Why Did It Have to Be Yellow?

 

Green Lantern cover by Gil Kane

Wanted cover by Murphy Anderson

The last story in Wanted: The World's Most Dangerous Villains! #1 (July-August 1972) is a reprint from Green Lantern #1 (July-August 1960). 

Written by John Broome and drawn by Gil Kane, this story also introduces a minor-league supervillain into the DC Universe. At first called the Puppet-Master, his name was later changed to the Puppeteer, perhaps because Marvel Comics' Puppet-Master (who appeared in 1962) was a little better known (and who at least reappeared with more frequency). 

Green Lantern's home town is experiencing a wave of bank robberies. The odd thing is that the robbers are all known crooks, but none of them were normally did bank jobs. They all describe being somehow manipulated like a puppet.

This story is taking place in a Comic Book Universe, so the idea of a master criminal somehow controlling other crooks is taken quite seriously. In fact, the Puppet Master soon tries to do away with Green Lantern, using a giant puppet that is part of a parade to do the deed.

We then switch to the point-of-view of the villain, who has invented a hypnotism ray. He opts to use this for Evil instead of Good because Evil pays better. But he can't force people to do things against the own nature, so he's been forcing crooks to be... well, crooks.

He's figured out a way to amp up the ray and control Green Lantern, forcing the hero to come to his lair. But G.L.'s thing, after all, is strong willpower. He only allows himself to be taken there so that he, in turn, can catch the bad guy.

Unfortunately, the bad guy is dressed in yellow, so G.L.'s ring can't do anything to him. Actually, he could have made a boxing glove and punched the villain in his face. But, to be fair, the strategy G.L. uses does deliver a nice dose of irony. 

He uses his ring to manipulate some cables, which in turn manipulate the Puppet Master. So the story ends with G.L. marching the Puppet Master into the police station like a puppet.

Gil Kane's art work is always fun to look at. It seems to me that the Puppet Master had the potential to be a greater threat in a longer story, but that fun bit of irony at the end makes up for this.

That's it for now. Next week, a Living Vampire meets a Vampire Slayer.