In 1981 when my family moved to Delaware, there wasn’t any writer in comic books that I liked better than Marv Wolfman. I first became aware of Marv’s work in the waning days of his time at Marvel, on such series as FANTASTIC FOUR, AMAZING SPIDER-MAN and NOVA, all of which I liked. But it was his switch-over to DC that truly put his work on the map for me, in particular the top-selling NEW TEEN TITANS series he did with George Perez. I also liked his Superman stories in ACTION COMICS, whether illustrated by the dependable Curt Swan or the more energetic Gil Kane. And while I hadn’t had any time for TOMB OF DRACULA–a monster comic book–I was very much taken by his similar DC series NIGHT FORCE, which was kind of like TOMB sans Dracula. And Marv’s run on GREEN LANTERN was a particular favorite of mine.
I came to that run a bit late. Past a certain point, my local 7-11 in New York had stopped carrying GREEN LANTERN for some reason (much as they had done for THE FLASH for a time) and so I wound up missing a bunch of issues and thereafter not bothering with the series. It really wasn’t until the introduction of the Omega Men in GREEN LANTERN #141, an event that had clear ties to stuff that was going on in NEW TEEN TITANS, that I relented and began picking up the series again. I suspect that my friend Israel Litwack may have pushed it on me–he was my hook-up for NEW TEEN TITANS as well, as that series wasn’t stocked in my neighborhood (and could only be acquired in a single candy store in his.) Anyway, once on board, I spent a month or two filling in all of the back issues of Marv’s time on GREEN LANTERN as well as the prior issues that I had missed, and I was again a regular reader of the series.
Much like NEW TEEN TITANS, GREEN LANTERN was something of a perfect series for Marv to print his skills to bear on, and like that series, he infused GL with a lot of the sensibilities of the Marvel work he’d done–serialized storytelling, running subplots, an emphasis on characterization and drama–while still maintaining the strip’s essential DC flavor. This is one of the things that Made his work truly stand out at DC at this time, where most of the creative staff was still endeavoring to generate the kinds of stories that they’d been doing for a decade. That was beginning to change, both because of an influx of talent from Marvel and new leadership that had their eyes firmly on the emerging Direct Sales marketplace of comic book specialty stores as the next important battleground for success and survival. But at this moment, Marv was something of an outlier.
On GREEN LANTERN, Marv was paired with artist Joe Staton, whose cartoony style had always appealed to me since I first experienced it on series such as ALL-STAR COMICS and the short-lived revival of the Doom Patrol in SHOWCASE. Staton had been a longtime fan of the Emerald Gladiator, so drawing GREEN LANTERN was more than just a typical assignment for him, and he gave the job his all. Inker Mike DeCarlo gave Staton’s work a good, polished finish. And Staton fit together with Wolfman and his approach expertly.
GREEN LANTERN #150 was produced and promoted as a special anniversary issue–fiftieth issues were beginning to carry the same importance as centennial ones, as companies learned that such anniversaries tended to increase sales. Speaking for myself, I could often get pulled into picking up an anniversary issue of even titles that I didn’t regularly read. And DC pulled out all of the stops for this one. It’s 48 pages of story with no ads whatsoever in it. Even the letters page for the issue runs on the inside front cover so as to not get in the way of the story. The main adventure involves the Weaponers of Qward, sword enemies of the Guardians of the Universe and their Green Lantern Corps agents, having crafted their own Anti-Matter Green Lantern Corps of suicide soldiers to wipe out their rivals once and for all. They corrupt Hal Jordan into leading their squad, but the combined willpower of his fellow Lanterns is able to break the conditioning and return Hal to himself.
Ultimately, Hal along with his fellow Lanterns Arisia, Katma Tui, Arkkis Chummuck and others are able to overcome the threat. But prior to this, Hal had disobeyed the orders of the Guardians, prioritizing his affairs on Earth over his duty to other planets within his space sector, and so he needs to serve a penance for his actions, one that would set up the next year’s worth of stories: the Guardians exile Hal from Earth, commanding him to focus on his duties to the rest of his space sector. And so the main story in this issue wraps up with Hal having only a single day to put all of his affairs on Earth on hold before he needs to take up his detached duty and depart his homeworld possibly forever.
But because Marv had been treating GREEN LANTERN like a Marvel series, there is a ton of stuff going on in and around Hal Jordan’s life on Earth. Consequently, he and Staton to a 14 page back-up strip outlining the state of play, as Hal’s only going to have a limited amount of time to get all of this stuff nailed. For one thing, Congressman Bloch, who has a mad-on for both Green Lantern and Ferris Aircraft has hired investigators who have worked out that Hal Jordan and Green lantern are one and the same, putting both Hal and the company on the bullseye. Fortunately, Carl Ferris, the business’s owner and Carol Ferris’s father has investigators of his own, and they’ve come back with conclusive proof that Jason Bloch is behind the firm’s recent woes.
Ferris heads out to take the evidence to the authorities, but it turns out that his pilot is in the pocket of Bloch. But Ferris is able to clock the guy and make an emergency landing with the company jet. Unfortunately, he’s now stranded a hundred miles into the desert with a man who wants to kill him. Elsewhere, unaware of Carl’s circumstances, Carol, Bruce Gordon (Eclipso’s alter ego) and Carol’s replacement as head of Ferris Air Rich Davis covertly sneak into Bloch Air in the hopes of finding some evidence of wrongdoing. But they’re spotted before they can get too far, and are unknowingly walking directly into danger. and that’s the To Be Continued note that this issue wraps up on. The back-up story is perhaps a bit too invested in corporate chicanery, but as it’s all in the service of Green Lantern having a mile-a-minute adventure to deal with next issue, that’s forgivable, I think.
The Tom Brevoort Experience 