Hal Jordan: The Green Lantern Appreciation 2021

[Gaius]

This piece by Ritesh Babu written during the middle of season 2 is is just so good at extrapolating the themes of the run and the characterization of Hal in it.

https://aiptcomics.com/2020/04/02/th...ns-a-good-man/

God, I just love Morrison's Hal.

These have been some interesting reads. I do like this from this article;

The Green Lantern would have many names, would be pursued by many and one of those oft-repeated names was THE MYSTIC LAMP! because it really was. And The Ring reflected that, too. These days, you see the ring mostly just make green constructs. But it was not so then, as it was a literal wishing ring. It could do anything. The imagination was the limit. It’s why the retroactive fallacy of “Kyle Rayner is the most creative one” reads as blatantly untrue, as all Kyle does is summon up manga mechs or other things the most average fanboy with pop culture osmosis would make up; his actual problem-solving and resolutions aren’t terribly creative and are fairly standard. He’s no different than anyone else, really.

Not knocking Kyle but it is one of my pet peeves when people try to ding Hal for his ring constructs.

[Johnny]

Can't seem to figure out where they are.

Alan is to the right, behind Green Arrow, while Hal and Guy are right above them. Hal is standing behind Booster Gold and Zatanna.

This is an HQ version of the pic, if you zoom in you can see them clearly: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FBl88PXV...jpg&name=large

[The Invincible Beawulf]

Bruce seems to be a magnet for fans who want guyxguy action in general lol.

Don't get me wrong, but Bruce Wayne is the gayest thing in the DC universe/multiverse/omniverse

[Mutatis_Mutandis]

These have been some interesting reads. I do like this from this article;



Not knocking Kyle but it is one of my pet peeves when people try to ding Hal for his ring constructs.

I agree, not knocking Kyle but I've never really found pop culture osmosis-driven "cool" constructs to be such an interesting selling point, though it's definitely cool to see. A "wishing ring" on the other hand is far more interesting to me in terms of storytelling possibilities. It's precisely through a wish that Hal outmaneuvers and defeats the Blackstars. The motif of the wish in Morrison's work also pops up in Final Crisis with Superman.

I also found this very interesting to learn about Broome.

Morrison has long said that John Broome (who we discussed here in the last essay) is essentially the DC Comics equivalent of The Beat Generation. Broome was a bit of a strange man, traveling about, doing interesting things and in so doing, making Hal Jordan do the same, where in he hit the road, with little besides the bare minimum of stuff he needed. And his characters were oddballs as well, speaking oddly and with tons of personality, too. So what this issue becomes is, beyond just being a riff on Classic Doctor Who, a riff on John Broome and The Beat style, that’s the essential idea. And so you have everyone absolutely spouting the most outrageously wild lines and you have no idea why they’re speaking like this and it’s a very deliberate choice, if frustrating to experience the first time around for some, to the point that it’s a literal plot point.

[Frontier]

I thought DCAU John was the one who got knocked for having dull constructs.

[j9ac9k]

Not knocking Kyle but it is one of my pet peeves when people try to ding Hal for his ring constructs.

For me, I think Hal was always overlooked for how creative he had to be to overcome the yellow weakness time after time. Kyle never had to think his way around that.

I thought DCAU John was the one who got knocked for having dull constructs.

Really? I think people understood that was for animation/budget reasons.

[phantom1592]

Not knocking Kyle but it is one of my pet peeves when people try to ding Hal for his ring constructs.

Honestly, that was always a crappy criticism to begin with. Hal was incredibly creative with his constructs. They all were. He's made highly detailed suits of armor and fancy detailed flying viking ships just the same as Kyle did. Really it's all about the writer/artist. They have really cool artistic ideas... and they put them on paper. Doesn't matter who's wearing the ring.

The only time I ever saw a difference was in Green Lantern: Rebirth when Johns detailed 'how' everyone used their rings. John was an architect and built his constructs piece by piece, Guy's was leaking energy and sparks all the time, Kilowog's was the only one that made a boom when he used it... etc.

REALLY wish that had been carried over to the actual series, but it was ignored almost immediately.

But yeah, the 90's were really big into the 'super hero and the powers' and not so much in the secret identity aspect. The powers were the powers and no matter how much they claimed that Kyle was 'more creative' it didn't really hold up considering the awesome stuff Hal had done in the past.

[SiegePerilous02]

Not to turn this into a Kyle bashing thread but Peter Parker archetype who reads Manga never did it for me either. It just makes me want to read Spider-Man or watch anime instead lol.

[Frontier]

(I think Kyle has cool constructs).

Really? I think people understood that was for animation/budget reasons.

Wouldn't that make more sense for a CG show than 2D?

[silly]

Alan is to the right, behind Green Arrow, while Hal and Guy are right above them. Hal is standing behind Booser Gold and Zatanna.

This is an HQ version of the pic, if you zoom in you can see them clearly: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FBl88PXV...jpg&name=large

Thanks. The cape confused me.

I see that Clark looks like Hal.

[Johnny]

Thanks. The cape confused me.

I see that Clark looks like Hal.

The art and the character designs are the real hook for me. I still think when it comes to the Lanterns, the cape should remain exclusive to Alan, but in this setting it does make sense. Gives the GLs an "outlaw" feel which is interestingly the polar opposite of an authority figure.

[HsssH]

The only time I ever saw a difference was in Green Lantern: Rebirth when Johns detailed 'how' everyone used their rings. John was an architect and built his constructs piece by piece, Guy's was leaking energy and sparks all the time, Kilowog's was the only one that made a boom when he used it... etc.

REALLY wish that had been carried over to the actual series, but it was ignored almost immediately.

I think this is one of those things that can't really work long term since it would be really demanding on the creative teams and some probably couldn't pull it off even if they tried real hard.

[Frontier]

The art and the character designs are the real hook for me. I still think when it comes to the Lanterns, the cape should remain exclusive to Alan, but in this setting it does make sense. Gives the GLs an "outlaw" feel which is interestingly the polar opposite of an authority figure.

GL Westerns are fun .

[John Venus]

Really? I think people understood that was for animation/budget reasons.

Nope. The constructs got enough flak that Timm addressed it in an interview. The 'Hearts and Minds' episode was partly meant to address that with John having to relearn how to use the ring after Despero mind whammies him. It was a great showing for him but neither his nor any other GL's constructs got anymore complex over the course of the show.

Not to turn this into a Kyle bashing thread but Peter Parker archetype who reads Manga never did it for me either. It just makes me want to read Spider-Man or watch anime instead lol.

Eeeh, he's not fully a Peter Parker archetype. Yes, he's young and he likes manga but unlike Peter he probably wouldn't be able to articulate what the Avogadro Number is nor would he be able to build his own tracers or anything like that. He has a creative mind and appeals to artists/creative types because he has a ring that's essentially a 3D light based printer and he does with it what anyone with a runaway imagination would do with it.

[SiegePerilous02]

Eeeh, he's not fully a Peter Parker archetype. Yes, he's young and he likes manga but unlike Peter he probably wouldn't be able to articulate what the Avogadro Number is nor would he be able to build his own tracers or anything like that. He has a creative mind and appeals to artists/creative types because he has a ring that's essentially a 3D light based printer and he does with it what anyone with a runaway imagination would do with it.

I sort of view the Peter Parker archetype as being the 20-something "every man" who still looks like a male model and is a chick magnet and deals with everyday problems while juggling the superhero career. "Relatable" in many ways, still larger than life in others. The specifics with the Avagadro Number and tracers are uniquely Peter, but Kyle always seemed like an attempt to port over a broadly similar character over to DC when they didn't really have one at that time. Which is fine, there is an audience for it, but I don't think it's really the innovative thing the GL franchise needed the way it was built up to be at the time.,

He's an artist with a runaway imagination, but I kind of have to agree with the article MaxStirner posted. The 90s (even comics written by Morrison) did tend to snipe at Hal's old constructs in an attempt to build Kyle up as the more creative one. But when the character is building Mecha robots because he watches anime or something, it's just basic pop culture references that any nerd will get. And when we hear how creative Kyle is, it can lead to hype backlash.