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Green Lantern is the name of several superheroes appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. They fight evil with the aid of rings that grant them a variety of extraordinary powers, all of which come from imagination, fearlessness, and the electromagnetic spectrum of emotional willpower. The characters are typically depicted as members of the Green Lantern Corps, an intergalactic law enforcement agency.

The first Green Lantern character, Alan Scott, was created in 1940 by Martin Nodell with scripting or co-scripting of the first stories by Bill Finger during the Golden Age of Comic Books and usually fought common criminals in Capitol City (and later, Gotham City) with the aid of his magic ring. For the Silver Age of Comic Books, John Broome and Gil Kane reinvented the character as Hal Jordan in 1959 and introduced the Green Lantern Corps, shifting the nature of the character from fantasy to science fiction. During the Bronze Age of Comic Books, Dennis O'Neil and Neal Adams introduced John Stewart, a new member of the Corps who was one of DC's first Black superheroes. Other notable Green Lanterns include Guy Gardner, Kyle Rayner, Simon Baz, Jessica Cruz and Jo Mullein.

The Green Lanterns are among DC Comics' longest lasting sets of characters. They have been adapted to television, video games, and motion pictures.

Publication history

Golden Age

Martin Nodell (initially using the pen-name Mart Dellon) created the first Green Lantern in collaboration with Bill Finger. He first appeared in the Golden Age of Comic Books in '' All-American Comics'' #16 (July 1940), published by All-American Publications, one of three companies that would eventually merge to form DC Comics.

This Green Lantern's real name was Alan Scott, a railroad engineer who, after a railway crash, came into possession of a magic lantern which spoke to him and said it would bring power. From this, he crafted a magic ring that gave him a wide variety of powers. The limitations of the ring were that it had to be "charged" every 24 hours by touching it to the lantern for a time and that it could not directly affect objects made of wood. Alan Scott fought mostly ordinary human villains, but he did have a few paranormal ones such as the immortal Vandal Savage and the zombie Solomon Grundy. Most stories took place in New York. Green Lantern rings are made from magic.

As a popular character in the 1940s, the Green Lantern featured both in anthology books such as ''All-American Comics'' and '' Comic Cavalcade'', as well as his own book, ''Green Lantern''. He also appeared in '' All Star Comics'' as a member of the superhero team known as the Justice Society of America.

After World War II the popularity of superheroes in general declined. The ''Green Lantern'' comic book was cancelled with issue #38 (May–June 1949), and '' All Star Comics'' #57 (1951) was the character's last Golden Age appearance. When superheroes came back in fashion in later decades, the character Alan Scott was revived, but he was forever marginalized by the new Hal Jordan character who had been created to supplant him (see below). Initially, he made guest appearances in other superheroes' books, but eventually got regular roles in books featuring the Justice Society. He never got another solo series, although he did star in individual stories and in the single-issue 2002 comic book ''Brightest Day, Blackest Night.'' Between 1995 and 2003, DC Comics changed Alan Scott's superhero codename to "Sentinel" in order to distinguish him from the newer and more popular science fictional Green Lanterns.

In 2011, the Alan Scott character was revamped. His costume was redesigned to be all green and the source of his powers was changed to that of the mystical power of nature (referred to in the stories as "the Green").

Silver Age

In 1959, Julius Schwartz reinvented the Green Lantern character as a science fiction hero named Hal Jordan. Hal Jordan's powers were more or less the same as Alan Scott's, but otherwise this character was completely different from the Green Lantern character of the 1940s. He had a new name, a redesigned costume, and a rewritten origin story. Hal Jordan received his ring from a dying alien and was commissioned as an officer of the Green Lantern Corps, an interstellar law enforcement agency overseen by the Guardians of the Universe.

Hal Jordan was introduced in '' Showcase'' #22 (September–October 1959). Gil Kane and Sid Greene were the art team most notable on the title in its early years, along with writer John Broome. His initial physical appearance, according to Kane, was patterned after his one-time neighbor, actor Paul Newman.

Later developments

With issue #76 (April 1970), the series made a radical stylistic departure. Editor Schwartz, in one of the company's earliest efforts to provide more than fantasy, worked with the writer-artist team of Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams to spark new interest in the comic book series and address a perceived need for social relevance. They added the character Green Arrow (with the cover, but not the official name, retitled ''Green Lantern Co-Starring Green Arrow'') and had the pair travel through America encountering "real world" issues, to which they reacted in different ways — Green Lantern as fundamentally a lawman, Green Arrow as a liberal iconoclast. Additionally during this run, the groundbreaking " Snowbirds Don't Fly" story was published (issues #85–86) in which Green Arrow's teen sidekick Speedy (the later grown-up hero Red Arrow) developed a heroin addiction that he was forcibly made to quit. The stories were critically acclaimed, with publications such as ''The New York Times'', ''The Wall Street Journal'', and ''Newsweek'' citing it as an example of how comic books were "growing up". However, the O'Neil/Adams run was not a commercial success, and the series was cancelled after only 14 issues, though an additional unpublished three installments were finally published as back-ups in ''The Flash'' #217–219.

The title saw a number of revivals and cancellations. It changed to ''Green Lantern Corps'' at one point as the popularity rose and waned. During a time there were two regular titles, each with a Green Lantern, and a third member in the Justice League. A new character, Kyle Rayner, was created to become the feature while Hal Jordan first became the villain Parallax, then died and came back as the Spectre.

In the wake of '' The New Frontier'', writer Geoff Johns returned Hal Jordan as Green Lantern in '' Green Lantern: Rebirth'' (2004–05). Johns began to lay the groundwork for " Blackest Night" (released July 13, 2010)), viewing it as the third part of the trilogy started by ''Rebirth''. Expanding on the Green Lantern mythology in the second part, " Sinestro Corps War" (2007), Johns, with artist Ethan van Sciver, found wide critical acclaim and commercial success with the series, which promised the introduction of a spectrum of colored "lanterns".

Timeline

Awards

The series and its creators have received several awards over the years, including the 1961 Alley Award for Best Adventure Hero/Heroine with Own Book and the Academy of Comic Book Arts Shazam Award for Best Continuing Feature in 1970, for Best Individual Story ("No Evil Shall Escape My Sight", ''Green Lantern'' (vol. 2) #76 by Dennis O'Neil and Neal Adams), and in 1971 for Best Individual Story ("Snowbirds Don't Fly", ''Green Lantern'' (vol. 2) #85 by O'Neil and Adams).

Writer O'Neil received the Shazam Award for Best Writer (Dramatic Division) in 1970 for his work on ''Green Lantern'', ''Batman'', ''Superman'' and other titles, while artist Adams received the Shazam for Best Artist (Dramatic Division) in 1970 for his work on ''Green Lantern'' and ''Batman''. Inker Dick Giordano received the Shazam Award for Best Inker (Dramatic Division) for his work on ''Green Lantern'' and other titles.

In Judd Winick's first regular writing assignment on Green Lantern, he wrote a storyline in which an assistant of Kyle Rayner's emerged as a gay character in ''Green Lantern'' (vol. 3) #137 (June 2001). In ''Green Lantern'' (vol. 3) #154 (November 2001) the story entitled "Hate Crime" gained media recognition when his friend Terry Berg was brutally beaten in a homophobic attack. Winick was interviewed on Phil Donahue's show on MSNBC for that storyline on August 15, 2002 and received two GLAAD Media Awards for his Green Lantern work.

In May 2011, Green Lantern placed 7th on IGN's Top 100 Comic Book Heroes of All Time.

Legal disputes

DC Comics has been involved in two disputes concerning Green Lantern trade marks before the United States Patent and Trade Mark Office, the first in 2012 and the second in 2016.

Characters

Golden Age Green Lantern

*Alan Scott

Silver Age Green Lantern

*Hal Jordan

Bronze Age Green Lanterns

*Guy Gardner
* John Stewart

Modern Age Green Lanterns

*Kyle Rayner
* Simon Baz
*Jessica Cruz
* Sojourner Mullein
* Keli Quintela

Others who have headlined as Green Lantern in a Green Lantern comic book or related title

* Jade (DC Comics)
*Sinestro
*Jediah Caul
*Tai Pham

Powers and abilities

Each Green Lantern wears a ring that grants them a variety of abilities. The ring is powered by willpower. The full extent of the ring's abilities has never been rigorously defined in the stories, but two consistent traits are that it grants the power of flight and that all of its effects are accompanied by a green light.

Green Lantern Oath

In issue #9 of the original Alan Scott ''Green Lantern'' comic book, scriptwriter Alfred Bester, best known as a major science fiction novelist of the 1950s (and one who had included rhymed couplets in his work) introduced the Green Lantern Oaths:

This oath was revived for the Hal Jordan version of the character. Alan Moore and Geoff Johns introduced variants. Oftentimes "darkest night" is changed to "blackest night", which inspired the name of the crossover event Blackest Night. In reference to the oath, the sequel to Blackest Night was called Brightest Day.

In other media

Film

Standalone film

Hal Jordan made his live-action debut in the 2011 film of the same name, portrayed by Ryan Reynolds. The film originally intended on launching a new DC Comics cinematic franchise with a sequel and an untitled Flash film, but due to the film's failure, nothing moved forward.

DC Extended Universe

John Stewart was scheduled to appear in Zack Snyder's director cut of ''Justice League'', portrayed by Wayne T. Carr, but the scene was reworked with Martian Manhunter, portrayed by Harry Lennix, at the request of Warner Bros.

Television

In the live-action television series '' Stargirl'', Alan Scott's power battery is shown in a flashback to when the Injustice Society attacked the Justice Society of America's headquarters. JSA member Pat Dugan hid his power battery in his basement. In the second season, Alan Scott's daughter Jennie-Lynn Scott finds Alan's power battery and activates it. She absorbs the battery's energy and breaks it. She then leaves Blue Valley to find her missing brother Todd Rice.

DC Universe

A live-action ''Green Lantern'' television series was announced to be in development at HBO Max set to feature the Alan Scott, Guy Gardner, Jessica Cruz, and Simon Baz versions of Green Lantern along with an original character Bree Jarta with Finn Wittrock and Jeremy Irvine portraying Gardner and Scott respectively. The series will be set in multiple time periods focusing on a separate story for each of the Green Lanterns for that time. In October 2022, it was announced that the series had instead been extensively redeveloped into a solo project centered around John Stewart. In December 2022, sources claimed the series was scrapped, but James Gunn say the series is still in production. The series' title was revealed to be '' Lanterns'' in January 2023. The version with Berlanti was confirmed to have been cancelled, with this new series focusing on Stewart and Hal Jordan as part of DC Studios' new DC Universe. In October 2024, Kyle Chandler and Aaron Pierre were cast as the DCU's Jordan and Stewart. The series is set to release in 2026.

In academic and journalistic jargon

Some political pundits and academic political scientists use the phrase "Green Lanternism" (or "political Green Lanternism") to refer to the common tendency to demand perfection or omnipotence from political leaders, and to blame actually unsolvable or inevitable problems on political leaders' alleged weakness or malice, as if political office-holders' powers and abilities, like Green Lantern's powers and abilities, were limited only by their personal strength of will.

See also

* Doctor Spectrum, a Marvel Comics pastiche of Green Lantern
* '' Green Lantern: The Animated Series''
* Green Lantern Corps

References

External links

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1940 comics debuts
American comics characters
Characters created by Bill Finger
Comics characters introduced in 1940
DC Comics adapted into films
DC Comics adapted into video games
DC Comics film characters
Fictional super soldiers
Groups of fictional characters