Topic: Om mani padme hum! The All-Green Lama Thread!
Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
posted
So, I just discovered that the complete stories featuring this groovalicious pulp hero are currently available in three paperback volumes!
I'm mostly familiar with the character through radio series, but, as I understand it, he had a prominent role in Dynamite's Project Superpowers series.
Anyone read the original stories?
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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Why should I read them, Ester?
Registered: Jul 2003
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Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
posted
I don't think I've actually read any of the comics, but the groovy thing generally about the Green Lama is that while he's in the Shadow-esque mold of characters who received their powers from "studying Eastern mysticism", his creator Kendell Foster Crossen actually took the time to research Buddhism to make the character seem more authentic.
I will, however, read the comics and report back about how fun they are!
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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I can't help but feel a bit odd about a cover that features a Buddhist (which is all about the non-violence) hero choking someone with what looks to be a red silk scarf. I'd be curious to see how the author reconciles the problem.
From: St. Louis, Missouri | Registered: Sep 2012
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Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
posted
quote:Originally posted by Leap Year Lord: Five issues are available online at the Digital Comic Museum.
Why should I read them, Ester?
So, they have some pretty sweet artwork, particularly on the Christmas issue #7 (don't ask me why a Buddhist superhero has a Christmas issue, but...); however, I can't say the stories are really anything all that special.
#3 features toy-themed super-villain Falstaff stealing toys. The great mystery is why he's stealing toys rather than actual valuables. Kind of fun, but not anything all that exciting.
#4 and #5 are both war-themed stories. While it's generally against the Green Lama's way to interfere in war, since "countries must win their own battles or they will learn nothing from them", apparently he makes an exception when Japan develops drones in #4, and so he flies to Tokyo to prevent their use or something like that. Anyway, he leaves Hirohito hanging by a chandelier. In #5, he receives a letter from a soldier who is a member of the Green Lama club (if you join, you can receive the secret code). The soldier is concerned about a fellow soldier who is a racist, and so the Green Lama flies the bad soldier to Germany and shows him that the stuff he is saying is basically the same as the stuff Hitler is saying, which cures him of his racism.
#7 is the aforementioned Christmas issue, in which the Green Lama encounters an old miser who is trying to take over the local fishing industry by hiring thugs to dump the catches of the fishermen, whose boats the miser holds the mortgage on. The Lama has to teach the old miser a lesson and help him learn the Christmas spirit or something.
#8 basically reprints the Green Lama story from #3, with a few superficial changes.
The Lama is presented as very much a conventional super-hero, with his chant "Om mani padme hum!" changing him from Jethro Dumont into the Green Lama, and exhibiting powers such as flight and super-strength (which I don't believe were possessed by the character in other incarnations).
All and all, a fairly average Golden Age comic.
I briefly glanced at the various back-up features, but none of them really struck my fancy.
[ October 20, 2012, 02:31 PM: Message edited by: Eryk Davis Ester ]
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
posted
Green Lama fans take note:
Jethro Dumont makes the scene in Masks #2! We learn there that his Tibetan training has taught him to "resist worldly desires", such as watching Miss Fury change clothes!
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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