Unca Cheeks the Toy Wonder's Silver Age Comics Web Site!

(This page is dedicated to Harry; Marty; Jack; Dean; Joe; Bill; Tae; Duck; 'Mouse; ... and all the others who have kept the True flame alive. It Will Never Die.)

Along with THE FLASH... the single DC Comics character most intimately associated with the period of comics reverently known as "the Silver Age."

It has been stated by others, before this author, that there are only three true "origins" for comic book super-heroes. There is the "Born To Greatness" approach -- think "Superman," here, for instance; rocketed to our world from his own dying one with the express, stated intent -- as per his parents -- of Delivering Us From Evil, as it were.

Heroes of this stripe are, as a general rule, quasi-Messianic, either in tone or in execution outright. (For an example of the latter approach, see Marvel Comics' "Silver Surfer"). The earliest pulp equivalent would be Doc Savage: raised from infancy by a sire with a real "thing" for nobless oblige.

Next in line is the "Strived For Greatness" origin: the hero sweats and struggles like a sumbitch for the right to wear his (or her) spandex in public. Obviously, DC's "the Batman" is the prototypical model, here; long, arduous decades spent in sacrifice and Spartan self-denial, in unwavering pursuit of a monomaniacal goal.

Heroes of the "Strived For Greatness" school are -- by storytelling necessity -- generally obsessive, hag-ridden sorts. (The earliest pulp antecedent, in this instance -- the Shadow -- is another excellent case in point.) While these are often the most fun to read about... it is the rare reader, indeed (whether child or adult), who honestly covets their origins for his own.

Finally: there is the "Greatness Thrust Upon Them" clan.

By far the most populous of the comics hero populace -- the Flash; the Atom; and practically every "keystone" Marvel hero of the 60's -- these fortunate ladies and gents are the four-color equivalents of Aladdin. Minding their own respective varieties of beeswax... they nonetheless found themselves the startled possessors of Powers and Abilities Beyond Those of Ordinary Men, and a concomitant impulse towards the taking of Huge Fashion Risks, as well.

(While the astute reader may, at this juncture, object that there are comic book "origin stories" other than these in the literature... they are, by and large, admixtures of the three aforementioned basal types.The Phantom, for instance, was Born To Greatness [as part of a long line of costumed succession], and had to Strive For Greatness, as well [his grueling, lifelong training regimen].)

The "purest" example of the "Greatness Thrust Upon Them" origin, in the Silver Age, was undeniably Hal Jordan -- a.k.a., GREEN LANTERN.
Wish Fulfillment doesn't get any more clear-cut or straightforward than this: ace test pilot Hal Jordan is whisked away by a magical green beam to the side of a dying alien, somewhere out in the desolate fastness of the American southwest. Said alien -- one "Abin Sur," by name -- is, in fact, not just any old Dying Alien, mind; he's a representative of "the Green Lantern Corps" (think Hill Street Blues In Space, here). [See pictures, below]

Just before kicking the extra-terrestrial bucket, Ol' Abin bequeaths unto the jet jockey one lantern-shaped "Power Battery," along with an accompanying "Power Ring," both in your basic emerald. Whenever touching the latter to the former, Hal Jordan became possessed of the power (for precisely twenty-four hours) to perform virtually any action, so long as it was within his imaginative capabilities to conceive of it.

Being your basic rock-jawed and incorruptible comics-type lead character, Mr. Jordan promptly christened himself (rather awkwardly, it must be admitted) as "Green Lantern"; pledges himself to the Doing of Good, and Righting of Wrongs...

... and -- just that simply -- one of the few trruly enduring legends of the Silver Age was born.

As interpreted by many a year thereafter by the same two creative guiding lights -- legendary scripter John Broome, and penciling great Gil Kane -- the monthly adventures of Green Lantern were radically different from everything else on the stands, at that point. At a time when Superman and the Batman were both mired in respective storytelling doldrums of their own -- and Wonder Woman's comic had descended into virtual unreadability -- the intelligently plotted and artfully nuanced GREEN LANTERN became (along with the Broome-scripted FLASH) the "thinking reader's" comic book.

Adult characterizations were one of the refreshing highlights of the GREEN LANTERN series. Chiefest among these was the sexually-fraught four-way interplay between Hal Jordan; true love Carol Ferris (a strong-willed and independent woman, who also just happened to be the erstwhile Mr. Jordan's employer); Hal's costumed identity of "Green Lantern"...

... and Carol's alternate persona: that of costumed super-villainess, "Star Sapphire." [See cover, below]

Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of the series, however -- and, certainly, the creative mainspring which most profitably fueled the comic's storytelling "engine" -- was the premise that Our Hero was not just another costumed adventurer, be-bopping from slugfest to slugfest and answerable (ultimately) to no one but himself. And here is where "the Green Lantern Corps" finally enters our narrative... as well as the mystery-shrouded and omniscient "Guardians of Oa."

Eons agone, it seems, these self-styled "Guardians" -- a score or so of virtually identical little blue men in red robes (apparently, "omniscience" is not, properly speaking, a working synomym for "fashion consciousness") abitrarily divided the entire universe into 3,600 space "sectors." [See pictures, below]

Now... most races, certainly, would have settled back into the coziness of their La-Z-Boy recliners (or alien equivalents thereof) at that point, content in the knowledge of a thankless -- to say nothing of pointless -- job well done.

(I mean... can you even imagine a group of bite-sized cosmic know-it-all's, bickering over how best to divvy up All of Reality into three thousand and six hundred "slices"...?

(FIRST GUARDIAN [heatedly]: "No, no, no, Ali Alpo Anklestrap, you idiot! That third "G"-class star from the left, there, belongs in Sector 1-4-2-3, I tell you! What are you, anyway... semi-omniscient, or somethin'...?"

(SECOND GUARDIAN [fingers jammed into his ears; singsong voice]: La-la-la-la-la! I can't heeeeeeaaaaarrrrrr yoooooouuuuu, Lodo Looloo Lavalamp!" [louder, now] La-la-LA-la-laaaaa -- !!")

Well... anyway: upon having resolved the question of Which Stars Went Where, the Guardians then took it upon themselves to establish a sort of inter-galactic "police force," in the form of "the Green Lantern Corps": 3,600 unique and distinct alien representatives of their own respective "space sectors." Each and every one of these was armed with the regulation Power Ring and Power Battery, and charged with fulfilling the Prime Directive of the Corps:

"Bring back some broads. Short broads. About twenty or so. For starters."

No, no; juuuuussssssst kidding. )

In all seriousness, however: it was a fascinating premise, and one which served admirably in distinguishing Hal Jordan from the endless rank-and-file of other costumed do-gooders clogging up the spinner racks out there. Anyone could be a "super-hero," after all; all it took, really, was ready access to some spandex leggings and a suitably dramatic "action name."

(... and if you doubt the validity of that last statement, by the way: just check out the bulk of the comic books coming out nowadays. when -- often as not -- a modern-day "hero" nneedn't even score two out of two in that undemanding a swimsuit competition...!)

To make it as a member of the Green Lantern Corps, however: you had to be the best of the best. Not just on your own planet, mind you; in your own galaxy -- !

There was something very palpably "Knights of the Table Round"-ish about the entire affair, as so evocatively chronicled during those initial ground-breaking seventy-five issues or so. Hal's regular encounters with other members of the space-faring Corps always carried with them a charged air of esprit de corps; his face-to-face meetings with the solemn and exacting Guardians, a nicely underplayed sentiment of service and sacrifice, in the name of an eminently higher goal. More than any other comics series, either before or since... the Silver Age GREEN LANTERN tales actually made it seem as if The Universe Entire might not be a big enough backdrop for the adventures contained therein.

With the advent of issue #76, however... the focus of the series underwent one of the most truly remarkable alterations imaginable

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