Green Lantern #7 is an issue of the series Green Lantern (Volume 1) with a cover date of March, 1943.
Synopsis for "The Wizard of Odds!"
In the year 3042 a scientist named Raakj is turned down for an important position he'd been hoping to get because his methods are too uncontrolled. Raakj sees a historical film and hits on the idea of going back in time and betting on sporting events and suchlike to make his fortune with the knowledge he has of events from the future, so he and his sweetheart can have a comfortable life after missing out on his dream promotion. Raakj builds a time machine but within minutes of traveling back to the 40's, he's hit by a car and taken to a hospital by Green Lantern. Fearing the hero's interference in his plan, Raakj flees the hospital as quickly as he can. He makes a fortune with his gambling plan, but is kidnapped by Nutsy Hagan, a gangster obsessed with eating walnuts. Hagan forces Raakj to use his foreknowledge to gamble on his behalf, and the headlines from Hagan's run of luck catch Green Lantern's attention. Hagan's underlings knock Green Lantern out with a wooden chair, but Raakj turns on Hagan and reveals his true story to the prisoners, before leaving them to suffocate from a poison gas pellet. Green Lantern manages to cut his ropes and break a window to let in fresh air, but by then Raakj is gone. The man from the future is also furious as he realizes that the money he's made will be worthless when he travels back to his own time.
Raakj decides, instead of printed currency from a bygone age, what he could do is find something more timeless like a supply of a valuable element like radium. To find it somewhere no-one else can go, he decides to look on the moon. Meanwhile Alan Scott's discharged from the army: his training with radio makes him far more valuable there than as just another soldier. Doiby feigns weakness to be discharged to so he isn't split up from his partner. Word reaches Nutsy Hagan that Raakj has been working on a dirigible, and Doiby eavesdrops and passes the gang's plan to kill Raakj for betraying them on to Green Lantern. What both groups find out is Raakj wasn't building a dirigible, but a rocketship, and flies to the moon with all of them along for the ride. Raakj drills down into a crater that turns out to hide an underground city inhabited by "Selenites" who are being attacked by ape-people who ride huge birds. Green Lantern fends them off and the group's greeted by the peaceful Selenites. The ape-men kidnap the king's son and Doiby, and Green Lantern goes after them. However it's been more than twenty-hours since he charged the ring and he becomes easy prey for capture himself.
Green Lantern fights in an arena against alien monsters but manages to capture the ape-man king and force him to release the prisoners and show GL where their bird-steeds are kept. The king attacks the Selenites' city in a giant robot, but Green Lantern scales it and manages to knock the king from the cockpit in its head then controls the robot into destroying itself. A peace treaty's negotiated between the two settlements when it turns out all the ape-men wanted was access to more water. As a reward for his service the king of the Selenites rewards Green Lantern with a hypnotic moonstone, which Raakj steals uses to force Green Lantern to reveal the ring's source of power. Raakj tries to escape the moon with both power items, but the Selenites combine their telepathic powers to try to compel Raakj to bring them back.
A mental battle rages but eventually the Selenites overpower Raakj. When he comes to return the power items, Nutsy Hagan takes command of them. He agrees to take Green Lantern and Doiby back to Earth because he owes the hero for saving him from the gas attack before. Once they land Doiby reveals he surreptitiously stole the lamp back, letting Green Lantern regain his powers. They chase down Nutsy and recapture the hypnotic moonstone, but then Raakj steals it from them and travels back to his own time. Green Lantern asks his lantern to transport him to the future to stop Raakj from abusing the moonstone's power, and it agrees to do so. In the future they get the address of Raakj's girlfriend Dorna and get a ride to her place in the taxi of Doiby's descendant, Homberg Dickles. Dorna rejects Raakj's insane dreams of power, and while he and Green Lantern duel she falls off a walkway but the emerald crusader saves her. This almost-loss opens Raakj's eyes and he gives up his dreams of conquest and hands back the moonstone. Back in their own time, the only thing Doiby can think about from their adventure to the future is his hat being called stupid by a member of his own family.
Appearing in "The Wizard of Odds!"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Raakj
- "Nutsy" Hagan
- his men
- Gorral the Cruel (Dies)
- The Core-Men of the Moon
Other Characters:
- United States Army
- Dorna
- Supreme Science Society
- Selenites
- Homberg Dickles
- Unnamed nurse
- Irene Miller (Mentioned only)
Locations:
- 1942
- 3042
- Science Society HQ
- Dream House
- Hall of Records
- Venus (planet) (Mentioned only)
Items:
- Green Lantern Ring
- Green Flame of Life Power Battery
- Agrak the giant robot (Destroyed)
- Moonstone
Vehicles:
- Spaceship
- Time Machine
Notes
- Alan Scott's short stint in the Army is terminated in this issue. Pvt. Alan Scott is honorably discharged to become a radio troubleshooter for the homeland. MSG Charles "Doiby" Dickles feigns weakness & agedness to get discharged himself to stay with his best friend, the Green Lantern.
Trivia
- At this point, Alan Scott can be hurt by any non-metallic substance, but he is only hit by wood in this issue.
See Also