World Famous Comics: Showcase Presents: Green Lantern, Vol. 4
Showcase Presents: Green Lantern, Vol. 4
By: Various Publisher: DC Comics Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 392 Publication Date: June 16, 2009 Reading Level: Young Adult Release Date: June 16, 2009 Studio: DC Comics
Product Description: Nearly 400 pages of classic super hero adventure are collected in this value-priced volume! Green Lantern - a.k.a. test pilot Hal Jordan - battles evil as a member of the star-spanning Green Lantern Corps. In this new SHOWCASE PRESENTS volume, the Emerald Gladiator takes on some of his greatest foes, including Sinestro and Star Sapphire, and meets his predecessor, the Green Lantern of the 1940s.
Showcase Presents Green Lantern 4 ^ This is where it changes a bit. Gil Kane doesn't draw so many of the stories. Carol Ferris (feminist career woman, shallow Green Lantern idolizer, who ignores, and hurts Hal Jordan time and time again) is now engaged to Jason Belmore. Hal leaves Ferris Aircraft, becomes an insurance assessor, and starts a pleasant romance with Doreen. This volume includes issues 60-75. (a good point to wrap up a volume, as issue 76 sees the magazine change to new title "Green Lantern / Green Arrow", with a new plot direction by Denny O'Neill, and new art style by Neal Adams). This 4th volume gives you the last of the original series run.
Hope this isn't the start of a trend.... ^ The first thing I noticed about this volume of Showcase Presents is that even though it cost as much as a regular volume, it's over 100 pages shorter than the rest. Now, I know they didn't run out of issues of Green Lantern to compile, because that's one long-running comic book... so, I hope they're not trying to cut back by stiffing the public on length. I'm a loyal buyer of Showcase Presents (and Marvel Essentials as well), but part of the appeal is including 500 pages of comics. This one's shy the equivalent of about 5 issues of Green Lantern. That's not good, and I sincerely hope it's not a sign of things to come from the Showcase Presents line. I know times are hard, but this isn't going to help them in the long run, because being shortchanged may scare some of us loyal readers away. I'm still giving four stars for the content and for the Showcase Presents line in general, in hopes they'll do better next time.
WISH I COULD QUIT YOU ^ You should know right up front that these DC SHOWCASE reprints are in BLACK AND WHITE and with that out of the way, Volume Four of the SHOWCASE PRESENTS GREEN LANTERN series clocks in a hundred pages lighter than the previous volumes, but keeps its full price tag and issues us into a troubling time in the Green Lantern franchise where the rule of the day was...if it sticks to the wall, go with it.
Following on the heels of the "shocking" events at the end of Volume Three as Carol Ferris decides to marry another man neither Green Lantern or Hal Jordan, Hal goes mental, quits his job as a test pilot and first moves to Evergreen City as an insurance investigator, then pulls up stakes to become a travelling toy salesmen for the Merlin Toy Company - any way you look at it, one of the most powerful people in the DCU needed counseling and at the time the writers were hard pressed to get him the help he needs. Despite some of the best covers of the series (the collection cover has changed as well - featuring Hal standing over the "grave" of his Green Lantern persona, backlight by a full moon), they're all tease for most of the stories that lay underneath them are remakes and sequels to older stories that often didn't deserve one.
Green Lantern suffers from "Superman Syndrome" here - his ring has become so powerful (even with its inability to effect anything yellow) that the writers found themselves having to come up with ways to do away with it, finally just giving up all together and having Hal rely on his fists to deal with the bad guys, which he does over and over. Each time proving to himself that he's in fact all "man" and can deal with these problems himself - in the here and now, looking back over the 40 years these stories were first published, it's easy to say how clear the message is here. Being passed over at the alter by Carol has lead Hal to both reject and fear his ring - meaning Hal has a mental block on both the subject of marriage and being Green Lantern, so enter fists, goodbye ring...but it doesn't last too long. Before you know it, Hal is back in the saddle and damaging the DCU's continuity with abandon.
The politics of the day enter into the fray with student protests, a hippie in the Jordan family (and hippies in general), the first black Mayor of Coast City, a space opera, Hal Jordan's frustration with dealing with the law in giving criminal's rights (shades of Sinestro) and the classic take down of a space creature that Green Lantern is authorized to kill by the Guardians with its own "waste" product - yeah, it's all here.
For nearly the whole volume the art is great. Gil Kane is the master of Green Lantern, no argument. And again, those covers...some of the best.
Overall, Volume Four in the exploits of Hal (Green Lantern) Jordan are hit and miss. A lot of soul searching leads us back to where we began, Coast City and within reach of Carol, but still wrestling not only with his duel identity, but hers as Star Sapphire. The groundwork for the CRISIS and the forthcoming BLACKEST NIGHT continue to be seeded unknowingly into these stories and it's fun to pick them out and look them over.
Anything Goes Trivia
Last Kiss
Megaton Man
Tony's Online Tips
Trevor
