Eric Knowles (Earth-Two)

Tin Soldier
Mainstream Universe‎, 1930s-1950s
Gallery
Real Name	Eric Knowles
Main Alias	Tin Soldier
Status
Alignment	Bad
Identity	Public Identity
Citizenship	American
Characteristics
Gender	Male
Hair	Black · balding
Origin
Universe	Earth-Two
Creators	Carmine Infantino
First Appearance	Green Lantern Vol 2 #88 (March, 1972)
Last Appearance	Green Lantern Vol 2 #88 (March, 1972)

Eric Knowles was the Tin Soldier, a Golden Age Green Lantern villain.

History

Eric Knowles was a toymaker. He carved two Green Lantern statuettes that the hero gave to two boys who won his tolerance essay contest. The hero also took the boys to the circus. At circus, mysterious living toys led by Tin Soldier stole the belongings of the audience. Green Lantern tried to fight the toys, but was knocked down by Tin Soldier with a giant wooden yoyo. After that, Green Lantern and the police tried to lure Tin Soldier with the announcement of an emerald at Miffany Salon that had belonged to Genghis Khan. As expected, Tin Soldier and his toys tried to steal the emerald, but the police and Lantern were already waiting for him. Tin Soldier escaped by making his toys explode, but GL managed to keep one of them unharmed, discovering that it was a robot controlled by radio signals. Using equipment in his studio, GL tracked the source of radio waves by their wave lengths. The Emerald Knight managed to find the villain when he broken through the roof of the Diamond Die Factory with a giant spinning top. The bandit knocked down GL another time using a fist-shaped jack-in-the-box, and tied him to the giant top. The top, with GL tied to it, was thrown on the Diamond Die roof, smashing a hole through. An astonished Tin Man was confronted by the Master of Light, who managed to break free from the top before the fatal moment. Then, Tin Man's toys held Green Lantern so that he could be crushed under a stamper, but Alan used his ring to stop it. Sending the toys with a punch over Tin Soldier, GL turned off his radio belt, and the other toys stopped their actions. Unmasking the villain, he was revealed be Eric Knowles all along.

Powers and Abilities

Abilities

• Artistry (toymaking, carving)
• Electrical Engineering: He could create human-sized, radio-controlled toys.
  

Paraphernalia

Equipment

• Radio belt: dials on this belt were used to radio-control his toys.

Notes

• enemy of Green Lantern (Alan Scott)
• The story "The Menace of the Marching Toys", where Tin Soldier debuts, was an unpublished Golden Age Green Lantern tale originally intended for the never published Green Lantern Vol 1 39 (1949), but only published in Green Lantern Vol 2 88, 1972.
• This version of Eric Knowles (Earth-Two), including all history and corresponding appearances, was erased from existence following the collapse of the original Multiverse in the 1985–86 Crisis on Infinite Earths event and later restored following the rebirth of the infinite Multiverse during the Dark Crisis of 2022–2023. Even though other versions of the character may have appeared, this information does not apply to those versions.

Related

• 1 Appearances of Eric Knowles (Earth-Two)
• 1 Images featuring Eric Knowles (Earth-Two)
• Quotations by or about Eric Knowles (Earth-Two)
• Character Gallery: Eric Knowles (Earth-Two)

Footnotes

Green Lantern Villain(s) This character has been an enemy of the Green Lantern of Earth, or the Green Lantern Corps as a whole. This template will categorize articles that include it into the category "Green Lantern Villains."