Iron Lantern Facts Hey guys!
Welcome back to Top 10 Nerd, I’m Ron McKenzie-Lefurgey.
Iron Lantern is the amalgamation of Iron Man and Green Lantern, found in the Amalgam comics.
Under the name of Hal Stark, he has both the brains and suit of Tony Stark and the green
lantern powers of Hal Jordan.
Maybe you’ve heard of him, but if you’ve always wanted to know more about the guy without
having to delve into the comics yourself, you’re in luck!
Here are the Top 10 Facts about Iron Lantern!
Number 10: First I’ll just give a quick origin story for the uninitiated.
In this story, Harold “Hal” Stark was testing a flight simulator when he was whisked
away to a dying alien Rhomann Sur at his crashed ship.
Unfortunately, Stark crashed himself, and was forced to build a life-preserving suit
to keep him alive, using the alien technology.
He used a lantern-shaped battery found in the wreckage to power the suit, which ended
up giving him the powers of a green lantern, creating any object he could imagine with
green energy.
Where does this power come from?
Well, I’m glad you asked…
Number 9: Iron Lantern gets his powers from Oa the Living Planet.
This has led him to work for Oa in a number of ways, acting almost like the Silver Surfer
to Oa’s Galactus.
Their relationship is pretty good, other than Stark getting annoyed that Oa keeps calling
him his servant.
Stark works as a protector under the supervision of Oa, often bringing villains to the planet
to be taken to Oa’s prison levels.
While he is somewhat annoyed at depending on another being for his power, I think we
can all agree that the benefits outweigh the drawbacks on this one.
Number 8: He depends on a special battery.
While the original Green Lantern depends on the power of the lantern ring, powered by
the central power battery, Iron Lantern’s suit itself gains its energy from an alien
battery found on a crash-landed ship, which in turns gains powers from Oa’s central
battery.
If the battery is disconnected, his suit soon loses the abilities given to it by the alien
technology.
But thankfully, this won’t be a problem, because someone would have to know about the
battery and steal it, and no friend of Tony’s would NO KYLE WHAT - WHAT ARE YOU DOING, STOP
IT KYLE STOP IT!
Number 7: He was replaced for a time.
While we didn’t really get to see this in the comics, we were given a reference to it
in Iron Lantern #1, and it was a pretty significant part of the story.
Previously, Kyle O’Brien was chosen by Stark to take on the power of Oa the Living Planet,
turning him into the Green Guardsman.
Tony soon returned to take back the role, and Kyle didn’t love being removed from
the spotlight, leading him to be easily manipulated by Tony’s arch nemesis, Mandarinestro.
As a side note, Green Guardsman would later be referenced in the Justice League animated
series as a member of the Justice Guild of America.
The more you know!
Number 6: Iron Lantern has his own futuristic version.
While it wasn’t actually shown in the comic, there was a QUOTE reader letter that referenced
an alternate version of Iron Lantern that took place in the future, who went by the
name Arno Manning.
This was an amalgamation of Arno Stark, aka Iron Man 2020, and Pol Manning, an alternate
58th century life of Hal Jordan.
While there isn’t much we know about it, based on the letter we can figure that it
was a cool futuristic version of Iron Lantern, and if past comics tell us anything…
futuristic versions of superheroes are just wicked.
Number 5: Pepper is the villainous Madame Sapphire.
In the Amalgam comics, Pepper is no longer Pepper Potts, but Pepper Ferris, daughter
of Senator Harrington Ferris, and employee of Hal Stark.
In this universe, after coming face to face with a mysterious gem, she becomes Madame
Sapphire, an amalgamation of Pepper and Star Sapphire.
It’s pretty neat seeing Pepper as the bad guy, and it really makes me wish there were
more issues so I could see what the future has in store for Madame Sapphire!
Number 4: He pulled an Old Man Logan on Great White.
When Iron Lantern was battling the giant, mechanical Great White in space, he suddenly
found his power supply cut off because of frickin Kyle O’Brien.
Dammit Kyle.
However, in a last ditch effort to protect the people of Earth, he flew inside the big
guy and exploded him from the inside.
Truth be told, this strategy is kind of cliché at this point, but it really reminded me of
the scene in Old Man Logan when Logan ripped the Hulk apart from the inside.
Except, ya know, way, way, way less bloody.
Number 3: He’s an incredibly powerful lantern.
Iron Lantern really has the best of both worlds; the genius of Tony Stark and the power of
Hal Jordan’s lantern ring.
And when you combine them, they both become more powerful.
Think about it.
Regular Tony is able to achieve so much with his intelligence and creativity WITHOUT special
powers.
Now he doesn’t have to waste time actually building things to make his idea a reality;
he can just create it!
While we have yet to see the limits of his power, when it comes to what Iron Lantern
could achieve, the sky is the limit!
He could do so much good in the world with his creations, all heroics aside.
Number 2: Hal apparently thinks he’s in a chick flick.
Man alive, I know Tony Stark is supposed to be a ladies man, but Hal Stark is just too
charming for his own good, to the point of being cheesy.
I kinda hate him.
When he first sees pepper, he says to himself “I’d love to tell her how radiant she
is, how her hair’s like solid fire… but I can’t.
Not as long as she’s an employee, and I’m her boss.”
Seriously, I can’t tell if I’m watching a soap opera or a porno, but either way it’s
lame.
Seriously, I want to slap his inner voice.
Just stop.
Number 1: Everything is being masterminded by Mandarinestro.
Iron Lantern is a name that not everybody loves.
Personally I think it’s pretty cool, but I get that it’s kind of lame in that it’s
so obvious.
But you know what’s way worse and way more obvious?
Mandarinestro.
Any guesses as to what villains were amalgamated to make him?
Yep, The Mandarin and Sinestro.
All stupid names aside, though, there really couldn’t be any other villain for Iron Lantern,
and apparently he orchestrated the events in Iron Lantern #1, including turning Kyle
O’Brien against Stark, and changing Pepper into Madame Sapphire.
While we haven’t really seen much of him, he would be one heck of an adversary.
That’s it for today!
Hope you guys enjoyed, if you did please smack that thumbs up button and subscribe to Top
10 Nerd for more videos!
Let me know in the comments what you think about Iron Lantern, and if you’d like to
see more comics with him!
Until next time, I’m Ron McKenzie-Lefurgey with Top 10 nerd.
Later nerds!
Hal Stark has a love triangle with Pepper and Happy Kalmaku.
It seems that His armour is kind of retro.
Interestingly, for this version, Stark still had to place his own armour on himself.
This is strange because Green Lantern can create his own suit with his powers, and even
normal Iron Man had more portable suits by 1997.