Siskoid and Bass' coverage of DC Comics Presents continues with issue #6 (February 1979) by Paul Levitz, Curt Swan and Francisco Charamonte, starring Superman and Green Lantern! It's "The Fantastic Fall of Green Lantern!".
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Relevant images and further credits at: FW Team-Up Supplemental
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Test PILOT!
Toy salesman!
Sorry, I thought we were randomly throwing out careers on Hal Jordan’s resume!
Spectre!
Truck driver . I think did that job once as well
In what comic was hall a toy sales men ? And how long did that job last ???
I can only think of two toys hall would know any thing about hot wheels and model kits .
I just got Google installed at my house and this is the first hit it gave me: https://www.cbr.com/green-lantern-hal-jordan-traveling-toy-salesman/
Checking in with comments as I listen; The Super Powers Green Lantern figure does have the ring on the correct right hand and middle finger. I recently got an Alan Scott figure by McFarlane who incorrectly has his ring on his right hand, not his left!
Oh, and somehow my Super Powers GL Power Battery/lantern survived until today!
That might be the Lantern figure I was thinking about.
Speaking of toys did any one have your super figures team up with your he-man toys if you had any as kid . If did what was your go to he-man justice league team up ?
No memory of doing that, but they weren’t the same scale so it seems like they wouldn’t have hung out together.
I never had any He-Man figures but I did have Robin (DC) and Lizard (Marvel). They never fought, but the Lizard looked really cool wearing Robin’s tunic. I also had a Thor figure and I think that costume fit on the mom feom my sister’s “Sunshine Family” figures. I definitely remember putting an Evel Kneivel helmet on the baby and pretending she was also a super hero. She also carried around a tiny magic bottle of Coca Cola for reasons I can’t remember. I should have had all these mashed-up characters battle Maskatron and Stretch Monster.
Dad’s Super Powers figure still has the lantern power battery as well. Fun fact: the Super Powers lantern accessory design doesn’t follow how it appeared in the comics, but how it appeared in one episode of Challenge of the Superfriends!
Here’s my idea for a Hal Jordan green lantern team up hall teams up with Roboto and many e faces from he-man . How well . First I bring a new character if remember Hal’s mechanic pal who knows his true identity later gets a wife . Well what of they had a daughter will call her carol as nod to her god mother and my grandmother. And she is fan of he-man and she-ra . She has rise of snake men orange roboto with heart and many e faces orgins figure . And often plays with them with her green Lanetern and star sapphire figures . So hal and carol with her parents permission use their powers to take to world of the real he-man so she can meet her hero’s . Who just think she’s wonderful and they all go on adventure to fight Skeltor and sinstor . I call it operation: happy birthday
“Hal’s mechanic pal” … I still can’t believe his nickname was ever approved to be used. But … his name would mean something completely different in the realm of He-Man where the names are quite literal. I’m sure Skeletor would hate to have a pie thrown in his face.
I may have spelled the name of green lanterns arch enemy wrong the sinestro . I hope I spelled right this time .
“Josh the intern”? That is Josh Coyle, the studio director for WGBS, who had appeared several times since Superman #258 (in 1972). Whatever happened to him? He showed up next popping pills in “The Secret Life of Clark Kent” story in Superman Family #195, and made dozens more Superman story appearances since (including future issues of DC Comics Presents)… usually popping pills (for his “ulcer”… or so he claims…).
To answer some of the Green Lantern questions:
At this time in the comics, the Green Lantern costume was “real”, except for the mask, which was a construct. As long as the ring was charged, the mask would stay on his face and could not be removed by anyone. But once the ring ran out of power, the mask would fade away. There have been numerous stories in the Silver Age where Green Lantern would take off his ring to fight regular crooks, just to show what a tough guy he was, and his costume and mask always remained in place. I think Emerald Dawn was the first story that suggested the Green Lantern costume was a construct of the ring (Green Lantern changed back to Hal Jordan when his ring first ran out of power), so that is likely a post-crisis thing.
Hal Jordan himself would later create a full-color Superman illusion in Justice League of America #169, six or so months after this comic was sold. I suppose the yellow parts of the costume was a very light shade of green…
This spelling of “Zamora” and “Zamorans” is exclusive to this story. My dad’s old Green Lantern comics reads “Zamarons” for the people and “Zamaron” for the planet. Maybe whoever looked up the name of the planet spelled it wrong in the note to Mr. Pasko… or Mr. Pasko himself was going by slightly faulty memory. (Again, where was the editor?)
Carol Ferris broke up with Hal Jordan in Green Lantern/Green Arrow #109, which was sold a few months before this story, so this story is paying attention to recent Green Lantern continuity at least.
Pre-crisis, Carol Ferris had no memories of the Zamarons or what she did as Star Sapphire, which was essentially a separate personality. Green Lantern told Carol Ferris that she was Star Sapphire in Green Lantern #74, though she refused to believe it. Later Green Lantern writers had Carol forget she was told (and Steve Englehart would even explain how she had forgotten in Green Lantern #192).
Love the Green Lantern team-up ideas. I think I would have liked to see a Green Lantern-Wonder Woman team-up myself. My dad discovered that there were once plans for those two to have an “office romance” in the JLA shortly after this issue, but things didn’t work out. Details here: https://www.cbr.com/wonder-woman-green-lantern-almost-dating/
I rather like our Josh stories better ;).
And Martin Pasko is guiltless here. Paul Levitz was the writer.
A Hal and Diana romance sounds even more wrong-headed to me than a Superman/WW one! We dodged a bullet (or deflected it with our bracelets).
Oops. Why did I type Martin Pasko as the writer by mistake? Where was *my* editor…?
And yes, I don’t believe Hal and Dinah would last as a couple, and I would think Hal would make the failed romance affect his working relationship with Diana, and Diana would add this reaction to her list of inane masculine traits that she would never fully understand…
Even more wrong was the attempted Flash and Zatanna relationship in the Justice League comic a few years later. What was that all about?
I don’t know Isamu, but the remnants of that relationship are still seen in this often-used JLA group shot by JLGL (PBHN) and Dick Giordano from the legendary 1982 DC Style Guide!
Oh drat Isamu, I wanted the glory of defending Josh, who was the number one WGBS TV supporting character, with weatherman Oscar Asherman a distant second.
Talking of Green Lantern misspelled names, at some point Tom Kalmaku’s missus, Terga, became Tegra – annoying!
I was certain Hal’s mask in the Silver and Bronze Age was fabric, but ‘glued’ on by Lantern energy. Is my memory that bad?
Anyway, this issue was good fun, and next issue will be even better when Reddy drops by.
You are correct, Uncle Martin, at least in the Silver Age. Green Lantern started with a “real” mask held to his face “by the force of his power ring”, as revealed in Green Lantern #4. In the Bronze Age, Green Lantern took off his mask and left it on the ground in Green Lantern/Green Arrow #83, but then in Green Lantern/Green Arrow #114, it was revealed that the mask was created by the power ring, because it faded away when the ring’s charge wore off. This happened again in Green Lantern #134.
This was the first DCCP book I bought off the rack. I didn’t even know a Superman version of Brave and Bold existed before seeing it at the convenience store.
I always thought that you needed to have a sort of exceptional mind to utilize a GL ring so Superman using it to make constructs and illusions so easily, even for a pre-Crisis mega-powered Superman, felt a little too easy. Still good action sequences.
As Isamu said, Josh was a frequent deep bench player for this era of Superman, always drinking some concoction of popping pills for his ulcers, usually around Clark being late or running off stage to do something super. In my story, he needs to have surgery because his ulcer becomes so pronounced. He snaps, blaming Clark for his near death experience, and does all he can to destroy Clark’s career.
Can’t wait to hear the next episode because I have some memories of this one too!
Dropping back in to comment that I never read this issue, but the visual of Superman as half-GL makes me think of that time on Challenge of the Super Friends the two characters had to merge so they would be powerful enough to penetrate some galactic barrier or something. That blew my 3-year old mind!
As for Levitz and Swan NOT taking this opportunity to design an awesome Super-Lantern hybrid costume, that is much more of a modern thing. Variations on heroes’ standard costumes were few and far between before the heroes started going through costume changes in the mid-to-late 80s, like Spider-Man, and that was earth-shattering when revealed. Whenever an alternate version of a character showed up from the future, or another timeline, they were almost always in the standard costume. See the Superman of 2020 feature from around this period. Future Supes is just wearing the standard uniform. Another wasted opportunity! Nowadays , the hybrid Super-Lantern costume would be prominent on at least a variant cover, and McFarlane would already have an action figure in the works.
Some things actually are better now.
Just for giggles, here’s a very quick idea of what Super-Lantern may have looked like in 1979!
That would have made a great action figure that green lantern version of super man now all he needs is a star sapphire Lois lane to complete the set
Great episode! I’m always here for Zamora the Fire & Water Team-Up. This was my era, but I missed this issue, so this is a bonus read blast from the past. And Siskoid and Bass continue to be a terrific team.
Here’s Zamoron Josh if anyone’s interested. I’m sure he has fans — managers who work with people who stress them out, maybe.
https://comicvine.gamespot.com/josh-coyle/4005-31727/issues-cover/
https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Joshua_Coyle_(Earth-One)
I’m not convinced by that link’s info, it has Josh in a Superman annual a good decade before his first appearance!
And >phew< Isamu!
You have to click Appearances to see which ISSUE that is. It’s the 1986 Annual, which is fine.
Confusing!
Who knew you couldn’t trust the Internet?
I use the DC wiki all the time, and did in this instance. But check it: Josh Coyle is not credited with an appearance in DCCP #6. And if you look at DCCP #6 ( https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/DC_Comics_Presents_Vol_1_6 ), Josh is credited without a last name and as “single appearance”. So their mistake became my mistake.
Green Lantern’s costume was always one of my favorites but I had only seen this version with the shoulder triangles. When I finally came across the slightly different previous version I thought it looked silly. Sometimes a minor tweak makes a huge difference. Do we know who made the change?
I didn’t realize how much I appreciated the costume until DC Comics Presents 53 where Clark Kent goes to a costume party dressed as Green Lantern and has to pretend he somehow has a functioning Green Lantern ring and flies off. Even a dude with horn rimmed glasses makes a cool looking Green Lantern!
The GL costume tweak was first drawn by original penciller Gil Kane in GL #37 in the Sixties. It wasn’t a story point, it was just there, and yes, what an improvement it was.
Regarding “Weaponers” and “Thunderers”. I went through Dad’s Green Lantern comics and the thunderbolt-wielding Qwardian soldiers like Kiman here were known as “Destroyers” from their first appearance in Green Lantern #2 up to Green Lantern #125. The first Qwardian soldiers to be called “Thunderers” appeared in Green Lantern #150 (about 3 years after this DCCP comic). The Thunderers also used the throwing thunderbolts, but they had blue uniforms with gold trim and helmets instead of the brown outfit with the orange helmets, so the “Thunderers” may be an elite soldier squad separate than the Destroyers.
Or Green Lantern #150 writer Marv Wolfman decided to just rename them, since he referred to the classic Destroyers as “Thunderers” in Crisis on Infinite Earths #7.
Also, Kiman said the thunderbolts emit “Q-energy”, which was another weakness of Superman’s that was first used against him in Superman #204, and was was also used in the cage the Volkir used to hold Superman back in DC Comics Presents #1. I think at this time in DC Comics, Kryptonite was hard to come by, so the writers needed something else to slow Superman down so the story can last 17 pages…
I had forgotten about Q-energy until you reminded me, Isamu!
The council of Josh’s have spoken!
I feel like this comment section is all Josh.
Anyway, this was an okay issue, but I had a lot of fun listening to the both of you break this one down. Especially when you tried to figure out how Hal landed there in the first place.
I am more a post-crisis DC reader, so a lot of these late 70s early 80s DC books are really in my blind spot. Did they adjust Kent to model him after Reeve? Because that clumsy on purpose bit feels ripped from the motion picture.
I’ve been in and out over the years with Green Lantern. I’m sure I have a few dozen issues, but nothing from this era. My earliest exposure would be from the old Super Friends cartoons, and I’m fairly certain they didn’t cover the psycho-sexual relationship between Hal, Carol, and Star Sapphire. Although it would be interesting to track this relationship to see what writers tried to be subversive about the power dynamics between them and which ones played it closer to a stereotype.