Green Lantern/Superman: Legend of the Green Flame

"Green Lantern/Superman: Legend of the Green Flame" was a one-shot prestige format comic book published in 2000 by DC Comics.

History

The script for this book was written after Gaiman's "Black Orchid" was completed but prior to its publication. It had been solicited by Mark Waid, then-editor of the short-lived anthology "Action Comics Weekly", to conclude that title's run as a weekly anthology in 1988. Waid wanted the story to incorporate all of the characters featured in the book at the time: Green Lantern (Hal Jordan), Catwoman, Deadman, the Phantom Stranger, the Demon, the Blackhawks, and Superman. Later, the Demon had to be removed from the story, so Gaiman "created an anagrammatic demon creature to replace him, whose dialogue consisted of one sonnet." [Gaiman, from his Introduction]

Gaiman completed the script and submitted it to Waid, who "loved it." [Waid, from his Afterword] Shortly thereafter, Gaiman received word from "Superman" group editor Mike Carlin that, as a result of some residual fine-tuning in the aftermath of the character's 1986 reboot, Hal Jordan no longer knew that Clark Kent is Superman. As this was a key element in the plot, the story could not be published as written. Waid, who had a personal philosophy of not interfering with his creative personnel's work, opted not to ask Gaiman for a rewrite. Gaiman was paid for his work and the script was filed away.

In 1996, after the phenomenal success of "The Sandman", DC sought to repackage Gaiman's earlier uncollected work for the company's Vertigo imprint in a book called "Neil Gaiman's Midnight Days". Recalling the previously rejected "Action Comics Weekly" script, Gaiman sought Carlin's approval to see if the story might now be published apart from established continuity. Carlin agreed, but one further obstacle remained: neither Gaiman nor DC had a copy of the script anymore. Gaiman remembered making a copy of the script for Brian Hibbs, but he no longer had it; however, he had previously copied it for his friend James Barry. Gaiman acknowledged both men in his introduction to the book.

Credits

Written by Neil Gaiman

Art by:
*Eddie Campbell
*Michael D. Allred & Terry Austin
*Mark Buckingham
*John Totleben
*Matt Wagner
*Eric Shanower & Arthur Adams
*Jim Aparo
*Kevin Nowlan
*Jason Little

Cover art by Frank Miller

External links

http://www.dcuguide.com/GL/GLSm_001.php

ee also

References