Christmas Make Over, Green Lantern Style

I wasn't going to post anything until the New Year was well under way - I'm still recovering from the excesses of Christmas and we have New Year's Eve celebrations to get through this evening. Having picked up my comics on Saturday just gone, however, I noticed something that I wanted to post about.

I'm a big fan of Green Lantern and have been since I was a kid. Over the years I've bought various comics, T-shirts, watches and action figures; my wallet has the classic logo on the front and I'm even considering getting the Lantern symbol as a tattoo on my arm. While I wouldn't pretend to be an expert on the Green Lantern Corps and its members, I'd like to think I've got a good grounding. When I was reading the Green Lantern/Sinestro Corps Secret Files And Origins #1 over the weekend which has - as the cover mentions - "bios on over 200 Lanterns!" - there were some I recognised and some I didn't, but one caught my eye.

Page 18, bottom row, middle entry is Sheriff Mardin who first appeared in Green Lantern Corps Quarterly #6. Having collected the whole of the Quarterly series when it was published in the early 90's, something struck me as not quite right about the image that was used to illustrate Sheriff Mardin's entry.

Firing up my comic database, I found the issue, flipped through it and, sure enough, found what was wrong.

Green Lantern Corps Quarterly was an anthology series, telling tales of individual Lanterns surrounded by a framing story that didn't sit in either Green Lantern or Green Lantern Mosaic that were published at the time. Issue #6 featured stories about female Lanterns or female enemies; there was the first appearance of Laira who is one of the Lost Lanterns featured in recent Green Lantern issues; Alan Scott took on the latest Harlequin; and Boodikka provided some raucous light relief.

And there was Sheriff Mardin.

In a quiet little story by Mike Baron, readers are introduced to perhaps the homeliest Green Lantern ever. Both Green Lantern and Sheriff to the world of Nyberg, the Sheriff hardly ever uses her ring, solving the homesteader's problems using her wits and practical nature.

When she does have to use the ring, she tries to avoid flying as it upsets her stomach, hence her need for a bicarbonate that she mentions in the panels on the left.

She's clearly overweight, a rotund and cheerful figure of approachable authority on a world that's so peaceful the biggest problem she faces is a native creature attacking a farmer's herd. With her wise and practical way of dealing with things, she had the potential to become the den mother of the Corps as Ma Hunkel has become to the Justice Society.

But no longer. Over this Christmas, the fat and jolly version of Sheriff Mardin as shown in Green Lantern Quarterly #6:

has given way to the slinky, sexy version in Green Lantern/Sinestro Corps Secret Files And Origins #1:

Out with the old, in with the new, apparently.

Happy New Year!