Green Lantern (Volume 1) with a cover date of March, 1944.
Synopsis for Green Lantern: "The Dastardly Designs of Doiby Dickles' Pals"
As a promotional gimmick, the Inca Insurance company offers Doiby a free life insurance policy worth $1,000. Except the guy who drew up the policy accidentally added a few more zeroes, and the payout is actually for $1,000,000. Not realizing this, Doiby decides to leave the money to some down-on-their-luck friends of his. Seeing how much they stand to make, thoughts of arranging an "accident" quickly appear in their minds.
His problems are soon even worse, as a group of thugs show up and demand Doiby hand the policy over to them. He drives home and sends a secret signal to Alan Scott, who switches to Green Lantern and comes down to help knock some sense into the crooks. In the ensuing fight, Doiby carelessly punches one hood into a wooden rocking chair that rocks back and hits Green Lantern on the head. After recovering, GL trails them to a hotel room they're using as a hideout, but after another brawl a drop-down bed comes out of the wall and hits GL insensate. The thugs explain themselves to the hero: the guy who over-wrote Doiby's policy was fired for the mistake, but told his tale to a rival insurance firm. The thugs were hired to kill Doiby so that Inca Insurance would be bankrupted by the enormous payout.
Doiby makes it into the room and unties Green Lantern, who reveals he put luminescent paint on the crooks' car to be able to follow them. GL brings some stoves to life to menace the crooks into submission. Meanwhile, having had enough of fighting off hired killers and his own supposed friends trying to collect on his death, Doiby tears up the policy.
Appearing in Green Lantern: "The Dastardly Designs of Doiby Dickles' Pals"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Vulcan Insurance Co.
- thugs
Other Characters:
- Fairbanks Fearless
- Maw Mousse
- Prof. Sorins
- Inca Insurance manager
- Inca Insurance female clerk
- Parker (Inca Insurance employee)
- Bellhop
- Hotel attendant
- cops
- Benedict Arnold (Mentioned only)
Locations:
- Inca Insurance Co.
- Maw Mousse's wagon lunch (beanery)
- A hotel
- Alan Scott's apartment
- Second hand shop
Items:
- Green Flame of Life Power Ring
- luminous stencil
- stoves
Vehicles:
Synopsis for Hop Harrigan: "The Mysterious Passenger"
Appearing in Hop Harrigan: "The Mysterious Passenger"
- Appearances not yet listed
Synopsis for Green Lantern: "Having Wonderful Crime, Wish You Were Here!"
Doiby, who's on vacation, receives a letter from his friend Alan Scott about an adventure he had recently.
- Hack poet Iambic Scan's rejected for his poor prose and plans to "punish" the world by dying before his time. Problem is, he's too chicken-livered to carry out any of the suicide methods he can think of. Then he has a brilliant idea for an attention-grabbing death: he goes to the lounge of the hotel where he's staying and uses a microphone to fake a broadcast about a robbery being carried about by a vicious crook, "Killer Klondike", who he describes as looking just like himself. That way, when the police see him they'll shoot him by mistake.
- The police call Alan Scott, who denies his station made such an announcement, and changes to Green Lantern to investigate. He flies to the address Scan said was being robbed, only for an actual robbery to be taking place there. The criminals all faint in fright, so Green Lantern leaves them for the police to collect and flies to the hotel where the weird broadcast was reported. He uses his ring to shield Scan from police gunfire, figuring he probably knows something about what's going on. Unfortunately, both Scan and the gang slipped away when no-one was looking and ran into each other. The gang are convinced Scan's some kind of criminal genius because he predicted their robbery, rather than it being blind luck. Being hailed as a genius plays to his swollen ego, however, and Scan decides to go along with the gang's beliefs.
- Green Lantern finds the microphone Scan used to make his fake broadcast, but by speaking into it, he inadvertently sends his voice through a loudspeaker and tips off the gang that he's there. Along with a gang moll Scan unintentionally picks up, the gangsters attack Green Lantern, the fight spills into the hotel kitchen and Scan ends up knocking out Green Lantern by opening the freezer door trying to escape. Green Lantern's deposited inside by the crooks to freeze to death, but Scan, who's still too squeamish to cause the hero's death, sneaks back to release him. It turns out the moll was actually an actress researching a part, not a hardened criminal, and she and Scan fall in love. After Green Lantern mops up the real crooks, he gets the two of them jobs as Alan Scott, writing and performing in radio plays.
Doiby decides to cut his vacation short after hearing he missed out on such a sensational adventure.
Appearing in Green Lantern: "Having Wonderful Crime, Wish You Were Here!"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- "Killer Klondike" (Iambic Scan)
- "Gunner Goity"
- Unnamed Thieves
Trivia
- Beginning in the previous issue, wood is depicted as the only weakness of Green Lantern. In this issue he is struck by a wooden rocking chair and a folding bed. Before that, any nonmetallic objects could hurt the hero, not only wood.
See Also