Giant Green Ring Things, Part V

Picking up with issue ten, we see the fairly common Green Ring Thing Net:



But this one doesn't qualify as giant. Nor does Green Ring Thing #38, a pair of handcuffs:



GRT #39 qualifies as giant:



But Giant Green Hands are pretty much a dime a dozen, and this one is uninspired, so we'll only give it one Star Sapphire.

We've seen GL use his ring to create springs before, but GRT #41 is a "bed of springs":



Unfortunately, not giant.

I'm not sure what to call GRT #42. A piece of pipe?



But it's not giant, so we don't have to worry about it.



GRT #43 is a chain, used to control Sinestro. It's barely big enough to qualify as giant, and I'll give it two Star Sapphires.

Green Ring Thing #44 is that old standby, the cage:



These are seldom giant, and this is no exception.

GRT #45 is really quite cool, a replica of a Green Lantern Ring:



In the story, the Power Ring had slipped through a hole in Hal's pocket and was found by the kid, who willed the ring to return to GL when he was in the middle of a battle with some crooks. Hence his willingness to give the youngster a replica. Unfortunately not giant.

GL #12 features the long awaited appearance of the Green Boxing Gloves:



Not giant, but I am pleased to learn that Green Boxing Gloves do have a basis in fact.

This series was inspired by similar series at the Comic Treadmill.

Running Tally:

Giant Green Net: 2
Giant Green Bird: 1
Giant Green Springs: 1
Giant Green Test Tube: 1
Giant Green Ice Tongs: 1
Giant Green Hand(s): 5
Giant Green Lock Wrench: 1
Giant Green Umbrella: 1
Giant Green Chiller Diller Menace: 1
Giant Green Stethoscope: 1
Giant Green Old-Fashioned Shopping Bag: 1
Giant Green Broom: 1
Giant Green Shield: 1
Giant Green Chemistry Retort: 1
Giant Green Test Tube Holder: 1
Giant Green Fist: 1

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Giant Green Ring Things, Part IV

Starting with Green Lantern #7, we encounter Green Ring Thing #29:



This is the second green wave that GL has created (and both were used against the Qwardians), but again I have to rule against its giant qualities despite the text to the contrary. It's a big wave, to be certain, but not so big as to qualify as "comic-book giant".

Note there are a couple generic-type ring things that aren't really worth mentioning in this issue; some sort of green spikes intended to keep Sinestro pinned against a wall, and a green bubble in which Sinestro is imprisoned. Since these are generic objects, I don't think they count as real green ring things.



It's a shield and ridiculously big enough to qualify as a Giant Green Ring Thing, but dull enough to only get one Star Sapphire.

GL does some chemistry with a retort in #8, qualifying easily as a Giant Green Ring Thing. Since he goes on to give us a little chemistry lesson about Aqua Regia or royal water being the only acid that could dissolve gold, it's educational, so we'll give it four Star Sapphires.



After mixing up the Aqua Regia, he puts it in a test tube, with a cork and a test tube holder. This would be the trifecta of Giant Green Ring Things, except for one thing:



Arggghhh! None of it's green! We have not addressed what to do at this point, and the referees are huddling at midfield trying to figure out the call. And we have a decision. They are going to count the test-tube holder as it's arguably a coloring error. But the test tube itself and the cork appear to have been intended to have regular coloring. So GRT #32 is a test tube holder and since it appears in a pretty cool scene (and qualifies as giant), we'll give it four Star Sapphires.

Green Ring Thing #33 is a shield, not quite big enough to qualify as giant:



But GRT #34 rings the bell:



A giant fist that knocks them all out with one bop on the noggin? Five Star Sapphires!

GRT #35 is a parachute:



This is from the first Jordan Brothers story, which series was mostly remarkable for the antics of Hal's brother Jim's girlfriend (later wife) who became convinced over the years that her boyfriend/hubby was secretly Green Lantern. As I remarked when covering that series, Hal was a rare Silver Age DC character in that he actually had siblings. However nice the tie-in to an old post, I must conclude it's not a giant parachute.

GRT #36 is the every popular Green Prison Cell:



Always cool, seldom giant.

Running Tally:

Giant Green Net: 2
Giant Green Bird: 1
Giant Green Springs: 1
Giant Green Test Tube: 1
Giant Green Ice Tongs: 1
Giant Green Hand(s): 4
Giant Green Lock Wrench: 1
Giant Green Umbrella: 1
Giant Green Chiller Diller Menace: 1
Giant Green Stethoscope: 1
Giant Green Old-Fashioned Shopping Bag: 1
Giant Green Broom: 1
Giant Green Shield: 1
Giant Green Chemistry Retort: 1
Giant Green Test Tube Holder: 1
Giant Green Fist: 1

Nine issues into the main series and still no Giant Green Boxing Gloves!

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Giant Green Ring Things Part III

Picking up with issue #4, we encounter our first repeat Green Ring Thing, a Giant Net:



As with the first net it's marginal to call it giant, and given that it doesn't work, it only gets one Star Sapphire out of five possible.

The next Green Ring Thing is a stethoscope:



The text describes it as huge, but does it qualify as giant? Ah, well, I can't resist the opportunity to add a Giant Green Stethoscope to the list. Two Star Sapphires.

Green Ring Thing #18 is a giant hand:



Pretty dull, though, so we'll only give it the minimum one Star Sapphire.

Next up is a Green Ring Thing Shield:



Not giant.

A Green Tidal Wave is GRT #20:



Tempting, very tempting, but that does not look like an oversized tidal wave to me.

Giant Green Hands for #21:



What to call Green Ring Thing #22?



It's kind of like a net, kind of like one of those old-fashioned shopping bags that ladies used to bring to the supermarket with them. And so that's what we'll call it, and as it is giant and retro, we'll give it three Star Sapphires.

GL #5 features the first Green Ring Thing not created by Green Lantern:



A spear, but not a giant spear.

GL responds with GRT #24:



A shield, but not a giant shield. And in the next panel:



Giant Green Hands arm-wrestling? Four Star Sapphires.

Green Ring Thing #26 is a dam:



But not a giant dam.

The Giant Broom sweeps clean:



Three Star Sapphires.

Green Ring Thing #28 is rather unusual:



I'm not sure why GL would only be able to do this on a planet with a "super-magnetic field"; presumably Schwartz was looking to make sure his writers didn't overdo this particular trick.

Running Tally:

Giant Green Net: 2
Giant Green Bird: 1
Giant Green Springs: 1
Giant Green Test Tube: 1
Giant Green Ice Tongs: 1
Giant Green Hand(s): 4
Giant Lock Wrench: 1
Giant Green Umbrella: 1
Giant Green Chiller Diller Menace: 1
Giant Green Stethoscope: 1
Giant Green Old-Fashioned Shopping Bag: 1
Giant Green Broom: 1

The hands move out into the lead, but still no sign of the Giant Green Boxing Glove!

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Giant Green Ring Things, Part II

We've already hit the Showcase appearances, so now it's time to talk about GL's own magazine. In GL #1 we start out with giant ice tongs:


It's clearly a giant green ring thing; I'll give it three star sapphires out of a possible five. I assume most of my readers are old enough to remember these items although they were on their way out. Back before the refrigerator, every home had an icebox, an insulated container for perishable foods. The iceman would make regular deliveries of large cubes of ice, and ice-tongs were how he carried them.

Green ring thing #10 is:



Umm, I guess that's supposed to be a giant fist, but it's clearly missing a finger. One star sapphire. Correction: As pointed out by Booksteve in the comments, it's a hand, not a fist and the hand is grabbing the crook by the collar between the thumb and (hidden) index finger.

Green ring thing #11 is a giant lock wrench:



It's how GL defuses the menace shown on the cover of issue #1 and thus I award it the full five star sapphires.

In GL #2 we get the first human green ring thing:



Is it giant or not though? The text describes it as huge bulk, but it does not look significantly larger than a normal football player and thus does not qualify.

Green ring thing #13 is a sledgehammer:



But it is not giant, unlike #14



The Giant Green Umbrella only gets two star sapphires out of five as it is not used to combat a menace but to keep people from getting wet.



A Giant Green Chiller Diller Menace to get Green Lantern out of listening to a proposal from Carol? That rings the bell: five star sapphires!

That takes us through the first three issues of GL's solo title. Running tally so far:

Giant Green Net: 1
Giant Green Bird: 1
Giant Green Springs: 1
Giant Green Test Tube: 1
Giant Green Ice Tongs: 1
Giant Green Fist: 1
Giant Lock Wrench: 1
Giant Green Umbrella: 1
Giant Green Chiller Diller Menace: 1

So far, still no Giant Green Boxing Glove!

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Bring On the Giant Green Boxing Gloves, Part I

I've always envied the Comics Treadmill guy H for his posts on Prop Stars, the gigantic background props that appeared in hundreds of Batman stories from the 1930s-1960s. The idea of such a series of posts is absolutely brilliant, because composing them isn't terribly difficult if you have access to the source material, and yet they're quite entertaining to put together and read.

But he's pretty much got that market cornered, and I couldn't think of a comparable series of posts until this afternoon, when I surfed over to the Fortress Keeper's place and saw his post about the Golden Age Green Lantern (as drawn by Alex Toth). This part jumped out at me:

At the time, the pre-teen Fortress Keeper was struck by Alan Scott’s garish costume (He seemed more like a Rainbow Lantern, we thought. Remember, this was loooonnng before Geoff John’s Crayola take on the Green Lantern Corps) and apparent preference for deductive reasoning and two-fisted grit over flashy power-ring theatrics.

(No giant boxing gloves!)

This caused an mmediate inspiration to catalog the giant green things that Green Lantern created in the Silver Age. So without further ado:



Green Ring Thing #1 is a net that GL puts underneath a missile that he is unable to grab because it is colored yellow. It succeeds because the tip of the missile is red. Now here's the tricky part; is it "giant"? Obviously large nets are common in commercial fishing, although I'd guess that they don't have the gaps that this net is shown having. I'm going to say it qualifies as a giant object. Now, how does it rate as a GL giant object? I'm going to give it five star sapphires out of a possible five, as it solves the problem shown on the cover of Showcase #22, GL's very first appearance in the Silver Age.

Green Ring Thing #2 is a giant hawk that GL creates with his power ring:



Obviously this is a giant bird; it is intended to scare away a yellow pterodactyl that GL cannot defend himself against otherwise. Four star sapphires out of a possible five; interesting as the first animal GL creates but not otherwise historic.



Green Ring Thing #3 is a pair of springs. GL saves a yellow roller coaster car when he quickly realizes that its underside is painted black. Obviously this qualifies as giant and seems worthy of three star sapphires.



Green Ring Thing #4 is a set of several microphones. As you can see they are not giant and therefore do not qualify.



Green Ring Thing #5 is a jail cell. These appeared with amazing frequency in the Silver Age, but do not qualify as "giant"

Green Ring Thing #6 is a firemen's net.



Not giant.

Ditto for Green Ring Thing #7:



Green Ring Thing #8 gets us back on track:



A giant green test tube to capture the monster shown on the cover of Showcase #24? Five star sapphires out of five.

Running Tally:
Giant Green Net: 1
Giant Green Bird: 1
Giant Green Springs: 1
Giant Green Test Tube: 1

This takes us through the end of Green Lantern's Showcase appearances; I'll start in with his solo title next and try to pick up the guest appearances and JLA stories afterwards. One thing I do note is that three of the legitimate Giant Green Ring Things were created to handle something yellow (only the test tube broke this pattern).

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