October 1966: The Man With the Midas Touch

Because of the lines around the block to see the movie, Goldfinger references were ubiquitous in the mid-1960s.

So teen idol Frankie Avalon fought Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine, the Legion of Super-Heroes faced the menace of Starfinger and Green Lantern squared off against Goldface.

In The Elixir of Invulnerability! (Green Lantern 38, July 1965), the vacationing Emerald Gladiator had defeated Keith Kenyon, who’d used sunken gold to create an invulnerability potion. 

In Goldface's Grudge Fight Against Green Lantern! (Green Lantern 48, Oct. 1966), Kenyon returned with a shiny new identity and a “Fort Knox-mobile.” Plotting revenge, he broadcast his challenge through the gold fillings in Coast City’s citizens’ teeth (!).

The super villain was now armed with “super-auric energy” that could transform anything into gold — a particular problem for a superhero whose powers were nullified by the color yellow. 

But Green Lantern prevailed as usual in the Gardner Fox-scripted story. He avoided finishing up as a solid gold statue by surreptitiously ordering his power ring to solidify the air around him.

Inked by Sid Greene, Gil Kane’s art was hitting its peak of sumptuous lyricism, and — perhaps in response to Marvel’s growing popularity — the editors were permitting him to insert more freewheeling action into the proceedings. So that was all to the good.

“Kane excels at later images in this tale, showing figures against clouds of dust,” observed comics historian Michael E. Grost. “The clouds make beautiful abstract designs behind the figures.’

We also saw Green Lantern dating Hollywood star Zu Zu Lamar (i.e., Zsa Zsa Gabor).

“If I’m a superhero, you’re a super-beauty, Miss Lamar,” Green Lantern says, grinning.

“Dahling — you say the dahlingest things!” replies the star.

It was just a ploy to make Carol Ferris angry at Green Lantern and therefore closer to his alter ego Hal Jordan. But Hal needn’t have bothered, because in the next issue Carol would tell the heartbroken Hal that she’d agreed to marry someone else.