# Was "Green Lantern" A Big Seller for DC Comics? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 11, 2011, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-green-lantern-a-big-seller-for-dc-comics/585168 "2011-06-11T23:34:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2011, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-green-lantern-a-big-seller-for-dc-comics/585168/21 "2011-06-13T00:34:13Z")
Guy and John are both from well before the Hard Travelling Heroes era - Guy was introduced in 1968, John in 1971. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2011, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-green-lantern-a-big-seller-for-dc-comics/585168/22 "2011-06-13T00:59:06Z")
> [@Sparky\_the\_Wonder\_Spirit](#): > > My dad just found out about the upcoming movie a week or so ago. He’s been all super-geeky excited about it, because Green Lantern was his favorite comic growing up. > > It’s adorable. I think I should get him a t-shirt. > > I’m far from a comic book expert, but I guess almost every superhero is _somebody’s_ favorite. Even Aquaman. I caught a commercial for the film with my younger daughter. I actually did not embarass her by naming all the Corps member with speaking parts (and half of the ones in the background) but that was just because she was asking “Do you thing Mogo will be in it?” I had to say “no, because Mogo does not socialize.” Which led to a discussion of just what types of crime needs a planet to investigate and prevent… ---
**Author:** ![lawoot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/35a633/32.png) [@lawoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lawoot)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2011, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-green-lantern-a-big-seller-for-dc-comics/585168/23 "2011-06-13T07:21:28Z")
I remember running around when I was a little kid, back in the late 60’s, pretending to be Green Lantern. Oddly enough, I have no memory of actually READING the comic back then. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2011, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-green-lantern-a-big-seller-for-dc-comics/585168/24 "2011-06-14T18:34:56Z")
The think that I remember about GL was that the ncharacter was so boring-the guy was married (no Lois land or lana Lang competing for him). No big villians (Lex Luthor). Plus the premis was so weird-he recharges hi magic ring from a loanyern? Plus thye costume was ho-hum.☹ ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2011, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-green-lantern-a-big-seller-for-dc-comics/585168/25 "2011-06-14T18:49:08Z")
> [@DrFidelius](#): > > I had to say “no, because Mogo does not socialize.” Which led to a discussion of just what types of crime needs a planet to investigate and prevent… Mogo does undercover work on organized crime. Sometimes the best way to gather evidence is to have a planet in the organization. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2011, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-green-lantern-a-big-seller-for-dc-comics/585168/26 "2011-06-14T18:59:38Z")
I loved Green lantern when I was a kid. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2011, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-green-lantern-a-big-seller-for-dc-comics/585168/27 "2011-06-14T19:12:10Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > The think that I remember about GL was that the ncharacter was so boring-the guy was married (no Lois land or lana Lang competing for him). No big villians (Lex Luthor). Plus the premis was so weird-he recharges hi magic ring from a loanyern? Plus thye costume was ho-hum.☹ Which Green Lantern are you talking about? Hal Jordan has never been married. John Stewart was briefly married to Katma Tui, an alien (Korugarian?), but she was murdered in a GL storyline during the late-80s Action Comics Weekly run. I know Guy Gardner has never been married, and I don’t think Kyle Raynor has married either. Are you thinking of Green _Arrow_? He was (is?) married to Black Canary. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2011, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-green-lantern-a-big-seller-for-dc-comics/585168/28 "2011-06-14T19:25:50Z")
> [@Tengu](#): > > Yes, there was a time when Aquaman was one of DC’s top 5 superheroes. > > Mostly because there hadn’t yet been a Superfriends cartoon to make people who’ve never read the books think he sucks. When I was seven years old, I thought [this](http://media.comicvine.com/uploads/0/4/6403-2050-6999-1-aquaman_large.jpg) was one of the scariest fucking things I’d ever seen. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2011, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-green-lantern-a-big-seller-for-dc-comics/585168/29 "2011-06-14T19:54:09Z")
> [@Mister\_Rik](#): > > Which Green Lantern are you talking about? Hal Jordan has never been married. John Stewart was briefly married to Katma Tui, an alien (Korugarian?), but she was murdered in a GL storyline during the late-80s Action Comics Weekly run. I know Guy Gardner has never been married, and I don’t think Kyle Raynor has married either. > > Are you thinking of Green _Arrow_? He was (is?) married to Black Canary. He could’ve been thinking of Alan Scott, the WWII-era Green Lantern. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2011, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-green-lantern-a-big-seller-for-dc-comics/585168/30 "2011-06-15T02:26:58Z")
Alan wasn’t married at the time he headlined a book of his own, either, though. It was in the 60s (well into Hal’s run) when it was revealed that Alan had married (to a villain!)…and she split, at some point, though I’m not entirely sure when. He then went on to remarry…to another villain. Apparently, Alan has a taste for (reformed) bad girls. I actually can’t think of any superheroes other than Superman who had competing love interests for any significant length of time. Mostly ‘no significant romantic entanglements’ or ‘a single, long running, love interest’. Very occasionally ‘rotating love interests, but little overlap between them’. Batman sort of does, I suppose - Catwoman and Talia al Ghul are always ‘there’ in the background, even when he’s got another love interest, but they really go back-burner, rather than being competition, and even when he’s not, each hardly seems to be acknowledged in stories that feature the other one. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2011, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-green-lantern-a-big-seller-for-dc-comics/585168/31 "2011-06-15T02:37:18Z")
Oh, and Green Arrow’s marriage to Black Canary didn’t happen until 3 or 4 years ago (and they divorced not long afterward). In the 70s, they were all-but-married, but it wasn’t that different than Barry Allen’s relationship with Iris West, or Wonder Woman’s with Steve Trevor - except in that Dinah was a hero in her own right, thus negating the ‘protect secret identity’ thing. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-green-lantern-a-big-seller-for-dc-comics/585168.md?page=1)