Green Lantern: The Silver Age Omnibus Vol. 1

Green Lantern: The Silver Age Omnibus (new edition) #1

by John Broome, Gardner Francis Fox, Gil Kane (Illustrator)

After successfully revamping the Flash in 1956, DC editor Julius Schwartz decided it was time to bring another Golden Age favorite into the modern era. Displaying a sleek new look, Hal Jordan's updated Green Lantern immediately struck a chord with readers, who clamored for more science fiction tales of his ingenuity and heroism. After three wildly successful appearances in SHOWCASE beginning in 1959, Green Lantern was given his own title and began his journey through time and space, matching cosmic threat against emerald will!
GREEN LANTERN: THE SILVER AGE OMNIBUS VOLUME 1 collects all of the Emerald Crusader's tales from SHOWCASE #22-24 and GREEN LANTERN #1-35--written by John Broome and Gardner Fox and illustrated by Gil Kane, Joe Giella, Murphy Anderson and Mike Sekowsky--and includes a foreword by Gil Kane and an afterword by Jack C. Harris.

Genres: Comics, Dc Comics, Adventure

1000 pages, Hardcover

First published March 7, 2017

About the author

Librarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bro...

Reviews

[Paul Cocker · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve always loved the Silver Age fantasy behind Green Lantern -- Hal Jordan as a cosmic cowboy with a ring that works like Aladdin’s lamp. I chipped away at Green Lantern: The Silver Age Omnibus Volume 1 over a little more than a month, and while some of it feels dated, it’s a solid window into how the mythos began.

This omnibus collects Showcase #22–24 and Green Lantern #1–35. John Broome sets the foundation—space cops, ring constructs, sci-fi villains—while Gardner Fox brings in more elaborate concepts and puzzle-box plots. The stories mix alien threats with Cold War backdrops and corporate drama, sometimes formulaic, but often imaginative.

Gil Kane’s art carries the run. His figures move, his layouts pop, and even with various inkers, his style dominates. The repetition (Hal loses his ring… again) is real, but when spaced out, it works.

Standouts include the first team-ups with Flash, the debut of Star Sapphire, Sinestro, and the story where Hal fights a giant version of himself. A few stories even dig into ring lore and GL history.

Yeah, some of the characterizations and language haven’t aged well—especially with Tom Kalmaku—but the ambition is there. This is the spark that lit the Corps.

[Ben Kimsal · Rating 2 out of 5]

These comics had a certain amount of period charm to them, some really cool ideas, and fantastic artwork, but were not very well written. A lack of adequately defined limits on what Green Lantern's power ring can and cannot do (which as I understand it, they implimented later on in the character's history) pretty much destroyed the stakes in a lot of these stories and made it difficult to really get invested.

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gems include debuts of Abin Sur, Invisible Destroyer, Puppeteer, Weaponers of Qward, Hector Hammond, Tomar-Re, Sinestro, Xax, Chaselon, Larvox, NautKeLoi, Rori Stroh, Medphyll & Stel, Sonar, Star Sapphire, Dr. Polaris, Tattooed Man, Shark, Myrwhydden, Black Hand, Katma Tui, & Aerialist

[NS · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very episodic. Easy to enjoy. I did find if I read several stories at once it felt very formulaic and lost some of the fun. The material is dated which is kind of fun actually. A couple are cring worthy.