Green Lantern/Camberwell Now

This week Classics Rock! is featuring songs based on comic books in honor of Comic-Con 2009, taking place in San Diego July 23-26.

Originally created by Bill Finger and Martin Nodell in 1940, and published by DC Comics, the Green Lantern refers to not one but several superheroes, all members of an interplanetary police force known as the Green Lantern Corps, which is administered by the extraterrestrial Guardians of the Universe. Each Green Lantern has a special ring that grants him certain super powers. He often works alone, but at others times has various partners, including, occasionally, another Green Lantern. All are associated with either the Justice League of America or the Justice Society of America. At least five different individuals have served as the Green Lantern, including one named John Stewart; another had a daughter who exhibited Green Lantern-like powers, who became the superhero Jade. . . If all this seems complicated, the song Green Lantern by Camberwell Now, from their 1986 album The Ghost Trade and currently available on the compilation CD All's Well, is a surprisingly simple musical recitation of the Green Lantern's Oath, spoken by every Green Lantern since the 1940s: In brightest day, in blackest night/No evil shall escape my sight/Let those who worship evil's might/Beware my strength, Green Lantern's light. The world premiere of the new Warner Brothers animated film Green Lantern: First Flight will take place at Comic-Con tonight.