Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) First Appearance: Showcase #22 Value by Grade

Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) first appeared in Showcase #22 (cover date September-October 1959), published by DC, by John Broome, Gil Kane, Joe Giella. The source puts it this way: "The very first appearance of one of DC's greatest heroes, Hal Jordan!".

PriceCharting values for Showcase #22 (1959) by CGC grade, based on recorded sales and updated September 25, 2026:

• CGC 2.0: $2,200
• CGC 3.0: $2,313
• CGC 4.0: $3,616
• CGC 5.0: $5,375
• CGC 6.0: $7,437
• CGC 7.0: $11,888
• CGC 8.0: $26,963
• CGC 9.0: $36,192
• CGC 9.2: $45,421

The spread from CGC 2.0 ($2,200) to CGC 9.2 ($45,421) shows how much condition matters on a key issue. Restored, trimmed or incomplete copies sell far below these figures, and reprints and facsimiles (see below) are worth a small fraction. Grade and restoration are confirmed by a grading service such as CGC or CBCS; prices move with the market and the character's popularity.

• Release/cover date: the issue's release date is recorded as September 2, 1959.
• Interior story content: test pilot Hal Jordan traces a downed aircraft to the Southwest desert, where he finds the dying alien Abin Sur of the Green Lantern Corps, whose ring chooses Hal to be Earth's new Green Lantern.

• Indicia: the small print on the first page or inside cover gives the issue number, date and publisher; reprints usually say so there.
• Cover price and barcode: a price or barcode format that did not exist in the year printed means a later edition.
• Paper and staples: decades-old newsprint is tan at the edges; bright white pages on an old date are a warning sign.
• Restoration: color touch, trimmed edges and married covers are common on expensive keys; a grading service can detect them.

Shoot the front cover flat, straight on, in even light, then the indicia page and the back cover. Include the top edge and staples in one frame. The app reads the title, issue number and cover and matches it against the checks above; the indicia photo settles most reprint questions.

Showcase #22 is Hal Jordan's debut, but he was not the first Green Lantern. By first appearance (Wikipedia):

• Alan Scott: All-American Comics #16, July 1940, created by Martin Nodell and Bill Finger
• Hal Jordan: Showcase #22, September to October 1959
• Guy Gardner: Green Lantern (vol. 2) #59, March 1968, by John Broome and Gil Kane. The story shows that when Abin Sur was dying, his ring found two candidates, Guy and Hal, and chose Hal because he was nearer.
• John Stewart: Green Lantern (vol. 2) #87 (December 1971 to January 1972), by Dennis O'Neil and Neal Adams. After Guy is hit by a bus, the Guardians recruit John as Hal's backup. Wikipedia calls him one of the first African-American superheroes in DC Comics.

Wikipedia's list continues with Kyle Rayner in the 1990s, then Simon Baz, Jessica Cruz and Sojourner "Jo" Mullein.

PriceCharting values retrieved September 25, 2026:

• All-American Comics #16 (Alan Scott): CGC 2.0 $31,197.50; 4.0 $88,430.00; 6.0 $110,537.50; 8.0 $203,150.00; 9.2 $264,095.00. Sales are rare and several grades have no recent sale, so treat these as rough.
• Green Lantern #59 (Guy Gardner): ungraded $150.00; CGC 4.0 $245.00; 6.0 $338.39; 8.0 $538.21; 9.2 $1,292.50
• Green Lantern #87 (John Stewart): ungraded $327.25; CGC 4.0 $320.00; 6.0 $415.41; 8.0 $703.98; 9.2 $1,299.00; 9.8 $7,605.00 (about one sale a year)

John Stewart's debut costs about twice as much as Guy Gardner's in raw condition, while in CGC 9.2 the two are almost level.

Two answers are given, and one of them is a Green Lantern. Extraño, created by Steve Englehart and Joe Staton, debuted in Millennium #2 (January 1988) and is noted as DC's first openly gay superhero (Wikipedia). Alan Scott, the first Green Lantern, was later written as gay: DC announced on June 1, 2012 that the younger Earth-2 version would be gay, and after Dark Nights: Death Metal the original Alan Scott came out to his children. The series Alan Scott: The Green Lantern (2023) gave him a secret relationship in 1936 with a fellow engineer, Johnny Ladd, which Wikipedia says retroactively established him as the first gay superhero.

Ryan Reynolds played Hal Jordan in the 2011 film Green Lantern. The HBO series Lanterns premiered on August 16, 2026, with Kyle Chandler as Hal Jordan and Aaron Pierre as John Stewart (Wikipedia).

Hal Jordan was the Silver Age revival of Green Lantern: editor Julius Schwartz wanted to recreate the Golden Age hero and brought in John Broome and Gil Kane, who drew visual inspiration for Hal from Paul Newman (Wikipedia, Hal Jordan). The issues collectors look for after his debut:

• Green Lantern #1 (July to August 1960): his own series begins; PriceCharting lists it as the first appearance of the Guardians of the Universe and of Oa, with his origin retold.
• Green Lantern #76 (April 1970): Dennis O'Neil and Neal Adams take over with socially conscious stories about power, racism, sexism and exploitation.
• Green Lantern (vol. 3) #50: at the end of the Emerald Twilight story (#46 to #50, 1993 to 1994), after Coast City is destroyed, Hal renounces the Corps and becomes Parallax.
• Final Night #4 (1996): he appears to sacrifice himself.
• Day of Judgment (1999): he becomes the Spectre.
• Green Lantern: Rebirth (2004): he is restored as an active Green Lantern.

He was also a founding member of the Justice League (Wikipedia).

PriceCharting values, retrieved September 25, 2026:

• Ungraded: $451.00 (about two sales a month)
• CGC 4.0: $898.75
• CGC 5.0: $1,767.00
• CGC 6.0: $4,301.20
• CGC 8.0: $14,747.91
• CGC 9.2: $78,605.99 (rare)

At the same grades Hal's own #1 is worth less than Showcase #22 in the middle grades but more at the top: $78,605.99 against $45,421 in CGC 9.2, using the Showcase #22 figures above.

Not in the sources we checked. Wikipedia's Hal Jordan article describes no LGBTQ identity; his long-running, on-and-off love interest is Carol Ferris, who at times becomes his enemy Star Sapphire, and in recent stories he reconciles with her after leaving the Corps. The Green Lantern who was rewritten as gay is Alan Scott, the first one, as covered above.

By publication, Alan Scott (All-American Comics #16, July 1940), nineteen years before Hal. He is also the oldest in the stories: Wikipedia describes him as a World War II veteran whose lifespan was magically prolonged, first by Starheart energy that slowed his aging and later by radiation that gave him eternal youth. Hal Jordan himself received his ring from the dying alien Green Lantern Abin Sur (Wikipedia, Green Lantern).