10 Problems No One Wants To Admit About Green Lantern

4. Their Weakness Shouldn't Be A Big Deal

all star batman and robin green lantern yellow
DC Comics

Anyone who derides - or even supports - Green Lantern is aware of two things: Alan Scott's weakness to wood was ridiculous, and so was Hal Jordan's susceptibility to the colour yellow. Both were relics of the Golden and Silver Ages and neither had a place in a maturing industry filled with a fish-man space-cop, a cabal of blue-headed intellectuals, and a sentient planet that was also a space officer.

See what I mean?

Look, no one's saying that having your character be vulnerable to wood and yellow isn't pretty goofy, but so are plenty of things about comics. They're comics, and GL in many ways represents the pinnacle of Silver Age goof when it comes to the DC universe - and that's a good thing.

In a bid to modernise the character both Scott and Jordan's weaknesses have been retconned into something slightly more believable, but did they even need that sort of treatment in the first place?

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Content Producer/Presenter
Content Producer/Presenter

Resident movie guy at WhatCulture who used to be Comics Editor. Thinks John Carpenter is the best. Likes Hellboy a lot. Can usually be found talking about Dad Movies on his Twitter at @EwanRuinsThings.