Cover: Gil Kane & Murphy Anderson

Green Lantern #52

Apr 1967 · DC · 0.12 USD

📊 ~97,368 copies sold its debut month

☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join free

“Our Mastermind, the Car!”

About this Issue

Green Lantern #52 delivers only the second solo-title team-up between Silver Age Hal Jordan and Golden Age Alan Scott — a pairing that was still novel enough in 1967 to feel like a genuine event, cementing the Earth-One/Earth-Two crossover tradition that John Broome and Julius Schwartz had been carefully cultivating since Green Lantern #40. The main story folds Sinestro, Doiby Dickles, and a supporting cast of named Green Lantern Corps members — Katma Tui, Tomar-Re, Stel, Medphyll, and NautKeLoi — into a single adventure, giving the Corps its most populous Silver Age showcase up to that point. Its cover, Gil Kane's dynamic Sinestro-versus-Hal composition, proved so resonant that DC reused it for the cover of Showcase Presents: Green Lantern Vol. 3 decades later. The issue also carries a sly pop-culture joke embedded in its title — a wink at the then-recent, short-lived sitcom My Mother the Car — signaling how attuned Broome's scripts were to the surrounding media landscape.

In "Our Mastermind, the Car!", Green Lantern and his Earth-2 counterpart face a bizarre mystery when Doiby Dickles’ old taxi, Goitrude, goes rogue and leads a criminal gang. Written by John Broome and illustrated by Gil Kane, with inks by Kane and letters by Gaspar Saladino, the story unfolds with a twist that turns a simple vehicle into a dangerous weapon—controlled by Sinestro’s cunning mind. The cover, penciled by Gil Kane and inked by Murphy Anderson, captures the moment of high-stakes tension.

writer John Broome · artist, inker Gil Kane · letterer Gaspar Saladino · cover Gil Kane, Murphy Anderson

ComicBooks.com Value

Our Model is In Beta

Raw (VG) $18

CGC 9.8 · 3 in census $1,757*

CGC 9.6 · 6 in census $548*

CGC 9.4 · 20 in census $259

CGC 9.2 · 16 in census $163*

CGC 9.0 · 18 in census $110*

CGC 8.5 · 26 in census $76*

Show all 16 grades ▾

CGC 8.0 · 18 in census $58*

CGC 7.5 · 13 in census $57

CGC 7.0 · 7 in census $39*

CGC 6.5 · 12 in census $32*

CGC 6.0 · 6 in census $29*

CGC 5.5 · 11 in census $23*

CGC 5.0 · 8 in census $23*

CGC 4.5 · 8 in census $20*

CGC 4.0 · 4 in census $20*

CGC 3.5 · 3 in census $20*

* estimate — limited direct-sales data at this grade

Our model’s value — refined as new sales data arrives · CGC census counts shown where available

Find on ebay

Search eBay for Green Lantern #52 ▸

No confirmed live listings for this exact issue right now — this opens an eBay search.

Sell my copy

Have this issue — or a whole collection? Get a fair offer from us, skip the marketplace fees and the hassle.

We Buy Collections ▸

Fast, fair offers · we handle grading & shipping

History

Writer John Broome and penciller/inker Gil Kane produced the lead story 'Our Mastermind, the Car!' under editor Julius Schwartz, whose meticulous editorial records — later provided to DC — confirm the credits for script, pencils, and inks on both stories in the issue. A separate short backup story, 'The Sinister Sinestro!', was pencilled by Kane with inks by Murphy Anderson, the same Kane-Anderson cover team. Schwartz had been orchestrating Earth-Two guest appearances across the Silver Age GL title since 1965, and issue #52 represents his team's third visit to that well in Hal Jordan's own book, building continuity threads that would eventually feed into Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Trivia · 8 facts

Published April 1967 (on-sale February 23, 1967); Vol. 2 of the ongoing Green Lantern series; edited by Julius Schwartz.
Lead story 'Our Mastermind, the Car!' is written by John Broome with pencils and inks by Gil Kane, lettered by Gaspar Saladino — credits confirmed from Schwartz's editorial records.
Backup story 'The Sinister Sinestro!' features pencils by Gil Kane and inks by Murphy Anderson (lettered by Ira Schnapp); cover also by Kane and Anderson.
The main story is framed as a 'previously untold' adventure narrated by Pieface (Thomas Kalmaku) from his Green Lantern case book, bringing Alan Scott (Earth-Two Green Lantern) to Earth-One to recover Doiby Dickles's beloved taxi Goitrude.
Sinestro is revealed to have been secretly controlling Goitrude, disguising himself as a sentient lifeform inside the car; his scheme is to steal the Central Power Battery from the Guardians on Oa.
The issue features a cameo appearance by multiple named Green Lantern Corps members — Katma Tui, Tomar-Re, Stel, Medphyll, and NautKeLoi — one of the largest Corps ensemble appearances in the Silver Age run.
The story's title, 'Our Mastermind the Car!', is a direct cultural reference to the 1965–1966 NBC sitcom My Mother the Car.
The issue has been reprinted four times: in Crisis on Multiple Earths: The Team-Ups Vol. 2 (2007), Showcase Presents: Green Lantern Vol. 3 (2008, in black-and-white), The Green Lantern Archives Vol. 7 (2012), and Green Lantern: The Silver Age Omnibus Vol. 2 (2018).