The Pulps: The Lensman of the Galactic Patrol & The Green Lantern Corps

I recently managed to find a box of old pulp novels, so I have finally gotten my hands of Doc Smith's Lensman books which famously inspired Julie Shwartz & John Broome's Silver Age revamp of Green Lantern. I had never read them before, despite the fact that I am a huge fan of the GL mythos, so I figured it might be fun to share my thoughts on them as a make my way through each chapter.

The most obvious difference between the two mythos is how much more militaristic the Lensmen are depicted that wasn't really present in the early Broome stories, but Johns & Tomasi played up in their post-Rebirth revamp.

Another major difference is how much more mysterious and enigmatic the Lensmen's otherwordly benefactors, the Arisians, are protrayed compared to how pedestrian the Guardians of the Universe have now become after decades of creators bringing them down to earth and stripping them of any of the unknowable mysterious nature they once had.

The grueling and brutal 5 year long process each potential Lensman undergoes to determine their worthiness is also interesting as opposed to the more magical and mythic selection of the Green Lanterns by their rings. However, each seem to be defined by their incorruptibility. That last angle sailed pretty quickly with the GL mythos once Sinestro showed up, but I really enjoyed how much time and effort each Lensman has to put into even being considered for the job. The Galactic Patrol selects one million 18 year boys from Earth, then slowly wittles them down to ten thousand to one hundred before earning their Lens, which, like the Lantern's ring, is a symbol of their incorruptibility.

I never knew about the pulp roots of the Silver Age Green Lantern. Cool :).

Arisia Rrab owes the origin of her name to the Arisians from the Lensman series - and her last name is Mike W. Barr's backwards.

So, I am a few more chapters in to the first book now.

The protagonist, Captain Kimball Kiminson is certainly made from the same mold as Captain Hal "Highball" Jordan and Captain James T. Kirk. While Kimball doesn't receive much of any character exploration beyond the typical "can-do space hero" mold, I would imagine he'd receive the exact same "dead hero daddy" backstory that both Jordan & Kirk got in recent years if Lensman were to ever get a modern revamp.

The early chapters are much more in the vein of Kirk's Horatio Hornblower in Space shtick, with exhaustively detailed descriptions of nonsensical space tech serving as the backdrop for a very tried and true tale of naval warfare against pirates. Like with Hal and the Interceptor, Kimbal is given command of an experimental starship for a perilous mission against the Lensmen's formidable enemies, a horde of pirates under the command of baddies with great names like Boskone (whom I am pronouncing as Bosk-One because the alternative sounds like Mafia Don in space) and Hellmuth (which is about as subtle as it sounds).

Thus far, the space pirates are a credible threat but not nearly as compelling as the Weaponers of Qward were in the early Green Lantern stories, simply because their premise is so much more goofy, fun and epic from the get-go than Lensman's standard pirates in space shtick. Perhaps they will develop into something more interesting as I get further into the book.

The abilities of the Lensmen are starting to come more into focus, and I appreciate how Smith takes his time revealing just how formidable the Lensmen are, without immediately catapulting them to the over-powered heights that the Green Lanterns enjoyed from the very first issue. I understand that Smith slowly ramps up Kimball's powers as the novels continued and he faced greater and greater threats, but it's interesting to see how he deals with his challenges without too many superpowers beyond translation and limited telepathy so far.