Letters From The Loft
Stuff From The Desk Of Chuck Thornton
DAY THREE - PAGE 4
After that, Sam and I went back to the Exhibition Hall where we were stopped by a couple of ladies who wanted to know where we obtained our Smallville bags. We made our usual Warner Brothers booth recommendation, which was disappointing news for them, because they had already tried the Warners booth to no avail. Once again, we were both impressed and puzzled by the appeal of these bags, since we're not hard-core Smallville fans. It took a couple of days, but it finally dawned on us that, if we could take or leave our Smallville bags, why in the world were he holding on to them? So we offered to trade bags with the two crestfallen ladies. They were embarrassingly thankful for our generosity, and we felt pretty good about ourselves as long as we ignored the facts that a) the bags cost us nothing; and b) they held no value to us as a collectible. In the interest of keeping our egos inflated as long as possible, we've avoided checking out the bags on E-Bay.
While in the Exhibition Hall, we kept a lookout for Sam's current Holy Grail:
Those of you familiar with comics know exactly what this is, so bear with me while I explain to all the folks who only read books with no pictures. This is Green Lantern's Power Battery, which, cleverly enough, looks like a green lantern.
Green Lantern is a super-hero who wields a power ring which, fueled by the wearer's strength of will, can manifest green energy-constructs of its wielder's choosing. In other words, Green Lantern can fight bad guys by beaning them with a giant green hammer emanating from his ring. His ring also allows him to fly, travel through space, and perform long division effortlessly.
As powerful as the ring is, though, it needs to be recharged every 24 hours, and that's where the Power Battery comes in. Green Lantern sticks his ring-hand up against the Battery and recites the Green Lantern Oath:
"In brightest day, in blackest night,
No evil shall escape my sight.
Let those who worship evil's might,
Beware my power... Green Lantern's light!"
Of course, the picture above isn't the real Power Battery which, as far as I know, has never been available on the open market... it's a full-size metallic limited-edition collectible that was on display at a booth. There'll be a big Green Lantern movie coming out next year, after which everyone will know about the Power Battery and there'll probably be thousands of plastic versions of this being cranked out in China. But this metal baby came out in 2009. What makes it so appealing to Sam is that it comes with an actual power ring that, when pressed against the Power Battery, causes the battery to light up. Sam dreams of the day he can step into a closet or darkened room and illuminate it with his own authentic Power Battery. Initially I told Sam that the battery light wouldn't activate unless he also recited the oath; I later realized it was a totally unnecessary lie, since if he ever owns one of these, and puts his power-ringed hand up against it, he won't be able to stop himself from reciting the oath anyway. So now I'm trying to convince him that it will only work if he wears a skin-tight Green Lantern costume.
He might have to settle for a future Toys-R-Us version, though... we couldn't find these things for sale anywhere on the Convention floor. Apparently, the manufacturer was serious about the "limited-edition" and I've only seen a couple on E-Bay going for a minimum of 500 bucks. That's too steep for me unless it came with an iron-clad guarantee that I could get Sam into the costume.