Comics / Spotlight / Progressive Panels

Green Lantern: Fear Itself

By Andy Frisk
March 10, 2011 - 21:39

Hal Jordan, the Green Lantern Corps and their tales have recently become powerful metaphorical vehicles for meditations upon the nature of evil, fear, a will to power, and the role that these universal constants play in our every politics, societies, and lives. The Sinestro Corps War saga served as the ultimate expression of these themes as they affected the DC Universe and specifically the Green Lantern mythos. The Sinestro Corps War was published from August 2007 through February 2008 with its story genesis taking place around and shortly before that time. As is well known, 2007 and 2008 were the waning years of the George W. Bush presidency and a time where anti-Iraq war sentiment and a backlash against Bush policies that appeared to strip some Constitutional freedoms in the name of security were at a high. It is no wonder that an allegorical tale about the nature of fear and how a surrender to fear leads not only to great upheaval, but an atmosphere where evils like fascism can flourish would be a major hit with intelligent sequential art readers everywhere. Sinestro was an intergalactic Hitler who was trying to impose his type of order, an order kept through fear, upon the universe, and Hal Jordan, John Stewart, Guy Gardner, and Kyle Rainer (the four Earth-born Green Lanterns) headed up the resistance to Sinestro’s philosophy. The story is one of the greatest superhero based fantasy/allegories ever written. With the re-publication of Green Lantern Fear Itself though, Green Lantern fans, and superhero sequential art fans in general, can revel in yet another tale, originally printed over a decade ago, that dealt with similar themes, and in fact foreshadowed and warned against the evils that a surrender to fear can entail, something that much of the world is still struggling with in the post 9/11 world.

 

Published in 1999, Green Lantern Fear Itself is the story of the Green Lanterns Alan Scott, Hal Jordan, and Kyle Rainer’s battle against a fear elemental that surfaced first during the Second World War, second during the Cold War, and third in the post-Cold War (but pre 9/11) world. During the time in which this story takes place Hal Jordan was still “dead” after his actions as Parallax (later revealed during Green Lantern Rebirth to be a manifestation of Fear Itself to which Hal had fallen victim to instead of morphing into). Each Green Lantern, in Fear Itself, had fallen victim to their greatest fears before overcoming them and saving their superhero teams, the Justice Society and Justice League respectively. Alan experiences the fear of a Nazi controlled America, Hal experiences the fear of Cold War nuclear annihilation, and Kyle experiences the fear of personal failure. Each is a victim of their era’s major societal fears. The fear of losing the Second World War and America becoming a fascist controlled state, the fear of nuclear war with the Soviet Union (which I myself have childhood memories of being deathly afraid of), and the fear of not living up to the accomplishments of the heroes who have gone before us (particularly the heroes of the Second World War, and to a lesser extent the heroes of the Cold War) are all examples of, not only the defining conflicts of each respective era, but examples of the fears that were overcome by each era’s generations and heroes. With Fear Itself being written in the all too short bridge period between the Cold War and the Post 9/11 era, writer Ron Marz (Witchblade) made use of the theme of alienation and the fear of failing to measure up to their fathers' achievements that many writers at the time were using to represent the modern man’s malaise. The David Fincher directed film Fight Club (based on the novel by Chuck Palahniuk of the same name), which was released the same year as Green Lantern Fear Itself was published, dealt with the same themes, albeit in a bit more graphic, disturbed, yet incredibly brilliant way. As Tyler Durden states in the film (and novel), “We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war... our Great Depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off.” The desire to do something great, to accomplish something beyond (or akin to) what television and advertising tells us to do was a major literary and cinematic theme of the time. One can almost envision Kyle Rayner doffing his ring for a few rounds in Tyler’s ring. One of the themes of Fight Club that hasn’t been reflected upon much though is that the members of Durden’s Fight Club and subsequent Project Mayhem were pretty much fearless in their pursuit of victory in their “spiritual war.” Strange as it seems, there’s a common thematic thread between the two works and characters. Then 9/11 happened…

Very quickly, the metaphorical musings of the “middle children of history” (like Tyler Durden and Kyle Rayner) became not just moot, but selfish and immature. The “War on Terror” had begun on the battlefields of the Middle East and in the hearts and minds of people everywhere. It seemed as if “the middle children of history” had found their enemy and great struggle. The catch was, as we’ve subsequently seen, the real great struggle of this post 9/11 world has become the struggle against not “Terror,” but “Fear Itself” writ large. The battle that most of us now wage is the battle between surrendering to our fears and sacrificing our freedoms for security or continuing to allow our open society (which is truly a beacon to oppressed peoples everywhere) to thrive as it has for decades. How much are we willing to give up in order to be insulated from fear? Is fear a natural part of having an open and free society? How much privacy are we willing to give up? Perhaps most frighteningly, how far are we willing to allow our politicians to go to insulate us from our fears? Witness the much debated and damaging Congressional investigations into the radicalization of Muslim Americans. While there is no doubt a legitimate argument is to made for the investigation, in a law enforcement capacity not a legislative capacity, of radical “home grown” terroristic elements, Congressional hearings of this type smack of McCarthyism, an ideology that we do not need to fall victim to again because of our fear, justified or not. Suddenly, the strength to take our fears on head first, like the Green Lanterns of Fear Itself and Sinestro Corps War do for us allegorically, becomes a very important theme in the world of fiction and literature.

In conclusion, it is Kyle who ends up achieving the ultimate victory over the fear entity in Fear Itself. He does so not just by believing in himself and facing his fears head on, but more ironically, by giving them more energy. The fear entity needs the energy in order to transform itself into something greater and shed its fear inspiring powers and become something beautiful. Kyle realizes this instinctively, perhaps because he doesn’t have an outside enemy to project his fear onto like Alan and Hal did. Kyle must turn inward and face his personal fears. The metaphor of giving his fears more energy translates in actuality to a powerful examination of these fears and their invalidity. This is something that each and every one of us must do in the Post 9/11 Era. We must have the strength to put aside our prejudices (while allowing our law enforcement agencies to do their job), and continue to focus on the things that make our society the greatest in the world—its openness, not of just discourse, but of its minds. Green Lantern Fear Itself, as a tale that addresses this all important theme, is therefore not the type of work that, as it might appear at first glance, is locked within its era’s own sense of relevance. It is one of great contemporary relevance that is equal to the relevance of recent Green Lantern tales. While not as sprawling or lengthy as Sinestro Corps War, it is yet another example of what a great writer can do with great characters, and with great sequential art.  

Rating: 10 /10

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12