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SHOWCASE #23 — a mushroom cloud on a superhero cover, for a dime, in 1959.
CBCS 7.0 (Fine/Very Fine) · Off-White to White Pages · Second Appearance of the Silver Age Green Lantern
Hal Jordan was still the new arrival. Cover-dated November–December 1959,Showcase#23 places him opposite a villain threatening an atomic explosion—and declaring that even Green Lantern’s power ring cannot stop it. Gil Kane and Joe Giella give the threat the full cover treatment: machinery, a mushroom cloud, and a hero with very little room for error.
Inside are two John Broome adventures drawn by Kane and Giella. “The Invisible Destroyer!” supplies the cover’s atomic menace. “Summons from Space!” takes Hal to Venus, where yellow pterodactyl-like creatures threaten the inhabitants—a particularly troublesome opponent for a hero whose ring is powerless against yellow. It is early Green Lantern in full science-fiction mode: a test pilot, an extraordinary weapon, and a universe opening around him.
The issue’s place in comics history is just as appealing. BeforeGreen Lantern#1 arrived in 1960, Hal’s introduction occupied three issues ofShowcase: #22, #23, and #24. This is the middle one—his second appearance, with the character still taking shape under writer John Broome and editor Julius Schwartz.
The period advertisements add another small pleasure. An American Geographical Society offer on the back cover promises a ten-cent “tour” of England, while interior house ads point readers toward DC’s mystery and adventure titles. They preserve the newsstand world this book first belonged to.
This copy isCBCS 7.0, Fine/Very Fine, with off-white to white pages. An opportunity to own Hal Jordan’s second appearance, with Kane and Giella’s atomic-threat cover and both early adventures collected in the original 1959 issue.
Ships in a Gemini graded-comic mailer with honeycomb kraft void fill, fully insured, within one business day of cleared payment.
The Memory Shop of Concord — curated Golden, Silver and Bronze Age keys at memoryshopconcord.com
