Hal Jordan's gray temples

[Trey Strain]

What did you think about them?

[Jon Clark]

I liked the idea that Hal was being made to look an age that fit his history. Trying to argue a character is a seasoned veteran and at the same time that he isn't 30 yet (the old Pre-crisis rule on heroes rough ages) never made sense.

[Johnny]

Sucked. Major superheroes should never be depicted as elder statesmen in my opinion. Plus it didn't make much sense since the rest of the JL founders never aged like that. Batman never became middle-aged, yet Hal did? It was obvious DC gave him those gray temples so they could start pushing him towards the exit door as soon as possible. How do you get rid of one of your premier characters in order to eventually replace him with a younger cooler character? By making him old and obsolete. It was the same reason the Marvel Cinematic Universe introduced Hank Pym as an old man so they could push Scott Lang as the main Ant-Man.

But I digress, the short answer is no, I didn't like the gray temples and to me that's some of the worst time in the character's history.

[j9ac9k]

Hal could have very easily been mid-thirties and still a "vet" in the super-hero game. Think of people in the army - it doesn't take more than a few years to become very experienced when you're regularly under fire.

I didn't like it because Hal began to be portrayed as the stiff "father figure" to other heroes and that's not fun or sexy - and Hal is meant to be fun and sexy.

[WallyWestFlash]

This never made sense to me.

If they were jumping forward in time then Bruce Wayne, Oliver Queen, Arthur Curry and everyone else from that generation should have started graying as well.

[j9ac9k]

Sucked. Major superheroes should never be depicted as elder statesmen in my opinion. Plus it didn't make much sense since the rest of the JL founders never aged like that. Batman never became middle-aged, yet Hal did? It was obvious DC gave him those gray temples so they could start pushing him towards the exit door as soon as possible. How do you get rid of one of your premier characters in order to eventually him with a younger cooler character? By making him old and obsolete. It was the same reason the Marvel Cinematic Universe introduced Hank Pym as an old man so they could push Scott Lang as the main Ant-Man.

But I digress, the short answer is no, I didn't like the gray temples and to me that's some of the worst time in the character's history.

I could be wrong, but I think the impetus was Green Arrow admitting that he was pushing 40 or over 40 which in the context of "Longbow Hunters" and the more mature nature of his series, it made sense. Since that was successful, I think someone decided that Hal, as Ollie's bestie, made sense to age up the way that Ollie had been allowed to age.

[Johnny]

Hal could have very easily been mid-thirties and still a "vet" in the super-hero game. Think of people in the army - it doesn't take more than a few years to become very experienced when you're regularly under fire.

I didn't like it because Hal began to be portrayed as the stiff "father figure" to other heroes and that's not fun or sexy - and Hal is meant to be fun and sexy.

If that Green Lantern Corps movie does ever get off the ground, expect Hal to play that same "father figure" type as opposed to being "fun and sexy". Good reason I don't particularly look forward to it since those rumors about Hal being middle-aged first started floating around. I immediately thought of the gray temples era. Whatever.

[Dr. Ellingham]

It made sense at the time. It was done to reinforce that Emerald Dawn, though just published, was a long time ago. And it gave some distance in age/experience between Hal, Guy and John, since DC wanted to feature them together in the GL series for the first 2 years.

It's something that would appeal primarily to continuity nuts and legacy fans that want to see time passing, or perhaps fans of the other GLs that like the idea of Hal being de-emphasized.

So- obviously never to return.

[Zero Hunter]

People who deal with a lot of high stress life and death stuff do go gray a lot younger than others so it made sense that Hal would have some gray. Hell I have know guys that starting going gray in their late 20's.

[Mike]

Didn't like the gray at all.
Aging comic book Heroes is a slippery slope.

[9th.]

I liked them, I like it when older characters show a little grey

[justinslot]

Grizzled veteran Hal is the only remotely tolerable Hal.

[Trey Strain]

Bringing them back would force the writers to stop depicting him as boneheaded and with low impulse control.

[DrNewGod]

I liked them; you could kind of pick your own answer. It was clearly meant to imply experience, but if you didn't like the continuity issues inherent in it, you could assume he was already mature (chronologically) when Abin Sur tapped him. After all, he was already an experienced test pilot, which you don't get to do fresh outta flight school.

Age is not that big a deal for GLs the way it is for non-super acrobats/martial artists.

[Vakanai]

Bringing them back would force the writers to stop depicting him as boneheaded and with low impulse control.

You can be gray headed and boneheaded, don't think writers will change because the artists or colorists have added gray to their color palette.