Green Lantern #20 is an issue of the series Green Lantern (Volume 1) with a cover date of June, 1946.
Synopsis for "Shadow of the Past"
Marvin Martin finds out from his doctor he has a condition which gives him three months to live. With little money to his name and a son who'll outlive him, he decides to slip back into his old life as the crook Blacky Martt to steal money to leave to his son. Meanwhile, Doiby Dickles visits the same doctor and gets the same fatal diagnosis, but has Alan Scott with him to notice the X-ray's been exposed and given an incorrect reading. The doctor's busy with surgery, so Alan and Doiby go to tell Martin about his mis-delivered diagnosis, missing him because he's already embarked on his misinformed career of crime.
Nothing Martin tries goes well. While trying to rob a safe, he's caught by the watchman just before the dynamite goes off, catching the watchman in the blast. Martin's conscience makes him bandage the watchman's injury and flee empty-handed because Green Lantern shows up before he has time to grab the loot. Thinking he needs to stop being so soft if he's to carry out his goal, Martin visits one of his old haunts to be around real criminals. Again he resists temptation when Green Lantern follows him there and takes on the entire den of crooks, and the chance to steal money off of unconscious criminals presents itself. With nothing to show for his repeated efforts, Martin arranges for his son to be the one seeing him robbing a safe, and when the police arrest him, he points out there's a $15000 reward for his capture that rightly goes to his son as the witness who reported him. Green Lantern uses his ring to get the truth out of Martin, who under the influence of the emerald flame admits he never robbed the safe that gave him his criminal reputation, and was honest all along. He later shows up as an actor in an anti-crime radio play.
Appearing in "Shadow of the Past"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Doiby Dickles
- Marvin Martin (Blacky Martt)
- Tim Martin
Antagonists:
- Unidentified gangsters
Other Characters:
Locations:
- WXYZ Radio (First appearance)
Items:
Vehicles:
Synopsis for "On the Air"
Hardy, a reporter, comes by Station WXYZ to do an article on the station, and notes to the boss how it seems like Alan Scott does everything around there. Doiby overhears this and relates in flashback how Alan started playing so many roles at the station.
- Alan Scott's fired by Mac Gillicuddy, the head of the station, when he's heard promoting a rival station...while still in the Station WXYZ building. Paying a visit there, he finds a record he supposedly sent that was the source of the promotion he got fired for. Doiby becomes the pair's only breadwinner, and with his cab in for repairs, he gets a delivery job handing out free radios as part of a promotional stunt for Padgett's Prunes. Doiby soon reads that businesses he delivered to are being robbed, shaking Alan out of his funk so as to investigate as Green Lantern. They head to the next business that got a radio and find a group of crooks inside robbing the place with no evidence of a break-in. GL gets bonked unconscious with a wooden mallet and the crooks set a fire to roast the insensate heroes, but Green Lantern comes to in time to freeze the flames solid. They catch up to the crooks at a fish market, fall into another trap, but round the crooks up this time. The crooks don't know who the mastermind is, or how he gets them keys and safe combinations to the buildings they rob.
- The next morning, Alan has an idea and rushes to a grocer to order some Padgett's Prunes, only to be told there's no such brand. Dissecting the promotional radio the owner received, Alan finds a hidden microphone, and realizes the radios aren't just receivers, they're secretly rigged to transmit, too. That was how the thieves got the safe combinations without anyone knowing. More than that, Alan figures out how the record that got him fired was made--words he'd spoken on the air were recorded and spliced together in the audio equivalent of a poison pen letter to form another message. He's even figured out why he was framed: he'd noticed a power leak at the station, meaning whoever's behind this was operating out of Station WXYZ and wanted to keep Alan from discovering them. Forcing his way in as Green Lantern, he traces the leak to a control booth and captures the leader of the gang. The equipment's wrecked, but as Alan Scott, the hero fixes the booth in a hurry (thanks to his ring) and whips up a new program on the spot to replace the one being run by the crooks. Proving himself able to handle anything, Alan Scott not only got hired back, he was given free rein to fill any role at the station he pleased.
Appearing in "On the Air"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
Other Characters:
- Mac Gillicuddy
- Sparky
Locations:
Items:
Vehicles:
Synopsis for "The Gambler Comes Back"
Because of overcrowding in the prison where he's incarcerated, the Gambler finds himself with a new cellmate. Who happens to look exactly like Green Lantern's sidekick, Doiby Dickles. Luring the two to the jail with a promise to escape, the Gambler disguises himself as his archenemy's sidekick using his cellmate's clothes and creates enough confusion with the real Dickles to break jail. Soon, he makes his way to a riverboat casino, breaks the bank and then wins the entire vessel on his next bet. The Gambler has the ship outfitted as a floating fortress, then challenges Green Lantern to a bet with each other's freedom on the line. Green Lantern uses his ring to counteract the Gambler's rigged games, then takes the entire boat back to the prison where it's used to build extra incarceration facilities.
Appearing in "The Gambler Comes Back"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
Other Characters:
- Benson
Locations:
- State Jail
Items:
- Green Flame of Life Power Ring
- Make-up kit
Vehicles:
- Goitrude
- Pleasure Queen (cassino ship)
Notes
- Also appearing in this issue of Green Lantern was:
- Rockhead McWizzard
See Also
Links and References
