Comic Book / Green Lantern (1941)

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Green Lantern is a 1941 superhero comic book from DC Comics.

The first volume of Green Lantern, and the first solo series of the Golden Age Green Lantern, Alan Scott, who got his start in All-American Comics and was making regular appearances in All-Star Comics before fans voted him to be the next DC character to get their own book.

The book started in 1941 and ran for 38 issues before being cancelled in 1949. The first five issues and the seventh were written by Bill Finger, with Joseph Greene, Henry Kuttner, Alfred Bester, Robert Bernstein, John Broome and Robert Kanigher writing the remaining 33. Martin Nodell did the art through issue 25, with Alex Toth and Irwin Hasen working on the remaining 13 issues. Green Lantern would also be dropped from All-American Comics, which would be rebranded as an all-Western comic. Alan Scott would continue to appear in All-Star Comics up to issue #57. He would return in The Flash following Flash of Two Worlds, and become a recurring guest star in the next Green Lantern volume.

Besides stories starring Green Lantern and his supporting cast, the comic book also occasionally featured Hop Harrington, reprints of the newspaper strip Mutt & Jeff, Cotton-Top Katie, O'Malley and Sargon The Sorcerer

For the related character sheet, see Characters.Green Lantern 1941.

Green Lantern (1941) provides examples of:

• Absent-Minded Professor: One story had a "Professor Nobody" who was a genius, but couldn't remember anything, including his own name. Let alone that he was being financed by a gangster, or what the machine he was building actually did (ironically, it gave its recipient a flawless memory).
• All Balloons Have Helium: In issue #28, the Fool escaped prison by blowing a bubble of sufficient strength to carry his weight and float over the prison walls.
• Amateur Sleuth: Detective work is one of Irene Millers many non accounting talents. Also, "the Analysts, exclusive club of amateur sleuths and crime detection enthusiasts in Gotham", a society that thinks very lowly of Green Lantern, especially after he fails to catch the Fool.
• Anti-Climactic Unmasking: Having captured Green Lantern, a group of thugs are all eager to learn who he is, only to have no clue once they remove his mask. Doiby Dickles on the other hand learns that Alan is GL due to this incident.
• Arbitrary Skepticism: There were a few chapters where Green Lantern would refuse to believe something like someone was really cursed with bad luck or his current opponent was really a legendary evildoer. In spite of getting his powers from magic, his archenemy being the reanimated hulk Solomon Grundy, and all the magical heavyweights he either threw down with or fought alongside in the Justice Society.
• Arch-Enemy
  • Solomon Grundy ended up becoming this, as one of the few enduring members of Green Lantern's rogues gallery to remain tied to Green Lantern as Vandal Savage ultimately ended up on Resurrection Man, Sportsmaster on the Justice Society in general and Knodar on the Star Spangled Kid(Knodar in particular vowing to avoid Green Lanterns after three losses to Scott), though Icicle is a close second to Grundy.
  • Vulcan Insurance Co. immediately become the sworn enemies of start company Inca Insurance, even getting in bed with gangsters to ensure the latter's bankruptcy
  • Doctor Malorgo has a long running feud with Captain Dale starting in and extending past World War II
  • Lefty Simmons' Employment Agency is out to destroy the Samson Corporation, and vice versa, with the former resorting to criminal means to do so
  • Big Lonvess turns to crime to undermine the logger camp of Sylvia Woods
• Astral Projection: The Shark Society use astral projections to haunt and berate their wayward member Kaveu, who fled overseas to start a gang in the United States.
• Attack Animal
  • The Whistler has three attack dogs. Alan Scott gets one of his own in Streak, after one of Streak's owners is gunned down by gangsters and the other is drugged
  • The Krupp Diamond Syndicate have hunting cheetahs chase down anyone to tries to take back what they steal
• Badass Creed: There were seven creeds Alan Scott alternated between reciting depending on mood or writer. One of his last two was then moved over to the corps of the Silver Age.
• Badass Teacher: School teacher Rhya is the second bystander from the future to travel to the past and help Green Lantern capture Knodar
• Bland-Name Product: Pop Jacks Candy, which gives out cheap prizes in every box. Nothing like Cracker Jacks of course!
• Blessed with Suck
  • Jonah Thistle has the gift of bad luck, bringing disaster wherever he goes
  • Albert Zero's every passing whim becomes reality, including the stuff he doesn't want to happen, including randomly thoughts from uncontrolled synapses while he sleeps
  • Jimmy "Wrong Way" Mulloy will lose every bet he ever makes, even if the laws of physics have to bend for it to happen
• Busman's Holiday
  • Issue #13 sees Alan Scott try and fail to enjoy a vacation away from his job and from crime fighting
  • Doiby Dickles, a cab driver, is ordered by his doctor to take some time off for his shoulder and arm to heal and while on vacation accidentally buys a cab due to the language barrier.
• Cain and Abel: Lefty Simmons and J.B. Samson turn out to be siblings on the opposite side of the law running counter conspiracies against one another. Their different last names are due to Lefty being the Black Sheep of the family.
• Casual Time Travel: Criminals Raakj and Knodar travel back in time to make money more easily. Alan Scott, by contrast, has to ask his lantern for permission to time travel, though stopping the criminals is deemed a worthy cause
• Character in the Logo: Alan Scott's face is depicted inside the lantern in the logo on each cover.
• City of Adventure: In Green Lantern #14, Alan Scott and Doiby move from Capitol City to Gotham. Both are crime ridden and have attracted criminals from other countries and the distant future
• Clear My Name
  • Green Lantern has been impersonated many times, but since no one else has a power ring that channels the Green Flame of Life, and the Green Flame of Life refuses to be wielded by anyone other than Alan Scott, Green Lantern usually has an easy time exposing these imposters. Green Lanterns has also been framed, but this usually doesn't work out either
  • The Harlequin is a proud criminal, but she doesn't take kindly to copycats committing crimes she never did
  • Issue #36 has Streak rushing to prove the innocence of bank messenger Frank Gaynor, who has been accused of stealing money, after Frank's mother insists he is innocent, catching the crooks who robbed Frank.
• Cloak and Dagger: Molly Mayne is revealed to be a mole for the FBI in the criminal underworld. Captain Dale was also a counter intelligence agent during World War II who met Green Lantern after being called out of retirement and continued to work cases off panel. There were more cases in All-American Comics and Comic Cavalcade without getting into examples hostile to Green Lantern.
• Collective Identity
  • Mr. Big is two people working against one another.
  • Gamma is three people working together with one planning to betray the other two
• Corrupt Politician: Jim Noone bombs a dam of the Colorado River in issue #32, almost drowning hundreds if not for the Green Lantern, who then searches for enough evidence to have Noone arrested.
• Death Trap: Many, with the plainer criminals having basic buildings lit on fire or leaking canisters of toxic gas, while the more colorful criminals having more colorful traps. Sometimes Green Lantern has to get out of one or be saved from one, other times there used as distractions Green Lantern has to save other people from while the criminals run away
• Derelict Graveyard: Alan Scott discovers one in the middle of the Atlantic in Green Lantern #3. It's filled with ships from across the centuries who have become trapped there, and the descendants of the original crew still live in and around the ships. Things are great until the Nazis try to take over the area...
• Disney Villain Death: Many criminals end up falling to their deaths. Black Prophet, the Gambler and Sportsmaster survive to return to crime
• Dude Magnet: Dinah Mite is the only woman Alan Scott and Doiby both actively pursue without making any attempt to entice them. She also has no interest in either, at first, giving them a little taste of how the women who bend over backwards for their attention feel.
• Enemy Mine
  • Analysts Club/Analysts' Club/The Analysts, exclusive club of amateur sleuths and crime detection enthusiasts in Gotham, first seen in issue #28, are genuine detectives who primarily work another job, armchair analysts and crime groupies who come together to share information and work on theories. Actual criminals who try to sit in on official meetings tend to be swiftly tuned over to the police, however.
  • Green Lantern finds the Harlequin aiding him in battle against the gangs of Charlie The Sound Effects Man and Pindo. He suspects that the Harlequin is boss of the Wedding Party Robbers but takes her at her word when she says she wants to take them down as much as he does, as Green Lantern should know the Harlequin respects weddings!
• Evil Hero: Issue #34 has a fake super hero set up shop in Gotham City and become more popular than Green Lantern while covertly helping criminals perform robberies without Green Lantern stopping them.
• Evil, Inc.: Lefty Simmons' Employment Agency seems to do legit business during regular business hours but makes its real money hiring criminals to participate in the highly coordinated heists of Mister Big
• Exact Words: One story had an Oriental cult thinking Doiby was their reincarnated god, its leader going around hypnotizing people who got in his way. This led to some humorous outcomes, like when he un-hypnotized a gangster, he commanded him to become a "normal man". This made the gangster stop acting like a monkey, but it also made him stop acting like a gangster, making a good and honest man out of him.
• Expy: Counter intelligence agent Captain Dale is a stand in for Sandra of The Secret Service, more so than Lorna Dawn, the actual Secret Service agent of the All-American Comics Green Lantern stories.
• Females Are More Innocent: Female criminals tend to last a little longer before Green Lantern catches onto them and get off a lot easier when Green Lantern comes calling than their male counterparts. Two men try to exploit this by disguising themselves as "Amanda" and "Zenobia". The exception is when the Harlequin fights more violent criminals who happen to be female, as she has no issues with clubbing women.
• Foe Romance Subtext: Harlequin isn't shy about her obsession with GL, and while GL claims not to feel the same about her he's still got subtext. The fact that Harlequin was later revealed to be mostly a government agent who is infiltrating villain groups rather than a dangerous supervillain in her own right helped later writers use this subtext to see the two get married, but in this book there's no real reciprocated feelings.
• Foil: Irene Miller likes Green Lantern, but she's in love with Alan Scott the kindly engineer. Molly Mayes is the opposite, preferring Green Lantern to Alan Scott.
• Gentleman Thief: Elmer Quince is a kleptomaniac, but he returns everything he steals within a day. Gender-Inverted with the Harlequin, who also returns what she steals, though she doesn't keep such a strict time table unless she's trying to get Green Lantern's attention
• Good All Along
  • Green Lantern's suspicious of CEO J.B. Samson, who is keeping secrets, but they turn out to not be nefarious secrets
  • Issue #34 opens with the reveal that the Harlequin was setting up criminals to be caught the entire time. It's a revision that mostly works out thanks to John Broome being the only writer to use her besides Robert Kanigher.
• Good Old Fisticuffs: Unlike the later Green Lanterns who are part of a highly trained corps Alan Scott is an engineer who was simply told to expose evil. His preferred method of taking down the villains early in his career is to simply punch them. In any given Green Lantern story, he's far more likely to throw a punch at a gangster than to use his ring to stop them, though usually leaving being a temporary imprint of his ring on their cheeks.
• Gratuitous Animal Sidekick: Streak the Wonder Dog near the end of the comics' run. A Heroic Dog sidekick for Alan Scott. Who has internal monologues so the audience knows what he's thinking.
• Green Rocks: Despite all the differences between Alan Scott and all the other Green Lanterns that would follow, it's interesting to note that even in his 1940 origin story, the source of Alan's power is extraterrestrial Green Rocks. A burning green meteor crashes in China, and it is first formed into a lamp, then a lantern, and finally comes to Alan Scott to grant him power.
• Healing Hands: The Druid's Stone grants the worthy the ability to heal any ailment. A syndicate tries to get around this by getting a worthy man to touch it for them, so they can exploit his healing powers
• Hero of Another Story
  • Albert Zero leaves Gotham City on a Journey to Find Oneself, vowing to learn how to use his powers for good
  • Dalmyr and Rhya from the 25th century, who each briefly assist Green Lantern when Knodar travels to the past
  • Captain Dale, a counter intelligence officer who served in World War II, and continues to apprehend spies and criminals when Washington DC requests her services, but otherwise works on a farm
  • Daring columnist Ann Martin, who doesn't fight anyone but does her part to help stop crime by reporting on it
  • Hard Rock Simmons once lead a posse in the wild west that caught outlaws. He gets them together again in issue #33 to catch criminals that robbed Alan Scott and Doiby, with Green Lantern choosing to let the old men believe they caught the crooks without any help by aiding them in secret
  • CEO J.B. Samson is also secretly a crime fighter, if not as direct a one as Green Lantern
• Heroic Bystander
  • Doiby started out as one before Green Lantern offered to make Doiby his long term partner
  • Actress Ann Hunt comes up with a couple plans to take down the time traveling criminal Knodar after he interferes with her business. Her second one is successful!
  • Actor Gene Marsh joins in on Green Lantern's plan to take down the Red Domino, a criminal inspired by his stage play character of the same name
  • Slyvia Woods and her logging crew only need a little assistance from Green Lantern to take down Big Lonvess and his hired thugs
• Human Shield
  • The Wedding Party Robbers use brides and grooms as human shields to escape from law enforcement
  • The Trapper keeps police pursuing him from shooting by keeping kidnapped human shields on him
• Implacable Man
  • Solomon Grundy is highly resistant to Green Lantern's ring, as Grundy made of swamp(plant) matter.
  • The security guards, police and Green Lantern alike fail to stop Gamma from advancing, at first.
• Immune to Bullets: Green Lantern himself, and Solomon Grundy, cannot be stopped by bullets
• Insane No More: Part of Alan Scott's origin is that the Starheart was prophesized to burn three times, once to bring death, a second time to bring life and the third time to grant power. The second part of the prophecy was fulfilled when the Starheart, at that point forged into a lamp, was forged by an asylum inmate named Billings into what would later become Alan Scott's lantern. The mystic green flame subsequently restored Billings' sanity, which led to Billings being released from the asylum and able to live a normal life. How much of this is still true as of Alan Scott: The Green Lantern is questionable, as the miniseries' equivalent to Billings is a trans woman named Billie who was never insane in the first place and was incarcerated at an asylum due to Deliberate Values Dissonance.
• Inspiration Nod: With DC Comics being based in New York City the name Green Lantern is likely a reference to the New York City Police Department's use of green lights on either side of the main entrances to all of their precinct houses. According to the NYPD's website:
  "It is believed that the Rattle Watchmen, who patrolled New Amsterdam in the 1650′s, carried lanterns at night with green glass sides in them as a means of identification. When the Watchmen returned to the watch house after patrol, they hung their lantern on a hook by the front door to show people seeking the watchman that he was in the watch house. Today, green lights are hung outside the entrances of police precincts as a symbol that the 'Watch' is present and vigilant."
• Instantly Proven Wrong: The very first story has a colleague telling Alan he's worried the head of a rival company will try to get revenge for their company getting the contract to build an important bridge. Alan tells him to stop worrying. The very next panel has the bridge being bombed, and Alan the only survivor because he was holding onto the magic lantern.
• Love Interest: Alan Scott/Green Lantern has no less than six love interests over the course of the story, though he only actively pursues two, with the other four after him. Even sidekick Doiby gets love interests, though he actively runs from half of them. Even Streak the Wonder Dog gets ends up falling for a female dog named Princess.
• Loyal Phlebotinum: Some thugs once subdued Alan Scott and stole his power ring after figuring out that it was the source of his power. One of the thugs tried the ring on, and the ring killed him for doing so.
• Lunarians: There are many creatures living on the moon, most of them hostile, though the Selenites are largely peaceful and friendly
• Magic from Technology: Magitrons create a paradise by giving their users pretty much anything they could ever want
• Mass Hypnosis: Green Lantern can hypnotize people with his ring. The king selenite's Moonstone can hypnotize people, not to be confused with lowercase moonstones, which Harlequin steals for their monetary value but not their hypnotic properties. The Harlequin can hypnotize people with her glasses, though.
• Master of Illusion: The Harlequin, the Gambler and Gamma can fool their foes with illusions.
• MegaCorp: Apex Broadcasting Company not only has buildings in multiple US cities, but also in other countries on other continents. Alan Scott eventually moves to the smaller WMCG, and then WXYZ Radio.
• Men Are the Expendable Gender: Green Lantern himself certainly doesn't think so, but the narrative does in issue #30, where he the Gambler goes on a killing spree where Green Lantern only manages to successfully save a female target.
• Mineral MacGuffin
  • The Moonstone capital M is used in various ways throughout the story. The lowercase m moonstones are not used for anything, but help drive the plot forward nonetheless when Harlequin steals some
  • Gem Experimental Laboratories specializes in making novelty one of a kind jewels and pearls that never actually get used in the story but people in the story want their hands on anyway
• Morally Ambiguous Doctorate
  • Issue #14 deals with an evil nurse who tries to wipe out a family
  • Doctor Aqua, The Flood Maker, is an expert when it comes to swamping towns.
  • Streak's owner Sara Dale is secretly a counter intelligence officer on the trail of the criminal Dr. Malorgo
  • The Gambler commits murders while disguised as a doctor in issue #30
  • Doctor Cypher is a criminal analyst who thinks himself too smart to ever be caught committing his own crimes.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain!: In issue #35, a shelter for stray dogs is closing due to lack of funding. Luckily some thieves hid some gold underneath it, and Streak catches some more thieves trying to steal it.
• No Honor Among Thieves: The elusive Whistler ends up being defeated by his own students in Green Lantern #9 when he takes them hostage to ward off Green Lantern, and they don't take kindly to their lives being played with
• Non-Human Sidekick: Streak, the Wonder Dog, Alan's pet... who had human thoughts and eventually just about took over the book, right before it was cancelled!
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Villain The Fool would act like a silly, harmless prankster who knew all his stupid plans just couldn't work against GL, but there was always a twist that made his silly pranks dangerous for awhile.
• Plucky Comic Relief: Doiby Dickles is actually often fairly stalwart for a comic relief sidekick. He still has to ask Alan what things like being called a "moron" means, the answer to which gets him riled up enough to go deck the criminal who'd called him such.
• Punny Name Sylvia comes from the Latin world for forest, Silvia. Her last name is Woods. Are you surprised that she's a logger?
• Quote Mine: Not one, but two Golden Age stories involved criminals framing Alan Scott by stringing together words spoken on his radio broadcasts to make a record that seems to make him say something incriminating.
• Rogues Gallery: Black Prophet, Vandal Savage, Solomon Grundy, the Gambler, the Sportsmaster, Sky Pirate, the Fool, Knodar, the Harlequin, Icicle. Some of them only recur in other books like All-American Comics and Comic Cavalcade, however.
• Samus Is a Girl
  • CEO J.B. Samson is a woman, and that's not her only secret
  • The Harlequin pretends to be surprised that the leader of the Wedding Party Robbers is a woman, but it's obvious to the reader that she's female, as the only thing that's disguised is her face, and Harlequin's internal thoughts she show she's not surprised at all. Molly Mayne is an actress after all.
• Sea Monster: Green Lantern fights many giant swimming monstrosities, though most of them turn out to be disguised submarines or Animal Mecha. He does accidentally kill a legitimate kraken, however, when he stuns it only for schools of fish to take advantage of its weakness and start eating it.
• Scissors Cuts Rock: The Green Flame of Life can overcome water with no issues, though Icicle's ice gun is powerful enough to give Green Lantern's ring a good fight. The lizard's fiery salamanders rely on water to fuel their flames.
• Show Within a Show
  • "Green Lantern Versus the Harlequin" was radio show in All-American Comics that inspired Molly Mayne to challenge Green Lantern as the Harlequin for real, but in this comic the Harlequin "breaks in" to WMCG and WXYZ radio periodically to announce her plans to give away money or challenge Green Lantern
  • "The Red Domino" is a stage play about a villain who defeats Green Lantern. This also inspires some crimes Green Lantern has to stop
• Suicide by Cop: Iambic Scan from Green Lantern #11 is too much of a coward to commit suicide, so he pretends to be a criminal in hopes the police will kill him for him.
• Super-Strength: Solomon Grundy and the Cave Kid can bend iron with no problem
• Tap on the Head: What Green Lantern's vulnerability to wood usually came down to. Most Golden Age stories would have GL get knocked out by some convenient wooden object or another falling on his head, or a hood getting in a lucky shot with a wooden object, midway through. That way the villains would have a chance to escape, and the story could make it to full length.
• Telepathic Space Men: The Selenites have powerful telepathy, doubly so because they can work together to overwhelm individual minds. They're a peaceful, diplomatic folk who need extra incentive to go on the offensive, however
• The Highwayman: White Star is a traveling thief who is trying his hand at inner city crime
• The Nose Knows: The Cave Kid can track scents. It also comes naturally to Streak the Wonder Dog.
• The Perfect Crime
  • The Analysts Club is out to prove the artistic merit of a perfect crime in issue #35
  • The Gambler is also selling opportunities to commit perfect crimes in issue #35
• Thematic Rogues Gallery
  • The Green Flame of Life tasked Green Lantern with shedding light on all evil, including that which is not found by the courts. To that end he spent a lot of time busting bizarre criminal rackets, with the ultimate expression of this being Vandal Savage, and immortal who had been pulling the strings from before civilization as Alan Scott know it. The Gambler being an illusionist also plays into this.
  • A lesser theme is that of the other classical elements, since Green Lantern uses the "Green Flame of Life", Icicle uses water, Sky Pirate uses air, Lizard is another fire user of a flame that is unlike Green Lantern's except it also cannot be doused by water.
  • A third theme revolves around the fact that the Green Flame of Life is resisted by plants and outright ineffective against wood. This is where he get Solomon Grundy, a zombie made of plant matter. Harlequin combines the first and third theme, wielding a wooden mandolin with an extendable handle while also being able to create convincing illusions. This is also why Green Thumb villain Thorn was transplanted from The Flash over to Green Lantern.
• Theme Mobile
  • The Harlequin has a car with a giant pair of her illusory lightning shooting classes above its headlights
  • Cordani the criminal juggler has a getaway care that looks like a giant juggling pin
• Time Police: Dalmyr of the 25th century where there is no crime nonetheless has to stop time traveling criminals of other eras, including Knodar, the last criminal of his own era
• Track Trouble: Alan Scott became the Green Lantern when the Lantern saved his life after a blown up bridge killed everyone else aboard the train he was on.
• Trapped in the Past: In a blatant homage to A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Alan and Doiby were once transported to Arthurian England. They were there long enough that Alan's ring ran out of power, leaving the two of them apparently stranded. Thankfully, Alan's lantern was centuries old, and existed in that time period, so he was able to charge his ring and return to his own time.
• Truth Serum
  • Egbert Lamb, a notorious liar, has a helmet that forces him to tell the truth, though he doesn't wear it much because he believes telling tall tales to be his only talent
  • Del Lupin didn't believe truth serums really worked, so he took one and ended up implicated himself and going to jail. He goes onto create a gas that makes people believe lies, so that other men will confess to Del Lupin's future crimes.
• Vehicular Sabotage: While Alan's original introduction in All-American Comics made it clear that it was the bridge that was sabotaged by his business rival which lead to the catastrophic train accident that killed all onboard except for Alan, in the retelling in Green Lantern #1 its not made clear whether it was part of the train or the bridge where the explosion originated from.
• Villain Episode: Issue #29 is an all Harlequin issue
• Villain with Good Publicity
  • The Harlequin has quite a fan following despite being a criminal. The fact that she eventually gets around to giving her stuff back and mostly avoids hurting people probably doesn't hurt
  • White Star has people convinced he's a crime fighting super hero despite being a crook himself
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: The Jewel of Hope will transformer into whatever object the possessor of it most hopes to have
• "Wanted!" Poster: On the cover of issue 12 Green Lantern and Doiby Dickles are looking at a wanted poster for the Gambler posted up on the wall while the Gambler's distinctive shadow, with gun drawn, is cast on them from behind.
• Weaksauce Weakness: While it doesn't really effect him much initially (save when fighting foes with forms of plant control) Alan's ring supposedly doesn't work against wood, which started out as a counterpoint to his immunity from metals. At first it was a case of being able to shrug off bullets, while at the same time being unprotected from organic items like a club or a fist. Flanderization took hold by issue #11, after which wood would be described as "Green Lantern's greatest enemy!"
• Weapon of Mass Destruction: Doctor Malorgo's Solex Ray can destroy cities
• When Trees Attack: In one of Alan Scott's stranger adventures, he and sidekick Doiby Dickles shrink down to microscopic size and discover a world of walking, talking trees called Mossboles. The Mossboles are stealing food from the other inhabitants of the micro-world, who had been stealing Doiby's goldfish in order not to starve. Yeah. Anyway, in the end, Alan discovers that the trees just want to eat some dirt, which doesn't exist in the micro-world, so he enlarges them to full size and turns them loose in the forest. Problem solved.
• With Friends Like These...: Green Lantern is himself a member of the Analysts Club, but when the group appear on panel it is more often than not to make things difficult for Green Lantern.