Green Lantern The Silver Age TP Vol 1 (Green Lantern: the Silver Age, 1)

Five stars - I couldn't give this hefty value for money volume any less in spite of its less than senses shattering understated scripting. Green Lantern The Silver Age Vol. 1 begins with the Green Lantern MkII Hal Jordan reboot that debuted in September/October 1959 Showcase issues#22 to #24 and Green Lantern #1 to #9 with all stories pencilled by the fabulous Gil Kane and inked by either Joe Giella or Murphy Anderson. Our emerald warrior's adventures kick off slowly but surely - in the first issue of his own title dated July/August 1960, Hal (Green Jordan) meets his employers, the elderly little blue men known as the Guardians of the Galaxy (not THOSE ones from the recent Marvel Studios movie) who wipe all recollection of this meeting from GL's memory and allow him to return to Earth and fight evil-doers (!?) and persist in a perpetual love triangle with his boss Carol Ferris, temporary head of Ferris Aircaft, for whom Hal Jordan is employed by as an ace test pilot. Issues 2 to 4 introduce the Weaponers of Qward and future super villain Hector Hammond first appears in no. 5, his head still retaining its regular proportions. in issue 6, Sector 2814's first Green Lantern meets HIS first fellow Green Lantern, the evergreen bipedal humanoid semi-aquatic looking parrot beaked Tomar Re! In this issue, Tomar tells Hal Jordan a little more about the Gaurdians but this is forgotten quite quickly as Hal eventually returns to Earth for a (fruitless) date with his pretty boss, Carol Ferris who naturally prefers the dashing Green Lantern to a mere ex-USAF possible war hero test pilot! In #7 we finally meet the devil faced Sinestro, a rogue Green Lantern from Korugar who's let the limitless power of the lantern go to his head. The Guardians summon Hal Jordan to Oa and task him with the challenge of defeating the evil Korugarian. This time, the little blue men allow Hal to retain the memory of this encounter. Nice of 'em, eh? With issue #8, and its striking cover rendered in a mix of grease pencil and ink depicting the overgrown Gila monsters of Earth in AD 5700 or Zegors, Green Lantern makes his contribution to the glory days of the Silver Age of comics - this particular cover can be seen framed and hanging above the headrest of Sheldon Cooper's bed in the TV series The Big Bang Theory. It's an amazing image and one of the greatest comic book covers ever. This issue sees Hal Jordan being whisked off into the year 5700 and hypnotized into believing he's "Pol Mannng" famed asteroid explorer and Solar Director of the future Earth whose power ring is the only weapon that might defeat the Zegor race. Once again, Hal's memories of this are wiped clean and he would occasionally be plucked into the future in issues to come. Lastly, issue 9 brings back Sinestro, his own power ring consisting of 'evil impurities' now shoots a yellow beam, the colour yellow being the only thing a GL's power ring cannot affect. In closing, Green Lantern The Silver Age Vol 1 is a product of its time - diversity was not a strong point in DC Comics of the time, the only non-coloured person here (apart from the alien races and other GLs) is Thomas "Pieface" Kalmaku, an Inuit or "Eskimo" mechanic at Ferris Aircraft who becomes Hal Jordan's confidante and chronicler of Green Lantern's adventures. It's all very 'white', shall we say but there's no overt racism as such, just no black people! African-American Green Lantern John Stewart would show up a good few years later and even then, Marvel Comics introduced its own black African hero in the Black Panther in 1965 but that's how it was back then. Not to whitewash it but like me, you're reading this for the art and the history and/or mythology of the second Green Lantern and not with a checklist of offence nearby to tick things off of! Be warned; the majority of the stories here lack the visceral excitement newer comic book readers may be used to (it's taken me almost six months to wade through this book) but the standard of art, the presentation of the material and its idealized depiction of an America of almost sixty ago make it worthwhile!