Wholly unnecessary addendum

Green Lantern Month is almost over and I have not really had time to watch or read (let alone comment on) the animated Emerald Knights Blu-ray I have sitting at home or the third volume of Sleepers I am determined to acquire. Nor did I even get into the sordid saga (note: not really that sordid) of how my lovely wife received a DVD copy of Madagascar 3 in a work Christmas exchange, which her co-worker explained was something she thought the kids might enjoy (and really, that is a whole separate kettle of weird-fish right there, just bypassing the self-actualized person in front of you and buying gifts ostensibly in their name which are completely intended to be for their offspring, I mean, that's not just me finding that odd, right?) and my wife deciding to use the gift receipt to exchange it but ultimately opting to give me the DVD and receipt and urging me, in the spirit of the season, to get something for myself. I did follow through, just a week or so ago, by picking up the live-action Green Lantern movie (Extended Cut!) on Blu-ray, despite not loving the movie that much the first time, but compelled nonetheless to give it another shot and perhaps send out karmic good vibes for a superior sequel to materialize someday.

The common thread among Emerald Knights, Sleepers: Book Three and Ryan Reynolds's Ring-Bro is not only the Green Lantern but a specific focus on Hal Jordan, who was the Super Friends' GL and will probably always be the most famous version of the character. So during this self-indulgent month I have touched on Kyle and Jade and Alan but given short shrift to Hal, which seems a shame. I've promised a conclusion to the Sleepers reviews (promised myself; don't worry, I know no one else actually cares) and it's always possible I'll get to the Blu-rays later, possibly in March when I'm on baby leave and didn't have a set theme for the blog planned anyway. But still. Poor Hal.

Thus, in honor of today's post about Hitchcock's Vertigo, please enjoy the following artwork of Green Lantern Hal Jordan, punching out a bad guy who goes by the name Count Vertigo.

Count Vertigo is not one of Green Lantern's traditional adversaries, but when you're in the Justice League you do kind of end up fighting everybody sooner or later. Vertigo's powers, as you might expect, involve inducing a state of dizziness and disorientation in his victims in order to incapacitate them. He was introduced in DC Comics in the late 70's and became something of a fan favorite in the 90's due to his involvement in a fantastic series called Suicide Squad (a supervillain take on the Dirty Dozen concept). I have to imagine that the enduring popularity of Hitchcock's film was on some level responsible for the word "vertigo" striking someone as both a good concept for a villain and a term the general public would at least be passingly familiar with.