Showcase #22
Showcase #22 is the debut issue of Hal Jordan, the Silver Age Green Lantern, and stands as one of the two or three most consequential comics of DC's entire Silver Age revival. Where the Golden Age Green Lantern drew on mysticism and a magical talking lantern, writer John Broome and editor Julius Schwartz deliberately replaced that framework with hard science fiction: Hal Jordan is a jet test pilot chosen by a dying alien space-cop's power ring to join an intergalactic police force, a conceptual leap that perfectly mirrored the late-1950s Space Age and the post-Comics Code appetite for rational, science-grounded heroes. The issue's success directly triggered Hal Jordan's own ongoing series in 1960, his role as a founding member of the Justice League of America, and the eventual expansion of Green Lantern mythology into one of DC's richest cosmologies — a lineage that scholars and historians mark as both a defining chapter of the Silver Age and a template for superhero revival that Marvel and DC would follow for decades.
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After the 1956 success of his rebooted Flash in Showcase #4, editor Julius Schwartz turned to Green Lantern as his next Golden Age property to reimagine. Drawing on his lifelong love of science fiction, Schwartz enlisted writer John Broome — whose earlier work developing the 'Guardians of the Clockwork Universe' concept in Strange Adventures #22 (1952) had already seeded the idea of a cosmic police force — and penciler Gil Kane, who had been working steadily at DC for over a decade without a career-defining assignment. Schwartz used the Showcase anthology as a low-risk testing ground: if readers responded, DC would commit to a dedicated series, which they quickly did. The cover and interior art were both penciled by Kane, with the cover's inking attributed to Kane himself based on his signed notation and confirmed by DC's own Schwartz pay records, though some period sources credited Joe Giella, creating a minor attribution debate that has since been largely resolved in Kane's favor.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance of Hal Jordan, the Silver Age Green Lantern, created by writer John Broome and penciler Gil Kane under editor Julius Schwartz.
- First appearance and death of Abin Sur, the dying alien Green Lantern whose power ring selects Jordan — a fearless test pilot at Ferris Aircraft — as his successor.
- First appearance of Carol Ferris, Hal Jordan's long-running love interest and later adversary as Star Sapphire, created here in the second story ('Secret of the Flaming Spear').
- First appearance of Willard Ferris (Carol's father), a character whose name was later retconned to 'Carl Ferris' in subsequent Green Lantern issues.
- The issue contains three complete stories: 'S.O.S. Green Lantern!' (origin), 'Secret of the Flaming Spear!', and 'Menace of the Runaway Missile!' — establishing Hal's dual life as test pilot and ring-wielder from the outset.
- Gil Kane reportedly modeled Hal Jordan's physical appearance on his former neighbor, actor Paul Newman, according to Julius Schwartz.
- The conceptual seed for the Guardians of the Universe — the cosmic beings who empower the Green Lantern Corps — originated in an earlier Broome/Schwartz collaboration in Strange Adventures #22 (1952), predating Jordan's debut by seven years.
- The issue has been reprinted numerous times, including DC Silver Age Classics: Showcase #22 (1992), the Millennium Edition (2000), Showcase Presents: Green Lantern Vol. 1 (2005), The Green Lantern Chronicles Vol. 1 (2009), the Green Lantern: The Silver Age Omnibus (2017), and a full Facsimile Edition (2024).
Cast · 6 characters
Full credits
Full plot ⚠ may contain spoilers
▸ Reveal full plot — may contain spoilers
Green Lantern stops a missile launched by Dr. Parris at a government Hydrogen Power facility.
Plot details indexed by the Grand Comics Database (CC BY-SA).