Hal Jordan: Green Lantern Appreciation 2020

[WestPhillyPunisher]

I'm sure that must cost an arm and a leg with a few fingers and toes thrown in for good measure.

[Gaius]

Only fanboy quibble is Hal isn't making a giant fist energy construct.

[Johnny]

THE GREEN LANTERN SEASON TWO #6

written by GRANT MORRISON
art and cover by LIAM SHARP
variant cover by TONY S. DANIEL
The Anti-Matter Lantern Corps has invaded our universe! And as we saw in The Green Lantern Season One, just one Anti-Matter Lantern tore through several Green Lanterns—so imagine what a horde of them will do! It’s an all-out “Assault on Sector General”—but how will the Corps survive?
ON SALE 08.11.20
$3.99 US | 32 PAGES | 6 OF 12
FC | DC

[Frontier]

I'm expecting some epic action .

[silly]

That statue is epic.

[liwanag]

hal has had some odd jobs.

did not know he drove a truck...

https://www.cbr.com/green-lantern-hal-jordan-trucker/

[Frontier]

hal has had some odd jobs.

did not know he drove a truck...

https://www.cbr.com/green-lantern-hal-jordan-trucker/

Don't forget Hal the toy salesmen!

[silly]

Don't forget Hal the toy salesmen!

How many jobs did Hal have?

[Johnny]

I think it was a strange attempt to try to make him more relatable. That's not who the character is, he's not supposed to be an "everyday guy".

[Dr. Ellingham]

I think it was a strange attempt to try to make him more relatable.

Not exactly. It's actually the Flash's fault: In the mid-1960s, Flash/GL editor Julius Schwartz decided the Flash should marry Iris West.

In preparation for the wedding, they concocted a story where Hal is inspired by Barry, and finally asks Carol Ferris to marry him. Whereupon she tells him she just got engaged to someone new. In despair he quits Ferris and leaves Coast City. He hits the road, taking all kinds of jobs - insurance adjuster, toy salesman, etc. He became a nomad of sorts.

The real reason editor Julius Schwartz and writer John Broome did this: They felt the Hal/Carol dynamic needed a shake-up, and they wanted to tell different kinds of stories. By that point, John Broome was financially independent, unusually so for a 1960s comics writer. He travelled extensively, sending scripts to Julius Schwartz from all over the world - Paris, Tokyo, etc. He wanted to inject his love of travel into his work. A nomad writing a nomad.

When Broome finally retired from comics, Schwartz brought in Denny O'Neil. O'Neil kept that status quo, though in the background. The book was cancelled, and later brought back in 1977. O'Neil then gave Hal a new job that was pretty prominent in pop culture at the time - a truck driver, along with the CB radio fad. But by the time O'Neil left GL in the early 1980s, he figured he should put Hal back in his classic status quo - a test pilot at Ferris Aircraft, working for Carol.

[SiegePerilous02]

hal has had some odd jobs.

did not know he drove a truck...

https://www.cbr.com/green-lantern-hal-jordan-trucker/

This scan makes me wonder if Itty will be making a re-appearance in the current run.

When will Itty come back and will the bird babies try to eat Itty

[silly]

Not exactly. It's actually the Flash's fault: In the mid-1960s, Flash/GL editor Julius Schwartz decided the Flash should marry Iris West.

In preparation for the wedding, they concocted a story where Hal is inspired by Barry, and finally asks Carol Ferris to marry him. Whereupon she tells him she just got engaged to someone new. In despair he quits Ferris and leaves Coast City. He hits the road, taking all kinds of jobs - insurance adjuster, toy salesman, etc. He became a nomad of sorts.

The real reason editor Julius Schwartz and writer John Broome did this: They felt the Hal/Carol dynamic needed a shake-up, and they wanted to tell different kinds of stories. By that point, John Broome was financially independent, unusually so for a 1960s comics writer. He travelled extensively, sending scripts to Julius Schwartz from all over the world - Paris, Tokyo, etc. He wanted to inject his love of travel into his work. A nomad writing a nomad.

When Broome finally retired from comics, Schwartz brought in Denny O'Neil. O'Neil kept that status quo, though in the background. The book was cancelled, and later brought back in 1977. O'Neil then gave Hal a new job that was pretty prominent in pop culture at the time - a truck driver, along with the CB radio fad. But by the time O'Neil left GL in the early 1980s, he figured he should put Hal back in his classic status quo - a test pilot at Ferris Aircraft, working for Carol.

That's interesting. Thanks.

[Vordan]

I think it was a strange attempt to try to make him more relatable. That's not who the character is, he's not supposed to be an "everyday guy".

Yeah Hal and Barry are definitely defined more by their competency than by their “grounded”-ness.

[Johnny]

Yeah Hal and Barry are definitely defined more by their competency than by their “grounded”-ness.

I get trying different things with the characters every once in a while if the stories start to get stale but sometimes it really doesn't fit. Like when Marvel turned Peter Parker into Tony Stark 2.0. The guy goes from barely managing to pay his bills to being a billionaire CEO inventor surrounded by supermodels all the time. What was that about. lol Hal going from being a test pilot to all those odd job seems just as weird to me.

[j9ac9k]

hal has had some odd jobs.

did not know he drove a truck...

https://www.cbr.com/green-lantern-hal-jordan-trucker/

I like that he'd sometimes keep the truck in orbit around the earth when he was off being Green Lantern.

Being a trucker wasn't so random then. I believe U.S. culture was having a bit of a love-affair with truckers at the time - the open road, getting into scrapes with local law enforcement, etc. There were movies like "Smokey and the Bandit", "Convoy" and the tv show "BJ and the Bear." Truckers were seen as modern cowboys in a way, as the U.S. has always venerated rugged individualism.