Hello again, and welcome to another edition of Artistic License.This time I'm taking on
one of my favorite comic book icons, The Green Lantern.
For as long as I have read comics, I have been a fan of the Green Lantern. Not just
the character, at the time I started reading the series, that was Hal Jordan, backed up
by two alternates, Guy Gardner and John Stewart.
They were all members of the Green Lantern Corps, a kind of galactic police force armed
with Power rings that project a green energy beam that can be shaped by the will and
imagination of the wearer. Hal, eventually became known as the greatest GL the Corps ever
produced, but he was not the first man to use the name Green Lantern in the fight against
evil on Earth.
In the 1940s, the Golden Age of comics, Alan Scott was the Green Lantern. Armed with a
mystical lantern powered by the Green Flame of Life and a ring he fashioned from the lantern
as instructed by the sentient Flame, he was one of the most powerful of the Golden Age heroes.
There were differences between Alan Scott and Hal Jordan that reflect the times in
which they were created. Alan's power was derived from magic, whereas Hal's ring
tapped some kind of super-scientific power source contained in the Main Power Battery
on the ancient planet Oa, home of the Guardians of the Universe. Alan was essentially,
a free-agent, Hal was member of a larger organization, subject to it's rules and
regulations. Alan's power, being magic, was powerless to effect anything made of wood.
The Green Lantern Corps power had no ability to effect anything colored yellow.
Eventually, the Guardians fell and the Corps was destroyed. The lone surviving
Guardian, named Ganthet, passed along the last remaining power ring to the current GL
of Earth, Kyle Rayner. Now, Kyle is building a new Corps, having come into possession
of a special power ring that manufactures other rings.
