One of this summer’s biggest-budget films has an unexpected cameo, of sorts…from David Ben-Gurion.
Green Lantern, a new film about a superhero who wields–you guessed it–a magical green lantern, is based on the comic book of the same name. It was first published in 1941. In the comic’s July 1960 issue, artist Gil Kane (real name: Eli Katz) first depicted Green Lantern’s bosses, the Guardians of the Universe.
The Guardians are aliens, a tribunal of tiny blue-skinned men. They are depicted with protrusive noses, massive foreheads, and horseshoe-shaped patches of hair around their ears and the back of their head. Kane has said that he designed them in tribute to Ben-Gurion, the first prime minister of Israel.
The Guardians have not always been a positive force. Their goal is to combat evil and establish peace throughout the universe, but they’ve been portrayed as authoritarian, absolutist, and occasionally dictatorial. Though the Guardians all look more-or-less alike, they’re constantly fighting among themselves, giving grandiose speeches, and trying to pass laws that nobody actually obeys…much like actual politicians.
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