BHOC: GREEN LANTERN #111

This next issue of GREEN LANTERN (Co-Starring GREEN ARROW) guest-starred the original Green Lantern of Earth-2, Alan Scott. I assume that this crossover had been planned before the DC Implosion that cost Scott his back-up series that had been running across the prior three months, but it was a nice way to fold the character back into events and not immediately lose him. Plus, I was a sucker for the Barry-Jay Flash of Two Worlds team-ups already, so why should this be any different? Looking at it, I suspect that the two parts of this story may have been commissioned as a longer single-issue special of some kind, but wound up folded into the main series and broken in half thanks to the Implosion–but that’s just conjecture on my part.

This story would also serve to recontextualize Scott within the mythos of the Green Lantern Corps, although that wouldn’t come to fruition until the following issue, But the original Lantern didn’t share much in common with his modern day successor in terms of his background, the source of his powers and even his attire. Both men were called Green Lantern, but Hal Jordan was one of 3600 such Green Lanterns empowered by the Guardians of the Universe and given his super-scientific Power Ring to dispense justice and keep the peace in this sector of the galaxy. On top of which, Hal and Alan lived in separate universes entirely, so finding a common link between them was going to be a bit of a stretch no matter what.

After a symbolic splash page, the issue opens with our titular heroic duo ambling around Star City in full costume with no real purpose behind it apart from Green Arrow telling the Lantern that they’re here to help Hal connect with the people on the ground again, the small, everyday problems. One of those problems is apparently local goons shaking down a fortune teller for some payola. GA isn’t having any of this, and leaps into the fray, incapacitating one of the men with a boxing glove arrow. The other man chooses to flee, and Green Lantern attempt to stop him with his Power Ring–but the man ends up transformed to stone by its beam. Hal is perplexed at how this could even happen, and the fortune teller says that she made a wish that these men would receive punishment, and clearly this happening is the granting of her wish.

The thing is, Green Lantern’s power ring doesn’t function on magic. It’s the product of super-science so advanced and unfathomable to human beings that it simply appears to be magic to our eyes. Ollie bids the Lantern to think deeply about how this could have occurred, which opens the story up for a two-page recounting of Hal’s origin–how alien Green Lantern Abin Sur’s spaceship crash-landed on Earth and he was duty-bound to pass his ring and lantern on to a worthy successor. That replacement was test pilot Hal Jordan, who was ushered into a larger universe at that moment and became one of the agents of the Guardians of the Universe, a bulwark against evil and injustice in the cosmos. Segueing back to the present, Hal’s reminiscences suggest that if his ring is malfunctioning in some strange way that he ought to check in with his bosses the Guardians who may be able to diagnose the problem and correct it. So Lantern and Arrow head off for the far-distant planet Oa, headquarters of the Green Lantern Corps.

On Oa, the Guardians brief Hal on the larger problem they are facing. When they first started out to become the Guardians of the Universe, they gathered up much of the mystic energy that was loose in the galaxy and compressed it down into an object called the Starheart. True to its name, they hid the thing in the heart of a star where it would remain unmolested and contained, and so science could prevail. But they’ve learned that the Starheart has been stolen, and what Lantern and Arrow experienced back in Earth was due to some stray bit of the magic energy that has once again been loosed upon the universe reacting to the Fortune Teller’s curse and acting through Hal’s ring. The Guardians and their operatives are ill-equipped to pursue a magic-based adversary, but Hal has an idea as to a specialist that they can call in to aid them: Alan Scott of Earth-2, whose power ring is mystic in nature.

From there, we segue to Earth-2 for a quick introduction of Alan Scott, who is in the midst of corralling some guys who are attempting to heist an armored car. With that task completed, Alan finds himself pulled to the universe of earth-1 by the reluctant Guardians–they feel that the dimensional barriers should remain closed, but their need is great. After a quick recap, Alan signs on to help out, and not knowing how long their mission will take, he and Hal both recharge their power rings at Oa’s massive central power battery. This didn’t make sense to me as a kid, though it makes a bit more sense by the end of the two parts. But even though their powers are similar on the surface, Hal and Alan’s rings operate on entirely different principles. So even assuming you could charge Alan’s ring from the Oa battery, to my way of thinking that would be like putting diesel fuel into a regular engine–catastrophe! Here, though, it never comes up.

The trio of heroes, including the especially useless Green Arrow, pursue the thief to the very edge of the galaxy, where stars are less populous. But when they reach him, the thief, whose body is divided down the middle in the manner depicted on the cover, turns and blasts both heroes, making his escape again. As Alan and Hal recover and Ollie is relieved, the trio prepares to take up their pursuit once more–and the issue ends with a To Be Continued. This is so abrupt and ill-paced a breaking point that it’s what makes me reason that this story started out as a single 35-37 page story and was broken more-or-less in half to fit these issues.

The issue closed out with a letters page and the Daily Planet promotions page, which included another delightfully dopey cartoon by Fred Hembeck. It also showcased the fact that the Justice Society of America, late of ALL-STAR COMICS, would be migrating to ADVENTURE COMICS. That knowledge wouldn’t do me any good for a while, though, as my 7-11 still wasn’t carrying any oversized books, so I hadn’t come across a single issue of the Dollar Comics-format ADVENTURE COMICS yet, nor would I for several issues.