They may not be the best of friends, but Green Lantern still totally owes Wonder Woman for protecting his secret identity. The two served together on the Justice League, becoming staunch allies. That allyship pays off when a rogue politician threatens to expose Hal Jordan to the world and Wonder Woman intervenes, keeping Hal’s secret safe — and Green Lantern is none the wiser.
Hal Jordan is far from the only Green Lantern on Earth, but he is perhaps the best known — and even the all-time greatest. However, by the early 1980s, Hal was beginning to have second thoughts about being a hero and a member of the Green Lantern Corps; that storyline climaxes when Hal temporarily leaves the Corps, leaving John Stewart and Guy Gardner to pick up the slack. While Hal was struggling on a personal level, he was also contending with a very different type of villain: a politician. Representative Jason Bloch became a thorn in Green Lantern’s side, eventually learning his secret identity.
Wonder Woman Always Protects Her Allies
In 1984’s Green Lantern #181 by Len Wein, Dave Gibbons, Mark Farmer, Anthony Tollin, and John Costanza, Bloch’s story comes to an end. After Bloch’s latest attempt to bring down Green Lantern fails, Bloch himself is attacked by a mystery assassin. Bloch then stumbles from his office and collapses in the hallway. A military woman tends to Bloch, and, as he dies, he tells her everything he knows: that Ferris test pilot Hal Jordan is Green Lantern. Bloch implores her to tell the world. The person tending to Bloch is revealed to be Diana Prince, the civilian guise of Wonder Woman. When Steve Trevor asks what Bloch said, Diana replies: “Not a thing Steve. Not a blessed thing.”
At this moment, Wonder Woman keeps Green Lantern’s secret identity just that — a secret. If anyone else had heard Bloch’s final words, they may have actually gone to the media about it. Alternately, they could have held onto that information and sold it to the highest bidder — likely a villain. However, it so happens that the one who finds Bloch knows Hal is Green Lantern, and she, of course, has enough of a moral compass not to expose Hal’s secret. Wonder Woman never tells Hal about the incident either — meaning he has no idea how much he owes her.
Wonder Woman Inadvertently Defeats a Major Green Lantern Threat
By keeping Green Lantern’s identity a secret, Wonder Woman deals the death blow to Bloch’s ambitions. He dies in her arms, and she never does what Bloch asked — meaning all that Bloch had tried to accomplish had been for naught. The knowledge that Hal is Green Lantern never goes any further — and it is all thanks to Wonder Woman.
Check out Green Lantern #181, available now from DC Comics!
