2022 Update: Way back in January 2011, this was one of the earliest posts on Mars Will Send No More — maybe even the second, after that Lizard Men ordeal. Since then, the scans I painstakingly made for it have become completely FUBAR. So, I pirated a few scans from the glorious Internet to restore this post to its full glory.
It has a special place in my heart, because one of my oldest grade-school friends sold me this issue along with a box full of others when he moved to Finland, and I have the best memories of us laughing our butts off on the school-bus, riding bikes like maniacs through the park between our suburbs, discovering the Red Hot Chili Peppers on cassette, and several more adventures I refuse to share with you.
But I will share with you this post, now restored to its complete, archival, and former glory.
Green Lantern #24 is about bridging communication gaps to make friends. Sometimes the key is just finding the right langauge and method of communication. My copy — before I sold it on eBay long after this original post appeared, but not so long ago that I didn’t grow to love it and display it on my walls — was badly beaten and re-stapled.
Anyway, Green Lantern is zipping about space one day and sees a planet that has a giant continent shaped like him. It fires yellow missiles at him. G.L. is powerless against yellow for a really goofy reason I cannot even get into right now. When he touches down, the land and water attack him. He is haunted by ghostly projections of his foes and friends.
Suddenly, a voice speaks to him from the green beam of his mighty lantern ring, using it like a radio beam to communicate.
It turns out the whole “attacking” scene was just a misunderstanding. The planet itself was trying to communicate. (The planet also re-tells all the pages I left out, but from its point of view.)
Like they do in dreams, things happen fast in the comic-book universe. One minute you’re making friends, the next minute disaster threatens the entire planet.
You gotta love a happy ending, especially after the existential angst of an organism, alone, isolated in its thoughts. This was the stuff of Camus and Hemingway. Usually we learn about literature like this from really dense, old books. Imagine how many more young students could grasp adult literary themes by learning them from an engaging and entertaining medium like comics!
Besides the cover story, Green Lantern #24 is best-known as being the first appearance of Tiger Shark. Here is the three-page origin showing how atomic disasters create super-powered evil.
All I can say is: Great origin, terrible panties. Marvel’s Tiger Shark has way better shark undies! Get a clue, dipshit!
Early G.L. issues are heavy on the psuedo-science. This issue covers molecular bonding, magnetism, atomic energy, evolution, and much more. But DC liked to include real science tidbits for kids, like this page below. I give early G.L. a thumbs up for being entertaining and educational.