Green Lantern: The Silver Age Vol. 4

Green Lantern: The Silver Age

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

Hal Jordan, introduced as Green Lantern at the end of the 1950s, quickly became known as the greatest of the intergalactic corps of lawmen known as the Green Lanterns--as well as the symbol of DC's move into the Silver Age of comics, with a career as a test pilot as well as close alliances with the Flash and the rest of the Justice League of America.

"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!"

With these words, dauntless test pilot Hal Jordan took up the challenge of battling evil using the greatest power source in the universe--the Green Lantern! A courageous space explorer like Hal was just the man to don the mantle of heroism as the world turned its attention to the stars during the 1960s. His intergalactic adventures echoed the spirit of discovery that defined the Space Age, but for Green Lantern, it was the Silver Age!

Join Green Lantern on his quest to bring justice to our world--and beyond the stars! This volume of Hal's iconic adventures features appearances by Carol Ferris, the Star Sapphires, and the Green Lantern Corps.

Collects Green Lantern #36-48

Genres: Comics, Dc Comics, Graphic Novels

335 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2019

About the author

Gardner Francis Cooper Fox was an American writer known best for creating numerous comic book characters for DC Comics. Comic book historians estimate that he wrote more than 4,000 comics stories, including 1,500 for DC Comics.
Fox is known as the co-creator of DC Comics heroes the Flash, Hawkman, Doctor Fate and the original Sandman, and was the writer who first teamed those and other heroes as the Justice Society of America. Fox introduced the concept of the Multiverse to DC Comics in the 1961 story "Flash of Two Worlds!"

Pseudonyms: Gardner F. Fox, Jefferson Cooper, Bart Sommers, Paul Dean, Ray Gardner, Lynna Cooper, Rod Gray, Larry Dean, Robert Starr, Don Blake, Ed Blake, Warner Blake, Michael Blake, Tex Blane, Willis Blane, Ed Carlisle, Edgar Weston, Tex Slade, Eddie Duane, Simon Majors, James Kendricks, Troy Conway, Kevin Matthews, Glen Chase

Reviews

[Kamakana · Rating 3 out of 5]

140320: cosmic! never read him before, art is very skilled, very clean, very simple. much better than early batman. stories are... comic book depth. from saving people to saving the multiple universes, perhaps just format but for me, too much dialogue/monologue... fun, though...

[Michael Emond · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this read. Now, to be clear, I give my rating on a bit of a sliding scale for Silver Age (and earlier) comics because the reality is that the story telling skills weren't up to the standards of today's comics (which is not to say all modern comics are well written).

Having said that - in terms of a silver age collection - this was a lot of fun. what elevates it for me is the art by Gil Kane and Sid Green (inker). It is exceptional and stands the test of time. A lot of Marvel artists get love for this time period (Kirby, Ditko, Sterenko to name a few) but my gosh, DC had some outstanding artists as well, Carmine Infantino (especially when inked by Murphy Anderson), Curt Swan and (for Green Lantern) Gil Kane. The poses, the background, the action, the faces were all top notch. It was a treat to see this master in the prime of his career.

The stories by Gardner Fox and John Broome were a lot of fun as well. One highlight (and the reason I picked this book up) was GL 40 which is the first team up of golden age Green Lantern (Alan Scott) and the one from Earth one (Hal Jordan) (not counting JLA 21 when the teams met) and even MORE important it introduced the premise of Crisis on Infinite Earths and told the origin of the Guardians. So much inventiveness. I have to admit I assumed Gardner Fox (he did the first team ups of Flash and the JLA/JSA) would have written this but it was Broome. Other highlights include the Zatanna team up (she appeared throughout the DC comics on her quest for her father - not great stories but a fun idea) and the death of GL (I wish the resolution had been better but the idea was great).

The stories - in general - are fun but most aren't memorable. But "fun" is good enough for me and the art elevates this to five stars. A great silver age collection.

[David Atwell · Rating 3 out of 5]

The mythology continues to grow in this one, but it's still just as campy and corny as ever. Love it.

[Brett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sometimes the abilities of the power ring become … anything needed for the particular story, but there’s still plenty of silver age fun.