Pre-Crisis Primer: We Don't Need No Masks

Green Lantern 187 – 189

“Decent Exposure”

Oh yeah, take it off.

Hal Jordan did things his way, now it's time for John Stewart to shake things up a bit. First order of business: go public. What hero would be caught dead in a domino mask anyway?

'Decent Exposure' does a great job of comparing two men, Hal Jordan and John Stewart, both thrust into new roles, Jordan as a civilian and Stewart as superhero, and both struggling to live up to what has come before them.

Predator is really enjoying himself.

Jordan, continuing to poorly adjust to life as a non-superhero, professional test pilot and lover to aircraft-manufacturer president Carol Ferris, discovers that mysterious vigilante The Predator, last seen helping Stewart against Eclipso, has been attempting to court Ferris romantically. The Predator responds to Jordan's bravado by handing him a beating. Jordan's refusal to give up lead to the beating being quite severe. To add insult to injury, Predator steals a kiss from a distraught Ferris before walking past the bloody Jordan. Predator savored manhandling the helpless Jordan and not for the first time does Jordan curse himself for giving away his power ring and quitting the Green Lantern Corps.

Yeah, how can you not feel bad for the chump?

For the first time in a long while I feel myself finally finding a foothold on the Hal Jordan character. Here we have the alpha white male, the guy who's always had the power, a ring that can do whatever he wished, suddenly finding himself powerless. And while the oppressor now being oppressed is not exactly the foothold I was mentioning but instead Hal as a man who DOESN'T get what he wants and finally has a conflict that he can't smirk and punch his way through. Punching is what gets him into trouble. The old way of accomplishing tasks isn't working for Hal and he seriously has to rebuild himself. I'm eager to see where this story goes.

On the flip side, John Stewart is now Green Lantern. But where Hal is trying to continue and approach things as he did when he was a superhero, Stewart feels the need to live up to that same shadow and be the superhero as the previous Green Lantern. Victories against Major Disaster and Eclipso (he rules!) have definitely helped the neophyte hero's confidence as far as his status as Green Lantern is concerned. This confidence is completely shattered when Stewart attempts to help a shuttle stranded in orbit around the Earth and unable to return home. Stewart attempts to simply tow the ship back to Earth by using his ring to create rope and vise constructs. All his efforts simply lead to more damage against the shuttle. In the end, the astronauts are able to get back-up systems up and running and save themselves in spite of Stewart's efforts. 

What an ingrate.

The Guardians, leaders of the Green Lantern Corps, send a veteran GL, a woman from the planet Korugar. Korugar, apart from being the home planet of classic Green Lantern villain Sinestro, is also in the sector adjacent to Earth. In a way Katma and Stewart are partners and partners train one another.

Katma shadows Stewart and even helps him take down a minor villain, Sonar, master of sound. Katma less trains Stewart in the ways of combat but in subtle ways to use the ring to resolve conflict without always resorting to brute force.

Stewart continues to grow as a character and quickly establishes himself out from under the shadow of the previous Green Lantern in one major way. He quickly notices that Katma and the other Lanterns do not wear a mask. They do not hide their identities from the people they save and why should he? Stewart goes public as Green Lantern, basking in the adoration and glory of a gracious public. Again, like the Jordan story, I'm eager to see where this go and what consequences, if any, Stewart will endure because of his actions here.

Bosom Buddies.

Bonus story! Because older comics were all about bang for the buck and crammed full of dense story (such an old man statement) we get to also learn about the mysterious Green Lantern named Mogo. Mogo's story is brief: it concerns an intergalactic bruiser known as Bolphunga who's only heard whispers of the great and powerful Mogo. Being a simple man, Bolphunga decides to kill him and journeys to the planet rumored to be Mogo's homeworld. After some time on the planet, Bolphunga finally discovers the truth about Mogo, a truth so horrifying that it sends him fleeing the planet as quickly as possible. Mogo is not an individual, but the planet itself. Mogo is a sentient planet. Hello Mogo.

Mogo! He's an entire planet. Does he shit planetoids?

Mogo represents one of the cooler aspects of the entire Green Lantern mythos, completely different non-humanoid characters. Not everyone needs to be bipedal or even have a body. I'm going to try my best to showcase a lot of the cooler, weirder members of the Corps as we meet more.