Hal struggles with emotions. Not his, but still his? I guess.
Writer: Gardner Fox
Pencils: Gil Kane
Inks: Sid Greene
Letters: Charlotte Jetter
Cover: Gil Kane & Sid Greene
"Peril Of The Powerless Green Lantern" - Hal is given a vacation from his job, so he goes to a nearby town for some fishing. While there, he sees a fire break out so he heads over as GL to help out. He saves people inside but before he can help with the fire, he gets a random urge to steal jewels. Across the street is a jewelry store that is being robbed at the same time, so Hal crashes in and fights off the robbers then takes off with the loot. Once he gets further away, the urge subsides and he returns the jewels. The shop owner thanks him and Mentions the robbers were already taken away by the police.
That night Hal goes to take in a movie at the drive in but an earthquake causes a giant crack in the ground. Instead of fixing it right away, he ends up running with the crowd, until he sees a man saving his date from a crushing boulder and that gives him the drive to stop the crack and save the people. The Guardians have noticed what has been happening and figures Hal is going through battle fatigue as many GLs have in the past. The take away his ring and order him to have a vacation from GL work. Hal reluctantly obliges and goes to a field to enjoy the breeze. He over hears two people running from a bear and jumps in to save them despite not having his ring. After the bear leaves, the two are introduced as Eve Doremus and her little brother, Buddy.
Eve is so grateful to Hal that she invites him to stay at their home, owned by their father Mark Doremus, the owner of the Cosmidor Corporation. Hal is astounded by Eve's beauty and the two hit it off. The next day, some robbers break into the Doremus mansion, leaving Hal to change into GL without his ring, hoping his appearance alone will bluff them into surrender. It doesn't quite work as they notice he has no ring.
At the same time, a Guardian was inspecting Hal's ring and notices a crack in the power jewel inside, which caused radiation to leak and the emotions of the piepme around Hal to become his own. They send his ring back to him just as the robbers shoot at Hal. His ring saves him at the last second and Hal takes down the robbers with ease. Eve is worried about Hal and runs to his room with GL following, trying to figure out how to explain his absence when Hal walks out of his room to meet Eve, much to GLs surprise. It turns out the Guardians created a temporary duplicate of Hal as an apology for the misunderstanding with his ring. Hal then heads back his job, promising to come visit Eve again soon.
Conclusion: The cover is cool and the story was actually white interesting. Not a traditional villain involved, and even though there a plain robbers, they add to the story instead of just being a reason. Eve debuts here and lasts for a bit. I guess she is technically Hal's first girlfriend as Carol never really took that step with him.
Reading this in modern day also leads to a thought about if the emotional spectrum was a thing back in the Silver/Bronze ages. Would it have lasted? How would the stories have evolved going forward? Imagine if Hal's urge to steal jewels was really orange energy infecting him. But since this isn't that, how did the Guardians not know about a malfunctioning ring? You'd figure they would have something setup to notify them.
End of, it's a fun story that I think lasts the test of time. Not many of these issues do in the same way. And that cover! One of the best.
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