GREEN LANTERN vol2 #5 (1961)
by John Broome & Gil Kane
Sinestro might be Green Lantern’s nemesis, but he’s not his first recurring villain… who doesn’t appear in the cover. Which wouldn’t be helpful anyway because he’s unrecognizable in the story.
Seriously, you would never guess THIS is how Hector Hammond used to look like!!!
He doesn’t just look like a combination of Reed Richards and Tony Stark (the first debuts the same year and the second isn’t even around yet), but his inventions are equally crazy.
The fact that Carol Ferris, who has the hots for Green Lantern, also finds Hector fascinating is enough for Green Lantern to investigate. The potential connection to four scientists who recently disappeared is just an excuse, obviously.
Green Lantern is also recruiting his friend Tom (who I refuse to call by his nickname Pieface) is going to impersonate him.
How would THAT work!? Leaving aside the way his skin is colored in the comic, he’s clearly way too short and skinny to pass for Green Lantern!!!
Except Green Lantern’s ring can apparently magically transform anyone into anyone else. How does he EVER have trouble with his secret identity if he can do THAT!?!?
I do like the idea that not EVERYONE can use the ring at 100% capacity, though.
We then cut back to the Hector Hammond plot, where we learn that he employs four people who he somehow evolved by 100,000 years.
These people are smart enough to pull the fake ring out of Fake Lantern’s hand.
How the heck did they do that!?
Sounds legit.
Fake Lantern is trapped with the four scientists… but his ring can’t pass through the invisible barrier that Hammond uses to trap them there. So this leads to Hector Hammond getting the fake ring.
Hector thinks about his own origin story: he found a meteorite that can evolve things super-fast.
In a future story that will get connected to origin of Gorilla City, which is kind of cool I guess.
How the heck does that random scientist know how plants will evolve in the next 100,000 years!? Who could’ve possibly told him!?
So that led to Hector kidnapping the scientists (SOMEHOW) and turning them super-smart.
And he didn’t evolve himself because SOMEHOW he knew he would look like that and lose all his will.
Despite the fact that the fake ring couldn’t pass through the barrier when Fake Lantern was wearing it, Hammond does it just fine.
The real Green Lantern eventually finds where Fake Lantern is being held and confronts Hammond. You’d expect him to just will the fake ring out of existence, but nope!
Seriously, I don’t have a problem with him being able to create a new ring, but come on! Have at least SOME semblance of security!!!
Hammond is quite a threat with the fake ring, using the time Green Lantern wastes fixing the broken dam to prepare an ambush.
But come on, this is Green Lantern we’re talking about! Surely he’s ready for anything!
Well that’s just embarrassing. Especially since the ring is SUPPOSED to make GL impervious to harm when it’s operating.
Once again Green Lantern saves the day by sheer dumb luck: Hammond’s ring JUST ran out of power, because he didn’t know it needs to be recharged.
Then Green Lantern restores the scientists to their regular form…
…and then proceeds to give us a terrible, terrible lesson.
Like… WTF does that even mean!?!? I guess GL would feel reeeeally good about himself if these scientists discovered the cure for cancer!?
*groan*
And so we end with…
OH COME ON!!! Will someone please, PLEASE stop giving supervillains access to libraries? Has that EVER lead to something good in a single superhero comic!?!?
Historical significance: 7/10
Hector Hammond is not a particularly iconic villain but he does show up quite often in the Silver Age, and he sticks to future continuities as well.
Silver Age-ness: 10/10
A person is transformed into an ape because radiation, so……
Does it stand the test of time? 2/10
The beginning is quite enjoyable, but it’s all downhill from there. The way Hammond is defeated is incredibly stupid, and that “moral” at the end… I just want to say F### YOU HAL JORDAN.
How close is this to the modern character?: 0/10
Well Hammond will soon (in his next appearance, against the JLA) expose himself to the meteorite and turn into this:
Like I said, in this comic he’s almost unrecognizable: he doesn’t have his big head, he doesn’t have telepathy or telekinesis, he’s not bound to a flying chair, and he’s not mute.
Honestly he’s quite an interesting villain, although I don’t think he works particularly well against Green Lantern… since the latter is often acting in space, the two don’t interact as often and as deeply as the otherwise would
in later continuities, even though he appears quite often in the Silver Age.
He’s also quite unique in being one of the few supervillains who doesn’t use a codename.
There’s also the angle of the fact that gaining his superpowers makes him disabled, losing both the ability to speak and to walk. He would honestly make a good villain for a Green Lantern live action movie!
Too bad we never got a Green Lantern live action movie.
Yep. It’s too bad that movie definitely doesn’t exist.