craggy wrote:wow, de-rail-o-rama.
First off, Saber Prime, I don't want to sound offensive, but please don't talk about things you blatantly don't know much about. You're not totally wrong about all the Green Lantern trivia you've posted, but are quite obviously behind the times with things, and perhaps not always remembering things right as well. I'm not exactly Geoff Johns myself, but here's a quick run-down of the Green Lanterns and their relationship to humans:
The first Green Lantern in comics was Alan Scott, who got his lantern and ring from a crashed train. They'd been carved from a meteor, which was later revealed (retconned) to have been a part of the Starheart. This was what the Guardians had used to store all the rogue magic in the universe into, and the basis for the Central Battery on OA. There were Green Lanterns already out there in space, but again, none of this was known (i.e. hadn't been made up by a writer) at the time of the Alan Scott stories.
When DC decided to revamp the Green Lantern character as they had done the Flash, they made this GL Hal Jordan, a test pilot who got his ring and lantern from dying alien GL Abin Sur. Sur was a member of the intergalactic Green Lantern Corps and their rings, unlike Alan Scott's were powerless against the colour yellow. (First wood, then yellow-GLs have pretty crappy weaknesses, eh?) Hal was GL for quite a while, and, being somewhat lower down the popularity ladder than the likes of Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman, was experimented with by writers a lot more over the years. Guy Gardner was introduced as a back-up GL, but was involved in an accident that left him comatose for years, and John Stewart was introduced to replace him. John actually got to use the ring and eventually went off into space and married another (alien) GL. Guy became GL at some point as well, I think around Crisis on Infinite Earths, and was a member of the Justice League for some time during the 80s and early 90s.
When DC killed Superman they had a bad guy destroy Hal's home town, and this, along with a few other things kinda drove him crazy. He became Parallax and wiped out the Corps, the Guardians and nearly the entire universe. Meanwhile, John joined the Darkstars (wannabe GLs) and Guy had started using Sinestro's yellow power ring, under the new, catchy superhero code-name of Guy Gardner.
Along came Kyle, and for a long time he was the only GL in mainstream DC continuity. He was in the reformed JLA and shown to be pretty much at least as good as Hal. In fact, somehow, a universe that had once needed 3600 Lanterns managed to survive pretty well with just one.
When Warner was making their Justice League animated series someone (I don't know who) decided to use John Stewart, and he worked out pretty well, probably becoming the GL that the mainsteam non-comics reading man on the street knows about.
GL:Rebirth brought an end to Kyle's run as the last Green Lantern, and revived Hal and the Corps. Everything was back to normal, only now there were twice as many Lanterns across the universe, and the comics got really good. There are currently 4 human Green Lanterns: Hal, Kyle, John and Guy, but Gardner at least is one of the GL Honour Guard, a kind of special missions GL who goes everywhere and does anything, not restricted to a specific sector. They're all presently involved in a big cosmic smackdown, with an equally huge group of evil yellow ring slingers called the Sinestro Corps, led by disgraced former-GL Sinestro and counting 2 alternate evil Supermen amongst their number. I imagine things will change in the aftermath of this storyline too.
However, to bring this all back to the point that sparked this discussion, I actually think Hal isn't a bad choice for a Silverbolt analogue. They both have a certain way with the ladies, sometimes it's not good for them (Blackarachnia/Star Sapphire) and have turned evil at some point.
What I don't get is mentioning Firefly (the Batman villain) but not matching him up with Inferno. They're practically the same character. Crazy, delusional, cackling pyromaniacs.
Hey you did a pretty good job of putting it all together but you forgot to mention all the details of how Alan got his powers and how they came to earth in the first place.
So I'll do it.
Three and a half billion years ago a humanoid race from the world of Maltus sought to bring order to the stars. An offshoot of the race became known as the Guardians of the Universe. They sought to remove magic from the universe, and laid siege to the necromantic forces of the cosmos. The war was costly on both sides. The last to fall was the powerful Empire of Tears, finally subdued by the Guardians on the tombworld of Ysmault.
After the wars, the stray mystical energies were gathered and bound in an orb called the Starheart. Its strength grew over the eons, and eventually it became self-aware and was known as the Green Flame of Life. Though the Guardians were powerful, the force of magic was something that could not be contained forever. In preparation for this day, the Starheart willed a small portion of itself to travel through the universe to fulfill its destiny. As it travelled through space, the piece of the Starheart gathered debris over the centuries until in resembled a meteor.
Three billion years ago, the Green Lantern Corps was created. Wielding the mighty power ring, the Green Lanterns continued the Guardians' quest for order.
Two thousand years ago, one of the greatest of the Green Lanterns, Yalan Gur of Space Sector 2814, was nearly killed by a yellow beast. The Guardians removed his ring's yellow impurity, rather than risk losing their best Green Lantern to an arbitrary weakness.
Yalan Gur was soon corrupted by his power, forcing his will on the people of ancient China. The Guardians had no recourse but to instill a new weakness in Yalan Gur's ring to humble their errant Green Lantern. He was now vulnerable to the wood of the peasants' weapons. The Green Lantern was badly injured by the angry humans.
So enraged by the humans' attack and by the Guardians’ apparent betrayal, Yalan Gur did not order his ring to repair his wounds. Mortally injured, he plummeted to Earth, the air friction setting him on fire.
The wandering piece of the Starheart felt Yalan Gur's pain and joined with the Green Lantern. He died during reentry to Earth's atmosphere, his life force absorbed by his power battery. Its casing melted and fused with the piece of the mystical Starheart. The Guardians left the remains on Earth, as a monument and prison to a fallen Green Lantern.
The remains were found by local villagers and considered a meteor. Chang, a lamp maker that dabbled in sorcery, heard a mental cry from Yalan's tortured spirit. "Three times shall I flame green!" it spoke, "First - to bring death!" it promised in rage, "Second - to bring life!" in its remorse, and "Third - to bring power!" in his desire to live again.
Chang had read prophecy regarding the strange green meteor and took a part of it, frightening the people of the village. They had believed Chang and the fallen star were evil. Chang made a lamp of the molten metal, angering the villagers to the point of attacking him. They burned his books and it was believed they had killed him. In turn the villagers were killed by green flame of the lamp. "First - to bring death!"
The lamp passed through many hands over the years. It brought good luck and fortune to the good of heart. To the evil, though they might achieve mighty conquests, in the end it brought destruction.
In the twentieth century, the lamp was brought to America by a trio of adventurers who had tracked the pirates of the China seas. Eventually, it was abandoned just north of Gotham City, outside the Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane.
The lamp was found in a trash can and given to one of the patients, Mr. Billings. He had killed his broker in the aftermath of the stock market crash of 1929. Billings was fond of working with metals, and transformed the Chinese lamp into a train lantern.
As the lantern flamed with light, Billings was cured of his insanity. Soon, he walked out of Arkham Asylum a sane man. "Second - to bring life!"
In 1939, the lantern and engineer Alan Scott were onboard a train testing the newly constructed Trestle Bridge in the American West. A fellow engineer of Scott's was worried about their competitor in the bid for the bridge, an unscrupulous man named Albert Dekker. Scott did not believe Dekker would stoop so low as to sabotage their trial run, but he was wrong. While crossing the bridge there was a mighty explosion, the train was hurled to the ground below.
All on the train were killed, except for Alan Scott. The green lantern's flame illuminated the wreckage and spoke to Scott, telling him much of its story. The flame promised Scott that power over the dark, evil things would be his if he had faith in himself. If he lost his faith, he would lose his power, because willpower was the flame of the green lantern. Scott was told to carve away part of the lantern to make a ring of power. The ring would need to be touched to the green lantern once every twenty-four hours.
Dazed and confused, Alan Scott swore revenge on Dekker. He returned to his office and set to work on creating a ring. Scott found the metal formed easily, almost as if the ring were willing itself to be shaped. The lantern was his power source.
Willing the ring to find Dekker, Scott found the ring granted him amazing powers, such as flight and the ability to walk through walls. He had a strange immunity to metals as bullets and knives could not stop him, but wood proved a vulnerability. Though Scott's strength was that of a normal man, he fought well against Dekker's men.
Dekker tried to bribe Scott, but the engineer would have no part of it. A high altitude flight persuaded Dekker to confess. Albert Dekker died soon after signing his confession, the shock had been too much for him.
Alan Scott felt the call of destiny. He decided to make himself a dread figure to evil, dressing in a costume of red and green. He created an oath, based on the words of the green flame. "Third - to bring power!" From that day forth, Alan Scott was known as the Golden Age Green Lantern.