November 28, 2008 

More Corn

I shouldn’t dump more corn-ball humor on you after yesterday’s post, but here’s the final page of a story from Green Lantern #10 – the origin of Green Lantern’s Oath.

Yes. They gave it an origin.

Why G-d, why?


  • http://flickr.com/photos/sedary_raymaker/ Naked Bunny with a Whip

    He’s using my monitor to charge his ring! Stop that!

  • Paradox

    So, then, what’s the reason for Alan Scott using it first? >: )

  • sezaar

    And still we wonder why Hal’s later career as a poet didn’t take off. If only he had used his ring to convince those Swedes to give him the Nobel Price literature…

  • http://www.youtube.com/llordllama Llordllama

    “So actually that’s the origin of the first 12 words of the oath, the second 12 words I just tacked on the end. So technically Pieface you only know half the story…”

  • onion3000

    “As the good-humored face of the Eskimo grease monkey gleams with sudden comprehension…” – Fantastic caption!

    What does his rhyme do then? Did he need to say anything at all as he charges his ring? Is it just obsessive compulsive disorder, or a superstition? It it like counting ‘one mississippi, two mississippi…’ to get the timing about right? Before the first few adventures, when he had no rhyme, did he not charge his ring? So many questions.

  • http://flickr.com/photos/sedary_raymaker/ Naked Bunny with a Whip

    It it like counting ‘one mississippi, two mississippi…’

    Yes.

    I remember one series that started off with Hal being a bitter wanderer, and he just counted to ten as he charged his ring; and another story that depicted when he first got the ring and tried to charge it, and the thing stuck to the battery (magnetically?) for a few seconds until it was done charging.

    These are both from the late-80s/early-90s though and are probably retcons.

  • onion3000

    Thanks Bunny! I honestly didn’t know.

  • Dierna

    Everything needs an origin story….even the oath…I guess. But how did he charge up his ring BEFORE he decided to become a poet? :P

  • onion3000

    Alternative rhyme (according to this origin):

    “Magnesium bombs or foggy cave,
    I’ll catch some crooks who think that they’ve,
    Got away…de dum de ding
    That’s long enough to charge my ring”

  • cleome45

    I still think I like Pieface better than Snapper.

  • Naryldor

    I just can imagine a conversation in despair between the Guardians after hearing the Oath for the first time:

    “Good gracious heavens! I told you to give to the dumb one from Earth the quick-charger lamp, now look what you’ve done!!”

  • George C

    I’m pretty sure there was also a story once that explained that if Hal didn’t say the full oath, the ring didn’t get a full charge… the writer noticed that the oath has 24 words. 24 words = 24 hours. Also retconned away no doubt. I also remember that it was SF author Alfred Bester who created the oath.

  • Dominoed Daredoll

    Sorry. Can’t even think of something witty for this. Too busy reeling over Batman’s death.

  • Ilion

    I think it’s quite likely Batman RIP will end up as a WWTT?!

  • http://gu-novel.blogspot.com MikeRM

    George C, apparently it wasn’t Bester, it was already around when he took over the writing.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Lantern#Green_Lantern_oath

  • Maniac Doc

    I’ve heard both sides of the debate. The world of comics is fraught with inconsistency, so I wouldn’t be surprised if both were true at different times.