The Passing of the (Emerald) Torch
By Marc A. Leckstein

Alan Scott first appeared in All-American Comics #16 published in 1940. There is no Green Lantern Corps, No Guardians... no sci-fi. Just a magical lantern that gives him powers. If you don't know his origin, there are various sites on the net that will go into detail on that.

Alan Scott became the main feature in All-American Comics (just as Superman was the main feature in Action Comics). In 1941, Green Lantern has become popular enough to warrant his own Quarterly and was given such). So now Green Lantern appeared both monthly in "All-American Comics" and Quarterly in "Green Lantern".

This remained the pattern until 1948. The public seemed to have lost interest in Superhero comics and people were becoming much more interested in Western Books. Therefore, in 1948, without explanation, "All-American Comics" suddenly became "All-American Western" with issue #103. In 1949, "Green Lantern" was cancelled with Issue #38. Green Lantern's last appearance was in "All-Star Comics" (the home of the Justice Society) in issue #57 published in 1951. With issue #58, again with no explanation the book became "All-Star Western".

With the publication of "All-Star Western" #58 the Golden Age of Super-Heroes had ended. From this point on, the only Super-Hero books being published were the Superman Books (Action, Superman), the Batman books (Detective & Batman), the joint Batman-Superman book (World's Finest), the Superboy books (Superboy & Adventure Comics).

It should be noted that Adventure Comics also contained the continuing adventures of Aquaman and Green Arrow. Finally you also had the Wonder Woman book (Wonder Woman). So basically, for the first half of the 1950's, the only Super-Heroes being written about were Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Arrow & Aquaman. (I've always wondered why Green Arrow didn't make the SuperFriends).

This is the way things went until 1956 when DC began to show interest in the Superhero market once again. This year saw the publication of "Showcase" #4 which featured the first appearance of the new Flash. It is interesting to note that in this issue, Barry Allen is shown reading a Golden-Age Flash Comic. This, therefore, established that these were completely new characters with no relation to the ones which DC had stopped publishing 5 years earlier. In this new DC Universe, the Golden Age Flash and Green Lantern were just characters that appeared in comic books.

This new Flash was a big success and DC realized that Superheroes were back in style again. So they began to relaunch more versions of their golden age characters. The next in line was of course Green Lantern. Sci-Fi had become all the rage and so they re-invented Green Lantern with a sci-fi twist with 1959's "Showcase" #22. We all know the origin... space ship crashes, alien gives Hal Jordan the ring. There was absolutely no mention of Alan Scott's Green Lantern. It wasn't important, because there was absolutely no connection to the old character.

To answer the question as to if there was any outrage over this new Green Lantern by fans of the old. You have to take into account that it had been 8 years since that old Green Lantern had seen publication. DC was dealing with a completely different fan base by this point. Those long time comic readers who did remember the characters of old, would often write in stating that they remembered the old characters and enjoyed the new twist on the old stories. (Editors note: Green Lantern #1 didn't even have a number 1 on the cover!  In those days, kids didn't care for new number one issues, so they didn't list a number on it and that is also why The Flash started with #105, instead of number 1, #104 being the last issue of the GA Flash.... Nowadays, a number one issue is hyped up!)

Of course, there were others who pointed out that there were some new problems with DC universe. For one thing, Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman had never had rebooting of their characters. The latter had even been a member of the Justice Society of America and had interacted on a regular basis with the old Flash, Green Lantern and others. Yet here she was, with her comic never having been cancelled, now interacting with the new Flash and Green Lantern. How was this possible if that old Flash and Green Lantern were just comic book characters in this new universe.

DC had a stroke of genius in how to cash in on these old characters and in the now famous "Flash" #123 in 1961, published "The Flash of Two Worlds" wherein Barry Allen traveled to Earth-Two where all of the Golden Age comic characters lived. Alan Scott was re-introduced a few issues later in "Flash" #129.

Hal Jordan wouldn't meet Alan Scott until "Justice League of America" #21 published in 1963 which featured the first meetings of the JLA with their Earth-Two counterparts, the JSA.

In "Green Lantern" #40 published in 1965, Alan Scott made his first appearance in Hal Jordan's comic. The rest, as they say, is comic history.

Keep in mind that there was never any struggle between Alan Scott and Hal Jordan for the right to be Green Lantern, because they operated on completely different Earths and had completely different backgrounds. IE: Alan Scott had no Corps and no Guardians to listen to. They were friends and that was that...

So I hope this helps clear up whatever questions you may have had about the transfer from Alan Scott to Hal Jordan. In short, there was no transfer.... just a completely new beginning.

Any further questions, you may e-mail me directly at mleckstein@monmouth.com.
Thanks,
-=Marc=-