I’m actually a fan of Green Lantern, but you have to admit the name is kind of silly. A lantern doesn’t exactly strike awe in the minds of most people. If someone today created a hero named the Blue Flashlight, you probably wouldn’t be too impressed. I don’t know if it’s ever been addressed in the comic, but since the Green Lanterns are of alien origin, I like to think that the name just didn’t translate well into human terms. It probably sounds really cool in its tongue of origin.
Maybe “Batman” doesn’t translate well in their area of the universe…
In Italian Bat is Pippistrella, and Man is Uomo so literaly he would be Uomo Pipistrello (masculine ending. Since that sounds ridiculous even to an Italian speaker they just call him Batman.
ReplyDeleteInteresting. Thanks for posting.
ReplyDeleteThe term "Green Lantern" apparently derives from railway terminology. When the path ahead was in disrepair or otherwise troublesome, a red lantern was hung on signal posts to let the engineers know. A green lantern signified smooth travel and connoted good luck ahead. That, and the associations between lanterns and lamps, GL being vaguely based on Aladdin and his ability to wish things into existance (Alan Scott's original name was to have been Alan Ladd, this prior to the actor becoming known)have long made Green Lantern one of my favorite hero names. Even the recent Red Lanterns are still thematically in sync with the original intent, I think. The rest of the Rainbow Corps, not so much so... :-)
ReplyDeleteTo add to what Brian Hague wrote:
ReplyDeleteBack when the original Green Lantern was created, railroad trains were commonly seen as exciting and often romanticized as ideal examples of accessible masculine adventure. (Remember, this is long before commercial air travel had become commonplace.) For an easy example of this, look at all the old black-and-white films in which the roguish bad boy hero proves his "street cred" by hitching a ride on a boxcar (or mentioning casually that he had done so).
Anything associated with railroads would have been seen as thrilling, adventurous, and highly masculine by the comic book reading audience back when GL was named after an item associated with the railroads.