Welcome back to another edition of Demanded Characters. With the recent holiday only just behind us, I thought it would be fitting to focus on a group that is tied to some of the most famous wars in world history. The group is, of course, the Justice Society of America. But, like the Fourth of July does honor the Four Fathers, I think it is only fitting that we honor the four fathers of the JSA. So this month will look mainly at those legacies that are the seniors of crime fighting. Our first hero this month is Alan Scott, the original Green Lantern.
Wrapping up our month long look at the Titans, it looks like the classic bowl-cut Terra beat out the fairly unknown modern Terra.
Alan Scott burst onto the comic scene right before World War 2. He would not be as dark as Batman or as perfect as the big blue Boy Scout seen in Superman. Alan was a different type of hero during a very difficult time. During a train accident Scott, who was a railroad engineer, found a green lantern in the wreck; and when he picked it up it spoke, telling him how to fashion a ring. This ring gave him powers far beyond any living man, and its only limit was his own will power*. Though his powers seem to be similar to those of the current Green Lanterns, they actually come from a different source: the Starheart. The only real limits are his imagination*, but like all heroes he does have a weakness: his powers are vulnerable to wood. One of his other vulnerabilities, like most male heroes, is women. Scott fell in love with a woman and had an on-again, off-again romance through the ages with her. Scott had 2 children who follow in their father’s footsteps, Jade and Obsidian. These two were born with powers, passed on to them from the power in the Starheart.
Scott used his powers to fight crime in one of the most famous of the DCU cities, Gotham. Not only did he fight crime alone, but he helped to form the JSA. Along with his fellow members Scott struck out against the major super villains as well as some of the villains in our real world in WWII. Scott continued to fight crime on and off in the following decades coming and going under many different titles, until Zero Hour. Reforming the JSA along with his former teammates, the aging hero became a source of knowledge and strength in the DCU. Scott, along with the Flash (Jay Garrick) and Wildcat (Ted Grant), reformed the JSA for a new generation. This time the group was multi-generational, giving young heroes a place to learn how to be heroes from those who started it all.
So let’s see what choices we have for this legacy hero.
The original and very iconic look: This costume is simple and reflects his railroad connections from the past. The old style lantern gives him a look of a hero from another age.
The Starheart look leaves the lantern off the costume and adds a star. The star reflects the source of his powers, the Starheart, and separates him from the other Green Lanterns. The only thing that is the same is the color scheme and the mask. You can tell who the hero is but he is still set apart.
The Eternal Flame look is very similar to the look above, minus the symbol.
Under the name Sentinel, Alan Scott changed his look to combine the legacy of the Green Lantern while keeping parts of his costume from his time as the Eternal Flame.
The Modern look: Different in the look of the character, but not the look of the costume. There are minor differences to the costume but the real difference is in the subtle aging differences in his face, and of course the missing right eye. I think this would be a great way to get both the classic and modern looks with only a few changes.
And the final look is Alan Scott in his Kingdom Come Armor. This look would open up a whole new era of figures for the DCUC line.
What ever choice you make, I know Alan Scott is on my list as a must have standing in my DCUC collection.
Some images courtesy of Comic Vine
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