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GREEN LANTERN

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The trailer was so bad I never bothered to watch the Green Lantern movie. Shame, because the character/concept is pretty cool. He was created in 1940 (below left) and revamped in 1959 (middle). And 50 years later, still has legs (below right). 

I decided to tweak the costume a bit. I did a kind of stylized lantern-shining-in-the-dark thing and gave him white boots to match the white gloves. Actual boots. Even if you can get on board with the conceit of running around in a speedskater-type onesie, you want more between your feet and the pavement than a layer of lycra when you're fighting crime (or fighting anything, for that matter). 

A 1950's F-100 Super Sabre in the background to signify where he has come from and outer space glimpsed through the upper atmosphere above to show where he's gone.

It's interesting the extent to which popular entertainment shows where people's heads are at. In the 40's there seemed to be a preoccupation with magic/occult and exoticism. The Shadow, the Phantom, Fu Manchu; and superheroes got their powers through magic talismans from far off lands. 

Post WW2, superheroes were no longer necessary to the publics psyche, the war having been won and America enjoying prosperity. 

In the 60's there was a resurgence of the costumed hero  along with the rise of the counter-culture and it was science, especially radiation, giving them super powers. 

Now that there is again a resurgence of super heroes in popular culture (usually created by some kind of genetic modification in the new batch of movies), you have to wonder why we're once more drawn to the superhero. The world is looking a little dire at the moment. We must feel we need saving again.

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