Hal Jordan: Green Lantern Appreciation 2020

[Johnny]

I don't think Hal wishing he was as smart as the smartest man in the DCU is depicting Hal as dumb.

I think another problem is this is an anniversary special meant to celebrate the Green Lanterns, yet one of them literally says that he feels inferior to someone who's not even a part of this franchise. Even if we're to ignore the absurd notion of Hal "taking a shortcut" and somehow being more privileged than Batman, the idea that Batman needs to be made to look good again at the expense of the character who is supposed to be celebrated here, is questionable at best. And that once again happens to Hal specifically. We don't see Kyle saying he's envious of someone else and wishes he was as smart as him, we don't see it with Guy or Simon, we see it with Hal. He is the one who's yet again portrayed as the fool who does something stupid and gets laughed at. How long is this kind of thing going to keep going for. What's supposed to be the end goal here.

[Mutatis_Mutandis]

But he didn't mention Lex Luthor.

The message to Batman was weird. I honestly thought it'd be Ollie, if only for being the one to really drag Hal back down to ground level and remind him no injustice is too small or abstract for a space cop. But no, it just had to be Bruce, I guess.

Agreed. Bruce being there made no sense.

"If not for you, I'd still be Parallax." What?

[Bito Wladon]

Bruce never did anything for Hal to help with his redemption.
People like Alan and Jay continued to believe that he could be redeemed, and when Hal sacrificed his chance at redemption to save the JSA's lives both of them went to Bruce to lobby for Hal getting a second chance.
Bruce meanwhile, continued to treat him poorly during that period, and when Hal sacrificed himself to save the JLA, Bruce was the person ruining the rest of the team's attempts to rescue Hal from oblivion. He outright said he thought they should let Hal die because he didn't think that he was redeemable.
When I said I thought the conversation should have been with Alan instead, I was mostly thinking about the Parallax line, because you could argue that Alan had at least some role in Hal's return to normalcy, as opposed to Bruce, who was actively detrimental to the situation. But I also think Alan should generally have had an expanded role in the story, given that he was the character who's 80th anniversary was being celebrated, I would have liked his relationships with the other Lanterns explored.

[WallyWestFlash]

Wow. That was terrible.

That story made Hal look horrible and instead of commemorating the greatest GL in the 80th anniversary GL spectacular it made his one solo story a cheap joke.

That message should have been for Superman not Batman. It has actually shown them as friends many times in the comics. Might have made the humility line work. But Batman, who is known for his arrogance shows Hal humility??? Are you kidding me?

The rest was just Hal telling Bruce how amazing he was which is so dumb and makes no sense coming from.Hal.And the ending was just making Hal look dumb with the rest of the JLA laughing at him.

The rest of the stories so far are pretty bad. I'm only halfway through but this is a terrible comic and tribute so far.

[j9ac9k]

Re: the Geoff Johns "bend over for Batman/Hal's the butt of the joke" story -- TRASH. I mean, WTF?!? Let's have the whole JLA laughing at Hal - yeah, happy anniversary. How does Johns go from having Batman tell Hal that he's a hero without the ring in "Darkseid War" to Hal saying he's envious of Batman? Or that he needs to prove himself? And this guy is working on the GLC movie??

[liwanag]

haven't bought it yet but i'm saddened by how the story went. it's been many years now that i kept on hoping that dc changed how they portrayed hal.

grant morrison was a nice step. wish he had the chance to also write in the 80th anniversary special.

[Frontier]

Was at least the Carol sendoff good?

[WallyWestFlash]

Was at least the Carol sendoff good?

Eh it was ok. Was cut off.

The only good thing about that story was the art by Reis. Great job as always from him.

[Johnny]

Re: the Geoff Johns "bend over for Batman/Hal's the butt of the joke" story -- TRASH. I mean, WTF?!? Let's have the whole JLA laughing at Hal - yeah, happy anniversary. How does Johns go from having Batman tell Hal that he's a hero without the ring in "Darkseid War" to Hal saying he's envious of Batman? Or that he needs to prove himself? And this guy is working on the GLC movie??

I'm not sure if that movie is still in development or not, but this is what I mean when people tell me that I shouldn't be concerned for how Hal is portrayed if he's handled by Geoff Johns. If anyone is still adamant that Hal is one of Johns' favorite characters after reading a story like this I don't know what to say. To my surprise, since I've never been a big fan of the GL/GA run, the best depiction of Hal in this Special was the Denny O'Neil story. Makes me even more sad he just left us because he appears to be the only writer in this Special who actually cared about doing the character justice. I don't know what happened to Johns and I hear good things about the Stargirl TV show, but as far as Hal is concerned, maybe he just followed suit and jumped on the Ryan Reynolds dumb jokes bandwagon.

[Gaius]

But he didn't mention Lex Luthor.

The message to Batman was weird. I honestly thought it'd be Ollie, if only for being the one to really drag Hal back down to ground level and remind him no injustice is too small or abstract for a space cop. But no, it just had to be Bruce, I guess.

Yeah, felt like it would have been more appropriate for someone like Ollie or Jon (since he was also an advocate for Hal in Rebirth). Or even Kyle honestly.

[Frontier]

Yeah, I'm kind of tired of "dumb Hal" too.

[silly]

It's probably time for this Hal and Bruce relationship to rest.

[silly]

I haven't read the 80th anniversary issue yet, but read the CBR article about it. It didn't make sense to me. But comforted myself thinking that it could have been worse.

DC could have made Hal send his message to Harley Quin, just because.

[Johnny]

By Kevin Libranda.

[liwanag]

Yeah, felt like it would have been more appropriate for someone like Ollie or Jon (since he was also an advocate for Hal in Rebirth). Or even Kyle honestly.

Or Barry.

But I keep on thinking that if I was in Hal's place, I'd definitely send a message to my family.