# Who would make a good Green Lantern? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 7, 2018, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-make-a-good-green-lantern/820969 "2018-09-07T20:15:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**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:** [September 15, 2018, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-make-a-good-green-lantern/820969/41 "2018-09-15T22:00:03Z")
“Green _Lantern?_ Funny name for a perceptive cop who has never-back-down willpower and comes from Philadelphia. What do they call you up there?” “THEY CALL ME MISTER TIBBS!” ---
**Author:** ![Atomic\_Alex](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atomic_alex/32/175_2.png) [@Atomic\_Alex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atomic_Alex)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2018, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-make-a-good-green-lantern/820969/42 "2018-09-15T22:46:29Z")
I had a tab open on this guy before opening this thread, I’m not sure about the other requirements but you have to admit he would use the ring in pretty imaginative ways 😉 > **[Professor Frink](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professor_Frink)** > > Professor John I.Q. Nerdelbaum Frink Jr. is a recurring character in the animated television series The Simpsons. He is voiced by Hank Azaria, and first appeared in the 1991 episode "Old Money". Frink is Springfield's nerdy scientist and professor and is extremely intelligent, though somewhat mad and socially inept. Frink often tries to use his bizarre inventions to aid the town in its crises but they usually only make things worse. His manner of speech, including the impulsive shouting of non Fr... > [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > ::smacks forehead:: > > You want a guy who does bizarrely over-the-top stuff on both the Honest front and the Born Without Fear front? Well, try a secret agent who not only introduces himself by name while risking his life, but makes sure to helpfully repeat himself! > > (Plus, he’s got to be the all-time champ on the _other_ aspect: wearing a gadget that turns out to be the needed plot device du jour. I mean, yes, granted, in this case it’s because he can _declare_ that he’s got whatever that is…) That’s certainly a cross-over I’d like to see 🙂 > [@Ranchoth](#): > > Conan the Barbarian. > > Well, the “fearlessness” and “willpower” parts. 'Kinda have trouble with keeping up a proper Rogue’s Gallery, though. And the “not conquering the galaxy” bit. I may be wrong but Conan never struck me as particularly imaginative, wouldn’t he try to solve all his problems by just creating a really large green sword? ---
**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:** [September 15, 2018, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-make-a-good-green-lantern/820969/43 "2018-09-15T23:25:45Z")
> [@Atomic\_Alex](#): > > I’m not sure about the other requirements but you have to admit he would use the ring in pretty imaginative ways 😉 > [@](#): > > I may be wrong but Conan never struck me as particularly imaginative Not sure how imaginative he’d be about it, but problems tend to just sort of go away near a calm guy who has a Medal of Honor and goes by the name of Miyagi. ---
**Author:** ![BlueInfinity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9e8a1a/32.png) [@BlueInfinity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlueInfinity)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2018, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-make-a-good-green-lantern/820969/44 "2018-09-16T01:16:23Z")
Longfellow Deeds (original, not remake) and Jefferson Smith come to mind for some reason… ---
**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:** [September 16, 2018, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-make-a-good-green-lantern/820969/45 "2018-09-16T01:25:16Z")
> [@Atomic\_Alex](#): > > I may be wrong but Conan never struck me as particularly imaginative, wouldn’t he try to solve all his problems by just creating a really large green sword? Imagination has never been a huge deal for Lanterns. Most of them - Hal, Guy, a bunch of the aliens - basically have a handful of go-to constructs which are things familiar to them - military hardware, baseball gloves and bats, boxing gloves, that sort of thing - and even Kyle or John usually solve things by making constructs to hit or shoot the bad guys. Conan would be out of his element if something like a complex truss was needed, or if someone needed microsurgery, but the same would be true of Hal, or Guy, or even Kyle. ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2018, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-make-a-good-green-lantern/820969/46 "2018-09-16T03:04:46Z")
When I considered real-world candidates, I was at once struck by the idea of Stephen Hawking wielding a ring. ---
**Author:** ![Atomic\_Alex](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atomic_alex/32/175_2.png) [@Atomic\_Alex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atomic_Alex)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2018, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-make-a-good-green-lantern/820969/47 "2018-09-16T15:44:10Z")
> [@Kamino\_Neko](#): > > Imagination has never been a huge deal for Lanterns. Most of them - Hal, Guy, a bunch of the aliens - basically have a handful of go-to constructs which are things familiar to them - military hardware, baseball gloves and bats, boxing gloves, that sort of thing - and even Kyle or John usually solve things by making constructs to hit or shoot the bad guys. > > Conan would be out of his element if something like a complex truss was needed, or if someone needed microsurgery, but the same would be true of Hal, or Guy, or even Kyle. Well my only experience of the GL story universe is the DC animated TV series Justice League and the movie where its repeatedly stated that the only limit to the power of the ring is the imagination of the person wielding it. It seems kind of a loss if its only used to make things like that, though I certainly understand why its depicted that way. 🙂 > [@Balance](#): > > When I considered real-world candidates, I was at once struck by the idea of Stephen Hawking wielding a ring. Like Conan’s sword, a GL Hawking would probably just solve everything with artificially created black holes 😉 _(Can the ring do that? Could it heal his illness and body as well?)_ ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2018, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-make-a-good-green-lantern/820969/48 "2018-09-16T15:59:40Z")
I could give it a shot. I remember when I was in high school, in shop class, I made a ceramic elephant that was also a lamp (when you pulled on the elephant’s trunk, the light came on). So, given the right materials (and a can of green spray paint), I could probably manage it. ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2018, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-make-a-good-green-lantern/820969/49 "2018-09-17T03:40:54Z")
Ryan Reynolds. ---
**Author:** ![Enola\_Straight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dec6dc/32.png) [@Enola\_Straight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Straight)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2018, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-make-a-good-green-lantern/820969/50 "2018-09-17T14:07:12Z")
A young Michael Douglas would make a fine Hal Jordan. Imagine Plastic Man with a Ring. ---
**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:** [September 21, 2018, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-make-a-good-green-lantern/820969/51 "2018-09-21T11:41:38Z")
They once did a TV series where the entire point was that folks were trying to get our hero to crack: they’d pump him full of drugs to shoot for Pavlovian effects with electric shocks, and pump him full of drugs before making him dazedly playact his way through life-and-death events, and pump him full of drugs before making sure the guy caught a beating, and pump him full of drugs — you know what? Let’s just say he struggled to keep it together, and despite the drugs in his system he somehow kept managing to insist that he is not a _number_; he is _a free man_. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-make-a-good-green-lantern/820969.md?page=2)