Showcase Presents: Green Lantern, Vol. 1 by John Broome

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This book collects the first two twenty comics starring Hal Jordan as the Silver Age Green Lantern (Showcase #22-#24 and Green Lantern #1-#17).

Green Lantern Abin Sur's spaceship crashed on Earth and his power ring chose test pilot Hal Jordan as the Green Lantern. During the course of the book, the modern Green Lantern mythology begins to take hold. As it begins, the Guardians of the Galaxy are aloof even from regular Lanterns. By the end of the book, they're at least known. We're also told that the Green Lantern oath was created by Jordan as a result of some specific battles he fought rather than something organic to the Lantern or required by the battery to provide power.

The book doesn't introduce near the number of villains that the Flash did with only two of his most popular rogues (Sinestro and Star Sapphire) but Sinestro was a great villain and made four appearances between issues 7 and 15.

Star Sapphire's first appearance in Issue 16 was intended as more of a one shot deal as Carol Ferris became possessed by an alien being to prove that Carol was queen of a race of super powerful aliens.

Another highlight is the first crossover between Green Lantern and Flash in an excellent story, "Duel of the Superheroes" (Green Lantern #13)

Overall, what makes this book stand out is how different Hal Jordan was from many other superheroes. The lack of a teenage sidekick or stories of Hal Jordan as a boy was striking. Plus Hal has an adult confidant who knows his secret identity. Plus, Jordan has a solid supporting cast with not only his mechanic Pieface and his girl Carol but also two brothers. Overall, there's more a sense of reality about Hal Jordan compared to other DC characters.

Still, the character maintains a great sense of fun with some solid science fiction stories making this a must-read for fans of science fiction and the Green Lantern.



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