Hal Jordan: Green Lantern Appreciation 2019

[Anthony Shaw]

Well....at least in this one instance....Guy went that extra mile to exceed Hal.....

[SJNeal]

^ ^ ^

That book was such a hot mess... but I liked it!

[Frontier]

Heh. Got a lot of mileage out of that imagery...

Well....at least in this one instance....Guy went that extra mile to exceed Hal.....

I feel like I knew about this, but still...what ?

[AngryComicBookNerd]

I feel like I knew about this, but still...what ?

The only thing I can think of (other than what the hell is holding on that top) is damn the 90s were fun, huh?

I just dug out rebirth (2004) to give another read. I kinda forgot how great that was. Especially at the time when Kyle's GL run ended and there was nothing else going on. So much happened in that story. You can argue better or worse, but I really don't think the results could've been any better. Restored Hal, Sinestro, Kilowag, Guy was de-warriored, Carol became relevant again. Good times.

[SiegePerilous02]

That was a good scene! The best part is that it worked.

This should be the go to image to combat the tired "Hal is just an outdated bland, heteronormative white male protagonist!" comments.
He's clearly in touch with his feminine side, lol.

Well....at least in this one instance....Guy went that extra mile to exceed Hal.....

...the hell am I looking at?

[Johnny]

This should be the go to image to combat the tired "Hal is just an outdated bland, heteronormative white male protagonist!" comments.
He's clearly in touch with his feminine side, lol.

I never understood those claims to be honest. I always thought it was strange that of all the big heroes at DC, they always say it about Hal specifically. What is it about him that's so "bland" in comparison to his peers. All the premiere comic book characters are archetypes. All of them are good-looking, brave, honest, intelligent, fearless and inspirational. So what's the aspect that makes Hal bland and boring as compared to all the rest. That he is a test pilot? That he was created during the Silver Age? That he's attractive or has been portrayed as too confident or has been a womanizer at times? That he's rather extroverted and direct instead of more introverted and full of doubts? Nobody criticizes Bruce for being a wealthy genius playboy, nobody says Superman's unrelenting belief in the best in people makes him a boring character, nobody says Wonder Woman's love for humanity makes her look silly or naive, nobody says Martian Manhunter's loyalty to his peers and adoptive world makes him bland, nobody says The Flash is lame if he's portrayed as too cocky or too intelligent depending on the version, nobody sees Aquaman as someone who should have no business being there and let someone "better" take his place. Why is Hal Jordan always the one who gets this type of reactions?

[SiegePerilous02]

I never understood those claims to be honest. I always thought it was strange that of all the big heroes at DC, they always say it about Hal specifically. What is it about him that's so "bland" in comparison to his peers. All the premiere comic book characters are archetypes. All of them are good-looking, brave, honest, intelligent, fearless and inspirational. So what's the aspect that makes Hal bland and boring as compared to all the rest. That he is a test pilot? That he was created during the Silver Age? That he's attractive or has been portrayed as too confident or has been a womanizer at times? That he's rather extroverted and direct instead of more introverted and full of doubts? Nobody criticizes Bruce for being a wealthy genius playboy, nobody says Superman's unrelenting belief in the best in people makes him a boring character, nobody says Wonder Woman's love for humanity makes her look silly or naive, nobody says Martian Manhunter's loyalty to his peers and adoptive world makes him bland, nobody says The Flash is lame if he's portrayed as too cocky or too intelligent depending on the version, nobody sees Aquaman as someone who should have no business being there and let someone "better" take his place. Why is Hal Jordan always the one who gets this type of reactions?

I have no idea. It may have something to do with him being pushed to the front of the GL mythos when there are other Earth Lanterns, John in particular, who they feel should be at the front and use Hal's Silver Age status as a scapegoat. I mean, yeah there are parts of Hal that are a products of his time, and more diversity is needed in general, but he really is no more dated than other characters from the same period (or even earlier, like Batman, Superman, Robin, Wonder Woman and Captain America). He's just as timeless as the rest of them.

It's dumb, whatever it is.

[liwanag]

how come we've never considered (other than the fact that geoff's not an actor) geoff johns to play hal in a green lantern movie.

[vartox]

This should be the go to image to combat the tired "Hal is just an outdated bland, heteronormative white male protagonist!" comments.
He's clearly in touch with his feminine side, lol.

Well, Hal has been in touch with his feminine side before too

[Anthony Shaw]

I never understood those claims to be honest. I always thought it was strange that of all the big heroes at DC, they always say it about Hal specifically. What is it about him that's so "bland" in comparison to his peers. All the premiere comic book characters are archetypes. All of them are good-looking, brave, honest, intelligent, fearless and inspirational. So what's the aspect that makes Hal bland and boring as compared to all the rest. That he is a test pilot? That he was created during the Silver Age? That he's attractive or has been portrayed as too confident or has been a womanizer at times? That he's rather extroverted and direct instead of more introverted and full of doubts? Nobody criticizes Bruce for being a wealthy genius playboy, nobody says Superman's unrelenting belief in the best in people makes him a boring character, nobody says Wonder Woman's love for humanity makes her look silly or naive, nobody says Martian Manhunter's loyalty to his peers and adoptive world makes him bland, nobody says The Flash is lame if he's portrayed as too cocky or too intelligent depending on the version, nobody sees Aquaman as someone who should have no business being there and let someone "better" take his place. Why is Hal Jordan always the one who gets this type of reactions?

This is all speculation from me....

I think it may have started with the partnership with Green Arrow, and more directly, Denny O'Neil. Denny placed them both in boxes, but Oliver seemed more exciting than Hal. Denny wrote that partnership for about a decade. I think this is where we got Hal as the "perfect hero, but hot mess as civilian" theme.

Oliver was a straight up diva with his theatrics while Hal was stuck as the straight man. It was Hal's book, but the fun stuff came from Oliver (which is one of the reasons I hated the Sinestro/Hal New 52 era run).

Then, when you already have Bats & Supes, Hal seemingly comes across as yet another heroic/ alpha/hetero/white man. You got the two biggest heroes of all time, and while we know Hal is legitimately their equal, haters & outsiders looking in may not think so.

You can play up the every man/dork with Wally/Barry. With Aquaman, you have the meta-theme of making him nothing like the perceived Superfriends version. You have room to wiggle with them.

As a fan, the first time I ever heard of Hal being considered bland was during the Kyle era. It is easy to play Kyle as the eternal rookie with boundless potential, but that was ran into the ground.

Even though Hal's niche should be the "cosmic one", with a perspective/clarity that should perplex his JL teammates (with the exception of MM, WW, and Superman), lazy writers settle for a class clown.

I blame Denny. If not for fan-outcry, Denny almost (unintentionally) ruined Wonder Woman.

[Mutatis_Mutandis]

I never understood those claims to be honest. I always thought it was strange that of all the big heroes at DC, they always say it about Hal specifically. What is it about him that's so "bland" in comparison to his peers. All the premiere comic book characters are archetypes. All of them are good-looking, brave, honest, intelligent, fearless and inspirational. So what's the aspect that makes Hal bland and boring as compared to all the rest. That he is a test pilot? That he was created during the Silver Age? That he's attractive or has been portrayed as too confident or has been a womanizer at times? That he's rather extroverted and direct instead of more introverted and full of doubts? Nobody criticizes Bruce for being a wealthy genius playboy, nobody says Superman's unrelenting belief in the best in people makes him a boring character, nobody says Wonder Woman's love for humanity makes her look silly or naive, nobody says Martian Manhunter's loyalty to his peers and adoptive world makes him bland, nobody says The Flash is lame if he's portrayed as too cocky or too intelligent depending on the version, nobody sees Aquaman as someone who should have no business being there and let someone "better" take his place. Why is Hal Jordan always the one who gets this type of reactions?

I think it has to do with really lazy thinking on the part of certain fans (who probably dislike Hal and try to latch onto this as their method of criticism). If anything, "outdated bland heteronormative protagonist" fits Batman way more than it fits Hal. While certain portrayals of Hal can certainly reinforce this stereotype (thinking of new 52 Justice League), I think there are more than enough interesting nuances to his character for him to be reduced to this kind of shallow criticism.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Well....at least in this one instance....Guy went that extra mile to exceed Hal.....

Sweet. Baby. Jesus. Words fail me, and I'm a Guy fan.

[HAN9000]

I never understood those claims to be honest. I always thought it was strange that of all the big heroes at DC, they always say it about Hal specifically. What is it about him that's so "bland" in comparison to his peers. All the premiere comic book characters are archetypes. All of them are good-looking, brave, honest, intelligent, fearless and inspirational. So what's the aspect that makes Hal bland and boring as compared to all the rest. That he is a test pilot? That he was created during the Silver Age? That he's attractive or has been portrayed as too confident or has been a womanizer at times? That he's rather extroverted and direct instead of more introverted and full of doubts? Nobody criticizes Bruce for being a wealthy genius playboy, nobody says Superman's unrelenting belief in the best in people makes him a boring character, nobody says Wonder Woman's love for humanity makes her look silly or naive, nobody says Martian Manhunter's loyalty to his peers and adoptive world makes him bland, nobody says The Flash is lame if he's portrayed as too cocky or too intelligent depending on the version, nobody sees Aquaman as someone who should have no business being there and let someone "better" take his place. Why is Hal Jordan always the one who gets this type of reactions?

Let them be. Haters gonna hate. They are just mad out of jealous that Hal instead of their favs being the main Green Lantern.
And some people saying that just don't read comics. You could just ask them some questions like "how many uncles does Hal have" and they will shut up.
BTW I definitely see more people saying Superman is a boring character because he is too perfect.

[SebastianS]

Let them be. Haters gonna hate. They are just mad out of jealous that Hal instead of their favs being the main Green Lantern.
And some people saying that just don't read comics. You could just ask them some questions like "how many uncles does Hal have" and they will shut up.
BTW I definitely see more people saying Superman is a boring character because he is too perfect.

I have seen people complaining about those characters (or certain iteration of those characters) too. I guess it all depends on personal preferences. For example, while I admit that for most of his recent history Batman has been ... well, Batgod, I prefer whenever he is actually more of a detective, and less of a all time strategist/brawler. To me, Bruce is a mix of Zorro and Sherlock Holmes. And Superman, for as much as he always see the best in everyone, seems to resort to his fist more often than not. But perhaps it is the medium, which doesn't allow for a different type of stories in a monthly format.

Which leads to my preference over the 90s heroes, with that mix of "FRIENDS" and daily struggle added to their superheroics.

Speaking of Hal, I think that whenever I call him bland, it is because the characteristics you mentioned, in Hal, don't add to anything new. I guess it is hard to pinpoint, exactly, because I do like the character, and I think there is AMAZING untapped potential, and hence, why I think the last 15 years Hal is a bland Hal.

[Bored at 3:00AM]

I totally understand why a lot of readers aren't fans of Hal Jordan after what Denny O'Neil did to him. He completely neutered any nuance that John Broome had established in order to make Hal the stuffy white guy square to Ollie's rich kid turned hippie. Because of how much attention these stories got, this characterization stuck for a lot of people who never bothered to look further.