In Part 1 and Part 2 of this series, I discussed the transfer of power from the previous Green Lantern to the current Hal Jordan, and explored the issue of Hal’s literal and figurative weaknesses. In Part 3, I discussed the stirring of the feminist movement.
On Venus, the planet of the feminine, there lives a clan of cavemen. According to the panels of this particular story, there is not a single cavewoman (as it were) among the bunch, at least not out in the open air where this particular group of beings are ducking and running for their lives. In the skies directly overhead hovers an angry flock of yellow pterodactyls, intent on plucking the cavemen from the open fields like emergent worms to carry them back to their nests as food.
Setting aside speculation as to which sex (assuming there are two) is of greater intelligence at this particular moment — for if you assume there are two, you might also assume that the females have had the good sense to hide from their attackers rather than allowing themselves to be plucked from the fields as dimwitted tasty treats — these yellow birds quite obviously represent a danger to the men of their world.
Symbolically, the threat confronting these men could be seen as the oncoming, inexorable changes about to be permanently visited upon their established way of life. These blond-haired (furred) predators are interlopers, interfering in the ways of men by doing what blonds do best — distract and acquire target, pluck the heartstrings, emasculate and chain him to the nest.
In other words, bye-bye boys club.
It is impossible to ignore the parallels that exist between this imperiled, male-dominated Venusian society and that of the exploding 1960s here in the United States. That brief taste of freedom that women tasted as part of a collective effort against a common enemy during the second world war, along with a burgeoning social conscience, puts the lie to the increasingly outdated belief that women should be content with their assigned role as angel of the house, a home-maker safely tucked ensconced in comfortable corners of kitchens and sitting rooms.
While an adherence to tradition and gender roles once maintained the integrity of our society-at-large, sweeping societal changes ushered in on wings of pterodactyls raining down from the sky, signal an end to the establishment in ways that will continue to reverberate throughout the coming decades.
Perhaps Dylan said it best when he sang, the times they are a-changin’.
Like all uprisings, this one is no different; as well, it must be quelled. But who will beat back the rebellion? Can the hatchling be put back into the egg? With the balance of power shifting, the question becomes whether a peaceful co-existence is possible among the parties involved. For the blue men of Venus, defeat (in the form of change ushered in sporting a pair of stilettoed talons) appears inevitable.
Unless…
