Review by Win Wiacek
This black and white collection takes Green Lantern from 1965 to the end of 1967, and although it doesn’t seem that way at first, it’s a period of considerable transition. GL was firmly established as a major star of the company firmament, and courtesy of writers John Broome and Gardner Fox his series increasingly provided conceptual highpoints and foundations that successive creators would use to build the tight-knit history and continuity of the DC universe. At this time there was also a turning away from the simple imaginative wonder of a ring that could do anything in favour of a hero who preferred to use his fists first and ignore easy solutions.
The art is even better than in Vol. 2. Carmine Infantino fills in for a single story in which Jim Jordan is again suspected of being Green Lantern by his wife, but otherwise it’s Gil Kane all the way. He’s reaching his artistic peak, his dynamic full-body anatomical triumphs bursting with energy and crashing out of every page, and when he’s not inking his own pencils, the inks are provided by the sympathetic Sid Greene.
Much else happens in this volume. Among other changes Hal quits his job as a test pilot, takes the first of his wanders across America, and ends up as a roving insurance investigator, and we’re introduced to not one, but two new Green Lanterns from Earth. However, the greatest influence was the instant success of the Batman TV show in 1966. the smaller personal tales and gimmick-based SF are no longer as frequent, and costumed villains became the order of the day.
Black Hand, Star Sapphire, Evil Star, and Sinestro all return, and new villains Major Disaster and Goldface are introduced, although other new creations such as the Bottler and Prince Peril weren’t destined for long careers. There’s also far greater exploration of the Green Lantern Corps and the Guardians of the Universe. Broome’s introduction of Krona as an obsessed Oan scientist who misguidedly attempts to discover the origins of the universe and introduced evil into our reality billions of years ago will have major ramifications on future continuity. Providing an origin for the Guardians, they became protectors of life and civilisation in an unending act of group contrition. Simultaneously high concept and action packed, this tale became the accepted keystone of DC cosmology and the springboard for all those mega-apocalyptic publishing events such as Crisis on Infinite Earths.
Other notable inclusions are the Flash guest-starring for the introduction of Major Disaster, and two team-ups with Alan Scott, the Green Lantern of Earth 2, the second the utterly bonkers story of how the taxi once driven by his sidekick Doiby Dickles becomes a gangster (sample art). There’s also the penultimate chapter of Zatanna’s introduction, continuing her tour through DC’s titles in time for an extra-dimensional invasion by the Warlock of Ys.
With a superb double page pin-up to end on this book gathers the imaginative and creative peak of Broome, Fox and Kane, a plot driven plethora of adventure sagas and masterful thrillers that literally reshaped the DC Universe. Most stories are also available in colour spread over Green Lantern Archives Volume 6 and Volume 7, although that series cuts off before Guy Gardner’s introduction, but everything is found in Green Lantern: The Silver Age Volume Two.
