123 – A Wooden Heel

A panel from Green Lantern, All-American Comics #17, June 1940
A panel from Green Lantern, All-American Comics #17, June 1940

In All-American Comics #17 (June 1940), the Green Lantern story introduces the first example in comic book superheroes of an Achilles’ Heel, a specific vulnerability or weakness that could defeat the superhero. The Golden Age Green Lantern (Alan Scott) has a specific weakness to wood (non-metals). The Silver Age Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) would have a similarly arbitrary weakness to the color yellow.