Hal Jordan: Green Lantern Appreciation 2019

[Vampire Savior]

If a character is so fragile that they can't be made fun of, then the character ain't that good to begin with, and I think Hal Jordan is a great character. Joke away, I say. I mean, do you honestly believe that Aquaman is somehow a stronger character than Green Lantern?

I would say Aquaman is a stronger character on grounds that without Arthur, that entire mythology around him--which is a very large one for DC Comics and comics in general--basically doesn't happen. I guess there is Arion...but that is REALLY reaching. A strong argument can be made that Hal Jordan is the most essential Green Lantern, but Hal Jordan doesn't HAVE to be Green Lantern. It's my personal belief that GL can actually get by just fine without him, but the same can't be said for Bruce Wayne, Diana, Clark Kent, or even Arthur nowadays for their respective franchises. And Hal Jordan wasn't the original Green Lantern, which is where a lot of his weakness lies. That's at least a very strong advantage Aquaman has over Hal Jordan. Hal Jordan is kind of easy to write around, which is why there is an entire mythology there that doesn't necessarily need him. Even Geoff Johns wrote around Hal Jordan a lot when Hal Jordan was the main character in his book. Johns was often world building the mythology and giving character focused moments to Sinestro. You can't really have Aquaman's mythology and write AROUND Aquaman.

[j9ac9k]

hey look, it's hal....

Nice! I imagine this will be Fillion again, based on the character designs. We'll probably get the usual three or four quips and maybe Hal doing one cool thing, but will remain mostly sidelined for the main action. Still better than being the butt of the joke if that's all it turns out to be. Interesting to see Luthor among the heroes and Batman in the Mobius chair.

[manymade1]

Is Grant Morrison still writing GL? And if so, is it any good? I picked up the first issue when it first came out, and it seemed interesting but I was never able to continue.

[vartox]

Is Grant Morrison still writing GL? And if so, is it any good? I picked up the first issue when it first came out, and it seemed interesting but I was never able to continue.

Yes, it's quite good! His first 12 issues just wrapped up and a mini called GL: Blackstars is spinning out of it. Then a second volume will begin. I'd recommend it

[Bored at 3:00AM]

Mate I'm in my 30s now, safe spaces have long been a thing of the past for me. Just pointing out I'm not as overly-sensitive as you apparently assumed I was. Goes without saying that you should feel free to post whatever you wish. Anyway I'm sure interesting things are in store for Hal, whether inside or outside of comics.

Sorry, I wasn't referring to that kind of "safe space". I was just talking about a place you can feel comfortable to express your feelings of dissatisfaction without me always chiming in to pee in your proverbial punch bowl with my pesky contrarianism

Honestly, I think I've just completely misunderstood the purpose of these appreciation threads, because they mostly seem to be fans complaining, whereas I thought they were about celebrating the character. And that's my fault for making that assumption, not anyone else.

That said, I understand and respect your desire to vent and gripe. I think it's a healthy and normal way to release your frustrations, and I sincerely apologize if I've made you or anyone else feel like your feelings aren't valid. I just see so much pointless negativity all the time, I can't help myself but try to convince people that things might not be as bad as things appear. However, if that is coming off as patronizing, then I clearly need to step back and just let you guys vent, even if I think you might be getting upset over nothing. I had similar issues on the John Stewart Appreciation thread, so I largely removed myself from that thread because I didn't want to be that guy ruining everyone's time pointing out that some of their assumptions might be wrong. Again, that's my fault. No one else's.

Besides, I think we've all gone around this particular merry-go-round enough times by now that I'm clearly not going to convince you that making jokes at Hal's expense is no big deal, anymore than you're going to convince me that it is harmful for the character. We can just agree to disagree on this particular point and I'll stick to celebrating Hal Jordan from now on, rather than trying to correct anyone who I think is off-base about how DC is handling the character. I think we'll all be happier that way.

[Bored at 3:00AM]

I would say Aquaman is a stronger character on grounds that without Arthur, that entire mythology around him--which is a very large one for DC Comics and comics in general--basically doesn't happen. I guess there is Arion...but that is REALLY reaching. A strong argument can be made that Hal Jordan is the most essential Green Lantern, but Hal Jordan doesn't HAVE to be Green Lantern. It's my personal belief that GL can actually get by just fine without him, but the same can't be said for Bruce Wayne, Diana, Clark Kent, or even Arthur nowadays for their respective franchises. And Hal Jordan wasn't the original Green Lantern, which is where a lot of his weakness lies. That's at least a very strong advantage Aquaman has over Hal Jordan. Hal Jordan is kind of easy to write around, which is why there is an entire mythology there that doesn't necessarily need him. Even Geoff Johns wrote around Hal Jordan a lot when Hal Jordan was the main character in his book. Johns was often world building the mythology and giving character focused moments to Sinestro. You can't really have Aquaman's mythology and write AROUND Aquaman.

Agreed. It's not a one to one comparison, my point was that the mockery that Aquaman received for decades had no impact on the character becoming wildly successful when the proper approach was taken. In Aquaman's case, it was removing the trident he'd had shoved up his butt since they decided to murder his baby son, and let him losen the &^% up a bit, first in Batman The Brave & The Bold, and then with Jason Mamoa's more DudeBro take on the guy.

With Hal, it's a trickier situation because the character is certainly replaceable, and has been a numerous times throughout his publishing history. However, the truly iconic nature of some of the stories with Hal are so influential that it's unlikely the character will ever disappear completely. Thanks to those stories, Hal Jordan is just too shiny a toy to leave on the shelf for very long, even if they strip-mine his origin, villains, and concept to give to other characters, there's something so special about Hal that some creator is always going to dust him off and bring him back. Hardman & Morrison's recent work with the character has only solidified that status.

Very few superheroes become true icons of the genre. Hal Jordan is absolutely one of them.

[Frontier]

Nice! I imagine this will be Fillion again, based on the character designs. We'll probably get the usual three or four quips and maybe Hal doing one cool thing, but will remain mostly sidelined for the main action. Still better than being the butt of the joke if that's all it turns out to be. Interesting to see Luthor among the heroes and Batman in the Mobius chair.

I wonder if we'll see any other GL's since they're taking on Apokolips and this is an all-hands-on-deck thing. They've only established John in the last JLD movie.

[Bored at 3:00AM]

I wonder if we'll see any other GL's since they're taking on Apokolips and this is an all-hands-on-deck thing. They've only established John in the last JLD movie.

It looks like they're mixing the Darkseid War with this, which makes the labeling of it as a Justice League Dark movie so perplexing. What's the mystical angle here?

[Frontier]

It looks like they're mixing the Darkseid War with this, which makes the labeling of it as a Justice League Dark movie so perplexing. What's the mystical angle here?

Constantine's obviously in it (with the Lasso of Truth).

Tucker said they're not adapting Darkseid War so it's an original story taking elements from Darkseid War. I imagine the JLD will probably prove central to whatever the heroes' plan to defeat Darkseid is.

[Johnny]

Sorry, I wasn't referring to that kind of "safe space". I was just talking about a place you can feel comfortable to express your feelings of dissatisfaction without me always chiming in to pee in your proverbial punch bowl with my pesky contrarianism

Honestly, I think I've just completely misunderstood the purpose of these appreciation threads, because they mostly seem to be fans complaining, whereas I thought they were about celebrating the character. And that's my fault for making that assumption, not anyone else.

That said, I understand and respect your desire to vent and gripe. I think it's a healthy and normal way to release your frustrations, and I sincerely apologize if I've made you or anyone else feel like your feelings aren't valid. I just see so much pointless negativity all the time, I can't help myself but try to convince people that things might not be as bad as things appear. However, if that is coming off as patronizing, then I clearly need to step back and just let you guys vent, even if I think you might be getting upset over nothing. I had similar issues on the John Stewart Appreciation thread, so I largely removed myself from that thread because I didn't want to be that guy ruining everyone's time pointing out that some of their assumptions might be wrong. Again, that's my fault. No one else's.

Besides, I think we've all gone around this particular merry-go-round enough times by now that I'm clearly not going to convince you that making jokes at Hal's expense is no big deal, anymore than you're going to convince me that it is harmful for the character. We can just agree to disagree on this particular point and I'll stick to celebrating Hal Jordan from now on, rather than trying to correct anyone who I think is off-base about how DC is handling the character. I think we'll all be happier that way.

It's appreciated. No need for apologies. And I honestly think this is the appreciation thread where fans complain the least. Every once in a while there would be some level of frustration but it's never been so prevalent here as it has been elsewhere. Other than the rare "Stop mocking Hal" thing, we don't seem to veer off topic much.

[Bored at 3:00AM]

It's appreciated. No need for apologies. And I honestly think this is the appreciation thread where fans complain the least. Every once in a while there would be some level of frustration but it's never been so prevalent here as it has been elsewhere. Other than the rare "Stop mocking Hal" thing, we don't seem to veer off topic much.

Agreed, which is why this is the only appreciation thread that I check regularly. It helps that Hal is my favorite superhero (even though Superman is my favorite fictional character)

[liwanag]

hal has a couple of great looking upcoming statues. both look really cool.





https://www.blogofoa.com/2019/10/xm-...from-nycc.html

[Vordan]

Constantine's obviously in it (with the Lasso of Truth).

Tucker said they're not adapting Darkseid War so it's an original story taking elements from Darkseid War. I imagine the JLD will probably prove central to whatever the heroes' plan to defeat Darkseid is.

So this is like Batman vs. Robin where they didn’t “adapt” Court of Owls but they still used elements from it? Not really happy about that, those early DCAMU Batman movies sucked imo.

[Frontier]

So this is like Batman vs. Robin where they didn’t “adapt” Court of Owls but they still used elements from it? Not really happy about that, those early DCAMU Batman movies sucked imo.

At least Batman vs. Robin wasn't as all over the place as Bad Blood was...

[EsotericFailures]

If the 5G rumours are accurate, expect to see Hal gone for a while after Morrison's run...