Hal Jordan: The Green Lantern Appreciation 2021

[SJNeal]

Yup.

However, the creation of Emerald Dawn was kind of tortured, so it was complicated story.

Until the end of the Steve Englehart/Joe Staton run, Andy Hefler was editor of GL. When DC wanted to try its first stab at weekly comics, Hefler lost the GL book so Hal could be one of the headliners of Action Comics Weekly, which was edited by Denny O'Neil.

Suffice it to say, O'Neil struggled to understand Hal, despite his long history writing him during the 70s. He couldn't quite wrap his head around what made Hal click. As a result, James Owlsey (later known as Christopher Priest) and Peter David made a variety of poorly considered decisions regarding GL, including killing off Katma Tui and revealing that Abin Sur had actually lobotomized Hal into being fearless.

When Action Comics Weekly failed, Andy Hefler regained control of the GL franchise and set to work on relaunching GL by establishing a new Post-Crisis origin for Hal Jordan. James Owlsey/Priest, who'd been writing the ACW GL stories, was set to write the story, but he and Hefler didn't jibe as creatively as he had with O'Neil, so Owlsey jumped ship after the first issue of Emerald Dawn.

Unfortunately, that first issue depicted Hal as getting into a car accident after a night at the bar with his friends. Priest says that the intention was never for Hal to have been drunk driving and that, had he remained as writer, he would have shown how Hal wasn't, in fact, drunk. However, when he left, that was never communicated to new writers Kieth Giffen & Gerard Jones, who felt the first issue portrayed Hal as an unlikable ******* and set to work trying to rehabilitate him by culminating the first Emerald Dawn with Hal surrendering himself to authorities for drunk driving and serving 90 days in prison.

Due to the success of Emerald Dawn, Hefler asked Giffen & Jones with original artist MD Bright to do Emerald Dawn II, which focused on Hal's training under Sinestro during his 90 days in prison. That's when the whole Vietnam War vet idea got introduced.

I now realize this was a very overlong answer to your question. I got carried away with all the useless GL trivia rattling around in that geek brain of mine

Is it weird that this post made me all kinds of warm & fuzzy? Lol!

"Emerald Dawn" was right before I discovered GL, and while I'd started the monthly series first, I went back and picked both mini's up shortly after. Ah, nostalgia...

[Anthony Shaw]

Wait......wut?!

[j9ac9k]

Hal on another cover ...

[silly]

I'm really hoping Hal has a role in Taylor's D&D-ified DCU story.

Same here. I hope DC doesn't gloss over Hal.

[StarSpangledMan]

I really want this to be just a fun variant cover and not a "Hal is canon fodder" cover.

Or maybe he can fight off the vampirism with his indomitable will or something lol.

[Frontier]

Maybe just a "Hal is a cool vampire" cover...

[Gaius]

Hal on another cover ...

Let it be known Dick willingly wore that outfit and Bruce didn't do anything to stop him.

[sifighter]

Maybe just a "Hal is a cool vampire" cover...

If that is the case I would have preferred something that looks like Castlevania Dracula mixed with his Parallax look.

[Neo Goblin]

Is it weird that this post made me all kinds of warm & fuzzy? Lol!

"Emerald Dawn" was right before I discovered GL, and while I'd started the monthly series first, I went back and picked both mini's up shortly after. Ah, nostalgia...

Gerard Jones is clearly a very sick person, but I also have a fondness for his early Green Lantern work. I don't have a problem separating the art from the artist in that instance. Perhaps it's because I liked the stuff before I ever knew about his crimes.

In fact, after Steve Englehart's work, I would say those are my favorite Green Lantern comics. I think both of those writers did really well with Hal, John, and Guy.

[silly]

I hope Hal does better here than in DCeased.

[liwanag]

Maybe just a "Hal is a cool vampire" cover...

we will soon find out (but I don't have a good feeling about it)...

[InfamousBG]

I am not sure this is the right place to ask this question...

Just picked up the new Green Lantern book #1-5. Is it any good? I don't see Hal on any of the covers or have not heard about him for sometime. Where is Hal? Will he be in this book in the future?

Thanks

[liwanag]

look, hal's in the middle of the dcu... well, more like middle top...

[liwanag]

Yup.

However, the creation of Emerald Dawn was kind of tortured, so it was complicated story.

Until the end of the Steve Englehart/Joe Staton run, Andy Hefler was editor of GL. When DC wanted to try its first stab at weekly comics, Hefler lost the GL book so Hal could be one of the headliners of Action Comics Weekly, which was edited by Denny O'Neil.

Suffice it to say, O'Neil struggled to understand Hal, despite his long history writing him during the 70s. He couldn't quite wrap his head around what made Hal click. As a result, James Owlsey (later known as Christopher Priest) and Peter David made a variety of poorly considered decisions regarding GL, including killing off Katma Tui and revealing that Abin Sur had actually lobotomized Hal into being fearless.

When Action Comics Weekly failed, Andy Hefler regained control of the GL franchise and set to work on relaunching GL by establishing a new Post-Crisis origin for Hal Jordan. James Owlsey/Priest, who'd been writing the ACW GL stories, was set to write the story, but he and Hefler didn't jibe as creatively as he had with O'Neil, so Owlsey jumped ship after the first issue of Emerald Dawn.

Unfortunately, that first issue depicted Hal as getting into a car accident after a night at the bar with his friends. Priest says that the intention was never for Hal to have been drunk driving and that, had he remained as writer, he would have shown how Hal wasn't, in fact, drunk. However, when he left, that was never communicated to new writers Kieth Giffen & Gerard Jones, who felt the first issue portrayed Hal as an unlikable ******* and set to work trying to rehabilitate him by culminating the first Emerald Dawn with Hal surrendering himself to authorities for drunk driving and serving 90 days in prison.

Due to the success of Emerald Dawn, Hefler asked Giffen & Jones with original artist MD Bright to do Emerald Dawn II, which focused on Hal's training under Sinestro during his 90 days in prison. That's when the whole Vietnam War vet idea got introduced.

I now realize this was a very overlong answer to your question. I got carried away with all the useless GL trivia rattling around in that geek brain of mine

i appreciate all the trivia, thanks.

it's not useless, although it just add to my wish for an alternate earth dcu where a lot of their characters shine, not just batman.

[j9ac9k]

I am not sure this is the right place to ask this question...

Just picked up the new Green Lantern book #1-5. Is it any good? I don't see Hal on any of the covers or have not heard about him for sometime. Where is Hal? Will he be in this book in the future?

Thanks

Hal had a few lines with John and he's shown to still have a working GL ring, but hasn't done anything. You should check out the threads about the current series to see if it's your cup of tea. Some people like the direction and the characters being focused on, some - not so much.