Green Lantern #14 is an issue of the series Green Lantern (Volume 1) with a cover date of December, 1944.
Synopsis for "The Case of the Crooked Cook"
Alan Scott's neighbors argue all night about the husband not finding a job, and after a week with no sleep he changes to Green Lantern and flies to the best employment agency in town to get one so they'll quiet down. When the business owner sees the costumed crusader coming through his doors he panics. A minute later a notorious gangster, the Lisper, enters and sees Green Lantern, then shoots the owner of the employment agency. Green Lantern catches up to one of the Lisper's men, who's just gotten a job at a rich household, who also panics and runs into the path of a truck to escape the hero. Green Lantern has Doiby take the criminal's papers and take the job to try and find out what the Lisper's game is.
The Lisper and a few other gangsters show up to check up on him, and see through his disguise, but Green Lantern shows up to even the odds. Inevitably he's hit over the head with a wooden chair, and the Lisper ties the two up in bags and leaves them in a sewer tunnel to suffocate. Green Lantern cuts their way out with his ring and puts everything together: the Lisper exploited the employment agency to infiltrate members of his gang into homes all over the city as servants. Fortunately, they turn out not to be in a sewer tunnel but a telephone conduit, and Green Lantern's able to use his ring to call people all over the city and warn them they might be in danger if they hired staff from that agency. In doing so he also overhears the Lisper in the loft of a famous sculptor, whose statues Green Lantern brings to life to beat the gangsters senseless. Hearing Green Lantern's problem with his neighbors, Doiby offers to give the husband a job, but they turn out to be midgets, and him too much of an "arteest" to take a menial position, leaving Alan Scott back at square one.
Appearing in "The Case of the Crooked Cook"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- The Lisper
- thugs
- Gloin (Dies)
Other Characters:
- Walter
- Mabel
- Jon Sterling (Dies)
Locations:
- Gotham City (First reference in a Green Lantern story)
- Alan Scott's apartment
- Sterling Employment Agency
- La Cashe Mansion
Items:
Vehicles:
Synopsis for "The Smile That Wins"
Alan Scott's been plagued by a chronic stomachache, but his doctor insists it's all in his mind, and that when his stomach hurts, he should smile to improve his mood. Unfortunately, Alan doesn't smile a lot, so the one he has is rather unsettling. The first time Alan practices his doctor's advice, he's right behind a group of thieves about to pull a job, and the look on his face makes them think he knows everything. When they attack Alan to keep their secret safe, he fights back before slipping away to become Green Lantern. In costume his smile's even worse, scaring everyone who sees it into confessing their misdeeds. Green Lantern catches up with the thieves as they "pretend" to rob an art gallery in front of a tour group, with the guides explaining this is what a robbery in progress would look like. Green Lantern attacks but after melting the crooks' guns is taken out with a wooden chair to the head. His captors toss him into a sack of cement which is then tossed in the river, but Doiby manages to hook his friend and haul him out of the water in time. Terrified by another instance of Green Lantern's smile, Doiby admits he wasn't around earlier because he was shopping for a birthday present for Alan Scott. After the two round up the criminals, Doiby mentions he's noticed how much caviar his friend's been eating. Hearing this, Green Lantern finally figures out that's been the cause of his stomach pains, and cuts it out of his diet.
Appearing in "The Smile That Wins"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
Other Characters:
Locations:
Items:
Vehicles:
Synopsis for "The Cave Kid Goes to Town"
Out vacationing in "the western mesas", Alan and Doiby find a feral boy living in a cave alongside some unsettling human skeletons. They manage to befriend him and bring him back to civilization, where almost immediately some gangsters try to kidnap him. Alan switches to Green Lantern and joins Doiby in busting heads, but the cave kid sees his friends in combat and jumps in to help, biting and scratching one gangster so badly the heroes have him to pry him off. A woman comes around next claiming to be the boy's mother, who lost track of him in a storm in the wilds, and Alan lets her take the cave kid even though the boy distrusts her. This was actually a ploy on Alan's part, not having bought her story, but wanting to tail her to get to the heart of this mystery. He switches to Green Lantern again and follows the car out to where the cave kid's loaded onto a boat, but accidentally knocks himself out on the wooden mast. Doiby saves them from being killed by chemical fumes set by the gangsters, and thanks to the cave kid's animal-like tracking prowess they tail the criminals to a mansion. After seeing off the malefactors, Green Lantern explains who the woman really is: not the boy's mother, but his nurse, trying to gain control of the family fortune. With the cave kid restored to his true home, identity, and wealth, Green Lantern and Doiby say goodbye.
Appearing in "The Cave Kid Goes to Town"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
Other Characters:
Locations:
Items:
Vehicles:
Notes
- Published by Jolaine Publications, Inc.
- Also appearing in this issue of Green Lantern Quarterly was:
- Mutt & Jeff (newspaper strip reprints) by Al Smith
Trivia
- Beginning with this issue(?), the base of operations of Green Lantern is now Gotham City (He uses his ring in the first story of this issue to send a telephonic message to all Gothamites). In previous stories, his base of operations was Capitol City, and in at least one story it was Manhattan.
- It is repeated in the first story that any nonmetallic objects could hurt Green Lantern, not only wood. But in the second story, the narrator is adamant in saying that wood is the only weakness of the Green Lantern. Wood was firstly depicted as the only weakness of the hero in the issue #10.
- Green Lantern recites Hal Jordan's oath to recharge his ring in this issue, although Hal Jordan has yet to make his comic debut.
See Also
Links and References
