The argument broke out initially over the question of which Green Lantern would be appearing in the upcoming fight game, and almost immediately, the fanboy gloves were off:

[Original Lantern] Alan Scott is a no in my books, unless they want to include members of the JSA... The real question is whether or not we will see Hal Jordan or John Stewart. Personally I feel John Stewart is the "Barack Obama" choice for this game, especially with his less than stellar track record (Gee, did I blow up that planet?). Kyle Rayner really hasn't been GL in a while since he took up the role as Ion (Oa's GL super weapon), so I am willing to count him out.

Picking the best Green Lantern is tough, because they all have pretty much the same powers and abilities. As a result, it all comes down to personality and whether or not you have a jet pilot fetish. Here's our rundown of the five top GLs for you to choose from:

Hal Jordan
Pros: Called "the greatest Green Lantern of them all" by his fellow members of the Green Lantern Corps, Silver Age GL Hal Jordan was a founder member of the Justice League of America and helped save the universe during the Crisis of Infinite Earths after being chosen as one of the few fearless men on the planet.
Cons: Hal was also responsible for the destruction of the Corps twice; once by executing villain Sinestro (Don't worry, he got better) and tripping a failsafe that depowered all the heroes, and the second time by becoming possessed by Parallax, the insect god of fear and killing everyone around him. He's kind of a cosmic jinx that way.

John Stewart
Pros: He's the Green Lantern that all the kids know, thanks to his role in Cartoon Network's Justice League and Justice League Unlimited series, although his hard-ass-marine portrayal there is at odds with his thoughtful architect comic persona. In the '90s, Stewart got his own series, Mosaic, which saw him have to build an international community made up of different alien races on an accidental patchwork planet; his reward for doing so successfully? Temporary godlike powers. Which was nice.
Cons: Well, that whole "being accidentally responsible for the destruction of a planet and its entire population" thing doesn't really go away that quickly. Also, superpowered alien cop architects? Who'd buy that?

Alan Scott
Pros: The original Green Lantern, Scott got his power not from little blue aliens, but from a magical lantern (Hence the name). Similarly, his weakness isn't the color yellow, but anything made of wood, meaning that he's particularly powerless against pornstars.
Cons: Well, he's been around since the 1940s, so there's that whole age thing going on, and who wants a superhero who can be beaten by a well-placed tree branch on the head, no matter how experienced he may be?

Kyle Rayner
Pros: After Hal Jordan got himself possessed and destroyed the Corps, freelance illustrator Rayner became the last Green Lantern in the universe, fighting Hal and keeping the name alive until the powers that be decided to hit the magical reset button.
Cons: Post-magical reset button, Rayner's been more than a little superfluous to requirements, and has been thrown around DC's publishing line (including an unfortunate stint in weekly book Countdown where he did very little for weeks on end). Is there a place out there for a replacement with little personality when the main man comes back?

Guy Gardner
Pros: Former football star and current arrogant asshole, Gardner is one of the more complex and realistic superheroes in mainstream comics, capable of being a dick or shameless, stupid, romantic as needs be.
Cons: Like I said, "former football star and current arrogant asshole." What didn't you understand about that? In lesser hands, the character can turn into a one-note joke, and as well as know, the ranks of comic writers is pretty much filled with lesser hands, not to mention other body parts.

Of course, there are many, many other Green Lanterns for the game makers to choose from - Mogo, the planet Green Lantern, for one. Personally, I'm hoping that the one that shows up in Mortal Kombat Vs. DC Universe is Ch'P, the chipmunk Green Lantern who died after getting run over by a truck. And, no, I'm not joking.

Green Lantern? [Midway Boards]

Greenwich Village in the 50s and 60s was a place where anything seemed possible. Not only did writers like Samuel Delany and Kurt Vonnegut live in the Village back in the day, but some of the weirdest science fiction stories take place there. Just consider:

The Butterfly Kid by Chester Anderson. This is the first novel in the "Greenwich Village Trilogy." But the other two novels, written by other authors, aren't nearly as well known. Anderson's semi-autobiographical novel has a main character named after himself, and a supporting character named after his roommate at the time. Aliens are supplying a new kind of drug, known as "Reality Pills," which cause your LSD hallucinations to become physically real. One character takes the Reality Pills and is able to make butterflies appear spontaneously, all colors and sizes. Chester faces the vicious Blue Lobster aliens, who hook him up to a machine that forces him to experience horrifying visions that he would have paid to see otherwise. He writes: "I was the rabbit in the moon. I was as corny as Kansas in orbit. I wasn't thinking very well at all!" The book's Amazon reviews are full of raves about how true to the 1960s Village scene it is.

Hark! Was That The Scream Of An Angry Thoat? by Avram Davidson. A surreal description of the Village of the 1950s, populated by weird caricatures of science fiction writers including Robert Silverberg and Randall Garrett. John Carter, Warlord of Mars stalks through the city looking for Edgar Rice Burroughs. Later, "a Thark astride a thoat rides through the streets." There are loving descriptions of the Open Air Market off Bleecker St., interspersed with a four-armed green monster rampaging down the street.

Green Lantern. Fighter-pilot Hal Jordan went nuts and lost the right to be Green Lantern, and his replacement was artist Kyle Raynor. We could tell he was a more bohemian artist type, because he lived in an artisty studio above a coffee shop in the Village. And because he wore a sandwich press on his face.

The Youth Information Party Line. Not fiction, but a very scifi piece of retro-futurism. An early cyberpunk experiment, the YIPL set up shop in the Yippie headquarters on Bleecker St. in 1971. A phone phreak who called himself Al Bell worked with Abbie Hoffman to "liberate" the communications infrastructure. But the venture broke up in 1973 because Bell wanted it to stick to technical assistance and Hoffman wanted it to be political.

"Walking The Floor Over You" by Walter Simons, from the Wild Cards: Deuces Down anthology. Bob runs a comedy club in the Village called the Village Idiot, and his star comedian, Carlotta has the telepathic power to induce laughter in her audiences. When mysterious bad guys start coming after Carlotta, Bob has to use his power to turn into a puddle to save her.

Conan The Barbarian. When Conan travels in space and time, guess where he ends up? At least the hairstyle fits right in.

Sleeper. Okay, it doesn't actually take place in the Village, but Woody Allen's macrobiotic health-food store owner lives there, before he's frozen for 200 years. And his flakey Village person sensibility makes him the perfect wide-eyed stranger in a future that's both more laid-back and more repressive than the 1970s.

He could totally patch that suit up with his ring. He chooses not to.

The story continues in this week's Green Lantern. Another Green Lantern, Kyle Rayner, emerges from the fear-eating monster Parallax totally naked. His fellow hero, Guy Gardner, uses his power ring to clothe poor Kyle — but only in a pair of tight-fitting boxer shorts. That's the kind of team spirit we like to see.

This Week's Haul [Living Between Wednesdays]