Elaine Benes never had a lot of success with dating, and her relationship struggles stayed with her far into the final season of Seinfeld. From re-gifters to loveable idiots, the men that she dated always had something about them that turned her off. One of her stranger partners was a mysterious man that Jerry suspected was secretly a superhero.
In the Season 9 episode “The Strongbox,” Elaine was dating a man named Glenn who revealed very little about himself whenever she tried to get to know him. This made her suspicious of him and she started to think that he might be married. Jerry, however, suggested that he might be a superhero who had to keep his true identity a secret. He posited the idea that Glenn could be the Green Lantern in disguise.
Glenn’s behavior became increasingly suspicious as the Seinfeld episode went on but Elaine was curious to see where the relationship would go. She discovered his big secret after visiting him at his apartment. It turned out that he was actually having severe financial problems, and the mystery around his life was a result of having no money and avoiding welfare caseworkers.
Elaine was uncertain about the relationship after discovering just how destitute Glenn was, but he was endearing enough for her to stick around. She even bought some furniture for his sparsely-furnished apartment, only to discover that he was married the whole time, as she first suspected.
The reveal became a big joke in the group, with Jerry and George giving the couple the nicknames “Got-No-Green Lantern” and “Lois Loan.” DC references were commonplace in Seinfeld since Jerry was quite a big fan of Superman. He had fridge magnets and action figures of the Man of Steel in his home, and the series even featured an episode titled “The Bizarro Jerry,” where Elaine dated a man who was the total opposite of Jerry.
The Green Lantern puns were funny, but it’s odd that Jerry would think of Green Lantern before anyone else. Green Lantern may have been one of the original Justice League members, but most of his superhero work didn’t take place on Earth. There are plenty of other crimefighting heroes that also have secret identities and tend to issues in their own neighborhoods.
Jerry could have brought up the DC hero Gangbuster, aka José Delgado, who was a school teacher who became a vigilante to protect the kids in his neighborhood from Lex Luthor’s influence. Gangbuster needed to keep his identity a secret in his fight against LexCorp, so Glenn’s secretive life could be an attempt to hide from his enemies.
The Marvel mercenary-turned-vigilante Moon Knight could also have served as an alter ego for Elaine’s secretive beau. Moon Knight has dissociative identity disorder, and his many identities could’ve explained why Glenn was so secretive about his personal life. Moon Knight’s loose grip on reality could have also made sense of Glenn’s paranoid behavior that led to him hiding from people in the street.
Seinfeld‘s Green Lantern joke was unexpected, but Jerry may have thought of him first because he was the member of the original Justice League that was most likely to fit Elaine’s description of Glenn. Although Jerry has a fairly wide knowledge of Superman, he may not be as well-versed when it comes to other superheroes in the comic book world.
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