“They say I’m fearless, but actually I’m very afraid. Of
getting beat. Of backing down. Of chickening out. That fear just blows all the
others away.”
- Hal Jordan, New Earth
One of DC’s cancelled Golden Age
heroes is revived through the eyes of editor Julius Schwartz. Having
successfully reestablished the Flash in the form of Barry Allen, Schwartz was
assigned the daunting task of recreating the Green Lantern for the Silver Age
of comics.
Hal Jordan, a young
test pilot is the first earthling to be selected into the Green Lantern Corps
(an army of “space cops”, each with an assigned sector of the universe to
protect). The Corps was created by a race of immortal aliens called the
Guardians of the Universe. The entire premise of the Green Lantern was redesigned
by Schwartz and his creative crew, giving writer John Broome and artist Gil
Kane a chance to expand, not only on the character of Hal Jordan, but on nearly
3000 other Lanterns. Story plots and villains took our hero above the stars and
to new worlds with new alien races. Green Lantern now featured elements of
fiction that you just couldn’t get from any other hero. Even Superman, an alien
himself, was still, for the most part, earth-bound in his stories. Hal Jordan
boldly went where no other hero in the Silver Age dared to go: the 3600 known
sectors of the Universe and even a few unknown sectors as well.
Hal’s popularity soon
rivaled his superhero comrades, giving him his own comic-title, which soon
resulted in making him a founding member of the original Justice League of
America (again, created by Julius Schwartz). Jordan became very popular and
arguably as recognizable a hero as Superman or Batman. In Green Lantern #59 of
1968, Guy Gardner was chosen as Jordan’s “backup” to protect sector 2814. Gardner
was originally one of Abin Sur’s original choices for the ring, but since
Jordan’s air force base was closer to Abin Sur’s crashed spaceship, Hal was
chosen instead. Although Gardner is cocky and arrogant, and has an
overconfidence that has gotten him into trouble on numerous occasions, the
Guardians have found him to be one of the greatest and most trustworthy
Lanterns.
In the early 1970’s,
Hal Jordan was given an earth-bound “partner” in the form of Green Arrow. After
fighting evil in the far reaches of space, alongside his fellow Lanterns, Hal
Jordan returns to Earth to find that his perspectives of justice, of right and
wrong, are sorely outdated. He requires assistance from Green Arrow, a
rebellious, renegade, street-heavy hero, to show Hal that society has changed.
The two eventually became good friends, leading to a shared comics-title, which
featured a lot of socially relevant stories dealing with drugs, racism and the
many hardships of average people in those times. Dennis O’Neil and Neal Adams are
greatly responsible for the continued success of Green Lantern and for proving
that comic book stories can be more about beating up criminals, they can be
meaningful.
When Jordan was busy
on other assignments and when Gardner was severely injured, John Stewart, the
first black Green Lantern, was selected as the third earthling to represent
sector 2814, and he did it proudly. Stewart was an architect, making his green
hard light constructs very complicated and detailed. He was good at following
orders, which boosted his reputation and relationship with the Guardians,
something that Jordan and Gardner were never very good at. Stewart eventually
became the title character of Green Lantern Comics as the series approached its
end. Volume 3 of GL Comics was just around the corner, and with it comes the
fall of the “greatest” Green Lantern, and the rise of the “last”.
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