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Post by Prince Hal on Jun 9, 2017 17:11:03 GMT -5
Tune in for the next episode of "My 600-Pound Hoarder Superhero." EDIT: Or should I have said My 600-Pound Super-Hoarder"? More succinct. |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Jun 14, 2017 11:49:57 GMT -5
Showcase #23 'Summons from Outer Space' Broome/Kane/Giella The opening splash promises a fight with a giant yellow (of course) Pteradacyl, but instead for the first 1/3 of the story we get a romance comic... we see GL making the social rounds, and Carol whining about it to Hal. Hal asks her out to dinner again, and she says yes, but only if he brings his friend Green Lantern, too. 'I'm... I'm my own rival'... totally a title to a romance comic story! While Hal sits at home thinking about this dilemma, his 'green lamp' starts talking to him, and tells him there's trouble on Venus he must attend to. He goes there to find said yellow dinos terrorizes the Venusians, who are essentially blue cave men. Hal summons up a giant Hawk to scare them into a cave, then blocks the exit before they figure out it's a trick, saving the cave-men Venusians. He goes back home and 'Hal' cancels the date so the Green Lantern can just go, and Carol continues to debate who she likes best.. the end!  Notes: -Still the Lantern (or 'lamp) that is the control piece and not the ring. - Hal wonders about where the orders are coming from, but he's sorta an air force guy, so I suppose he's used to it - I wonder how many different random Venusians there were in the DC Silver Age? I bet these weren't the first or last, and I'm sure we never see them again. - They clearly still don't have the ring down.. Hal bops the PTeradacyl on the nose to escape, but then falls without flying off or using the ring to cushion his fall.. later, with the cavemen, he 'wills them to understand him' instead of having the ring just translate. Sure, it amounts to the same thing, but it was worded weirdly. - I guess he's only the protector of human-like species, not all life, as he pretty much left the Pteradacyls to die just on the word of the cave people they were bad and without checking it out. I would have loved for them to reference some of this early stuff when Hal was arguing with the Guardians later!  'The Invisible Destroyer' Plot: A bad guy the papers dub 'the Invisible Destroyer' appears in Coast City, and Green Lantern gets a message in the paper to follow a lead. It turns out the bad guy in the bad part Dr. Phillips (a local atomic scientist) brain, and it's getting stronger.. getting itself near 'radiation' to break free of the Doctor's brain and be it's own entity. Hal figures this out with a ring-brain scan, but the Destroyer flies off to cause a nuclear explosion so he can absorb the radiation.. he suceeds, but Hal uses the ring to shrink the explosion down so nothing happens. They battle, and it turns out that the Destroyer can't be harmed because he's pure energy.. Hal summons 'anti-energy' with his ring an disperses him.. the end! Notes: - Too bad the Invisible Destroyer doesn't come back.. he's got a cool vibe. Also, he's used pretty often in 'year one' type flashbacks for some reason. I'd think with all the history retconing DC does, it would have been a sure thing that he ended up as a Qwardian somehow, with the anti-energy and all. - the DCU sure does like to use the newspaper as a mean of communication.. why not radio? Or even TV? - Nothing yellow in this story! Huzzah! No explanation why he could effect an energy form, but I'm going to go all nerdy on ya and assume it's because Hal was willing the ring to attack physically, and it's not smart enough to tell him differently (even though now, I think, it would) Plot: C (nothing special, but nothing to heinous, either, other than the bloodletting) History: B- (first time Coast City is identified as such, first space mission for Hal Jordan) |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Jun 21, 2017 9:16:44 GMT -5
Showcase #24 Broome/Kane/Giella  'Secret of the Black Museum' Plot: Hal Jordan goes to return some secret military plans to the army, when he realizes they've been stolen. Using the ring to help his mind retrace he steps, he tracks the bad guys to a local amusement park, where they have the plans are are planning on using a fireworks display as cover to send a rocket with the plans on it away. The capture GL at first, but he comes to just in time to escape, capture the bad guys, and save the day. Meanwhile, Carol is sure Green Lantern is going to propose to her, but he doesn't... and Hal is sad she like his alter ego better.  Notes: - They really are starting to get into the groove with the ring-slinging, we get Hal using springs to save a malfunctioning roller coaster car (yellow, of course), and spy microphones to find the bad guys. - Carol when from strong industrial leader to lovesick puppy in like 2 issues... even going to the trouble of pointing out to us she asked permission of her father to say yes in case GL proposes. Too bad. Plot B (pretty cool silver age story with goofy romance-y side lights) History: F (nothing that effects the future at all) 'The Creature that Wouldn't Die' Plot: After the day's test flight, Carol asks Hal to drive her to a competitor's plant she's thinking of merging with, and tells her about a dream she had that he was really Green Lantern, and asks him if it was true. Hal is so shocked he drives his car off a cliff,and has to use the ring in his civvies (as in Carol's dream) to save them. Somehow Carol is knocked out in the excitement (of course). It turns out the road was damaged a monster from a cosmic ray expiriment gone wrong. After blasting it doesn't work, Hal puts the creature in a radiation proof tube, where it starts shrinking, and thanks him for stopping it. Apparently it was a nice alien monster that lost control of it's evolution due to 'cosmic rays' (paging Stan Lee). Hal then returns to his car and Carol with a doctor, and Ms. Ferris is convinced he's not really Green Lantern, since he was getting a doctor for her while GL was fighting the monster. The End! Notes: - Glad to see cool ring stuff, while it's not anywhere near Daryl Banks level of creativity and awesomeness, at least it's not just power blasts and boxing gloves  - The Carol stuff is REALLY grating, maybe because it's so similar to all the other heroes, and doubly annoying because she's in a unique position of power for a 60s female. - The alien monster looks alot like Tomar-Re's species made into a giant blob monster... any later retconned connection there? Plot: D History F (unless that monster is retconned somehow) |
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Post by Cei-U! on Jun 27, 2017 20:00:50 GMT -5
I wonder how many different random Venusians there were in the DC Silver Age? I bet these weren't the first or last, and I'm sure we never see them again. - Too bad the Invisible Destroyer doesn't come back.. he's got a cool vibe. According to my not-yet-complete DC index, there were ten different races of Venusians introduced during the Silver Age that lived in the present, with eight more inhabiting various alternate futures. The first ten, listed in the order they were introduced, are: Action #222 (11/56) humans Action #242 (7/58) energy beings Blackhawk #129 (10/58) blue-skinned semi-humanoids Detective #260 (also 10/58) blue-skinned humanoids Ahowcase #23 [Green Lantern] (11/59) blue-skinned cavemen Showcase #29 [Sea Devils] (11/60) giant aquatic humans Superman #145 (5/61) giant humans Showcase #33 [Aquaman] (7/61) piscine semi-humanoids Superman #151 (2/62) vegetable people) Aquaman #39 (5/68] ivory-skinned humanoids And Invisible Destroyer does come back, just once, in Justice League of America #41. Cei-U! I summon the population explosion! |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Jun 28, 2017 7:40:48 GMT -5
Heh, that's pretty funny.. thanks for the info! I'l have to see if my JLA omni goes up that far... comic vine said he didn't appear again (or I looked at it too quickly)
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Post by dbutler69 on Jun 30, 2017 13:14:21 GMT -5
I wonder how many different random Venusians there were in the DC Silver Age? I bet these weren't the first or last, and I'm sure we never see them again. - Too bad the Invisible Destroyer doesn't come back.. he's got a cool vibe. According to my not-yet-complete DC index, there were ten different races of Venusians introduced during the Silver Age that lived in the present, with eight more inhabiting various alternate futures. The first ten, listed in the order they were introduced, are: Action #222 (11/56) humans Action #242 (7/58) energy beings Blackhawk #129 (10/58) blue-skinned semi-humanoids Detective #260 (also 10/58) blue-skinned humanoids Ahowcase #23 [Green Lantern] (11/59) blue-skinned cavemen Showcase #29 [Sea Devils] (11/60) giant aquatic humans Superman #145 (5/61) giant humans Showcase #33 [Aquaman] (7/61) piscine semi-humanoids Superman #151 (2/62) vegetable people) Aquaman #39 (5/68] ivory-skinned humanoids And Invisible Destroyer does come back, just once, in Justice League of America #41. Cei-U! I summon the population explosion! Hey, then there's the Fearians (sp?) from the Super Friends cartoon. I know, Bronze Age, but still, Venus is just crawlin' with sentient creatures! |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Jul 30, 2017 0:19:05 GMT -5
Green Lantern #1 Groome/Kane/Anderson  'The Planet of Doomed Men' While doing a test flight, Hal loses control of the plane for a minute.... and that minute turns out to be the Guardians, getting to know him through an interview with his 'energy self' (sorta like the GL version of an astral projection)... that serves to give a good excuse for an origin recap. The Guardians deem him worthy, wipe his memory, then call him through the battery to go to Calor to help the natives there. Hal finds the yellow skinned neanderthalish humans praying to their tree god for help against a monster called the Kyrg. It apparently have mental powers that give him trouble, but he overcomes it and freezes the thing (it came out of a volcano, so opposite and all).. then drops in at the polar came. The Calorians are very happy indeed with their tree god! Mostly just the origin recap, but also a short sweet alien monster fight... definitely serviceable as the first self-titled outing, but nothing spectacular. Plot: B- History A (1st Guardians) 'Menace of the Giant Puppet' Carol is mooning over Green Lantern in her office while waiting for their date after the charity parade (was that a thing?) . After stopping a little bank robbery on the way, Hal finds the giant puppet balloon has a ray gun! He's able to turn it into confetti and end the threat, but the bad guy (a random evil dude in yellow with a hypno-ray) escapes. He decides to try the ray on Green Lantern after an upgrade. Hal pretends to be grabbed by it (once again leaving Carol hanging on a 'I have something to tell you'), and takes the bad guy out. The end! Nothing much to see here.. typical throwaway Silver age fare Plot: C- History F Notes - - The Guardians are much the same as they are now... just more uniform. They call Oa 'in the central galaxy of the universe'... which is mostly the same. They are simply called 'the Guardians' not the Guardians of the Universe. - THey don't seem familar with the term 'Green Lantern' for their operatives.. doesn't say what they call them, or how many, etc... just the implication there are more by talking about 'his sector'. Seems clear the structure and background isn't figured out yet. - They say Hal got the ring 'a year ago'.. which is actually MORE than real time (real time was 10 months)... I guess one assumes they are long-lived guys and rounding off |
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Post by LovesGilKane on Jul 30, 2017 7:53:22 GMT -5
i shall always be a silver-age gil kane GL cover WHORE.
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Post by Reptisaurus! on Jul 31, 2017 13:29:38 GMT -5
I'm poorly read on Silver Age Green Lantern, but the library just got the recent Silver Age Green Lantern TPB. I'll try'n read along.
It's a nice looking book. A little less garish coloring-wise (and a way better deal) than the Masterworks.
It seems a shame to have Gil Kane and not have GIl Kane drawing people punching! It doesn't seem there's a lot of physical action in these stories, which is a darn shame.
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Post by Reptisaurus! on Jul 31, 2017 15:53:10 GMT -5
I really like Murphy Anderson's inking here. I REALLY LIKE Murphy Anderson's inking here!
I didn't realize the first Guardians appearance was this late. GL had been in Showcase for a while.
The origin recap took a long freaking time. I liked the giant monster story (Although it needed way more punching!) Wish it had been allotted more than three pages.
"I only pretended to be under your control, Puppet Master, in order to get you to bring me to your secret hide-out." How does THAT work? L-a-a-a-a-a-a-me. Some neat visual ticks (The giant puppet, the "new dance step," GL marching the Puppet Master to the police station on marionette strings) but I think even a C Minus is generous.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Jul 31, 2017 20:33:54 GMT -5
Yeah, the C- is mostly for the art. I totally argree the origin recap was too long.... and kinda a waste, really. It was only 10 months before, and by the same creative team. It really could have just been a straight reprint, honestly.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Sept 22, 2017 9:12:58 GMT -5
Green Lantern #2 Broome/Kane/Giella 'Secret of the Golden Thunderbolts'  Plot: The evil Qwardians of the anti-matter universe have found a way to our world. A small group of rebel good Qwardians, lead by Teele-Teg, come to Coast City to find Green Lantern, who they see as their only hope. He finds Hal Jordan (who is linked to GL from the gossip pages talking about the two men pursuing Carol Ferris), and asks if he can contact Lantern for help. Hal finds a weaponer, and is able to turn himself invisible and chase him off. He follows his unique radiation signal back to the anti-matter universe, defeats the bad guys, destroys the bridge to our world, plops the good guys on their own little asteroid, and flies home. The end! Notes: -So much doesn't make sense. OK, so I get the Qwardians are GL's verison of Bizzaro.. everything in their world is evil... you're supposed to steal, fight, etc. But here's the thing, if you're NOT doing that, you're breaking the law.. isn't that.. good? or bad? Too twisty to make sense.. I'd much rather they just say the rulers are evil. - So Telle-Teg gets enough radio broadcasts to know about the Pilgrims (which is our little nugget of learning for this issue), but not that Green Lantern is the worst possible hero to help him? I get the yellow thing is a 'secret' but it's not hard to figure out.. what about Superman? or Wonder Woman? Flash? - I'm not sure they quite get what 'another universe' means. They're talking an anti-matter version of our universe, which is fine (In Sci Fi), and you need a 'bridge' to get there. Great. That means you don't get to just fly back to Earth when you leave. I guess I can pretend the ring willed it so, but ugh. - This is the first (and I suspect only) time the ring turns Hal invisible. Seems like that shouldn't be a thing, since it only does green things, but whatever. It was needed for the story. He does have a little creativity, using a (sorta) football player to tackle a guy with a nice pun attached. - In our 'Hal angsts about competing with himself for Carol's affection' piece, he's wearing a suit instead of a bomber jacket as usual... no explanation why.. trying to class it up? Gil Kan just felt like it? Thought it was a bit odd Plot: C- History: A- (1st Qwardians) 'Riddle of the Frozen Ghost Town' Plot: Hal's mechanic, Thomas 'pieface' Kalmaku, is quitting, and Hal is very sad about it. He finds out that his village back home (I guess Alaska, but they just say 'the Arctic') needs help, and he has to go find a treasure. Bad guys steal his map, but Hal gets his buddy Green Lantern to help. Despite running out of ring juice, GL saves the day, but Tom figures out it's Hal by his fighting style. The end!  Notes: - OK, so Hal can fly home from another universe, but runs out of gas going to Alaska? That's a real stretch. I get there has to be some reason non-superpowered thugs pose a threat, and having everyone randomly wear yellow gets old, but really, be a little more creative! Also, no explanation how they got how with no ring juice.. as usual. I guess being a pilot, Hal can just borrow a plane whenever he wants. - I'm mildly surprised that they didn't edit out the actual nickname 'pieface' in the reprints... seems like a thing they'd do. While I personally prefer leaving that sort of thing alone as a lesson, I know that's often not what happens. - Ironic that the mechanic figures out Hal's secret right away, but no one else can, especially since at times they portray him as a 'kid sidekick', more Bucky than Rhodey, when he should be the latter, IMO. Plot: D History: B+ (First Tom Kalmaku) |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 22, 2017 9:20:10 GMT -5
wildfire2099, Thanks for sharing the first ('Riddle of the Frozen Ghost Town') story that featured Tom Kalmaku. Tom, is one of my favorite sidekick in DC Universe.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Sept 23, 2017 18:19:07 GMT -5
I haven't really read many of these before.. I know about Tom from the later New Guardians stuff mostly... he was pretty cool in this story though!
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Post by wildfire2099 on Oct 10, 2017 10:01:15 GMT -5
Green Lantern #3 Broome/Kane/Gisella  'The Amazing Theft of the Power Lamp' Plot: The Qwardians come back (I guess the portal wasn't closed... no one addresses that) and steal the power lamp (or battery, as you like). Hal has no idea what happened, but luckily Pieface happens to be fixing an antenna on the roof of their flop house. Hal is off to the anti-matter universe, where he fights through their defenses (which are yellow, but they actual lightning they shoot is red, so I guess that's ok). They put the battery under a yellow force field, as they've figured out the yellow thing, and Hal is in trouble. Luckily, there was a hole in it, so he was able to use a 'pin hole' to get a green hammer on the inside, and happily the inside ISN'T yellow, so he breaks it up. The Qwardians attack, but he uses the last bit of his power to create an image of himself being killed while turning himself invisible and fleeing 'on mostly will power' Back at the office, Carol scolds her two employees for being gone all morning... Hal tells her they had 'stuff to do'. That wacky kidder! Notes: - Tom was a typical sidekick in this one... he finds the bad guys, then 'watches' them until Green Lantern gets back. - Seems like the 'power runs out' is the favored excuse now... that works less well when it's suppose to last 24 hours, and you're running out after the morning. - Travelling between dimensions is apparently a piece of cake.. no reason for the Qwardians not to invade right away! - No soap opera in the first story.. they save it all for the 2nd one. Plot: C- History: C 'The Leap Year Menace' Plot: Carol asks Hal if she should propose to Green Lantern since she's tired of him not doing it. Hal essentially proposes back, and she kinda mocks him. Meanwhile, Green Lantern flees in terror from a few female fans, that he thinks are going to 'tear him apart'. What's wrong with a couple autographs? Anyway, Carol plans to propose after a community charity event that GL is speaking at. Hal knows it's coming, and is desparate to distract her so she won't actually say the words (because that's a good plan). He actually creates a giant green monster so he can save the city from something and not talk to Carol.. but he gets distracted and the construct somehow becomes sentient and heads toward the atomic plant. Hal hurries off to battle, and disintigrates him. When he lands, Carol is waiting, and so are the fans. The fans are all shouting they should marry them, so he says 'I can't marry anyone right now' and flies off, leaving Carol pretty pissed off. Notes: -Green Lantern has no fear.. except for committment! And young woman fans! This made him look really, really bad. I'm not sure if it was supposed to be sympathetic, but it didn't translate with time. Not that I've ever liked Hal as a character much, but now I like him less. - I would have liked a bit of a reason why he didn't just say yes them remove his mask... problem solved. It's not a secret ID thing, since Tom already nows... it's only a matter of time, obviously. Other than it's not the usual Silver Age DC formula, naturally. - Quite the ring construct, having a 30 ft monster that talks and has sentience... with no need for concentration. Then he just destroys him. - Is women proposing to men on Leap year day a thing? It seemed like it, and I'd never heard of it. Plot: D- History: C- |
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