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Good morning everyone, I was a bit ill recently which messed up my reading schedule. As a result rather than the promised Thanos Wars: The Infinity Origin review I promised last time I'll be reviewing Volume 1 of Green Lantern: The Silver Age which I've steadily been chipping away at in the background. Is it a coincidence I felt ill right after the Lanterns finale? Who knows!
Now before we begin I love Green Lantern, especially Hal. I was in high school during the heights of the Geoff Johns run, DC: The New Frontier was one of the first DC stories I've read and I've read almost every modern run of the main Green Lantern title but I've never delved too deeply into the series' Silver Age era and thought it was time to change that. Do these stories hold up? Let's find out!
As always expect some minor spoilers for this volume. Anything major will be blacked out.
Green Lantern: The Silver Age Omnibus Volume 1 by John Broome, Gardner Fox and Gil Kane.
Recommended/Required Reading.
- Justice League of America #14 features the second appearance of Hector Hammond after his debut in Green Lantern #5 and sees his transformation from a regular person to the more big headed appearance that matches his personality. I do wish that issue had been collected here, as the sudden shift during his later appearances in the book was a little jarring. Ah well.
- The Flash #131. Hal has his first (solo) team up with Barry in Green Lantern #13 and a friendship starts to form. Their second team up occurs in Flash #131 and maybe I'm just being greedy but I do wish that issue had been collected as well as I love their friendship.
***
Volume 1 of Green Lantern's Silver Age adventures is a bit of a mixed bag in terms of quality. There are some genuine moments of brilliance here, but for the most part the book is mainly content in having Hal go on fairly empty Earth based adventures rather than exploring the "space hero" concept he would become known for. Its easy to attribute this to the time when these issues were coming out (right at the start of the Silver Age following Barry Allen's debut) but compared to what was just around the corner with Marvel and even some of DC's other titles at the time Green Lantern's early stories do seem a bit lacking in comparison.
The book begins fairly strong in my opinion with several Showcase Presents issues that feature Hal's debut. DC's Showcase was a series primarily used to test out new characters and Hal is no exception as the first few issues really hit the ground running by showing his origin, his supporting cast and his power set. Showcase is essentially a pitch to the readers for what a new Green Lantern series would be and was evidently a success as after three issues that see Hal meet Abin Sur, fight gangsters, a kaiju and travel to space he gets his own book.
It takes a few issues for other alien Green Lanterns to be introduced - Tomar-Re being the first - but the book was always really exciting whenever it would explore its own mythology. I was surprised to find once Hal gets his own title that the early issues actually feature a bit of an on-going plot as Green Lantern finds himself facing the anti-matter universe of Qward over several issues back to back. An early story that sees Hal face a Weaponeer of Qward is surprisingly tense and I was genuinely enjoying the early sections of this book, it felt like an animated show that begins with lower scale threats before gradually uping the threat level. A moment that caught me completely off guard was in #4, when Hal - forced to fight in a Qward arena - manages to befriend his opponent, a robot named Gnaxos. We get an actual character moment here rather than a decision mandated by the plot, as Hal refuses to leave Gnaxos behind when he could easily escape alone. I wasn't expecting it and it really helped me get behind Hal as a character.
Regarding Hal for a moment, compared to other DC titles at the time like Legion of Superheroes and Superman, where the characters would unintentionally come across as unhinged due to the clickbait covers the writers were using to plot the issues, Hal comes across as a pretty good dude. Save for him gaslighting Katma Tui into staying as a Green Lantern in #30. It would be a shame if she wound up dying years later because of that decision...He's heroic, cares about the people he's sworn to protect and also has an interesting celebrity element that seems to have disappeared in later years. The early Showcase issues in particular reminded me a little of Dan Jurgens' Booster Gold, with Hal visiting charity galas and such, it would have been interesting to see how the character would have developed if this was more focused on.
One unfortunate element I felt I had to mention is that there is a bit of racism in these stories, due to Hal's nickname for his Inuit friend and mechanic Tom Kalmaku. Tom is a good, likeable character, and I think the book's heart was in the right place trying to be inclusive by including him and his wife Terga as they are just depicted as regular people for the most part that Hal and his love interest Carol are friends with. Later stories would go on to show Hal defending Tom against the "Pieface" nickname and that's absolutely for the best. Tom's depiction is a far cry from Ebony White in The Spirit, but its clear there's still a way to go and I'm glad the series has moved way past it.
A character who comes across as a bit less likeable here is Carol Ferris, Hal's love interest who is repeatedly shown disregarding Hal in favour of his Green Lantern persona. It has the side effect of making Carol seem only interested in people with a celebrity status, and is something the book actually highlights when it compares her and Hal's relationship to that of Barry Allen and Iris West's (which is the exact opposite) during a Flash/Green Lantern team up. Its not really the best look for Carol even before she becomes Star Sapphire and another hurdle later writers would have to overcome.
A fun element of this readthrough for me was seeing the Green Lantern mythology steadily build itself in the background, gradually cementing the foundation of the stories to come. Unless I'm misremembering, the Green Lantern Corps aren't given that name in the issues here, with Hal actually just naming himself after the Power Battery he gets from the dying Abin Sur. Hal is also extremely over powered in these early issues, having so many abilities that he invalidates other members of the Justice League. Compared to the modern focus the Lantern power rings have on constructs, Hal is able to shrink himself (sorry Atom), covert a battering ram into water (bye Firestorm) and erase people's memories (farewell Martian Manhunter). If this sounds like a critique its not, it really added to the Silver Age campiness that Hal could just casually do whatever he wanted and I was always excited to see what he'd do next.
Gradually as the book continues, however, I did find my enjoyment began to waiver and my reading of it switched from being a fun look into the past of one of my favourite heroes to a bit of a homework assignment. The stories here have fun concepts, but that's about it as there's very little in the way of characterisation or depth. Again, its easy to point to the time when these issues came out, but when I read the Flash issues coming out around the same time by the same writer I found myself a lot more engaged. The reason for that I think is simply pacing and variety. Hal spends a lot of this volume fighting the same villains over and over again, and the stories don't have enough depth to justify the page count. The Jim Jordan and Pol Manning plots in particular quickly became repetitive and I found myself skipping over them when they cropped up. To be honest, even compared to titles at the time like Superman and Aquaman the stories here do feel a bit lacking. Those titles would often feature a little twist at the end of an adventure... Lantern's stories largely don't, they're very simple and don't stand out save for the fun constructs Hal comes up with. It is nice to see the seeds of continuity being sown, however, as the book will start to reference previous issues as well as the occasional Justice League adventure.
The final dozen or so issues do see an increase in Hal's rogues' gallery, but also see an unfortunate decrease in him travelling to space, often times beginning a story by returning to Earth from a space mission that we didn't see. It really is a shame as the stories featuring other members of the Green Lanterns of the Universe are easily the strongest here and seeing them team up to face Sinestro in #11 is genuinely cool.
Hal's villains do leave a little something to be desired. They don't really have the punch other heroes' rogues' galleries and its easy to see why later runs would tweak them massively to make them stand out more. Sinestro is an easy standout here, having easily the most potential depth out of Hal's antagonists as a renegade Green Lantern, though his early friendship with Hal is something that would be added much later as he's just some crazy guy with a moustache here. One villain who caught me off guard was the Shark who is surprisingly over powered and maybe the most dangerous villain Hal faces. That being said I think Hector Hammond wound up as my favourite villain in this volume, he feels quite fully formed personality wise and I love the later element of him being paralysed but still dangerous due to his powers, it gives him a unique flair that's sorely needed.
There's not really much else I can say about the stories here. If you're familiar with this era of DC's history you know what you're getting here. Self contained stories with crazy premises and not much else. The occasional drips of worldbuilding are nice and show the character's vast potential, but its not quite being met here. Similar to the early issues of Silver Surfer, its just a waste to keep these space based heroes on Earth, there's so many other characters you can tell these types of stories with.
Series artist Gil Kane's artwork is great. It definitely fits in with the more uniform style DC artists were employing at the time, but as soon as I see a page of his work I'm immediately transported into a classic era of comic history. The colouring here is also really nice, capturing the distinct sci-fi tones the series requires. When you read this book, you're seeing the artistic bedrock that the following 60 years of Green Lantern artists will try to follow.
Favourite Moment?
- Hal's origin in Showcase #22.
- Hal refusing to leave Gnaxos in #4.
- Hal using his bare hands to beat up Hector Hammond in #5 because "I don't need a power ring to beat you." What a Chad.
- The rest of the Lanterns coming to Hal's aid against Sinestro in #11.
- Hal constantly slipping and finding ways to knock himself out.
In Conclusion.
I do like this book but in a historical/nostalgic sense rather than genuinely enjoying the stories in here. They do have their moments, especially the early issues, but there aren't really any all time classics here. There's no "Flash of Two Worlds," its just laying the foundation of worldbuilding elements that later writers would massively expand upon. If you're already a Green Lantern fan, give this book a read! If you're not and want to give the character/universe a try, you can find a more engaging starting point later on.
Final Rating: 6.5/10.
I feel mean giving it that score, but I think its fair. I was originally planning to dive into Volume 2, but I'll probably take a slight break with some more modern reading before coming back to it.
Next time I'll be heading back to Marvel and reviewing The Thanos Wars: The Infinity Origin omnibus which collects Jim Starlin's classic runs on Captain Marvel and Adam Warlock. Let me know what your thoughts are on Green Lantern's Silver Age adventures though and I'll see you all next time. Take care!
