(electronic music)
- The Green Lantern Corps is one
of my favorite things about DC.
It's got cool aliens, space battles,
the ability to make constructs
out of your imagination and willpower,
plus my favorite color is green,
so I might be a little biased.
But one of the most iconic things about the GLs
has to be their oath.
You know the rest.
However that oath was not the first one
that the Green Lanterns had.
In fact there were many drafts
of different oaths that came before and after
the classic one that we know and love.
So, let's talk about those.
(heavy metal music)
While Hal Jordan made his first appearance
as the Green Lantern in Showcase number 22
from 1959, he was not the first Green Lantern
that DC had published.
Alan Scott, great last name by the way,
debuted almost two decades earlier
in All-American Comics, number 16.
He was pretty different than how we recognize
Green Lanterns to be today,
including having different oaths.
You heard me right. Oaths, plural.
Alan Scott had at least eight distinct oaths,
not including the variations
where just one or two words were changed around.
One thing that's present throughout
almost all of these oaths, as you might expect,
is the contention between light and dark.
In Green Lantern's first issue,
his oath went like this,
"And I shed my light over dark evil
"for the dark things cannot stand the light,
"the light of the Green Lantern!"
Pretty straight forward.
Not super catchy, however this oath has been said
by a few other characters.
Most notably Tomar-Re
in Green Lantern, volume 2, number 38.
It was also slightly altered
in All-American Comics, number 23.
Instead of reading,
"And I shall shed my light over dark evil."
It became, "And I shall shed my light upon dark evil."
Was that one word change worth mentioning?
Probably not.
In the summer of 1942,
we had another slight alteration to the oath
making shorter and more precise.
It was printed in Green Lantern, volume 1, number 4.
And read, "I shall shed my light upon dark evil
"for evil cannot stand the light of the Green Lantern!"
Similar themes here to the first one,
but don't get too comfortable
because the entire thing gets completely redone
in the very next issue.
This new oath is, "Let the light of the lantern
"penetrate the dark places of ignorance and wrong,
"setting all minds right and overthrowing
"all servants of evil."
And there's even a second oath in that same issue
that reads, "I shed my light upon the darkness!
"Evil has no place to hide itself!
"Green Lantern goes forth to conquer!"
That to me sounds less like an oath
and more of a cool speech one might give
to the troops before heading into battle.
Green Lantern goes forth to conquer.
It was later changed again
just a few months down the road,
in that same year of 1942,
in All-American Comics, number 45.
"My rays strike the darkest corner
"banishing all wickedness!"
Around the same time,
we still have yet to leave 1942,
another oath was introduced
in Comic Cavalcade, number 1, which read,
This is one of the only oaths
that ditches the theme of light and dark
for a generic give me the power kind of saying.
We're finally starting to leave 1942
with Green Lantern, Volume 1, number 6.
That was a lot of numbers just then, I apologize.
The oath in this issue went like so,
"The light of the Green Lantern
"pierces the darkness and mystery,
"and it's radiance will strike at the heart of evil."
I actually kinda dig this one.
It's very poetic, but if you've caught on,
it's not smart to get too attached to these oaths
because in February of 1943,
All-American Comics, number 47, printed,
of course, a different oath for the Green Lantern.
"As the green rays strike forth into darkness
"so may all black evil be exposed and driven away!"
Later that year Alfred Bester became a regular writer
for the Green Lantern comics and gave us that classic oath
that we know and love today.
As far as I can tell, Bester's oath was first written
in Green Lantern, volume 1, number 9,
and goes a little something like this,
All together,
"In brightest day, in blackest night
"no evil shall escape my sight.
"let those who worship evil's might
"beware my power, Green Lanterns light!"
You'll notice that it's still Alan Scott saying this oath.
Hal Jordan was not the originator of it
as many people believe.
This oath was actually said 16 years
before Hal Jordan ever saw print in Showcase, number 22.
There have been little tweaks and alterations
to the oath over the years.
Like the brief change from blackest night
to darkest night in Green Lantern, volume 3, number 43,
since Hal wanted to be a little more politically correct.
This doesn't begin to touch on all the members
of the Green Lantern Corps who have
completely different oaths.
Like Guy Gardner's first appearance
in Green Lantern, volume 2, number 59,
when his oath went,
"On worlds afar or scenes at home,
"wherever the cause should make me roam,
"always I vow to fight the good fight,
"to combat evil with Green Lantern's might!"
And, of course, there was Hal Jordan's predecessor,
Abin Sur's oath in Legends of the DC Universe, number 21.
"I will fear no evil for I illuminate the darkness
"with the light of justice,
"the justice of the Green Lantern!"
And there are countless more
like in Green Lantern New Corps, number 2,
which, as you can probably guess from the title,
involved a montage where several new Lanterns
created their own oaths.
So we got new oaths, like what Sool came up with,
"To bring order to chaos, law to the lawless
"and light to the shadow."
Or Garl Rathbone's oath of,
"Uh, I swear only to do the right thing
"and not hurt anyone, uh,
"who doesn't deserve it already."
My favorite is probably Driq from Criq
whose oath is simply, "Pluphh!"
But hold on.
If Green Lantern's can make up their own oaths
then what's the comic book origin
of the Green Lantern oath.
We don't really know anything
about Alan Scott's multitude of oaths,
but when it comes to the classic one,
Hal Jordan explained it's creation
in Green Lantern, volume 2, number 10.
Hal composed it about a week after
he first became Green Lantern
and was inspired by some of his first cases.
So, to break it down,
in brightest day came from a bank robbery
that used a super magnesium bomb,
which when detonated was so bright
that it blinded everyone in the area,
including Hal himself.
Unable to see, Hal used his ring as a kind of radar
to aid him in taking down the criminals in brightest day.
In blackest night was inspired by a case a few days later
when Hal followed some train robbers
into a network of incredibly dark caves.
Darkness isn't an issue for someone whose
power is to literally wield light, right?
Well normally that would be the case,
but these caves were filled with a thick black fog,
which was difficult for light to penetrate.
To increase the difficulty
the robbers had memorized the cave system
and were able to elude our hero,
but Hal was not out of the game just yet.
He commanded his ring to locate the thieves
and cover them in a glowing aura,
like a beacon that Hal could follow
to catch them in blackest night.
The line no evil shall escape my sight
was based off of a third robbery
that the Green Lantern faced because that's apparently
the only kind of criminal this city has.
Two burglars broke into Ferris Aircraft
and stole a safe full of money,
and Hal knew the thieves would need to use explosives
to blow the safe open to get the cash.
So, he casted a beam over a large area
with hope that his ring would be able to sense
any vibrations from an explosion.
It worked and he caught the criminals because
no evil shall escape his sight.
As for those who worship evil's might
beware my power, Green Lantern's light.
There's a really awesome story behind those lines.
Hal added them because he wanted it to rhyme.
That's it.
Of course, that's just the original story
for how the oath came to be.
There have no doubt been retcons
and inconsistencies with this.
So let's not stress out about it.
This video can't fit everything in.
I haven't even talked about
all the other Lantern Corps colors
and their own distinct oaths.
Oh wait, I did that like three years ago.
Ungh, don't watch those videos.
But now I want to challenge you guys.
Write your own oath in the comments.
It can be for the Green Lanterns
or even any other color Lantern Corps.
Or perhaps you want to make up your own corps if you want.
I did back in the day.
It was the Plaid Lanterns.
I don't have an oath for that.
So if you wanna make up an oath for the Plaid Lanterns,
That'd be great.
And if you wanna learn more about
some Green Lantern goodness,
the first three videos I ever made
were about Lantern Corps.
They're terrible and filled
with blatantly wrong information,
but you can still click right here
to see how far we've come
as we approach the 100th episode of this show.
We've also got this video,
which explains why the Yellow Lantern Corps
is specifically called the Sinestro Corps.
It's got some fun time travel elements in there,
and some other bits of trivia that you might not know
about the Yellow Lanterns.
Click here to watch that one,
and make sure you hit that big sexy subscribe button
so you don't miss out on all the new videos
we make for you every week
that explore the history, science, art and philosophy
behind your favorite comic book superheros.
My name is Scott, and I'll see you
right here on Friday for another video.
See ya.