Hal as Parallax permanently?

[liwanag]

maybe have versions of green lantern hal, parallax hal, and spectre hal at the same time?


too much?

[Ascended]

maybe have versions of green lantern hal, parallax hal, and spectre hal at the same time?


too much?

Probably, yeah.

[liwanag]

Probably, yeah.

[WonderScott]

I might see a play for a story in the future where Parallax and the Predator make a play for Green Lantern, Sinestro Corps, and Star Sapphire hosts respectively (I can remember if the other parasitic emotion hosts took over other characters), but I don't see Hal as Parallax permanently.

It was fun and impactful in retrospect the first time, just because of Johns tremendous retconning abilities that then fed into an epic tale of redemption and pushing the Green Lantern mythos forward with some new ideas.

[Ascended]

I remember that story.

Kyle and Hal had a fascinating relationship, really.

But I wouldn't want to see a Hal-Lantern, a Hal-Parallax, and a Hal-Spectre all running around at the same time.

But then, I never did like Hal as the Spectre, conceptually. I appreciate that DC tried to keep Hal around and bring him redemption (his fans deserved it, if nothing else), but I don't feel like he was a great fit for the wrath of god.

[Crazy Diamond]

The only way Hal being Parallax could work is if they do it as an independent story like Dark Knight Returns. Or follow through on the theory that Hal lied and everything since GL: Rebirth was a result of him winning during Zero Hour. Since neither of those things are going to happen till the current management leaves I would say unsure. Part of the problem with Hal as a villain is that authors ignored his flaws as a character in-story for years. You can't do that and then all of sudden be like "Oh yeah these traits are why Hal was destined to become a supervillain" Another issue I had with Parallax was that the concept was more interesting than the execution. Having a hero fall not due to mind control or an evil twin or some copout BS was really unique for US superheroes. Then they wasted it by not having Hal be a real threat after Zero Hour. They couldn't keep his powers consistent (can he freeze time or not?), they didn't give him much a motivation (COAST CITY COAST CITY COAST CITY), and they just made him a foil to Kyle. I agree with Ascended that someone with his knowledge, skillset, and experience should've been a major threat. It's sad that fans wrote Parallax better than DC ever did.

To me, Parallax was an anti-villain in that he had good intentions but his means would've resulted in everyone dying and him probably having to take away free will in order to make the universe he wanted. He hated the present and thus sought to bring back an idealized past. Now imagine if someone like that gets followers. Or if he shows up the JL by doing what they refuse to do.

Despite that, I liked Hal as a villain because he didn't raise his voice and act like a loon. He just did whatever the hell he wanted and pretty much nothing could be done about it. It was like they took a character like Jedah Dohma or Dio Brando and put him in Green Lantern. All he needed was to be treated like a real threat.

[Ascended]

I agree with Ascended that someone with his knowledge, skillset, and experience should've been a major threat. It's sad that fans wrote Parallax better than DC ever did.

I'm not sure if DC was prepared for the backlash they got.

From my understanding, the GL title hadn't been doing all that well for a while when they decided to replace Hal. And back then, heroes being replaced didn't happen all the time like it does now so there wasn't as much of a precedent, or a metric for DC to really gauge how it would go over. They had had success with Wally, but it was still largely unknown territory.

And I think once they realized that people were more attached to Hal than they thought, DC struggled to find the right tone for him. Kyle was proving viable and successful despite the cloud hanging over him, and DC was probably too invested to back out at the first sign of turbulence. So they tried to course correct as much as they could by playing up a self-doubt in Hal that we didn't see in Zero Hour, and downplay his threat level.