What If? Starring Green Lantern


Phillipos must think I'm stalking him.

The first time I linked to his post was to chide him. The second time was to compliment him on his analysis of the Spider-Marriage. Now, on my third consecutive post:

We have a hat trick.

Philippos was elaborating on Wonder Woman's status as the flagship female character of the DCU. This provided me with a perfect springboard to share a scenario that's been swimming around in my brain recently.

Wonder Woman, created by William Moulton Marston, first debuted back in All-Star Comics#8 back in December of 1941 . But But nearly a year and a half prior, Martin Nodell and Bill Finger introduced another super-hero.

From Wikipedia:

Green Lantern (sometimes called The Green Lantern in the early days) was created by Martin Nodell (using the name Mart Dellon) and Bill Finger. He first appeared in the Golden Age of comic books in All-American Comics #16 (July 1940), published by All-American Publications, one of three companies that would eventually merge to form DC Comics. This Green Lantern was Alan Scott, an engineer who had come into possession of a magic lantern. From this, he crafted a power ring which gave him a wide variety of powers. The limitations of the ring were that it had to be "charged" every 24 hours by touching it to the lantern for a time, and that it did not work on wood.

But what if one thing had been different? What if the original Golden Age Green Lantern had been....

...a woman?

What if the person who found the lantern had been Ellen Scott, instead of Alan? What would have changed?

The questions are endless.

-Would she have had more or less sales success than her male counterpart?

-Would Doiby Dickles still be her original sidekick?

-Would she still be in the Justice Society?

-How would her status affect that of Wonder Woman? Would Diana still be a flagship DC character, or would GL replace her and Diana be relegated to a status similar to, say, Miss America?

- What about her outfit? Would it be similar to Alan's, or would it be skimpier and more "sexed-up"? Would she still wear a red shirt with a purple cape?

- Would this female GL have been able to appeal to women readers, despite Nodell and Finger not having the same feminist sensibility as Marston?

-How would the Silver, Bronze, and Modern Age GL's have been affected? Would there have been, say, a Helen Jordan or a Kylie Rayner? Would a Green Lantern have existed in any of those eras at all?

Discuss.