ACW #608 – Green Lantern

Action Comics Weekly #608 (Green Lantern)
“Where the Heck is Green Lantern?”
Writer – Peter David
Pencils – Tod Smith
Inks – Dan Bulanadi
Letters – Tim Harkins
Colors – Anthony Tollin
Editor – Denny O’Neil

Ooh… Action Comics Weekly #608… this is going to be an interesting week.  Not only are we wrapping up our Blackhawk feature, but we’re welcoming a brand-new writer into the fold… Peter David starts his stint on Green Lantern, and in his first outing: Oprah!


Special Note: We won’t be seeing a Green Lantern feature again for almost two-weeks.  Action Comics Weekly #609 features the first chapter of Black Canary, which takes the lead-off spot (next week only).  Green Lantern is, for whatever reason, moved to the very end of the ish.  Oh, by the way, we’ll be having this same conversation this time next week when we talk Black Canary.


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We open with Oprah Winfrey shouting at a Producer… because her guest, Green Lantern has yet to arrive.  This is, of course, because Hal Jordan is a complete boob, who is incapable of keeping his appointments.  Actually, this time he gets to blame his near-tardiness on a “blasted hotel alarm clock”, which begs the question… can’t his ring just do that?  Like, act as an alarm?  Anyhoo… he bursts out of bed, and into the bathroom, where his underage girlfriend is in the shower.  He uses his ring to get him all gussied up for his big appearance.

On his way into Chicago, Hal happens across a group of armored car thieves… who are in the middle of stealing, well… ya know.  They realize that Green Lantern is on their tail, and so, they open fire.  Hal manages to deflect their shot… and then concocts a King Kong-esque construct to really ruin their day.

We hop back over to Oprah who is counting down the seconds to “showtime”, realizing that she might have to use a “back-up guest”.  Lucky for her (I guess), Hal arrives with a whole three seconds to spare!

As the program goes on the air, Hal looks to, well… clear the air about the whole Carol Ferris mess.  He even goes into the “quick and dirty” on the whole Green Lantern Corps.

After about a half-hour of jibbuh-jabbuh, Oprah turns to the audience for questions.  A woman asks Hal why, out of everyone, was he chosen to be Green Lantern.  To which, he replies… that he is totally without fear.  Fair enough, right?

Wellllll… the crowd ain’t buyin’ it!  Either that, or the Joker released some gas into the studio.

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So yeah, it’s the Oprah chapter!


A chapter that I had to do the ol’ double-take over when I first read it.  Just couldn’t wrap my head around it… I mean, I shouldn’t assume, but I don’t think there’s much crossover between Oprah fans and comic fans.  Heck, I suppose I could be wrong.  Wouldn’t be the first time.


I guess we could talk a bit about how Hal should never be late to anything… and how he should probably use the ring as an alarm clock rather than relying on whatever happens to be in the room he’s sleeping in… especially when he’s got a pressing appointment, ya know?


Nahhh, let’s talk Oprah (that sounds like one of those Twitter accounts, dunnit?).  I think Peter David did a good job with her… though, there’s (outside of her appearance) nothing really “Oprah-centric” about her.  I mean, this could’a been Bethany Snow… or whoever hosted that Impossible… But True! show in Gotham City.  I kinda think it’s cooler using Oprah just for the “what the…?” factor, but I don’t see much other added value.


I wonder if Oprah even knew about this?  Ehh, probably not.


All’at said, I dug the scenes taking place during the “show”.  Kinda wish we didn’t skip Hal’s explanation though… I really wanted to hear how he’d explain away all of the craziness… to an audience full of “civilians”, ya know?  The rolled-eyes in the audience would’ve been worth all the repetitive exposition alone.


Speaking of audience reactions, we wrap up with them raucously laughing at the notion that Green Lantern is truly a man without fear.  This is the concept we’re going to be building the rest of this story arc on, and it’s a darn good one.  I don’t wanna spoil the “big reveal” (that was retconned just as soon as it happened)… but, we’ll get there… and we’ll have fun doing it!


Overall… a fun chapter that sets up our next arc quite well.  We’ll see Hal and Oprah again in twelve days.


Tomorrow: The Penultimate Wild Dogging!