Pre-Crisis Primer: I Heart Eclipso

Green Lantern 185-186

“In Blackest Day...”

Eclipso! Why would an embodiment of God's wrath wear a silly costume?

Oh snap! Eclipso! He's a favorite villain of mine. Eclipso is the former alter-ego of a supporting character already introduced in the Green Lantern title: Dr. Bruce Gordon.

Gordon first encountered the villain while doing research regarding a solar eclipse in the Amazon. During the study, Gordon was wounded with an artifact known as a 'black diamond.' If the black diamond were just a diamond, everything would have been fine, but of course it wasn't: instead, the black diamond was supposed to be the eternal prison of dread Eclipso. The villain was imprisoned by none other than The Spectre, whom Swamp Thing met recently on his journey through the afterlife, and for no other crime than being God's failed 'Angel of Vengeance.' The flood that destroyed humanity and necessitated Noah building an ark was Eclipso's doing, as was the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Basically, every hateful and violent act perpetrated by God during the Old Testament was actually Eclipso acting on His word. 

He could at least add guardrails.

Severely weakened by his imprisonment in the black diamond, Eclipso was still able to take over Gordon's body. The two would share the same body; in the presence of an eclipse, Eclipso would take over Gordon's body and be free yet again. Exposure to natural light would then banish the demon. During a conflict with Hal Jordan as Green Lantern, Gordon and Eclipso were finally separated, with Eclipso flung into the void of space and seemingly destroyed forever. Again, as with Major Disaster, it falls on John Stewart to clean up Hal Jordan's unfinished business.

Gordon has been working at Ferris Aircraft on a solar engine, which we've not learned much about how it works and only really know what can be gleaned from its name: a way to power aircraft using solar energy. Not a bad idea all things considered. As seen in previous articles, Gordon had also been receiving threatening calls from an unknown man who, to no one's surprised, is revealed to be Eclipso himself.

While The Predator uses an axe against Eclipso's starship...

What follows is an action-packed story where Eclipso steals the solar engine, his ultimate goal to prevent Gordon from creating a solar power source given how dangerous natural light can be to him, and the Predator and Green Lantern trip over each other trying to stop him. Eclipso appears in a big giant, spherical ship, because that's what these world-conquering/destroying types do after all, and takes his prize as the heroes use various methods to gain entry: Predator whacks at the ship with his axe and Green Lantern uses the form of a giant hammer. Fisticuffs ensue with Gordon jumping in the fray at times, eager to end his own personal, twisted relationship with the monster Eclipso. With Predator unable to damage Eclipso because, as pointed out, Eclipso is a concept: revenge. A concept cannot be destroyed by hitting it in the chest with an axe. With no other recourse, Stewart takes the fight to the villain, sending them both tumbling from the ship as Predator and Gordon secure the return of the solar engine. 

...John Stewart makes a giant hammer. Keep at it, guys.

All this while, Hal Jordan is still hand-wringing over the fact that he can't help. He feels useless in the face of giving up his powers.

As Green Lantern and Eclipso fight in the desert, Eclipso's ship, damaged by The Predator as he made his escape, crashes near the combatants bathing Eclipso in a super-powered blast from his own black diamond, seemingly incinerating him. It may be impossible to chop up a concept, but it can sure be destroyed by super-comics-physics-deus-ex-machina laser blasts. Whew!

Eclipso, nooooooooooooooo!

John Stewart survives his first major test as Green Lantern, the solar engine is saved, Ferris Aircraft isn't yet again destroyed and Bruce Gordon is rescued safely. Wrap this story up in a neat bow with The Predator sending Carol Ferris a love letter and that's a happy ending.

With all the recent melodrama and childish characterization in the Green Lantern series, this is the story that gets me interested again. Aside from being an action-oriented story, the plot does a good job of marrying many of the sci-fi concepts the make Green Lantern interesting as a concept to the psuedo-horror elements of the Bruce Gordon/Eclipso relationship. Green Lantern throws every trick he has to defeating Eclipso and is unable to triumph, only a stupid error on the villains part, being defeated by his own power, put this as a win in John Stewart's column. The final pages of the conflict do an excellent job of catching the mounting tension and dread Stewart feels during the fight, something difficult to do doing a continuing series where the reader knows the hero can't die.

Haha, Predator's moving in on Jordan's girl.

The final element making this story so enjoyable is Eclipso himself. The villain is so powerful, unstoppable, and single-minded in his desire to destroy all life except his own. Add in the religious background as an entity capable of death on a mass-scale and the stakes are as high as they get for the hero.