Alan Wellington Ladd-Scott is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, and the first character to bear the name Green Lantern. He fights evil with the aid of his mystical ring, which grants him a variety of powers. He was created by Martin Nodell and Bill Finger, first appearing in the comic book All-American Comics #16, published on July 10, 1940.
Alan Scott was created after Nodell became inspired by the characters from Greek, Norse, and Middle Eastern myths and tales, including Aladdin from One Thousand and One Nights, and sought to create a popular entertainment character who fought evil with the aid of a magic ring that grants him various supernatural powers. After debuting in All-American Comics, Alan Scott soon became popular enough to sustain his own comic book, Green Lantern. Around this time, DC also began experimenting with fictional crossovers between its characters, leading towards a shared universe of characters. As one of the publisher's most popular heroes, Alan became a founding member of the Justice Society of America, one of the first such teams of "mystery men" or superheroes in comic books.
Following World War II, the character's popularity faded along with the decline of the Golden Age of Comic Books, leading to cancellation. After eight years out of print, DC reinvented Green Lantern as science fiction hero Hal Jordan in 1959. Later, DC revisited Alan Scott, establishing that he and Hal existed on Earth-Two and Earth-One respectively. Later stories set on Earth-Two depicted Alan becoming the father to the superheroes Obsidian and Jade, each with powers somewhat like his own, through Alan's first wife Rose Canton. Following the Crisis on Infinite Earths continuity reboot, Earth-Two is destroyed, and Alan is transported to the main universe.
In 2011, "The New 52" introduced a new Multiverse, depicting a young Earth-2 version of the character who was an out gay man. The "original" version of Alan is brought back into the mainstream continuity following the 2016 "DC Rebirth" initiative, and comes out in 2020 to his children as gay, retroactively establishing this incarnation as the first gay superhero.
Publication history The original Green Lantern was created by an American artist named Martin Nodell.Green Lantern (1940) at Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Retrieved on November 16, 2014. Archived from the original on November 16, 2014. Nodell mentions Richard Wagner's opera cycle The Ring of the Nibelung and the sight of a trainman's green railway lantern as his inspiration. After seeing this opera, Nodell sought to create a superhero who wielded a variety of magical powers from a magic ring, which he regularly recharged from a green lantern. Nodell wanted a colorful and interesting costume for his character, deriving from elements of Greek mythology.Nodell in As Nodell recalled in an undated, latter-day interview,
Originally the character was to be named Alan Ladd which was a portmanteaux of Aladdin, but was changed to Alan Scott to avoid confusion with the real-life actor of the same name.
The character of Alan Scott made his debut in All-American Comics #16 (July 1940), fighting crime under the masked identity of "Green Lantern". He also appeared as part of the superhero team Justice Society of America in All Star Comics #3 (Winter 1940). He served as the team's second chairman in #7, but departed following that issue and returned a few years later, remaining a regular character. His villains tended to be ordinary humans, but he did have a few paranormal ones, such as the immortal Vandal Savage and the zombie Solomon Grundy. Green Lantern proved popular and was given his own series, Green Lantern, later that year. Most of his adventures were set in New York.
In 1941, Alan Scott was paired with a sidekick named Doiby Dickles, a rotund Brooklyn taxi driver, who would appear on a regular basis until 1949. In 1948, Alan also got a canine sidekick named Streak. The dog proved so popular that he starred in his own solo side-stories, even appearing on the cover without the title hero multiple times.
After World War II, superheroes declined in popularity. Green Lantern was cancelled in 1949 after 38 issues and All-American Comics dropped superheroes in favor of westerns. Alan Scott's final Golden Age appearance was in All-Star Comics #57 (1951). He remained out of publication for 12 years, and after his revival he did not get another solo series until 2023.
In 1959, DC Comics editor Julius Schwartz reinvented Green Lantern as a science fiction hero. The new Green Lantern, named Hal Jordan, was empowered by alien masters to serve as an interstellar lawman and had many adventures set in outer space. His powers were similar to Alan's but he was otherwise completely unrelated—Alan Scott never existed as far as the new stories were concerned. Hal Jordan proved popular, but readers still had an interest in the old Green Lantern. Some years later, Alan Scott reappeared as a guest star in The Flash #137 (1963). To avoid continuity conflicts with the Hal Jordan character, Alan Scott and all his old stories were retconned as having existed on Earth-Two, in a parallel universe. For most of the 1960s and 1970s, Alan Scott made guest appearances in books belonging to Silver Age characters, visiting their universe through magical or technological means. In 1976, he appeared regularly alongside his Justice Society comrades in the revived All-Star Comics and later Adventure Comics in stories set in the 1970s. In 1981, DC Comics launched All-Star Squadron, which featured Alan Scott and the Justice Society in a World War II setting.
In 1986, the editors at DC Comics decided that all its characters should exist within the same setting and effected this change with the Crisis on Infinite Earths miniseries. Alan Scott now shared the same fictional world as Hal Jordan. DC Comics decided to write the character out of continuity in a one-shot book entitled Last Days of the Justice Society, in which he was "forever" trapped in an extra-dimensional realm. The character was brought back in the 1990s due to fan interest. Rather than update Alan Scott as a contemporary young hero as had been done with Batman and Superman, Alan Scott was instead written as a veteran of World War II with a magically prolonged lifespan. To distinguish Alan Scott from Hal Jordan, his superhero codename was for a time changed to "Sentinel" and he lost his magic ring, manifesting his powers through his glowing hands instead.Showcase '95 #1 (1995) In JSA #50 (2003) he regained his classic codename and ring, though he remained apart from Hal Jordan's Green Lantern Corps. He was a regular character in JSA and Justice Society of America.
In 2011, DC Comics again rebooted their fictional properties, erasing Alan from Earth Prime and instead having a new version of Alan Scott that once again exists on Earth-2, where Hal Jordan and his Green Lantern Corps do not exist. This new Alan Scott is no longer a grizzled veteran of World War II, but a fresh young superhero. He first appears in Earth 2 #3 (2012) with a completely redesigned sleek, solid green suit with no cape.
In the 2017–2019 Doomsday Clock event, Prime Earth Alan is unerased by Doctor Manhattan, and is merged back into Earth Prime during the 2020–2021 Dark Nights: Death Metal multiversal reboot event.
The copyright for the comic was renewed in 1967.
Fictional character biography Golden and Silver Ages Discovery
Thousands of years ago, a mystical "green flame" fell to Earth in ancient China as a meteor. A voice in the flame predicted that it would act three times: once to bring death, once to bring life, and once to bring power. For the first prophecy, a lamp-maker crafted the green metal of the meteor into a lamp. In fear and as punishment for what they thought sacrilege, the local villagers killed him, only to be destroyed by a sudden burst of the green flame. For the second, in modern times, the lamp came into the hands of a patient of a mental institution who fashioned the lamp into a modern train lantern. The green flame restored his sanity and gave him a new life. For the third, by 1940, after having already fulfilled the first two-thirds of this prophecy, the lantern fashioned from the meteoric metal fell into the hands of Alan Scott, a young railroad engineer. Following a railroad bridge collapse, the flame instructs Scott in how to fashion a ring from its metal, to give him fantastic powers as the superhero Green Lantern. He adopts a colorful costume of red, purple, brown, yellow, and green. He becomes a crimefighter in his first adventure, defeating the crooks who caused the accident. He also discovers his powers' weakness to wood when he is bludgeoned with a club. Alan is a founding member of the Justice Society of America, and is its second chairman.
Scott uses his ring to fly, walk through solid objects by "moving through the fourth dimension", paralyze or blind people temporarily, hypnotize them, create rays of energy, melt metal as with a blowtorch, and cause dangerous objects to glow, among other things. It could also allow him and others to time travel. Occasionally, he uses it to read minds or create solid objects and force fields in the manner usually associated with fellow Green Lantern, Hal Jordan. His ring could protect him against any object made of metal, but would not protect him against any wood- or plant-based objects.
During the 1940s, Green Lantern seemed to alternate between serious adventure, particularly when Solomon Grundy, his nemesis, appeared and light comedy, usually involving his sidekick, Doiby Dickles. Toward the end of his Golden Age adventures, he got a sidekick and companion pet in Streak the Wonder Dog – a heroic canine in the mold of Rin-Tin-Tin and Lassie – who was later retconned as a member of the Space Canine Patrol Agents, and the Legion of Super-Pets.
In All-American Comics #38, it's revealed his middle name is Wellington.
Justice Society of America
A part of Scott's early history is filled out with retroactive continuity. All-Star Squadron Annual #3 states that the JSA fought the villain Ian Karkull, who inadvertently imbued them with life energy stolen from an innocent victim. The energy slowed their aging, allowing Scott and several other members, as well as their spouses, to remain active into the late 20th century without infirmity. The events of that incident also led Scott, who had failed to save the victim from whom the energy was stolen, to take a leave of absence from the JSA, explaining why the character vanished from the roster for a time.
Scott was a member of the Justice Society of America in 1951 when the team was investigated by the "Joint Congressional Un-American Activities Committee," a fictional organization based on the real-life House Un-American Activities Committee. They were accused of possible communist sympathies and asked to reveal their identities. The members declined the request, and many of the members retired in the 1950s.
The team rebands in the 1960s with Scott as a member, though little is known of their adventures during this time, save for stories about their team-ups with the Justice League of America, the parallel world Earth-One, and cross-universe adventures Scott shares with Earth-One's Green Lantern, Hal Jordan.
Progeny It was eventually revealed that in the late 1960s that Scott marries the woman with the dual identity Rose and Thorn. They have a pair of children who would grow up to become the superheroes Jade and Obsidian of the team Infinity, Inc.Infinity, Inc. Annual #1
In the 1980s, Scott married his reformed former nemesis, Molly Mayne, also known as The Harlequin, reconciling with his son and daughter.
Post-Crisis on Infinite Earths