Just Imagine: Stan Lee and Dave Gibbons' Green Lantern

Just Imagine Stan Lee with Dave Gibbons Creating Green Lantern
Writer: Stan Lee
Pencils: Dave Gibbons
Inks: Dick Giordano
Letterer: Bill Oakley
Colorist: Alex Sinclair
Cover: Gibbons, colors by Jeromy Cox

“On the Street”
Plot: Michael Uslan
Dialogue: Lee and Uslan
Pencils: Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez
Inks: Josef Rubinstein
Letterer: Phil Felix
Colorist: Alex Sinclair
Editor: Mike Carlin
Released: Oct. 17, 2001

Indiana Jones meets Captain Planet as Stan Lee and Dave Gibbons reimagine Green Lantern – with an emphasis on the Green.

Rather than a ring-slinging space cop, this Green Lantern is a defender of the Earth. He starts out as archaeology professor Len Lewis, who loves adventures almost as much as the ladies love him. We meet him at Los Angeles University, where a trio of co-eds are headed to his archaeology lecture. One of their male classmates suggests it will be “like, Dull City,” but a blond named Cathy assures him that's not the case – not the way Lewis teaches.

Lewis tells his audience he believes archaeology holds the key to unlocking the mysteries of myths and legends, possibly pointing to an alien race that visited the Earth ages ago. Cathy's intrigued – so intrigued she buys a ticket on the same flight the professor is taking to Africa to search for the Tree of Life mentioned in so many religions and myths. Lewis doesn't mind because, as he repeatedly tells Cathy with all the subtlety of original recipe Green Lantern's boxing glove constructs, she's really attractive.

Meanwhile in Africa, a mercenary named Cragg Crogor* is killing protected animals and people and cutting down trees to find … something at the behest of the Rev. Dominic Darrk. What he discovers is a green mist that hides mysterious depths and rips heavy machinery to shreds. Crogor calls it quits, but Darrk sends him back – arriving at the same time as Cathy and Lewis, who apparently had a map?

Having gone 4 pages without threatening somebody with a gun and 6 without killing anybody, Crogor shoots Lewis point blank in the chest, sending him tumbling into the green mist. Cathy is dismayed, but only because she figured Lewis was their best chance at finding the Tree of Life. Turns out she's an agent of Darrk's as well, proving he's diabolical enough to enlist people whose first and last names don't start with the same letter (her surname is Warren).

Instead of dying in the mist, Lewis comes face to bark with Yggdrasil,which you might remember from such comics as Thor as the Asgardian world tree, aka the Tree of Life. The Tree sticks some vines up Lewis' nose,** heals him and imbues him with its power, turning him into the Green Dr. Manhattan.

Well, that's what he looks like, although thankfully the Tree provides him with a bit more modesty. He notes his body is glowing and gleaming like a green lantern, plus there's a lantern emblem on his chest, so that's what he's going by now. Discovering that he can fly, he goes to rescue Cathy, who has already grabbed a henchman – or co-worker's? – gun and is back to playing her role. They escape without Lewis lighting up but part ways back in the States when the professor won't tell her how he survived.

Darrk isn't happy with the performance of either of his pawns. He tells Cathy to kill Lewis and accelerates Crogor's aging process to give him added incentive to find the Green Lantern.

Before Cathy can carry out her mission, Lewis Lanterns back up and stops what appears to be a mugging in progress. Turns out an undercover cop was trying to bust a suspect, marking an inauspicious beginning to the superhero's career.

Lewis heads out to the desert to test his powers, which seem to include control over the elements. He also notices his energy is decreasing and figures his powers need recharged, like a battery.***

Thinking the professor knows something about the Green Lantern, Cathy tries to take him prisoner, at the same time Darrk unleashes a giant mechanical movie monster, piloted by Crogor, hoping to draw out its L.A.'s newest hero. As Cathy pulls a gun on him, Lewis lights up and battles the behemoth, saving bystanders and forcing the young woman to reconsider her allegiances. She makes her choice when the defeated automaton makes one last grab for Green Lantern and winds up fatally wounded in its grasp.

With her dying breath, Cathy says Lewis was the best thing that ever happened to her and he remembers how good-looking she is and forgets about the whole gun thing. He uses his still-not-specifically-defined powers to track whoever was pulling the monster's strings and finds Crogor, who decides he would rather take the Lantern's power for himself than deliver him to his boss. Lewis goes along long enough for his personal battery to recharge, then makes short work of the thugs. Darrk makes like Darth Vader and kills Crogor from afar, mystically aging him in seconds. Green Lantern has more questions than answers but pledges to do all he can to be worthy of his power.

The “On the Street” backup feature focuses on Kevin King,**** the undercover cop whose bust Green Lantern disrupted. He's left wondering whether there's still a place for officers like him in a world with superheroes. It's an interesting, ground-level take that could easily fit in the Marvel or DC universe proper.

There is a lot going on in this story, though I tend to keep coming back to Lewis' wolfishness toward Cathy. I wondered if this story wasn't set further in the past, but Cathy's cell phone places it circa 2001.. I don't think that puts me in #StuckInAMoment territory, if only because it happens multiple times. There is an interesting setup in him feeling guilty for not saving her while not knowing the full extent of her near-betrayal. Crogor is a pretty generic bad guy and his demise continues to position Darrk as the Just Imagine version of the MCU's Thanos (pulling the strings while all the other villains, except maybe Gundor Gorrok, die).

It's starting to sound repetitive, but this is another case of terrific ideas, fun dialogue, comic book wackiness and some rushed, contrived details, which can be attributed to putting a whole lot of story material into a single, albeit oversized, issue. Except for the battery gimmick, it doesn't rely much at all on existing Green Lantern concepts. I joked about the resemblance to Dr. Manhattan in the Watchmen co-creator's design but Gibbons' art is in the same dynamic and classic vein as Buscema and Kubert before him.

This wraps up Volume 1 of Just Imagine Stan Lee Creating the DC Universe. We'll pause for a bit so I can get my Marvel fix again and touch on a couple other items. But I'll come rushing back soon with Stan and Kevin Maguire's interpretation of the Flash.

* - Was Stan trying to get an alliterative name for every letter in the alphabet?

Not including the pre-existing Clark Kent and Lois Lane, by my count he's up to seven.

** - And presumably elsewhere.

*** - Sadly, we do not get a Stan Lee version of the Green Lantern oath.

4* - Eight.