Who is the Golden Age Red Lantern? 

I like that its not connected with the emotional spectrum and all the space mythos. If someone told me that this character was created in late 40s/early 50s during the height of the red scare i would believe it

I actually like how far DC went to gaslight their entire fanbase and continuity into thinking he's always existed, this kind of meta-narrative is pretty fun

Maybe it's the fact I was never a *huge* fan of golden age GL, but I love this concept. Love the story and his design. And yes the fact he's literally a copy of Alan *could* seem lazy, but it also makes sense for the whole 1940s comic vibe, as it makes perfect sense to me. Look forward to this character being used more. (And also just the Russian connection with red is so on the nose I love it😂)

I like the idea. And if memory serves Alan Scott has had interactions with the modern lanterns. What would happen if the reds came across a red lantern who didn't function the way they did? I'd imagine some would want to take this power to make the red lantern rings safer to use given the death sentence current red lantern rings possess. It sounds ridiculous, but I think the idea of this red lantern is worth expanding on.

This take on a Golden Age Red Lantern is perfect, especially when you take into account Jay Garrick's last appearance as the main Flash before Barry took over the run, his face off against the villain Rival, who's costume was literally just a darker version of Jay's.

If the creatives at DC are actually trying these days, they may link him to Wonder Woman's Golden Age nemesis Zara, Priestess of the Crimson Flame, giving her *real* mystical powers.

I like this golden age red lantern idea it sounds very interesting and does have so much potential to see this character in action.

I agree with some of your complaints about RL being derivative of GL and how that’s a missed opportunity, but I think that’s probably a meta nod. Characters that are just palette swaps were a big thing back then; it still happens nowadays but the golden age was more ripe with it. I also think the data page is very “of the times” for the age it’s referencing. I’m not someone who was reading those comics when they were coming out, but I did grow up with more gold and silver age comics than anything modern because that’s what my school library had. So this is actually a comforting nostalgic feeling for me. I like the silliness of it, ot makes me think of the Jay Garrick Flash’s evil counterpart / nemesis, The Rival. There certainly could’ve been more dine here and it didn’t have to be this Soviet carbon-copy, but I don’t mind it so much. And like you said, there’s potential for this new Red to stand out and be interesting. I want to see this Scarlet Flame developed, and I’d love to see what impact, if any, it may have on the modern Lantern mythos. I’m a dork about interaction effects in power systems, it’s why I love when we see glimpses of heroes kids in hypertime or whatever other shenanigans show us characters with merged power sets. I want to see the effect of the speed force being used with a lantern ring, I’m a sucker for it and the overexplained nonsense that comes with it. I’m sure people would think it’s lame but if we get something like Atrocitus discovering this Scarlet Flame in his time and showing us how it’s different and then combining it with his own power to create something new, I’m here for it. I think there’s strong potential for this new character and his daughter, I’m gonna assume named Ruby, and I’m going to try to be optimistic and support it until I see if it’s actually a flop or not, especially since DC is struggling right now.

Did you miss that this character is designed exactly as villains were in the 40s. The standard way of doing things was to take the exact powers of the hero and change the color scheme. Reverse Flash, Black Adam (original version), etc. There been tons since, too: Sineatro, the Black Archer, the entire Criminal Syndicate, and just a ton of parallel worlds characters. It's not lazy, it's deliberate.

Well, making him a red copy of the Green Lantern - from his costume design to His powers to his daughter - isn't laziness but a typical trope often used in the age of comics he is supposed to originate from.

I love this whole idea. Whether DC do it justice going forward is yet to be seen. A story where the story happened and was written but the reader has been reconned is so meta and fun. On the one hand, I know where you're coming from with the design being lazy but a boring, basic palet swap just feels right. It's not a flashy modern design, it's not a modern person trying to be retro, it just is retro because it was designed in 1940 but recoloured now. It feels like Dark Link from Zelda or every MCU villain that is just an evil version of the title hero. I'm so excited to see where they go with this character and this whole concept and for the first time ever I care about Alan Scott.

This is absolutely a nod to Golden Age comics with the palette swap. It strongly suggests that the whole "New Golden Age" is going to lean more on the mythos they're building than Green Lantern lore, but so be it.

I like this whole idea, although it could get taken in really odd directions after a time. Also, I think you missed the fun in trying to make a retcon the actual history, and the physical books that actually exist the retcon. And, as I think the golden age Green Lantern's costume is the best design ever, I really like the Red Lantern's aping it!

If people is mad about the recolor and the fact they have the same powers, i just want to tell them about reverse flash

To be fair, the whole "villain is a copy of the hero" is very Golden Age. And I would not be surprised if once he is released from his prison he changes radically

I love this idea for the retcons. John Henry Jr already sounds interesting based on looks alone. Russian Red Lantern is just an amazing idea.

I find it kind of interesting that his color scheme is reminiscent of Weaponeer Hal Jordan from the Anti-Matter Universe. I'm looking forward to seeing this Golden Age story develop.

I feel that him being "Just a copy of Alan" is kind of the point, it's playing off the ideas we saw back in the day

I agree about the design, seeing as by Soviet design in terms of uniforms, buildings and architecture are more utilitarian and imposing then artful. In fact his costume seems more resembling something by Communist doctrine would be bourgeoisie in design. I actually want more from this character tbh. I love Russian characters, but I agree this feels lazy. Perhaps his powers are attached to Russian folklore like their version of the Phoenix aka the immortal Firebird that spouts the Crimson Flame.

I like how the concept of “returning” Golden Age characters is like finding pieces in a puzzle that you didn’t realize were missing. I want Vladimir’s story to be a success but I agree that he and his daughter (I liked your Scarlet idea) are derivative. Even so, there’s enough potential that it’s got my attention. I stopped reading Dark Crisis because it was going through the motions so much that anything “new” wouldn’t really have felt earned. Like you, I need more than a good set up or some shock value to stay invested The questions I’ll ask as I read will include: Who else was Vladimir important to? How does he respond to an openly gay Alan? What about the Red Lanterns? Does Obsidian have a counterpart? And How does Vladimir’s story substantially differ from what we might expect? As always, thanks for doing what you do.

I enjoyed the issue and love the idea of The Who’s Who entries at the the end. The idea that DC always had sidekicks love it.

I really like the way he looks. The red and black color scheme along with his dark hair and beard looks really cool. I don't mind at all that his powers are basically the same.

I hope DC starts coming out with "old" stories with this character and his rivalry/relationship with Alan Scott

The copy vibes he's giving really makes it seem like he was made back during the golden age lol

In it's defence. The Golden Age was very simple story telling. So having an evil version of the hero look a lot like him is fitting to me. Very Golden Age.

I’ve always loved the Green Lantern mythos, I honestly think it’s one of the most underrated in terms of the mainstream DC heroes and probably all comics overall. The idea of being able to manifest what your thinking into solid objects and it being based around a specific emotion is pretty unique. The design of the “new” Red Lantern is admittedly just a recolor of the original lantern (Alan Scott), but it does honestly look kind of cool.

It's interesting how DC nowadays is looking back to the Golden Age, in the comics at least

DC is no longer content with us having to constantly learn new Universes... now they want us to question our memories of past ones.

you were right about the characters being retcons, except for aquaman more fun 73 is his introduction with the origin of his father finding and undersea city and somehow learning how to breath underwater. figures the weirdest origin story would be from the actual glden age era

This isn't that complicated. I think they did something similar with Sentry in Marvel.

One idea, and this purely speculative, but the picture of him shown might have been his “first appearance” outfit from Green Lantern N°1, but he ends up with a better outfit to suit his military credentials… Something kinda like Red Star’s outfit but with a more maroon color scheme… Maybe he even hates his initial outfit so he requests a better one, so that he can be both a soldier to his country, and a hero as well… My mind went to the original Iron Man comics featuring Crimson Dynamo, his first outfit was clunky and robust, but as time went on they made the suit more lightweight and combat-oriented… My guess is probably because the original outfit looking like it was made of a bunch of wound-up coils and springs didn’t look super appealing to readers… I think the same could work for Vladimir here… Another theory is that initially his superiors gave him the “Alan Scott” outfit as a way to frame Alan for crimes, and have the US turn against him, so he would be caught off guard when Vladimir swoops in and takes him out… Which, if we’re being honest cause this was the Golden Age, he probably failed and Alan was back on his feet by the end of the issue (had it actually existed)

I do like the whos who aesthetic that they gave them and personally I love that they gave them a story

Thanks for the video 😃😃

I'm glad to see Geoff Johns writing more comics again!!

They did the same thing with Triumph. He was supposed to be the greatest superhero of his generation and was a founding member of the Justice League of America. Unfortunately, on his first mission with the Justice League he was deleted from history and was forgotten by everyone. He spent years in limbo and was eventually released in junction with "Zero Hour: Crisis In Time". He was bitter about what happened and eventually lost his powers. Eventually, he regained his powers and turned against the JLA. His powers (basically complete control over the Electromagnetic Spectrum) made him more than a match for Superman. He was stopped by The Spectre who turned him into ice. The Spectre was going to shatter him but he was stopped by Zauriel (an angel who left Heaven). The last we saw of Triumph he was in storage in Justice League Watchtower with a sign stating to keep the temperature below freezing.

This seems like an interesting concept but hella confusing. I’m specifically looking at the Golden age steel cause he’s literally the Steel from New Frontier

To be fair, with the costume, that was the norm for much of the golden age and somewhat even into the silver age, where they had an evil doppelganger of the hero the costume was basically the same except for what we would call now a pallet swap. The reverse flash for example, or even Jay Garrick had his one off doppelganger dressed in basically a darker version of Jay's costume with a black mask on his face.

I like the idea of a golden age Red Lantern but you're 100% correct on his look and back story. They could have made him part of the Russian Railway Corps that has been a thing since the late 1800s. He could have more of an actual train conductor look. Also he can have a daughter but rather than her having powers being the reason for her taking you could have made it that her mother was while pregnant because she was Jewish. The mom could be part of the JAC "Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee" that was founded in the Soviet union. After the war ended in 1948 the Soviets turned on them and arrested members of the JAC and sent them to "reeducation camps". Vladimir could then with the help of Alan look for his wife. Then when he finds his wife she gives birth to a little girl with red skin but unfortunately passes in child birth. After realizing that the soviets would never let him keep his daughter he takes her into hiding. With this betrayal by one of their top soldiers the Soviets destroy all evidence connected to the Red Lantern. Alan to protect his friend tells the US government that the Red Lantern is dead. With that the Red Lantern just fades into history until his daughter decides to finally reveal herself to the world.

He feels like a lazy knockoff for the same reason a Crimson Cow energy drink with a slogan of "Crimson Cow bestows feathers upon your arms!" would feel like a lazy knockoff.

Maybe the in-universe retcon of removing him from the timeline caused aspects of his story to remain but get shifted over onto Alan Scott.

Your snark aside, I'm actually super curious about this character. Probably more so than any of the retconned lost teen sidekicks

I feel like if the character was really made back then. They would’ve just done a costume knock off

It's not like Roy Thomas didn't do a lot of Golden Age retcons back in the 80s.

I like red lantern. And I like the symmetry with Alan Scott

You called the name Ruby. An exact clone of jade for sure.

I like his look, I bought the comic when I saw him in it and I love Who's Who. So this was fun for me.

It's funny. I remember seeing him and being like "Alan Scott had his own Red Lantern? How did I miss that?"

I absolutely love the look and the concept

Okay question, if Alan Scott is (depending on the writer) connected the "the green" (the one that swamp thing uses) as an explanation of why he cannot hurt wood. Does that mean that "commie lantern" is connected to "the red"? Because that would have some interesting power applications

That’s a pretty sweet meta origin

he should have worn a classic superhero costume (black bodysuit, red undies and captain america style gloves and boots) with the belt, cape and mask looking like the ones that alan scott wears (red mask and cape, no change in belt), with all the yellow/golden beign replaced with grey/silver and the logo should have been the alan scott logo but with a red lantern corp style lantern, for the story itslef I like it, but if we found out more about this guy I would love to have more details about how they accesed the emotional spectrum

Other than the extremely heavy-handed new red scare propaganda, I like the look and idea of an Alan Scott styled Red Lantern

To be honest, the 13 and the Justice Society Dark feel like DC’s latest attempt to introduce to ton of characters and a team at the end of an event in hopes that they’ll be a success. I’m referring to the bloodpack the original new guardians (which might make for a good video) and whatever the dark matter universe was. I’m not expecting much, but maybe I’ll be surprised. Also, with the Legionnaire being completely obscured, I can’t help but feel like they’re a character we already know who’s being retconned into the golden age.

I don't find it confusing for a simple reason: I remember Triumph, a founding member (one might say /the/ founding member) of the Justice League, despite being introduced in 1994. I think nearly 30 years is long enough to wait before using a similar idea again. :D

I actually really like the idea I love the Golden age and the fact that will now be able to see new characters and stories and I specially like the Golden age Mr miracle

Lanterns in the same costumes…. How… like every lantern corp

As a person from hypertime and therefore a else worlds villian it could make sense. Time will tell.

I think Black Prophet was supposed to be the first attempt at giving Allen Scott his first nemesis. He seems to be his first reoccurring villain starting in issues #4&5. Seems like a waste of potential with only 2 appearances. He might've come back for Green Lantern out of survival's guilt? That would be new. 🤔 Captain Kartz was informed by a sole survivor of Alan Scott's weakness, I think should've been Captain Kartz himself who should've been the sole survivor of his first encounter of Green Lantern's attack after finding out the hero was just pretending to be his fellow Nazi. The idea of having a personal vendetta in accordance with a solidified negative view of Allen Scott as a traitorous "friend" responsible for the deaths of his comrades would be an awesome origin, explaining his role as a captain of the 5th Column, plotting vengeance for the fallen. I'd also make him a great character to explore the concept of mortality in a way Black Hand hasn't been able to do. Maybe have him under disguise using Allen Scott to infiltrate the Allied Forces and take his revenge. But that never happened, nor can I find any records of him being used ever sense. But I'd still be awesome if it turned out Black Prophet was actually Vandal Savage. Especially since Vandal Savage is infact a still long time heavy hitter of the DC universe who finally appears within the 10th issue. Which is still faster than Wally's first appearance. Black Prophet first uses an experimental invisible shield (probably by Vandal Savage revealed in #10) to counter Green Lantern's beam before he's thought to have drowned. He's since also used a sword and a plane. Vandal Savage is my second choice for Alan Scott's greatest nemesis. He's immortal from a meteor, has super strength, high intelligence, and more I can't remember, on top of also leading several armies as famous captains and generals.

I like the idea, and it'll be cool to see where they go with it. Though what I would have done is said he first appeard in issues 1.5 or 3.5, sonething like that, then release thoes issues. So, instead of saying he appeared in stories he didn't, it's actually stories we just didn't know about (kinda like what they did with Untold Tales of Spider-Man).

Criticizing is easy. Creating is hard. Anyone can tear down an idea; the true test of insight is whether you can build an idea of your own. - Adam Grant

I would love it more if the golden age red lantern is not a human but an alien like Abin Sur or Sinestro, retconning that someone discovered to harness the anger emotional spectrum in some way before Atrocitus. That's my expectation when they introduced him at the end of Flashpoint Beyond, but I guess it will make more things complicated. I just hoped they just continued Elseworld stories and introduced these guys there instead of Prime Earth.

I read the New Golden Age number one. This is a love letter to the pre-Crisis Earth-2. I was just getting into comics in the early 1980s. The Justice Society, Infinity Inc., and Brave and the Bold were all rooted in Earth-2. Who-s Who was essential reading to keep Earth-1 and Earth-2 characters separate in your head. I feel this is lost on you as it predates your very extensive knowledge. I feel sorrow that you missed this era. I feel more sorrow that it makes me an old, old man. Please go read the collections from this era. It makes Crisis of Inifinite Earths that more tragic.

It's funny I was just reading Comic Cavalcade #5 talking about the cult of the red flame

Please do a video on all these “new heroes”

I could see this be a charater bing made in the 60's even with the similer costumes.

Maybe the red lantern could draw from the Crimson source where the crimson bands of Cytorakk come from

This is what they did with Sentry in Marvel but more extreme.

Can you please talk about the other golden age characters taken by Rip Hunter please especially Salem and The Boom.

This massive golden age retcon thing screams long term problems for people wanting to enter into the DCU in the future.

I wish Alan Scott gain the Green Guard costume.

Honeslty, I really like this idea. Yeah it's not very creatively different but neither was Red Son superman or batman. Also thos really reminds me of the history of the Sentry from Marvel. Yeah I think introducing him in an actual comic would be better than this info graph.

I live a villain without a suit

This actually sounds pretty cool I kinda like his design it's kinda like reverse flash "I'm you done right" plus it can show the difference between the two like how Alan can make whacky constructs Vladimir can make weapons and turrets which can be used to reference how the Red ring is much more violent.

OK I have been out of the loop for a while, specifically because DC wasnt doing anything with the JSA and focusing almost entirely on their Dark Metal series. Where does the return of the JSA actually start? I remember a few mentions in Rebirth, but that went nowhere.

I like it... It's very golden age feeling. Golden age was full of lazy negatives of the original. It's what I think they where going for. I mean it is in the name of the series. Lol

I really hate conflicts about time travel and multiverses. I love the Elseworlds and What If...? stories back then because I thought these will not be included in the original timeline but shows only original stories

Well.... The Flashpoint Universe is really cool, and to quote you THERE IS HOPE!!! Noone liked the wood, being his Achilles heel, let's let it play out.....

Reverse Flash has the same costume, so why is it bad when they do it for Red Lantern?

You could’ve just said they pulled a sentry.

I like the design!

This is like the latest Rick and Morty episode

I disagree. How many Spider-Man characters are just Spider-Man in a different costume with a few extra powers? Aren't the Sinestro corps just green lanterns with yellow rings and the power of fear?

"this character seems like a total knock off"" Someone doesn't know a lot about the Cold War. They should have flipped the lantern on his chest, or an older style lantern.

So basically this marvel version of sentry

I actually learned about a lot of DC characters for the first time through those old Who's Who, so there is a nostalgia tickle there. But what annoys me about the whole thing is that it's not an original trick. Marvel did this repeatedly with like Sentry, Blue Marvel etc...

This is just what happened with Johnny sorrow

There's a comic book series called who's who came out the eighties and nineties some of the characters may be in there check it out

It seems like a similar concept to what marvel did with red guardian so like it 😅

They confirmed her name Is RUBY

So this is a retcon²? Also his daughter stright up needed to be named Ruby

Why would Rip and the Time Hunters take away people from the timeline, I thought they were all about fixing time related issues and only caused said problems by accident?

{sigh} ... even this retcon idea is a rerun from Zero Hour and other reboots...

If I had been asked to create a 1940s Red Lantern with a daughter, I'd have repurposed the Elseworld characters Ipati Dugin and Kortni Duginovna, since evidently they don't have any existence on New Earth otherwise. For a costume, I would have given Red Lantern an outfit based on either the traditional Russian peasant trousers and blouse (which would have been close to Alan Scott's costume, but not identical), or else a 20th Century Red Army uniform, with the kind of dramatic colors shown in the published design.

This is utterly fucking hilarious! 🤣🤣🤣

Red Lantern from the Golden Age? Crazy. These retcons get confusing

I watched the comicistorian RU-vid channel where this character was mentioned, and it is weird that the Cold War started after ww2, and this wouldn’t make sense, yet I don’t hate the idea though🤔🤨.

Now I’m just curious as to why he doesn’t have a son like Alan. They made a parallel to Jade why not Obsidian?

I think it's pretty cool and his red costume looks way cooler than Alan Scott's Golden Age GL. Maybe he becomes or already was a potential love interest for Alan Scott or maybe there was something *MORE* to their supposed short lived *"team-up".* Like something that was forbidden at the time?? 🔥💚+💔🔥

Remember if he's Allen's enemy from Russia they made a costume the same as greenlantern, to fool people in thinking he was greenlantern.

I don’t necessarily agree with the lazy design take because it works for certain characters like scorpion and subzero, or even more so with red guardian and captain America, it feels like an allegory for how competitive Russia and the U.S. were when it came to technological advancement