DOCTOR LIGHT versus GREEN LANTERN

The Ghost of Christmas Light (Marvel)
Where: Green Lantern #36 When: February 1993
Why: Gerard Jones How: Gene Ha

The Story So Far...
Hal Jordan's heading home for the holidays, bringing best pal Carol Ferris to the Jordan Family Christmas at his brother Jim's! A magical flight in sets the season off to a perfect start, but hidden within the majestic Northern Lights is the malicious manifestation of Doctor Light!

With his powers ever-expanding since experiencing death; Light no longer needs a physical form! He exists as a being of pure light, passing through particles and wavelengths as he searches for purpose and power. Finding himself drawn to the ethereal glow of the Green Lantern's power ring, the villain is on a course to crash the party!

Tale of the Tape...
Strength: Draw 2 (Average)
Intelligence: Doctor Light 5 (Professor)
Speed: Doctor Light 3 (Athlete)
Stamina: Green Lantern 6 (Generator)
Agility: Draw 2 (Average)
Fighting: Green Lantern 4 (Trained)
Energy: Green Lantern 7 (Cosmic Power)
Total: Green Lantern 27 (Metahuman)

Doctor Light has developed a bit of a reputation for being a chump, but he's undergone several transformations over the years that've enhanced, focused, and unlocked his light-based powers! In today's fight he's fresh from being spat right out of Hell -- and more at-one with light than ever before!

In past featured fights we've seen Arthur Light channel, control, and project light, such as: his team-up with Mirror Master against The League of Titans in Final Crisis #1, or attack on the Fortress of Solitude in Superman/Batman #43.

After his rejection from Hell: Doctor Light realized the ability to surrender his physical form and become light! This adds a new spectrum to his potentially deadly arsenal as he travels instantly through light while bending it to his will!

Fortunately, Green Lantern is no stranger to battling opponents who cast opposing light. The fearless Hal Jordan continues to clash with the likes of Larfleeze [Green Lantern #42] and a Parallax possessed Kyle Rayner [Green Lantern #24], to say nothing of his arch-nemesis Sinestro, who was finished off in a fistfight without the use of power ring projections in Green Lantern #25!

It's a good thing Jordan knows how to throw a punch when he can't rely on green hard-light constructs, too! When Doctor Light was part of The Society, we saw him literally extract the light-based powers of The Ray in Infinite Crisis #1!

The Black Lantern Martian Manhunter was also able to use intangibility, speed, and deceptive projections to beat both Flash and GL in Green Lantern #44.

To make matters even worse: these are the days before Parallax, which means Green Lantern power rings are still unable to act against anything yellow! We saw Professor Zoom pierce GL's light shields with common yellow objects in Green Lantern #40, and Golden Roc cause some trouble in Secret Origins #32!

if Doctor Light can exploit the fullest of his unlocked light-manipulation powers to move fast and create holograms and mirages -- he just might test the GL oath of might on a brightest day! Let's see how the Christmas clash went!

The Tape: Green Lantern Ranking: Green Lantern (#30)

What Went Down...
Christmas merriment turns to terror when the Jordan family's decorative lights leap from the tree and begin strangling Jim "Santa Claus" Jordan!

Within each globe gleams a cackling face and it doesn't take brother Hal long to figure out the most likely culprit. With a flash of his ring he dons the uniform of the Green Lantern and races to rescue his brother from Doctor Light!

The tendrils of colored lights wrap around GL, holding a yellow globe at his throat as the villain demands the green "supernal light" of the ring. Green Lantern struggles as the wiring wraps tighter around his throat.

As the family wonders how such a powerful hero could be challenged -- little Howie races to unplug the lights from the electrical socket. The strategy is a good one, but Doctor Light charges the globes to fire a laser that tags the boy on the shoulder and sets him aflame!

Hell hath no fury like a mother scorned! While Carrol Ferris tends to the boy, Sue Jordan flies into a rage -- launching herself at the malicious decorations! Lasers beam wildly from the coils wrapped around GL's body, but her sudden assault pays off. The Lantern coaches her to strip the yellow bulbs and free his green light to slice through the power chord!

The Christmas tree becomes a raging torch, but the peril seems to pass as Green Lantern directs the family to leave the house. He promises to collect the unconscious Santa and "guy in the Hall", maintaining the façade of a secret identity, but as he does -- he fails to notice a materializing figure!

The unexpected blast of the Doctor's solid-light beam knocks Green Lantern clean out of the air! It's enough to put the hero on his keister, but he's far from out. With a sling of his power ring he challenges Doctor Light to fight in the dark -- obscuring his eyes with a hard-light block from his ring, while taking his legs out with the mocking form of a flash light!

The villain concedes to taunts that he was always a lightweight, but Green Lantern has drastically under estimated the threat he presently faces!

While GL turns his attentions to snuffing the tree fire with a rug, Light dematerializes his way out of his blinders, and refracts himself into a one-man army of five Doctors Light!

The refracted Light brigade beats and batters an unprepared hero with a barrage of fists! They surround him, forming a chorus line of four who kick him back to the ground!

Even Light himself cannot answer the mystery of what's become of him since death. It hardly matters! He once again demands the power and knowledge of the Green Lantern's "light of unearthly perfection". GL obliges, using his ring to smack Doctor Light over the head with a lamp. The Lights furiously converge!

Glowing with yellow light, the Doctor issues an indignant ultimatum: Give him access to the green light - or "die in yellow agony!"

Engulfed in blistering yellow light - the Green Lantern is seemingly out of options, but a wry smile betrays his confidence! He summons his battery and gives Doctor Light a window to the source of a Green Lantern's power. It's exactly what he wanted -- but all is not as it seems!

Like the proverbial genie: Doctor Light is sucked into the battery! There, he will have his wish to be one with the light -- trapped within it!

The Hammer...
Just when you think you're out - they suck you right back in! A little bit of a cheap victory for Green Lantern in the end, but if you live by the light - I guess you die by it, too! Or at least... get sucked into the prison of a cosmic battery your light-based essence cannot escape from!

After a mostly comical stint with the Suicide Squad (that also ended with his temporary death), this was the story that finally put Doctor Light on ice.

I've always liked the idea that the Suicide Squad was the last refuge for characters who were on the chopping block. It kinda seems like that was the case for Light. As I say often, I've never been the biggest Teen Titans fan, and a guy with a silly hat who terrorizes kids with lightshows can seem a tad pathetic.

Unless I'm very much mistaken, Doctor Light didn't escape the Green Lantern's battery for over three years! By that time, Kyle Rayner had taken over the gig - and that's a battle I hope to come back to some time in the near future!

Consider this installment the first part in a fine example of what should be done with villains who've out stayed their welcome, or seemingly warn out their use. As we'll see in the future issue of Green Lantern: they can always be brought back with a spiffy new coat of paint. Although, considering where Doctor Light would wind up another decade later, the results may not always be lasting...

I didn't really pick this battle to talk about Doctor Light. Truth be told, I've had it on the To Do list for the last couple of Decembers, but something always gets in the way. In fact, this year I spent a whole lot of my Christmas working on the relaunch of Mortal Kombat Online, and now I'm sick! I was pretty determined to sneak this one through before the year ended, though. So here we are!

I wouldn't call Green Lantern #36 a uniquely important Holiday issue, but it's got a very nice balance of elements. In essence it's a sweet family gathering. The Jordan Family Christmas episode of the series, showing Hal Jordan in the fairly unusual environment of a domestic setting. Relatable, believable.

Of course, it wouldn't be a superhero's family gathering without some sort of big super-villain fight, and that breaks things up nicely!

As noted, the use of this particular villain holds extra weight given his increased powers, and his ultimate shelving afterward. Although, while it's interesting to think the character may've been on the way out, the issue doesn't actually read specifically like a swansong. Being trapped in GL's battery is a fairly temporary predicament, and the exploration of Doctor Light's powers opens things up.

There is a more deliberate sense of ominous mortality in the story, though.

For one, Green Lantern fights wearing a black arm band for Superman, who'd just been killed off in Death of Superman a month prior. The personalized presence of his family is also playing towards their ultimate deaths, at the end of '93, when Mongul and Cyborg Superman bring about the destruction of Coasty City, and the turn of Green Lantern into Parallax.

Whoa. What a downer! Fortunately, GL #36 isn't itself a downer at all and this fight was a lot of fun to go back to! I hope it brought our year of superhero smackdown to a fitting, belated Christmas close!

Technically Secret Wars on Infinite Earths ends the year in November, so you can check out the Top 20 Featured Fights determined by readers - or get all the gems that didn't make the cut by checking out the complete 2018 Feature Fight Recap! I've gotta tell ya, a lot of my favourites missed the Best Of this year so it's well worth your while digging into the full recap!

Just to be delightfully eccentric and inconsistent - the Annual Rankings Recap spans January to December, so fans who love to see where all the heroes land after we record these fights won't want to miss that! Today's battle has shot Green Lantern back up the list to #20! Hard luck for Aquaman, down to #21!

A big thanks to everyone who's been reading and sharing links throughout the year. A lot of great folks on Twitter have been hitting those retweet and likes! Don't forget Facebook and Google+ button at the bottom of every post! This weird world of superhero fights is something I like to do, but it's always nice to know somebody else is getting something out of it too! Happy new year!

Winner: Green Lantern
#20 (+10) Green Lantern (Hal Jordan)
#75 (-5) Doctor Light
#547 (new) Sue Jordan [+1 assist]

FLASH versus GREEN LANTERN

A Flash of Evil (DC)
Where: Green Lantern #40 When: Late May 1993
Why: Gerard Jones & Joe Filice How: Claude St. Aubin

The Story So Far...
When the multiverse was gripped in a crisis of infinite Earths; The Flash disappeared in a race to save existence from the Anti-Monitor's cosmic weapons!

The only evidence of Barry Allen's brave sacrifice was an empty red and yellow costume, to be collected by his protégé Wally West. When the world was remade, Kid-Flash took up the mantle, filling the void left by Barry as the new Flash!

A sudden return of Barry Allen years later seems like a Christmas miracle, but all is not as it seems! The lingering mystery of his disappearance hides a sinister truth about his return. When Flash begins acting strange, best friend Green Lantern is reluctant to doubt him. His hesitance creates a deadly conflict with Darkstar -- forcing the Lantern to take-on his old friend in order to protect him!

Tale of the Tape...
Strength: Professor Zoom 3 (Athlete)
Intelligence: Professor Zoom 5 (Professor)
Speed: Professor Zoom 7 (Light Speed)
Stamina: Draw 6 (Generator)
Agility: Draw 2 (Average)
Fighting: Green Lantern 4 (Trained)
Energy: Green Lantern 7 (Cosmic Power)
Total: Professor Zoom 28 (Metahuman)

Ahhh! Not so fast! It's another classic case of mistaken identity as the Reverse-Flash masquerades in red to pose as his classic arch-nemesis: The Flash!

You and I know the scarlet speedster Barry Allen gave his life to stop the Anti-Monitor's schemes in Crisis on Infinite Earths #8! That was a little less than eight years earlier in publishing time, but for the DC Universe, the gap may not be so significant. Further: Flash's sacrifice was without witness and tinged in cosmic mystery, meaning his old pal can't be totally sure of who he's fighting!

Green Lantern is Hal Jordan: the Silver Age ring slinger who spent many decades fighting alongside The Flash in team-ups, and as part of the Justice League of America! We saw the post-Crisis version of their first JLA adventure in Secret Origins #32, where Flash figured heavily in the defeat of The Wood King!

Flash's connection to the Speed Force always makes him a formidable foe! Hal learned that first-hand when he was smacked around by his buddy years later in Green Lantern (Volume 4) #44! By then, it turned out Barry Allen wasn't dead after all, and the Black Lantern Martian Manhunter turned them against one another with telepathic deception. Not really what we're here to talk about...

So far we know a speedster can do some serious damage to Green Lantern. In that battle, GL was reluctant to harm his friend. That's a major factor in today's fight, because he's coming in under the impression Professor Zoom is Barry!

Eobard Thawne (aka; Reverse-Flash) is a sycophant gone bad from the future of the 25th Century. He knows all of The Flash's old moves and has perfected them through his own mastery of the Speed Force! We saw that put to chilling effect in Flash: Rebirth #4, when he kept ahead of Barry Allen and Max Mercury!

Green Lantern clearly has his work cut out for him, but he also wields a power ring capable of willing into reality just about anything he can conceive!

At the time of this fight, the Green Lantern energy ring is unable to enact upon anything yellow. In the future, this would come to be known as the Parallax impurity, which is excised with the removal of the fear-based entity from the central battery. If Reverse-Flash was in his own yellow costume - that could cause some serious trouble! Fortunately, Flash Red means no immediate threat!

We've seen Jordan handle the yellow weakness fighting Golden Roc [Secret Origin #32]. At super-human speeds it won't be quite so easy, but he also has a diverse environment at his disposal to mount a defense.

The Tape: Professor Zoom Ranking: Green Lantern (#30)

What Went Down...
Soaring over Central City; Hal Jordan spots the trademark scarlet streak left by the speedster he believes is his mysteriously returned best friend.

Flash darts into The Flash Museum, ordering its occupants to exit or face death!

Green Lantern investigates, finding "Flash" resting casually against a statue in the museum rotunda. He has nothing but contempt for the honored legacy of his heroic "misspent youth". It's baggage he plans to shed with extreme prejudice, taking one of his goody-goody superhero friends with it!

Lantern manifests a massive hand to catch his friend-turned-foe in mid-dash. He has no desire to fight, but Flash doesn't share the sentiment. The speedster thrusts his hands at speed to create a compressed air battering ram that sends the vulnerable ring-slinger hurtling across the rotunda!

Still a little confused by his old friend's sudden hostility -- Jordan dips into his old bag of tricks, throwing a giant green boxing glove. Flash knows it well, racing in circles to deflect the projectile and send it back to its source!

A towering bronze statue of the real Flash becomes a battering ram in the impostor's hands. He dares GL to contemplate if his ring's energy will work on bronze. Fortunately, it does -- breaking the statue apart against the hard-light energy bubble he manages to form at the last moment!

Jordan goes on the offensive, throwing up a complicated mechanical restraint to pin the speedster down against a nearby wall.

The device locks around The Flash's neck, wrists, torso, and legs -- but it hardly matters! Like Barry Allen himself, the impostor is much more powerful than his successor. He can vibrate his molecules at such intense speeds he passes right through solid matter!

Flash disappears backwards into the wall, cackling, before charging right back through the same way! Green Lantern knows he's coming from somewhere, but can hardly prepare for the immediate onrush!

Flash narrowly misses Green Lantern on the way to The Rogues Gallery weapons storage! He remembers the roll call of those legendary fiends, and delights at the thought of eliminating Barry Allen's best friend with their lethal arsenal!

The barrage of weapons forces Green Lantern to erect another energy shield and start reconsidering his tactics. As he does - the phony Flash ups the stakes by unleashing one of The Top's poisonous spinning tops!

The spread of noxious gas brings forth coughing from museum curator Dexter! Unwilling to abandon his post, the dutiful museum worker now faces imminent death, if not for the nearby gasmask of Mister Element! GL's ring filters the air around him, while he sends the mask to Dexter and makes chase.

Desperate to talk sense into the man he still believes is his old friend -- Jordan ensnares his target in a coffin sized prison cell.

It's meant to be too small for Flash to vibrate free, but the yellow of his costume is all he needs to break the bars. He dashes through the exhibit of adventures in time and space, jumping onto the time defying Cosmic Treadmill!

He broadcasts his plans to escape to an exotic moment in time, but in truth simply darts back a few minutes prior to their entering the room! The trick lets him catch Green Lantern completely unawares with a sucker punch! He grabs the stunned hero by the ankles and starts spinning at super-speed!

The intense forces threaten to black out even a hotshot test pilot turned space cop! Green Lantern desperately summons the will to create a grappling hook with his ring -- bringing the tilt-a-whirl of doom to a sudden stop!

The pair spill to the ground, but GL recovers first and vows to finish the fight if he has to bring the whole museum down on top of Flash! The speedster sarcastically laments the impending end of the great Flash Museum, whipping up debris with a super-fast wave of his hand! GL goes on the defensive!

The intense barrage of objects begins to pierce the Lantern's energy bubble, but also creates cover for him to escape through the floor to come back around for a sneak attack. Just as he does -- Darkstar attacks from above!

Green Lantern's ring intercepts the deadly surprise blast fired by Darkstar! He races to grapple with his rival space-cop, who has no regard for any past associations the scarlet speedster may, or may not, have established on Earth!

Jordan's attempts to protect Flash earn him a speeding yellow boot to the back of the head! A parting shot as the impostor attempts a high-speed escape!

As Flash streaks out of the building - Darkstar takes to the skies in hot pursuit! Believing it may be his last shot at neutralizing a global threat -- he fires deadly bolts of energy that meeting their running target in a spectacular explosion!

Believing he's witnessed the death of his long missing friend -- Green Lantern erupts with rage! He launches himself at the Darkstar, but is met with pleas of innocence! The Darkstar's energy bolts were merely meant to stun!

Darkstar posits that super-speed rendered his body unusually unstable, while Green Lantern contemplates the true possibility that The Flash pulled a literal fast-one.

While the two intergalactic lawmen argue; Professor Zoom lies in wait beneath the ground, having vibrated at super-speed to disappear below the surface! A gambit that caused the ground to explode, but left him safely unseen.

The Hammer...
Darkstar may've gatecrashed the battle and brought it to an explosive end, but there were no winners in today's featured fight! His role was merely in providing an assisted distraction that allowed the impostor Flash a discreet exit.

If you paid attention to the Tale of The Tape, you already know this felonious false Flash is in actual fact Eobard Thawne: Professor Zoom!

Usually he'd be wearing yellow and red as the Reverse-Flash, but in '93, Zoom's super-speed, and knowledge of future-past, were tools in a ploy to stage the impersonated return of Barry Allen! A comeback easily achieved with a quick costume change and commitment to 25th century cosmetic surgery!

The story actually functions as a revamp and return for Prof Zoom, whose neck snapping death famously occurred ten years earlier! In that respect, it's a story that does deliver on a major return! Even if ultimately temporary as a new Zoom came to succeed Thawne as the Reverse-Flash in 2001.

The plausibility of Barry Allen's return is something I don't have a great memory of. The story was coming just a few months after Death of Superman, and slightly ahead of the much-hyped 'breaking of The Bat' in Knightfall. Significant changes were being visited upon DC's greatest heroes, and I have to imagine a return that would displace Wally West seemed at least conceivable, as a result.

Of course, when compared to the international headlines made by Superman and Batman, it was easy to overlook The Flash as just another monthly issue on the racks. If you weren't paying attention, you might not have even noticed that the scarlet speedster on covers wasn't the one who was supposed to be there!

It had only been eight years since Barry Allen's supreme sacrifice in the pages of Crisis on Infinite Earths #8. It was a timeline that probably should've leant credence to his prospective return, but also reinforced a naïve confidence that it was too soon to unseat a replacement who'd served the post-Crisis DCU well.

The garbled transition from pre to post Crisis brought many frustrations for a young reader, but if there was one thing to take away, it was the sacred text of Barry Allen's death. It was an event so significant it placed him within the rare pantheon of the seemingly un-resurrectable: Thomas & Martha Wayne, Uncle Ben Parker, Gwen Stacy, Bucky Barnes & Jason Todd...

Yes, the rules have changed a lot in the decades since. The mid-2000s brought those last two back, and if you've been reading long enough, you're probably thinking heavily about the return of Flash in Final Crisis, and Flash: Rebirth.

Heck! Even Thomas Wayne has a bafflingly active fanbase now thanks to the regrettable tangents of 2010's Flashpoint. The template of early nineties stunt events seems to permeate today's publishing heavily, rather than lessons learned from all that had to be undone.

"The Return of Barry Allen" might not be as well remembered as Death of Superman, Knightfall, or even Green Lantern's fall from grace and turn to villainy. Yet, as an exception, it remains one of the better examples from that time. As an event, its dramatic tension is the threat of a return.

As a story, its end result is a contribution of something that had been taken away -- and a re-emphasis of an important piece of myth building. Good fiction builds on itself. It can twist, contort, progress and surprise without breaking. It creates problems (drama) without eroding the consequences of meaning of its own content. The kinds of comics I'm much preferring to read and revisit.

This month on Secret Wars on Infinite Earths we're featuring comics with the characters found in Injustice 2! The Flash, Green Lantern and Reverse-Flash are all characters you'll encounter in the sequel video game, albeit in a universe where many of DC's greatest heroes are no longer in tact.

Follow links throughout this post to find more from the heroes, villains and comics you love! Dive deeper to find every past featured fight in the Secret Archive Index, where they're organized by publisher, series, and issue number!

Get daily links to fights inspired by the major topics of the day by subscribing to Facebook and Twitter! A like, share or retweet is a great way to help support the site and dazzle your friends with spectacular superhero smackdown!

Winner: Draw
#28 (+2) Green Lantern (Hal Jordan)
#133 (+161) Professor Zoom (Eobard Thawne)
#526 (new) Darkstar (Ferrin Colos) [+1 assist]

GREEN LANTERN versus KILLER FROST & EFFIGY

Burning Desire (DC)
Where: Green Lantern #127 When: August 2000
Why: Jay Faerber How: Ron Lim

The Story So Far...
Ever since she recreated the accident of science that turned her late friend into a super-villain -- Dr. Louise Lincoln has been known to the world as the second coming of Killer Frost!

Captured by the Department of Extranormal Operations, Killer Frost was put on ice for transport, but when the truck overturns on a dirt road, she's free to suck the warmth from the guards' bodies!

Aided in her rescue by passing hothead Effigy, Killer Frost finds the perfect source of heat to fuel her newest cold front of crime! So perfect is the dastardly duo, they strike up an instant romantic chemistry. Bad news for Green Lantern - who also happens to be passing by, and wants to bring them both in!

Tale of the Tape...
Strength: Killer Frost 3 (Athlete)
Intelligence: Killer Frost 5 (Professor)
Speed: Killer Frost 3 (Athlete)
Stamina: Green Lantern 6 (Generator)
Agility: Draw 2 (Average)
Fighting: Draw 3 (Street Wise)
Energy: Green Lantern 7 (Cosmic)


It's a greenlight on a new year and the free for all is taking us wherever whim blows! What better way to shake off the Holiday frost than with a warm light?

When the Green Lantern Corps was slaughtered by a Parallax possessed Hal Jordan -- surviving Guardian, Ganthet, sought Kyle Rayner to be the bearer of a power ring as the last Green Lantern!

The young hero was thrust into a universe of Earthbound super-heroics and intergalactic responsibility! The learning curve of this cosmic legacy was a steep one. Rayner was quickly confronted by powerful forces from far-off galaxies -- even thrust into confrontations with the Marvel Universe in his early adventures!

We saw Green Lantern rescued by Thanos in a staged battle with Terrax during the Green Lantern/Silver Surfer crossover. GL later suffered defeat at the hands of Silver Surfer when friends were forced to fight for the survival of their respective universes in Marvel versus DC #3!

Surviving these encounters, and many more, Rayner would go on to gain valuable experience fighting alongside Golden Age mentor Alan Scott, Wonder Woman, Superman and the new Justice Leage of America, as well as his friend and studied generational peer Wally West - third generation hero: The Flash!

Of course, heroes aren't the only ones to inherit a legacy from predecessors...

In the case of Killer Frost: Dr. Louise Lincoln was confronted with the chilling transformation of her friend and colleague Crystal Frost. Held hostage; Lincoln was recruited to aid in curing the ailing super-villain, who was dying as a result of her unique physiology. In a spectacular final showdown with Firestorm, the original Killer Frost perished!

Lincoln recreated the experiment that altered her colleague, becoming the new Killer Frost in the process! She gained the same ability to project freezing cold and ice, whilst suffering the same insatiable desire to consume heat.

The only record of Killer Frost we have so far comes from Justice League of America #15, when she battled the new Firestorm as a part of the Injustice League. With help from Doctor Light, Frost had her nemesis pinned down, but the arrival of the JLA led to her being knocked out cold by Wonder Woman!

Similar circumstances to the Society team-up that introduced Effigy to the fighting ranks via Final Crisis: Requiem! In that battle, Effigy's fire powers were utilized by Libra to eliminate the Martian Manhunter!

Effigy is Martyn Van Wyck: A troubled youth whose miserable existence was turned upside down when he experienced an alien abduction. Taken by The Controllers, he was the subject of wanton experimentation that ultimately granted him the ability to project and control fire! Lashing out with his powers, Effigy would have frequent run-ins with Kyle Rayner and The Controllers.

Rayner hasn't had a whole lot of experience fighting Killer Frost, which puts him at more than a numbers disadvantage. Effigy's flame can power up Killer Frost in a snap -- bad news for Green Lantern! Worse - if the hard light constructs of his ring also give off enough heat for Killer Frost to suck them in!

We know Kyle's a tough customer. When he and Hal Jordan ran out of charge during the Sinestro Corps War, they resorted to fighting Sinestro in a down and dirty fist fight [Green Lantern #25]! So if things go south fighting Killer Frost, at least we know he isn't gonna quit!

One of the distinguishing traits of Kyle Rayner's use of the Green Lantern ring is his imagination. He's an artist by trade and can get pretty inventive with his use of, what was called at the time, the most powerful weapon in the universe!

Even if the ring itself can't be used offensively, Rayner should be able to protect himself from the extremes of cold and heat, and find some way to work with what he has to put the bad guys down! Let's see how he did...

The Tape: Green Lantern Ranking: Green Lantern (#108)

What Went Down...
Green light bathes would-be lovebirds Effigy and Killer Frost, signaling the unwanted arrival of the Green Lantern!

He projects a spotlight construct from his cosmic ring, descending to address the nearby devastation of an overturned DEO truck, and burning forest. Effigy tries to talk his nemesis into leaving him alone, but Killer Frost isn't interested in words!

A sudden blast of ice encases the young Green Lantern, sending him plunging like a stone into the roaring waters of the Niagara! Frost keeps up the cold, turning the entire river into a giant frozen grave!

Effigy celebrates the swift actions of his new squeeze, and the pair take flight. Meanwhile, the frozen river they left behind begins to crack -- breached by a glowing green buzzsaw!

A tender, airborne moment between villains is rudely interrupted when a chain and anchor materializes around Effigy's ankle!

The sudden stop sends Killer Frost flinging from Effigy's arms -- but she's able to slow her fall to a stop, forming a massive ice column in the night air beneath her! At the same time, Effigy burns the anchor from his leg.

Looking to even the numbers, Lantern Rayner creates a gigantic hairdryer to melt his icy new foe -- surprised to find the beam of heat to Killer Frost's liking.

GL has no time to act on his observation -- spontaneously ensnared in a vice made of fire!

Rayner summons his willpower to prise himself loose and leaves a green streak across the night sky as he flies away from the fight!

Effigy collects Killer Frost and marvels at the hero's apparent cowardice. Having dealt with more than her fair share of superheroes, Killer knows Green Lantern won't be gone for long. Admonished -- Effigy flaunts his earlier rescue of the villainess. Their bickering distracts them from the looming shadow overhead!

Green Lantern returns with a massive deposit of ice collected from the thawing, frozen Niagara! His snow plow construct dumps the mass of snowy ice on top of the two villains -- but Effigy is able to melt his way through!

He charges the hero with a burning rage, but flies straight into a grand slam from a green baseball bat!

The blow sends Effigy hurtling back to the river bank! The trajectory gives him time to take Killer Frost's words into account. Knowing Green Lantern won't stop pursuing him, he abandons concern for his love interest and devises a new plot!

Reaching out to the nearby highway -- Effigy sends a focused inferno toward an unlucky motorist. The blaze threatens to reduce the car to slag, forcing Green Lantern to abandon chase and focus on rescuing the driver!

The distraction gives Effigy the opportunity he needs to escape!

The Hammer...
As ever we come to a conclusion in need of definition. Effigy may've made his escape, but he did so in defeat. Killer Frost never emerges from beneath the snow and ice. Green Lantern is victorious!

It seems I find myself spontaneously enjoying some unexpected corner of comics every Holiday/New Year. Last year, I was jiving on X-Men during X-Mas. This year it seems to be Green Lantern that's stoking the flickering flame of my love for American superheroes.

When I say Green Lantern -- I specifically mean the Kyle Rayner years. A time in GL history I mostly observed from a distance -- mildly interested, but not actively reading. My mid-nineties tended toward Marvel standards (Spider-man, Fantastic Four, X-Men, Iron Man), a helping of The Phantom, and more Steel than you could ever reasonably expect.

I'd grown up a fan of Hal Jordan, but wasn't compelled to start any forest fires over the prospect of his replacement. The now largely forgotten phenomenon of H.E.A.T. -- "Hal's Emerald Attack Team" -- seemed more than a little weird. Even if I understood where the petitioning fan club was coming from.

I certainly didn't particularly like or admire the idea of Hal Jordan going bad. I was just nonplussed. By this point, Superman had already died and returned, Batman had been broken, and it was all getting pretty passé.

The nineties weren't short of preoccupations. We weren't that far removed from the proliferation of Guy Gardner, not to mention the sprawling concurrent tales of The Corps. A lot of Green Lanterns had pulled focus over the decades since Hal and his peers replaced golden ager Alan Scott. The times seemed ripe for somebody new. Even if Jordan's continued appearances as Parallax made it seem the door was always open for an eventual return. (Even after he died).

Ironically, this actually was the one that stuck for a while. Sure, Green Lantern: Rebirth reset the status quo in 2005, but that was a good eleven years after Jordan went homicidal! Many of those in the non-stop nineties - no less!

Jordan had his flirtations with moral redemption, and a handful of years as The Spectre, but that only impacted the era of Kyle Rayner if you wanted it to. For all the sound and fury surrounding the handover - the new GL was a success.

As I revisit back issues now, I see first-hand how Ron Marz and his collaborators reinvigorated the whole concept. Pretty early on there were comparisons to Spider-man, but that shorthand only speaks to aspects of a broad template.

Yes, the new Green Lantern was a young hero living in a big city. He was dealing with rent, relationships, and the innate responsibilities of his newfound power. That responsibility, in and of itself, was a product of a continuum that wasn't abandoned in the way some felt, at that time.

The wholesale slaughter of The Green Lantern Corps was a shortsighted move, but stripping the mythos down to the important parts made some sense.

Viewed through the eyes of today's constant reboots and origin stories, it's actually a pretty straight forward, back to basics soft reboot. Rayner refurbished the character with a contemporary outlook & aesthetic, created an entry point for new readers, and made the journey of reinvention a part of the story.

Making one Green Lantern special again helped focus a series that spent the post-Crisis early nineties ballooning exponentially, instead of pruning. There was nothing wrong with The Corps, but being able to identify the Green Lantern as a single iconic hero had its upside. It'd been a while, and it paid off when Grant Morrison spearheaded an all-star, back-to-basics relaunch of the JLA.

Kyle Rayner standing on his own in early stories helped establish the character in a similar mold to Wally West as The Flash, but when JLA put him next to Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and the gang, in '96 -- it took the next step to sewing the new Green Lantern into the fabric of an iconic DC Universe.

I don't regret DC's shift in the 2000s toward reinstating and refining their most iconic versions of characters. The way things ended with Hal Jordan never sat well, and there's a status to classic characters that can never be recreated.

I do wonder what it would've been like had the third generation continued uninterrupted, though. Flash and Green Lantern showed it was still possible for corporate superheroes to advance successfully into a new age. An age that didn't require hard reboots like Crisis on Infinite Earths, or The New 52.

The choice to turn away from that advancement wasn't necessarily the wrong one, but it arguably demands that they focus all efforts on sustaining the icons. A deadlock that can never truly allow them to commit to advancing beyond a certain point. Which tends to result in awkward reboots and rejectable jumping off points like The New 52, and even the current second Rebirth era.

Of course, grousing about the current state of comics isn't what brought us to this entry. I'm pleased to be adding new data into our Comic Book Fight Club record for Rayner rogue Effigy, and Killer Frost. Don't ask me why, (I don't know the answer), but I've been on a little bit of a Killer Frost kick, as well!

Looking for more from any of the characters or series featured today? Follow links throughout this post, or dive in to the Secret Issue Index of past fights to search via publisher, series and issue number! If you like what you see, be sure to hit the G+1 button, or share the link via social media!

Winner: Green Lantern
#62 (+46) Green Lantern (Kyle Rayner)
#318 (-40) Effigy
#826 (-79) Killer Frost

MARTIAN MANHUNTER versus
GREEN LANTERN & FLASH
Only the Good Die Young (DC)
Where: Green Lantern #44 When: Late September 2009 Why: Geoff Johns How: Doug Mahnke

The Story So Far...
The birth of a yellow Corps of fear-wielding ring barers was the first step toward a prophecized war of light that would usher in the Blackest Night. This Sinestro Corps waged war on the Green Lanterns above the skies of Earth, but when their strongest ally, Anti-Monitor, was destroyed by Superboy-Prime, his powerful yet broken form was sent hurtling through space, toward Sector 666 and the fulfillment of the Blackest Night prophecy.

From the corpse of the Anti-Monitor arose an immense Black Lantern, feulled by the power of death. There it lay in silent wait, while across the galaxy, the spectrum of emotional powers was awoken in force, creating rings of Red, Blue, Orange, Violet, and Indigo, before finally William Hand sacrificed his own life in the pursuit of death, and was reborn as the first of a Corps of Black Lanterns.

Now the dead across the universe will rise as fallen Guardian of the Galaxy, Scar, and Black Hand, march a black plague of death and destruction to every corner of existence. Former allies will rise to strike out at their friends, devoid of emotion and intent only on recruiting them to their order of the dead. This is the fate of the noble Martian, J'onn J'onnz, who was laid to rest on his home world by friends shortly after his brutal murder at the hands of the Society of Super Villains.

The Martian Manhunter's grave is not the first to be disturbed, leading Flash and Green Lantern to investigate the descrated grave of a believed-dead Batman. Little do they know that the missing skull is now a symbol of death for Black Hand, and wielding a black energy ring, J'onn J'onnz is returning to Earth, ready to strike at his old friends! The Blackest Night begins...

Tale of the Tape...
Strength: M. Manhunter 6 (Invincible)
Intelligence: Flash 5 (Professor)
Speed: Flash 7 (Lightspeed)
Stamina: Green Lantern 6 (Generator)
Agility: M. Manhunter 6 (Rubber)
Fighting: Green Lantern 4 (Trained)
Energy: Green Lantern 7 (Cosmic)


- Experiments with teleportation technology developed by one Dr. Erdel were, by accident, responsible for plucking J'onn J'onnz from his home on Mars. Traversing the gulf of space by unknown means, the unannounced arrival of a lurching Martian figure was enough to startle the aging scientist to his death. Alone in a strange world, the accident forced the Martian to at first adopt the scientist's identity by means of shapeshifting, before he absorbed enough understanding through the observation of television programming to assume his own identity.

Finding aspirational figures in the gumshoe detectives popular on television, the Martian adopts the fictitious identity of Detective John Jones. For a time he was to do as he had on Mars, delivering justice with unwavering moral and character, but eventually circumstances would force a reveal upon the Martian Manhunter.

Though resistant at first to expose himself to humanity's judgment, his unique Martian abilities quickly earned him status with the Justice League of America.
Along with the ability to transform his appearance and form, J'onn J'onnz also possesses fantastic super-human strength, speed, durability, energy vision, vast telepathic skill, and the ability to become invisible and intangible. While these many abilities quickly rank him among the most powerful figures in the DCU, the sole survivor of catastrophe on Mars has a single mundane weakness -- fire!

- Once little more than a carefree daredevil test-pilot; Hal Jordan was given a crash course in law and order when an alien from distant space, Abin Sur, landed in the desert during a test flight. Injured and dying, the alien's powerring found in Jordan the ability to possess great will and overcome great fear. Thus, he was unofficially inducted into a Corps of universe-spanning lawkeepers, replacing the deceased as the Green Lantern of Sector 2814!

As a police forensic scientist, Barry Allen's job required him to be methodical and deliberate, but even within the police force his reputation for being notoriously slow was the only extraordinary thing about him. That is, until once fateful night when he was struck by lightning and thrown into a shelf of chemicals! Granted the ability to move at superhuman speeds by the accident, he learns to innately tap into the pseudo-scientific phenomenon of the Speed Force, transforming him into a hero inspired by his boyhood idol, Jay Garrick -- The Flash!

Green Lantern and Flash are founding members of the Justice League of America and have worked extensively as friends and allies, two brave and bold heroes whose legendary status within the superhero community was only solidified by their legendary sacrifice which led to death. For Flash, the multi-dimensional threat of the Anti-Monitor led him to make the ultimate sacrifice, while Green Lantern, still under the influence of the fear-demon Parallax, sacrificed himself in a moment of retribution to reignite the Earth's sun. Each gained a second chance at life; Hal Jordan restored in-part by his connection to The Spectre, while Barry Allen's return remains more mysterious, coming during the defeat of Darkseid.

Math: Green Lantern/Flash (Ttl) M. Manhunter (Avg) Ranking: Flash (#15)

What Went Down...
The forensic scientiest and the space cop -- Flash and Green Lantern were natural choices to investigate what seemed to be the desecration of an unmarked grave belonging to believed-dead Bruce Wayne (aka; Batman). The duo are also natural choices for a Black Lantern Martian Manhunter to descend upon, seeking to return them to the grave they each escaped! "You should both be dead."

The Black Lantern sees each man bathed in the light of the energy he emits -- Green Lantern naturally exudes will, while the Flash glows blue in the eyes of Martian Manhunter, emitting hope. It is these emotions he hopes to corrupt, but while the Martian's shape-shifting abilities allow him to appear human, a similar scan by the Green Lantern's ring reveals his status as a lifeless shell.

The ruse of his reappearance undone, the Black Lantern is forced to engage!
A giant green energy-fist glides through the Black Lantern's body as it recalls the powers of intangibility used by Martian Manhunter. Intangibility equals invisibility and the BL Manhunter is able to swat both living heroes down, no doubt utilizing the powers of speed and strength the Martian Manhunter also used in his time as a living, breathing member of the Justice League of America.

Psychological warfare is as apparent as the physical manhandling the reanimated Martian intends to unleash upon his friends, declaring his intentions to "help" his former friends, whilst gripping the throat of the Green Lantern!

"Martian vision" gives Flash something to run from while the Manhunter analyzes the past of each once-dead hero. Yellow fear rips through Barry Allen as his mind is telepathically flooded with images of passing into the Speed Force, while the Green Lantern glows with green will, resisting flashbacks to his time as Parallax.

The flood of willpower into Hal Jordan's body appears to play into the Black Lantern's goals, but before he can make good on his threat to reach into his former ally's chest, the Flash goes airborne, vaulting off a makeshift ramp made from a fallen tombstone! The crackling speedster has little influence over he and his fellow's descent, however, forcing him to compell his friend back from the visions projected into his head!

A surrounding green light gives the pair a rough but safe landing into one of the buildings below, but it's not long before the building itself begins to quake with the Black Lantern Martian Manhunter's power. He brings the entire structure down with strength comparable to Superman -- a power he notes is all too often forgotten.

Fortunately, Green Lantern is again able to protect the innocent, housing himself, Flash, and the building's occupants in an impenetrable bubble of his ring's energy. It gives the heroes a chance to regroup and strategize.

Flash encounters an unseen Martian Manhunter first, unleashing a barrage of super-fast strikes whilst appealing to better days when the two discussed their lives as agents of law enforcement. With a super-fast twist of his limbs he blows a chemical tanker into his former ally, rocketting into a devestating follow-up left hook that provokes a whimpered appeal from his opponent, "B-Barry."

Unbeknownst to him, the Flash was the victim of Martian Manhunter's telepathic attack once more, actually unleashing his beating on Green Lantern! The Lantern uses his ring to try to lift the fog and free himself, only to be entangled in the metamorphic limbs of the decayed Martian Manhunter!

The Black Lantern chokes Green Lantern out and tosses him into the night sky, returning his focuses earthbound with a slingshot of his extented limb in the direction of the Flash! It is the final blow in this opening chapter of the battle, leaving Flash sinking in the Gotham waters, while GL floats aimlessly.

The Hammer...
We got the first inclination that this fight would occur in Blackest Night #1 and it's conclusion would have to wait until the second issue of the afforementioned series. However, as an autonomous depiction of the fight, I'm going to declare Martian Manhunter the victor under the logic of rounds. A long way of saying -- welcome back to The Comic Book Fight Club!

Our traditional examinations of superhero smackdown and comic book review has all but screeched to a hault since the slowdown of early 2009. A conspiracy of events has contributed to the necessity of this retroactive backlogging, one of the most significant being the somewhat appropriate struggles of experiencing the closest personal death of my short lifespan. In that respect, I suppose I can relate to the idea of these Blackest Night comics, even if I'm not inclined to read or discuss them with that perspective.

It bares repeating -- this is officially a backlog entry, written in 2010.
You future retronauts might like to know that, as I'm writing this portion of the review during a time when Blackest Night has finally finished, working around only notes from the time when this issue was actually written (and added to the Infinite Wars to-do pile).

It was tough not to be excited about this issue the minute the cover was leaked. It was a great way to immediately engage the longterm readers who, if you were anything like me, were probably anticipating Martian Manhunter's return during his death in Final Crisis [via the Requiem one-shot]. Such was the anticipation built by the Blackest Night teaser housed in the epilogue of Sinestro Corps War!

It was a wonderfully personalized way to get the message of the event across straight away, moreso than perhaps the deaths of Hawkman and Hawkgirl in Blackest Night #1. Martian Manhunter has long been the sentimental favourite of the JLA, engendering a fond following all the way to the naked uninformed of the cartoon audience. Besides, take a look at that cover! Amidst the speculation of who would be among the Black Lantern Corps' number, the image of MM with Flash on his back and GL pounded into the ground is a pretty big statement in the most primal terms! Exciting!

History will show that Black Hand was the first official Black Lantern to enter the fray after killing himself in the previous issue of Green Lantern -- the culmination of plot points explored throughout Geoff Johns' tenure on the title. It was in solicitations for action figures, however, that we first gleaned confirmation of a Black Lantern Martian Manhunter and Earth-2 Superman, which did little to reaffirm the scale of what was to unfold over the course of 2009. The speculation game was a small part of the Infinite Wars, but was quickly rendered moot by this gradual realization that the Black Lanterns would go far beyond the structure of the Yellow Lanterns that were the first of their kind introduced by Johns.

Those are the facts as they were.
Little did I know at the time that Green Lantern #44 would be the very narrow foundation upon which a goliath event would be erected. By the time big bad Nekron showed up, much of the excitement had begun to peter out. It was the sense of mystery in the early goings that really propelled Blackest Night as not only a story, but a monthly phenomenon that pushed DC to a controlling position of the top ten monthly sales chart. GL #44 played to that beautifully, adding a second glimpse at the emotion-vision colour treatment that became a trademark of the Black Lanterns throughout the many disconnected mini-series and one-shots.

This issue was also the first indication that this was very much a story with the newly returned Barry Allen Flash and Hal Jordan Green Lantern at the centre of it. This was something I certainly had not anticipated to such a total degree, but come 2010 have embraced to it's fullest. I had extreme reservations about the notion of permanently resurrecting a character [in Flash] that had contributed such an important legacy with his fictional death back in Crisis on Infinite Earths. Between the efforts of Final Crisis, Flash: Rebirth, Blackest Night, Blackest Night: Flash, and the odd blip elsewhere, it's become very easy to take the Flash of my youth for granted once more -- something I never expected. It's a credit to the nurturing of Geoff Johns, whose greatest triumph is almost always the respect he shows for concepts and characters created decades before his birth.

It's difficult to look back on this issue with the perspective of a typical review.
When the dust has well and truly settled, it'll be interesting to go back and try to reabsorb Blackest Night in a single download. I wonder if an issue like GL #44 will remain lost in the complexity and vastness of the story's eventual design, or if the personal undertones will take on a stronger meaning. To that end, I wonder where this issue will fall in the complicated shuffling of DC's Blackest Night trade paperback program. Both this and the previous issue have a curious disconnection about them, feeling like one-shot curio rather than part of the more elaborative storyline dotpoints that populated Green Lantern later in the event.

What remains true regardless of time is the success of Doug Mahnke's draft to the A-list. His pencils were a pleasure to behold come the conclusion of Final Crisis and I was very pleased to be reading a Green Lantern with his approach. There's a confidence in his line work that isn't always easy to describe. Clean lines and solid inks provided, in this issue, by the team of Christian Alamy, Tom Guyen, Rooney Ramos, and Mahnke himself, are always a feature of Mahnke's artwork, but there's a lot more to enjoy about his compositions and treatment of the superhero/human structure. He is a worthy successor to the hyper-realists that came before him. I'm not apt enough to really give him due credit.

Which probably makes this as good a time as any to cut the review.

I have a big stack of comics to my right that have accumulated each week throughout 2009 and 2010. They are the backlog I fully intend to contribute to the site as I find the time and energy. I've given consideration to other ways to keep the site bouyant with activity, but it's my feeling that this format of fight features and reviews is just too fundamental to the blog to supplement.

In that stack of backlog issues is plenty more Blackest Night, which I hope we can mine for some interesting retrospectives and statistics for this big game we call Secret Wars on Infinite Earths!

The Issue: 5.5 The Fight: 6
Winner: (Black Lantern) Martian Manhunter

Hardcover editions of the Blackest Night event spectacular are currently available from Amazon.com. By using purchase links on the site, you help sponsor future entries, with more recommendations available in the Online Store and featured in most posts found in the Secret Archives. For more information about the format of Blackest Night trades, visit DCcomics.com.