All About The Green Lantern

"In brightest day, in blackest night,

No evil shall escape my sight

Let those who worship evil's might,

Beware my power... Green Lantern's light!"

I have never been a comic book fan, so I am not really familiar with the superhero, Green Lantern. Growing up, the only superheroes I knew were Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Super Girl, and the X-Men. Oops! Almost forgot the other two, Darna and Captain Barbel. Haha!

Apparently, The Green Lantern existed many years ago, the reason why he's well-known to my father. I am referring to the original Green Lantern, because it turns out that there are both an old and a new version of him, aptly called, the Golden Age Green Lantern and the Silver Age Revival Green Lantern. Before I went to the cinema to watch Ryan Reynolds in a body-hugging green suit, I did some research about the superhero he's playing.

The Golden Age Green Lantern

The original Green Lantern was created by Martin Nodell (using the name Mart Dellon) and Bill Finger, during Golden Age of comic books, which was between the 1930s until the early 1950s. The Golden Age was the time when comic books enjoyed immense popularity. The story of the Green Lantern was first published by All-American Publications (one of the companies that will merge to form DC Comics) in the All-American Comics # 16.

The real name of the Green Lantern was Alan Scott, a railroad engineer who had come into possession of a magic lantern after a railway crash, which spoke to him and said it would bring power. From this, he crafted a magic ring which gave him a wide variety of powers. The limitations of the ring were that it had to be "charged" every 24 hours by touching it to the lantern for a time, and that it did not work on non-metals like wood.

Unfortunately, after World War II, the popularity of superheroes declined. The Green Lantern comic book was cancelled with issue #38. All Star Comics #57 (1951) was the character's last Golden Age appearance.

The Silver Age Revival Green Lantern

DC Comics was formed in the late 1950s, and it was them that introduced the public to the Silver Age revival of comic books, and successfully revived comic book superheroes, one of them being the Green Lantern.

This Green Lantern was Hal Jordan, a test pilot who was given a power ring by a dying alien, Abin Sur, and who became a member of the Green Lantern Corps, an interstellar organization of police overseen by the Guardians of the Universe. The Corps' rings were powerless against anything colored yellow, due to a yellow-colored "dopant" in the master power generator located on Oa, where the Guardians maintained their headquarters, without which dopant the master generator would not function as such. Jordan's creation was motivated by a desire to make him more of a science fiction hero, editor Julius Schwartz having been a longtime fan of that genre and literary agent who saw pop-culture tastes turning in that direction. It was this Green Lantern that Warner Bros. turned into a movie starring Ryan Reynolds as the superhero.

The Green Lantern is now out in cinemas beginning June 16. Unfortunately, I haven't seen it yet to comment whether it was great or not. Hopefully, I will be able to watch it tomorrow. For Pampanga residents, below are the cinema schedules in the Angeles City area.

(Article Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Lantern)