9. Theres About A Million Variations On The Oath
The oath is as integral to Green Lantern as the Bat-Signal to Batman, or everybody close to Spider-Man dying. Its probably also the closest most comic book readers will get to consuming poetry on a regular basis, starting with Alan Scotts ...and I shall shed my light over dark evil / For the dark things cannot stand the light / The light of the Green Lantern! The more commonly known version is the one recited by Hal Jordan and the like ever since, coined by Alfred Bester, which goes In brightest day, in blackest night / No evil shall escape my sight / Let those who worship evil's might, / Beware my power, Green Lantern's light!. Readers of a certain sort will have felt a tingle at that. What they might not know is that theres about a zillion variations on that oath, with other Lanterns having their own personalised versions (usually four lines long following a basic rhyming scheme). The stand out is undoubtedly Jack T Chances, which begins You who are wicked, evil and mean / I'm the nastiest creep you've ever seen! and ends with Yowza.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
