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"Green Lantern: "The Tycoon's Legacy"": Green Lantern beats up a gang of thieves robbing a warehouse and leaves one with the image of a green lantern burned into their cheek as a calling card. Later, Alan Scott's on hand and jumps in to finish a commercial when the announcer suddenly faints. He

Green Lantern #2 is an issue of the series Green Lantern (Volume 1) with a cover date of December, 1941.

Synopsis for Green Lantern: "The Tycoon's Legacy"

Green Lantern beats up a gang of thieves robbing a warehouse and leaves one with the image of a green lantern burned into their cheek as a calling card. Later, Alan Scott's on hand and jumps in to finish a commercial when the announcer suddenly faints. He so impresses his boss that Alan finds himself being given a man-on-the-street segment for their broadcast. While interviewing pedestrians, he meets a struggling lawyer who's frustrated because he can't get ahead in his career because of having no connections, and too many ethics to take cases that aren't legitimate. Alan promises to help the man, Frank Benton, get his career on track. Although he himself wonders how he's going to make good on such a bold promise.

The answer comes soon when it comes to his attention that the wealthy businessman Jeffers became close friends with a worker of his, Joe Stromboli, and promised to leave his wealth to the man when he passed away. However, when Jeffers died and the will was read, all his wealth was instead inherited by Jeffers' nephew Lester. Alan goes to Frank Benton and claims finding new evidence to reverse this great injustice is just the case he's been looking for. As Green Lantern, he infiltrates the insane asylum where Joe Stromboli was committed and finds orderlies torturing Joe. After a beating from the masked crusader they admit Slagg, Jeffers' lawyer, paid them off to abuse Joe until he legitimately went insane. Green Lantern helps Joe escape the asylum, and has Doiby take him somewhere safe to hide out. Then the hero confronts Slagg about the changes in Jeffers' will. Before he can confess anything, someone shoots Slagg through the window. Green Lantern declares war on whoever's behind all this.

Green Lantern rifles Slagg's office and finds a comminique from a "Baldy" to have the orderlies keep abusing Joe. Green Lantern catches the two orderlies and takes them to a hideout before leaving by walking through the wall. Meanwhile, "Baldy" has Lester killed too. After learning this, Alan Scott and Frank Benton deduce "Baldy" must belong to the Jeffers Corporation, since the fortune passes to the company with Lester's demise, and that way Baldy will be able to gain control of it. Alan Scott and Frank Benton pay a visit to the Jeffers Savings and Loan Corporation and notify its leadership they plan to reopen Joe Stromboli's case. While he's there Alan is shown in by John Corbin, the vice-president. Alan notices both the president, Paul Blane, and Blane's secretary, Delber, are bald, and wonders if either of them might be Baldy.

Later, Baldy springs the crooks Green Lantern arrested at the warehouse robbery from prison and has them kidnap Joe Stromboli's niece, Maria. Joe receives a ransom note to give himself up or he'll never see Maria again. Doiby refuses to let him entertain any thoughts of giving in, but Joe's conscience gets the best of him and he knocks Doiby unconscious and runs out to surrender himself. Doiby recovers and follows but both of them fall into Baldy's clutches. Seeing the note when he arrives at Doiby's place to check up on them, Green Lantern flies to the Jeffers building, hoping he's not too late to save his friends. He gets there and saves Doiby from his captors, then is confronted by Baldy himself. The mastermind's gun is no more effective than his hirelings', but he gets lucky when Green Lantern makes a tackle and slams the wooden door on the hero, causing Lantern to crash into an obstacle his powers are useless against.

Green Lantern pursues Baldy, and finds both Delber and Blane working late into the night. Blane gets a sudden phone call, but Green Lantern answers for him and hears a mysterious voice relate a series of numbers. As he leaves, Blane panics at the thought of the hero learning what those numbers mean. Meanwhile, Joe and Maria are rescued, and Green Lantern throws the kidnappers in with the orderlies he locked up in his secret hideout already. He finds a list of addresses on the crooks and coerces an explanation out of one by blinding him with the power ring, finding out that Baldy instructs his men to injure people but make it look like the victims suffered an accident. By interviewing the people on the list, Green Lantern learns they all owe money to the Jeffers Corporation, and if they can't pay it the company will seize their property, causing Lantern realize this is all a huge predatory scam. Because they have no money to pay their obligations, the victims also have no money to hire lawyers and fight back, prompting Green Lantern to suggest to Frank Benton they start a low-income law clinic where the patrons pay a little at a time instead of all at once. Benton agrees to round up all the lawyers he knows who need work to carry out this plan. Alan Scott and Doiby go around hustling donations for startup money, and one of the people Alan visits is Paul Blane. Mainly to let Blane know afterward that he can expect to be hit with a huge class-action lawsuit in his near future.

Baldy reacts to this legal threat by sending thugs to threaten the victims not to participate in the lawsuit, but Green Lantern finds out and captures them. Anticipating that if intimidating the victims didn't work, Baldy will attack the law clinic itself, he and Doiby stake out its headquarters and interrupt the gangsters who do indeed appear to try and destroy the law clinic. Green Lantern deposits those crooks in with all the others in his hideout.

Meanwhile, Irene Miller and Doiby go to the Jeffers Building to do some investigating late at the night. Delber catches them snooping and pulls a gun, but is prevented from shooting them by the timely arrival of Green Lantern. Rather than being there in the middle of the night because he's the true identity of Baldy, however, Delber's there because he's been embezzling from the company to pay off gambling debts. Green Lantern lets him go, with how the Jeffers Corporation will have much bigger things to worry about soon.

Not long afterward, Alan Scott and Frank Benton have an argument in front of the law clinic that important records have gone missing, and Benton appears to be the thief. He angrily storms out, but is offered employment by someone who tells him where he can have a meeting with Baldy about joining the organization. This was all a ruse, and he relays the address to Green Lantern who shows up instead. However, Baldy throws tear gas at him and gets away while the hero's overcome by the fumes.

The trial begins, and Green Lantern brings in all the criminals he's been gathering at his hideout to confess the inner workings of the racket. Corbin and Blane are called in to testify, and a wounded Corbin comes in exclaiming that Blane is Baldy and tried to shoot him. However, Blane is brought in, barely alive, explaining that Corbin is Baldy, and he shot himself in the arm after roughing up Blane to sell his story of Blane being the real criminal mastermind. Corbin knew Blane was an ex-con and would call and tell him a series of numbers--the ones Green Lantern overhead on the phone--because that was his ID number in prison, and it was a sharp reminder of how he'd be sent back if he did anything to endanger Corbin's scheme. Green Lantern corroborates this by finding a bald cap attached to Baldy's mask in Corbin's rooms.

With Baldy put away and the scam put to rest, Joe Stromboli gets the money he was promised, and vows to use it to repay the victims of the accident scam. The first thing he uses it for, however, is to invite Alan Scott, Doiby Dickles, and Irene Miller to a spaghetti dinner with his extended family.

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Synopsis for "Hop Harrigan"


Appearing in "Hop Harrigan"

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Links and References

Superboy Vol 4 69
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