade against crime into a battle of the sexes.
In recent years, writers have sometimes connected Green Lantern’s power to nature magic and the Gaia hypothesis, but it’s interesting to note that the concept was suggested right in the 1940 character origin.
“For I am the flame of life. Green, as are the plants, the growing things!” the magic lamp tells Alan Scott. “The light of the Green Lantern must be shed over the dark, evil things for the dark things cannot stand light!”
Orson Welk wrote: When I first met the Earth-One Green Lantern in the pages of JLA, his schtick was well-developed--he had a tendency to use the ring to construct giant boxing gloves, or a broom and dust-pan, or a steamshovel--some tool to accomplish a task. What I find interesting about the early, Golden Age Green Lantern stories I've seen is that he put the ring to a wider variety of uses--I distinctly recall a story in which he uses the ring to walk through walls. I might have liked Alan Scott more if I had a greater tolerance for comic relief sidekicks. But the idea that one could use the ring not just to make things or fly, but to accomplish *any* wish, seems much more interesting to me. And maybe that was a problem--like The Spectre, it's hard to write a story with any real suspense in it if your hero can literally do anything.
ReplyDeleteThere was a time, I guess, when superheroes were thought mostly to be wish-fulfillment characters. What if I could lift and toss a car? What if I could run faster than anyone else? What if I could breathe underwater? What if I could fly? And I used to like imagining that I had super-powers when I was a lad. But for me, the appeal of characters was either as aspirational models (like Captain America or Batman) or as characters with whom I identified emotionally (Cyclops or Negative Man).
I feel sorry for Jerry Siegel. Superman was a huge hit. The Spectre, even more powerful than Superman, less so. And the Star-Spangled Kid and Stripesy (an interesting inversion of Cap and Bucky, in what should have been a wish-fulfillment bonanza-- a genius rich kid with a big bodyguard) largely overlooked. And his Mighty Comics stories for Archie, with his camp plots and terrible faux Funky Flashman banter, are pathetic (however fond of them I remain).
Michael Fraley said: Love the old GL. As I think I've noted before, the costume reflected the various colors of the old railroad lanterns which inspired the character.
ReplyDeleteJoe Kitchell wrote: These are excellent I always enjoy reading your articles and you should consider publishing these in some sort of book or guide very informative! I happen to know an amateur fiction writer who might help you out nudge-nudge wink wink!
ReplyDeleteSteve Guy said: "Ha-ha! We lured you out onto this curiously asymmetrical wooden pier, where your ring has no power, and now we'll...JESUS CHRIST!"
ReplyDelete"I'm gonna beat you to death...with EACH OTHER'S CORPSES!"
"WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?!"
Joseph Lenius said: The GA Green Lantern is probably the only character with a "bad" color scheme costume that I like nonetheless.
ReplyDeleteBrian Jones wrote: As a little kid reading the various Golden Age reprints as back-up material in “100 Page Giant” comics, I never understood why DC chose to downplay their three most powerful Justice Society members. Green Lantern, Doctor Fate, and the Spectre were all relegated to managing small time hoodlums and such while any one of them could defeat Kal-L, the original Superman. I can only guess it was a conscious editorial decision to establish Superman as the DC/National heavy hitter in light of the direct competition of Fawcett’s Captain Marvel.
ReplyDeleteRobert S. Childers wrote: I always took "will power" to mean he didn't have to command the ring to do stuff, as in he didn't actually have to say or think "ring, make me fly," and so forth. He worked it the same way one manages to walk or move a limb.
ReplyDeleteCheryl Spoehr said: I also thought that "Will Power" was like a rheostat,the more he "wills" it, the more power it allows. But the power was in the ring/lantern, not the "will power"....just my own perspective.
ReplyDeleteBob Buethe wrote: I read "will power" as "concentration." The ring doesn't just manifest casual thoughts, you really have to focus and visualize what you want it to do. That explains the Silver Age GL Corps' qualification of fearlessness. You can't maintain your concentration in dangerous situations if you're prone to panic.
ReplyDeleteBob Hughes wrote I never had a $#@ing clue what will power was and always thought it sounded stupid. It sounded even stupider when they added the other color rings which all represented emotions. Will power is an emotion?
ReplyDeleteVincent Mariani wrote: The term "will power" may be nebulous, but it's a stand-in for the indomitable fortitude of the hero who is required to show himself as worthy of the weapon that he wields.
ReplyDeleteBob Buethe wrote: Call it will power, concentration, belief, visualization, whatever. In my own head canon, it means that a Green Lantern has to totally focus on what he wants the ring to do. That's my rationale for creating constructs. It's not enough to just think the words, "I want to project just enough force to knock my opponent out without seriously injuring him." You have to feel the force, and the best way to do that is to focus on a memory of something that has just that amount of force, like a boxing glove.
ReplyDeleteCheryl Spoehr said; Most of the earliest comic heroes had pedestrian stories,and used their powers minimally. I think they were afraid to go too far from the real world. The "Silver Age/Marvel Age" heroes started heading in the opposite direction, and by 1971, you could pretty much forget about reality. Everything took place in interlocking universes where ordinary folk like you and I just did not matter.
ReplyDeleteLisa Childress wrote: I like the Gaia Hypothesis. It fits right in with Genesis.... dust thou art and to dust shalt thou return isn't that far from the idea of the Earth being a single entity from which everything is made and to which it returns at the end. We are all carbon.
ReplyDeletePhilip Rushton said: I agree with the suggestion that there must be a threshold of concentrated thought to activate the ring's power - otherwise every idle fantasy that crossed the wielder's mind would keep popping into existence. Imagine spending every minute of every day trying NOT to visualize giant, man-eating cockroaches once the idea had occurred to you!
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