# Battle of the Green Lanterns **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 19, 2004, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battle-of-the-green-lanterns/260610 "2004-08-19T20:58:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![shy\_guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a6a055/32.png) [@shy\_guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shy_guy)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2004, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battle-of-the-green-lanterns/260610/21 "2004-08-20T05:31:49Z")
Alan is my favorite because I love Golden Age heroes, but I have a big soft spot for Guy, too, since he was the first one I was introduced to when I started reading comics. I also, er, have a great fondness for Chaselon. I mean, come on: he’s a crystal with cybernetic arms, eyes, a magic ring, and a _mohawk_. I wish _I_ was Chaselon. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2004, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battle-of-the-green-lanterns/260610/22 "2004-08-20T05:45:13Z")
OK - John Stewart. Is it Alan, Hal, Guy, Hal, John, Kyle? Or was John not an Earth GL? ---
**Author:** ![spectrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc29f/32.png) [@spectrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spectrum)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2004, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battle-of-the-green-lanterns/260610/23 "2004-08-20T05:53:31Z")
Actually, Alan was not an official Earth GL, as in part of the Corps. The first Earth GL was Hal. He was followed by John Stewart. And then Hal came back. And then the Corps went away. And then the Corps came back, and Guy Gardener, who’d been an alternate GL for some time, finally became Earth’s official GL. And then Ron Marz f-cked everything up. But now that’s gonna be fixed, too! I say Hal should be the head Lantern of a new Corps, with Kyle as earth’s official GL. I hate Kyle when written by Marz, but when a non-hack deals with him, he can be cool. But Hal would kick his ass in a fair fight. ---
**Author:** ![Odinoneeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/97f17d/32.png) [@Odinoneeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odinoneeye)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2004, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battle-of-the-green-lanterns/260610/24 "2004-08-20T07:39:02Z")
I vote for Hal, mostly because I read him for years and only a little bit of Kyle. As for the yellow issue, the ring only was ineffective directly against yellow. For instance, if a yellow painted miscreant came at Hal with a yellow bat, he could pick up a tree with the ring and hit him with the tree. He just couldn’t pick up the miscreant with the ring. At least that’s how it was back in the silver age, Crisis may have screwed that up. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2004, 10:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battle-of-the-green-lanterns/260610/25 "2004-08-20T10:21:21Z")
Is it OK if I say that “yellow” is a _really_ stupid weakness? I mean, was that the best thing the writers could think up—god forbid, were there ideas for weaknesses that got crumpled up and thrown in a wastebasket? :eek: ---
**Author:** ![CandidGamera](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/candidgamera/32/2878_2.png) [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2004, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battle-of-the-green-lanterns/260610/26 "2004-08-20T12:28:45Z")
Second vote for G’nort G’neesmacher, here. Oh, okay. I’ll be serious. Green Lambkin! ---
**Author:** ![Askia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2004, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battle-of-the-green-lanterns/260610/27 "2004-08-20T12:48:36Z")
**Personal Favorite:** John Stewart (These last three JL seasons, he’s endeared himself to me immeasurably) **Best:** Hal Jordan. (He’s to the GL Corps what Connery was to the OO7 section.) **Most Imaginitive:** Kyle Rayner (I can’t take him seriously. Batman beat him with hypnotic suggestion.) **Favorite Alien GL:** Either Kilowog or Mogo **Special Mention:** Alan Moore’s Med’phyll of JS835. **Dumbest:** G’nort. **The final word on Alan Scott:** Wake me when he’s dead. ---
**Author:** ![Askia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2004, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battle-of-the-green-lanterns/260610/28 "2004-08-20T12:51:41Z")
> [@CandidGamera](#): > > Green Lambkin! Synchronicity! You know I just ordered issue #15 of the \*\*Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew \*\* from [Milehighcomics.com](http://Milehighcomics.com) just for the _Justa Lotta Animals_ team-up? ---
**Author:** ![CandidGamera](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/candidgamera/32/2878_2.png) [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2004, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battle-of-the-green-lanterns/260610/29 "2004-08-20T13:04:12Z")
> [@Askia](#): > > Synchronicity! You know I just ordered issue #15 of the \*\*Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew \*\* from [Milehighcomics.com](http://Milehighcomics.com) just for the _Justa Lotta Animals_ team-up? Heh heh. I really need to finish piecing together that series… it was a hoot. On more serious reflection, I think Mogo has to be my favorite GL of all time, simply because he had the best story. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2004, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battle-of-the-green-lanterns/260610/30 "2004-08-20T13:08:07Z")
Let’s all hear it for [Jade!](http://hometown.aol.com/raynermarz/jadegallery.html) Earth’s only Ring-Slinger with perky titties! HOORAY FOR PERKY TITTIES! ---
**Author:** ![Mockingbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c68b51/32.png) [@Mockingbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mockingbird)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2004, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battle-of-the-green-lanterns/260610/31 "2004-08-20T14:10:02Z")
> [@Bosda Di'Chi of Tricor](#): > > Let’s all hear it for > > [Jade!](http://hometown.aol.com/raynermarz/jadegallery.html) > > Earth’s only Ring-Slinger with perky titties! > > HOORAY FOR PERKY TITTIES! Jade is the daughter of the Golden Age Green Lantern who has a self generating power pulse. She only wore a ring for a brief time when her natural powers weren’t working. When Kyle was Ion, he restored her powers. And Kyle’s titties are plenty perky. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Mockingbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c68b51/32.png) [@Mockingbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mockingbird)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2004, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battle-of-the-green-lanterns/260610/32 "2004-08-20T14:13:36Z")
> [@Askia](#): > > **The final word on Alan Scott:** Wake me when he’s dead. :rolleyes: G’nort now wonders who you are to cast aspersions on him. ---
**Author:** ![photopat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e95f7d/32.png) [@photopat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/photopat)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2004, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battle-of-the-green-lanterns/260610/33 "2004-08-20T15:22:07Z")
> [@DrFidelius](#): > > Oh, and Alan Scott convinced himself that his ring is powerless against wood, as he was never brainwashed by those little blue fascists. The first time he used his Lantern, even before he fashoned a ring from some of its material, he was doing all right against some miscreants who were shooting at him, deflecting the bullets and all, but he didn’t see the thug sneaking up behind him with the billy. Having not yet developed the techniques to set up an automatic security cordon, and believing that his lantern would protect him even when not specifically instructed to do so, he presumed that it was the material used rather than his own inexperience. Once the mental block against effectiveness on wood was established, it persisted… That explanation was in **Generations II** , which was an Elseworlds story, so it’s non-continuity. The current “real” explanation is that Alans ring, which uses the magically based “green flame” reacts badly with wood and causes a feedback. (it doesn’t make any sense to me either, but that’s what Ray Palmer said, so it _must_ be true.) The yellow impurity was real, but was added to the rings after they’d already been created, as a means of keeping the GLs from being too powerful. In Kyle’s case, since Hal had gone on a rampage Ganthet, then the last of the Guardians, gave Kyle a ring without the yellow impurity. Perhaps because that might give him a slight edge over Hal. (That last is speculation on my part) ---
**Author:** ![Wolfian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/7ea924/32.png) [@Wolfian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wolfian)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2004, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battle-of-the-green-lanterns/260610/34 "2004-08-22T14:24:35Z")
Clearly Duck Dodgers. Clearly. (bump) ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2004, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battle-of-the-green-lanterns/260610/35 "2004-08-22T15:28:47Z")
In comics published during the “Golden Age,” did Alan Scott ever use his ring to create objects or travel in space? The GA stories of his I’ve seen just show him using it to fly, be strong and shoot rays out of his fist. Hal’s a sentimental favorite–his agressive nature and way-cool Gil Kane poses make him tough to beat–but John Stewart’s cerebral approach to the ring made him transcend all its limitations and he briefly became a Guardian. He gets my vote! ---
**Author:** ![Askia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2004, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battle-of-the-green-lanterns/260610/36 "2004-08-22T15:33:17Z")
Re-reading Neil Gaiman’s Endless Nights this morning, I am reminded of his story, “The Heart Of A Star”, set billenia ago at a conference of sentient stars, and where Killalla of the Glow (Oa), described by Dream as a priest-artist-police entity of her world, whose culture at the time is just beginning to master the green flame that is bound by willpower. Anyway, a nod to the proto-Green Lantern Killalla as another honorable mention. It’s a very nice tale, dreamlike, with very powerful in a not-too-subtle aside suggesting that one of the Red Giant suns at the conference was encouraged to create life on a planet in its orbit he knew to be… But no. Read it yourself. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2004, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battle-of-the-green-lanterns/260610/37 "2004-08-22T15:44:31Z")
> [@Wolfian](#): > > Clearly Duck Dodgers. Clearly. > > (bump) \< Virtual Smackdown \> :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Wearia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/13edae/32.png) [@Wearia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wearia)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2004, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battle-of-the-green-lanterns/260610/38 "2004-08-22T20:02:18Z")
I was always fond of the GL that was a superintelligent strain of smallpox. Another favourite when a GL was sent out to recruit a member of a blind species into the Corps and was unable to translate the word “green” or “lantern”. (being blind they had no concept of light, so colors or light producing objects had no meaning to them) ---
**Author:** ![Askia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2004, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battle-of-the-green-lanterns/260610/39 "2004-08-22T20:25:07Z")
**Wearia.** Yes, another classic Alan Moore story. The F-Sharp Bell of the Obsidian Deeps! I remember being pretty blown away by the realization that the Green Lantern Oath is rendered indeciperable in a language without a concept of “light” and “color”. John Stewart’s red-skinned wife-to-be, Katama Tui, was the Green Lantern in the story. ---
**Author:** ![xvxdarkknightxvx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/34f0e0/32.png) [@xvxdarkknightxvx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xvxdarkknightxvx)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2004, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battle-of-the-green-lanterns/260610/40 "2004-08-22T20:48:26Z")
And chance of an entire recap of the GL history? Including reasons as to why two GLs were active at the same time would be appreciated. Thanks. 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battle-of-the-green-lanterns/260610.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battle-of-the-green-lanterns/260610.md?page=3)