Green Lantern #72 (On Sale: August 25, 1969) has a cover by Gil Kane.Inside we have "Phantom of the Space-Opera" by Denny O'Neil, Gil Kane and Joe Giella. The Guardians send Green Lantern to the Berliotz star system on a mission to stop a potential war instigated by the Wagnorians. A group of performers from Berliotz is putting on a space opera. With the help of a spy planted among the performers, the Wagnorians force them to change the play to antagonize a band of rebels known as the Verdees. Angered, the gang attacks the Berliotz performers. Using the incident to intervene, the Wagnorians are then able to move in and begin their conquest of the system. However, Green Lantern uncovers the spy. He then convinces the Verdee leader to stop the fight. Finally he confronts the Wagnorians and forces them to submit to interplanetary justice. Me thinks Denny was a bit fond of opera. This story was reprinted in Showcase Presents: Green Lantern Vol. 4 TPB and Green Lantern:The Silver Age Omnibus Vol. 2 HC (2018).
Edited by Julius Schwartz.
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2 comments:
The alien people described in this story, the Ver-dees, take their name from Guiseppe Verdi, the famous opera composer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verdi
The futuristic space scooters make everyone look a bit like Valkyries, mythic creatures in The Ring of the Nibelung by Richard Wagner.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Der_Ring_des_Nibelungen
An allusion to Wagner's Ring is interesting in the context of Green Lantern tales, which have their own 'ring' motif!
It would be interesting to read the story again and see what other ways the writers may have worked opera lore into their SF world.
The alien people described in this story, the Ver-dees, take their name from Guiseppe Verdi, the famous opera composer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verdi
The futuristic space scooters suggest Valkyries, the heavenly horseback warriors in the Ring operas by Richard Wagner. (An allusion to Wagner's Ring is interesting in the context of Green Lantern tales, which have their own 'ring' motif!)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Der_Ring_des_Nibelungen
The writers were clearly having a lot of fun with this. It would be interesting to see what other ways they worked opera-house lore into the hero's SF world.
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