Whats with Superheroes and the colour Green?

[Tonguez]

Okay was designing a new character who is the half-human son of the 'Green Man' and this got me on to thinking about the Swamp Thing character and also Scorcerer origins.

That got me onto unexplained metero showers causing unusual effects (like baldness) as per Smallville and this sparked a thought about Gamma Radiation and the Hulk

Then it struck me they're all GREEN

the Swamp Thing is the Green Elemental
Kryptonite is Green (not withstanding red and yellow types)
Hulk is Green (originally)
all those other Gamma irradiated beings (She-Hulk, Doc Samson et al and Gamma Radiation itself are Green
The Green Lantern is Green
the Martian Manhunter is Green
the Green Arrow is Green
Nelly Greenteeth is Green
Green is the colour of my true loves eyes

anyway you get the picture

so why? Whats so important about the colour Green?

 

[Plane Sailing]

It is a dramatic colour to use in the ol' four-colour printing process?

 

[Angelsboi]

they all have envious streaks?

 

[Cougar]

The hulk was actually originally gray , not green. Sorry.

 

[Zhure]

According to an acquaintance of mine (Martin Maenza, who worked in the printing business - my apologies if I screw up the explanation), he said that in early four-color comics, green (and yellow) was the most expensive ink.

Heroes were made of non-green colors. Reds, blues, blacks, whatever combination, except yellow and green. Since villains tended to show up less often than the hero, many of them would be green and yellow to mark them different from the hero.

Later on green and yellow ink became less expensive to use and it became more acceptable in that context to make heroes who were green because it wouldn't cost so much. As it happened, this was the same time Green Lantern made an appearance and part of his popularity could be attributed to his different look.

Many of the follow up characters (like the other Green Lanterns or Green Arrow) were derivitaves or side-kicks of Green Lanterns and were green for that reason. Some of them, such as the Hulk, became green over time for who knows what reason, and then all gamma radiation derivatives of his (Doc Sampson) were also green.

Also, in the 1970's, when ecological heroes became popular (Swamp Thing), they also started a trend for heroes of green.

Hope that sheds some rambling half-informed light,
Greg

 

[Chun-tzu]

Then it struck me they're all GREEN

the Swamp Thing is the Green Elemental
Kryptonite is Green (not withstanding red and yellow types)
Hulk is Green (originally)
all those other Gamma irradiated beings (She-Hulk, Doc Samson et al and Gamma Radiation itself are Green
The Green Lantern is Green
the Martian Manhunter is Green
the Green Arrow is Green
Nelly Greenteeth is Green
Green is the colour of my true loves eyes

The Green Man, Swamp Thing, Hulk (and derivatives), Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter, Green Arrow (who the heck is Nelly Greenteeth?)

The fact that you cited the Green Man (assuming it's the obscure DC character I'm thinking of) means you must read a fair bit of comics. There are hundreds of established comics characters, and thousands of more obscure ones! There are similar trends for Black, Red/Scarlet/Crimson, Blue, Gold, White...

It means there are only so many colors in the rainbow.

 

[Richards]

As far as the Hulk goes, he was originally gray, but the printing process used at the time made it difficult (for whatever reason) to maintain the same shade of gray from page to page or sometimes even from panel to panel. Stan Lee was unhappy with a Hulk that was light gray at times and dark gray at others, so the gray Hulk "mutated" into the green Hulk that has since become the norm. (Until the "Joe Fixit" days, that is.) As a result, in the Marvel Universe, green is associated with gamma rays (which caused the transformation from Bruce Banner to the Hulk), which explains why most of the gamma-related superheroes and villains - She-Hulk, Doc Sampson, the Leader, the Abomination, etc. - are all green.

The only noted exception to this rule that I can think of is Dr. Walter Langowski (I hope I spelled his name correctly), AKA Sasquatch from the Alpha Flight team. I believe his origin story involves gamma rays, but for some reason I either can't recall or was never explained, Sasquatch ended up orange instead of green.

Johnathan

 

[Savage Wombat]

To establish my utter geekitude

Walter Langkowski, a.k.a. Sasquatch, wasn't green because his gamma-ray experiment actually ripped open a dimensional hole and summoned one of the Great Beasts of Inuit myth, and bonded him to it. So when he transformed, he actually became a supernatural monster.

This is why one of his teammates eventually killed him.

 

[Snoweel]

I'd say most super-heroes are red and blue. Often with white highlights.

Must be an Amerika thing.