This post does not pertain to this entire issue, for now. In this post I am mainly concerned w/ the first story in it. It's an advertisementless pocketbook reprint of the first half of Green Lantern, Vol.2, #1 w/ the 2nd known telling of Hal's origin story. I am interested in the variations of Hal's origin over the years, so I plan to mine that for a bit in subsequent posts.
This story begins w/ Hal losing to a huge, hairy, brown mohawked creature that sends out a yellow mental ray from its head. The name of the story is "The Planet of Doomed Men". We then see Hal doing his thing as a test pilot, but then has a mental "moment", ends up it is due to the Guardians who are summoning him to Oa; they end up splitting him to where his corporeal body remains on Earth. They question him about the transference of the "Power Battery" that happened a "year ago" & they wish to make sure he is trustworthy, etc. The origin story then begins of how Hal received the ring. The crashed alien ship, Abin Sur dying, having to pass it on, his ring locating Hal, who was in a flightless trainer model. Hal & flightless model end up sailing off into the air & to Abin's wrecked ship. During the recollection, the Guardians mention that they lost communication w/ Earth @ that time due to an ion-storm. The interesting thing is that they then mention the person called "Green Lantern". In other words, this origin story says that Hal is the one that comes up w/ the name "Green Lantern" upon seeing Abin's Power Battery. The Guardians do not know of the term until then. "We found that an individual named Green Lantern had come into possession of Abin Sur's power battery." We then see the story of Abin's meeting of Hal & the transference of the ring. Abin teaches Hal the ropes, & also lets him know about the yellow impurity = affect anything, except that which is yellow. Then Hal says, "the spaceman told me to take his special uniform"*. The Guardians eventually approve of Hal & send his second half back to his body & when he comes to getting out of the plane & so on is that he really wishes he had a date w/ Carol Ferris as now she is more into GL than him. But arriving back @ his crib he notices the lantern signal & the Guardians let him know that a planet named Calor in a nearby system needs help. The Guardians are impressed by Hal's response.
Hal ends up on Calor w/ a bunch of primitives asking how he can help & is eventually led to a cliff which makes him soon face-to-face w/ Dryg, the huge gorilla mohawked enemy. For whatever reason Hal's ring doesnt seem to affect Dryg, so he finally decides to use it to freeze Dryg, creating ice & such directed @ him. The idea works & Hal freezes Dryg in a cube. Hal then sees but does not interfere w/ the planet's ceremony of praise, as he is mostly concerned w/ nabbing a date w/ Carol Ferris.
Story: John Broome
Art: Gil Kane & Murphy Anderson
*Currently I am trying to figure out exactly when Hal's origin story changes to 1) the ring brings on the uniform (currently thinking it is Vol.3#1 though I have not read enough Bronze Age to fully determine yet) & 2) it was just Hal w/o flight trainer (or a test pilot crash) that came to Abin Sur. Also, it is interesting that this story attributes the name "Green Lantern" to Hal. Likewise, Hal is the one able to create an invisibility shield for the power battery & another detail, a year after receiving the ring, Hal is still unaware of the Guardians even though his "spirit" has met w/ them.
ROGUES GALLERY:
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