Comics readership was higher (and younger) in the late 80s and early 90s then in the mid-oughts when Hal returned. By the time the latter happened comics had a readership that was older and so on. So the success of Johns' run doesn't prove that Hal is popular among a wide audience.
How do you explain the fact that Hal Jordan didn't even appear in Crisis on Infinite Earths when almost every other hero appeared, when Alan Scott and John Stewart both appeared in that event? You look at Hal's publication history, and what you find is that he comes and goes and loses traction and rarely keeps it up.Yeah, there are plenty who dislike him but just because they are loud doesn't mean they are as numerous as you think.
http://www.comicscube.com/2011/03/wh...ortant-as.html
No editorial would allow a story like Emerald Twilight and Zero Hour happen to a character who was a sales hit.
Barry Allen dying in COIE was also driven by his general unpopularity.
I haven't seen the panel but I have no doubt that it's just some general vague sentiment. I know for a fact that nobody mentioned Hal Jordan as Jewish before. It's a topic with a lot of discussion and scholarship and if Hal Jordan was ever coded as Jewish and alluded as such in any significant way it would have come up.Yeah no disputing he's nowhere near Ben Grimm level, and it's still not commented on all that much. But I definitely saw it mentioned before 2015.
And did you know this panel existed before now, and do you know for certain it's being used in the context you described above?
(https://www.cbr.com/first-jewish-superhero/)/
Kitty Pryde is the first openly Jewish superhero. While among characters coded as Jewish, Ben Grimm is the major one from the Silver Age.
For most of his publication history, Hal Jordan was coded as WASP, a Gary Cooper-type alpha male hero.