Hal Jordan: The Green Lantern Appreciation 2022

[Bored at 3:00AM]

Well the last issue of that run sold out and it's getting a second printing so it couldn't have been received that poorly all things considered. Either way, this thread is one of the few GL-related places I can visit that isn't being used for mudslinging so let's keep it that way please. And that's coming from me of all people, who is always concerned about how Hal is treated no matter how hard I try not to get stuck in the black hole of negativity.

You've been doing great for a good stretch, Johnny! Whatever you're doing to keep yourself out of that black hole of yours is working as far as I can see.

I can only assume your excitement over Hal's role in Dark Crisis is helping. I know I'm certainly pumped to see what they've got in store for our guy

[Johnny]

Heh I'm looking forward to what Dark Crisis has in store for Hal. Given the premise, that's one event where Hal doesn't necessarily need to lead the charge anyway, if there's a story where he's the cool uncle the kids can always rely on to show up at the right moment and help out when needed, that should be it. By the way in June they are honoring George Perez and Hal is with the Justice League on the new cover. Mr. Perez is another person I'm very concerned about but unfortunately things are looking pretty bleak there.

[HAN9000]

Apparently, we are living on different Earths if you can't understand that Thorne's GL run isn't viewed as a failure. Some people liked it and some didn't, as is always the case, but enough people both liked it and bought it for it to be successful. Not a giant hit by any stretch, but successful enough.

I feel the same about DC's over-reliance on Bat-books and also thought Hal's portrayal in the GL Annual wasn't great, but that doesn't alter my argument. DC was publishing multiple comics with Hal Jordan in them after their planned creative team fell through.

Well, apparently it is so successful that many issues couldn’t be ranked in top 100 comics in sales with a Green Lantern title.
And my point remains, it’s just a lame excuse to say the original creative team quit so it’s reasonable that we don’t have a book. It’s not us costumers’ duty to make excuses for the DC editorial team. You are happy with some cameos. That’s great. Just please don’t try to persuade me we should be satisfied with this situation and grateful for DC’s lousy management.

[j9ac9k]

Well, apparently it is so successful that many issues couldn’t be ranked in top 100 comics in sales with a Green Lantern title.
And my point remains, it’s just a lame excuse to say the original creative team quit so it’s reasonable that we don’t have a book. It’s not us costumers’ duty to make excuses for the DC editorial team. You are happy with some cameos. That’s great. Just please don’t try to persuade me we should be satisfied with this situation and grateful for DC’s lousy management.

I'm pretty sure the main point Bored was making in bringing up the Hal-centered series that fell apart was to assuage fears that DC was intentionally sidelining Hal. Do they do enough for him? No, but that's another topic.

[HAN9000]

I'm pretty sure the main point Bored was making in bringing up the Hal-centered series that fell apart was to assuage fears that DC was intentionally sidelining Hal. Do they do enough for him? No, but that's another topic.

I just don’t see the point here. Whether it was intentional or not doesn’t change the fact that Hal’s been sidelined. And even DC wasn’t intentional to do this, apparently they don’t think it’s a big deal and don’t want to fix it either.

[NathanS]

Unfortunately, no. I was surprised that Morrison barely touched on it, too. You'd think that would've been a nice little forgotten gem they could've done a lot with.

Yeah last I can recall was the 58th century showing up was Zero Hour, and before that Engleheart's use. And before that, I think it was when Wolfman used it as part of his early 'establishing Hal's classic status quo' stuff early in his run. it just never really took off the way Flash's future stuff did.

[Frontier]

I just read the first appearance of Javelin, and it's that kind of stuff I miss (Hal on Earth, fighting crime, corporate espionage, working at Ferris Air, etc.)

And it's always fun to see how they work in and work around the weakness to yellow back then .

Oh, I forgot to mention that Geoffrey Thorne discussed the behind the scenes of his GL run recently on his blog and revealed that there were indeed plans for a Hal Jordan/GLCorps-centric run to follow up Morrison & Sharpe's, written by a major writer, but it fell through, which meant that Thorne's backup feature about John Stewart was promoted to the main feature.

So, for all of the kvetching we've been doing here about DC not having anything with Hal over the past year, this should be pretty clear evidence that DC never had any intention of leaving Hal in limbo, but rather it was an unfortunate case of the plans the creative team they had lined up not working out.

Now, Thorne, quite rightly, didn't reveal the identity of the "big name" writer DC had lined up to do GL. I initially thought it might have been Jeff Lemire, who said himself that he was planning on working on the GL book for 5G. However, since Morrison claimed that Hal would've been retired for 5G (along with almost everyone) and Thorne confirmed it wasn't Lemire, it must have been a different writer. Who knows? Maybe whoever it was will spill the tea sooner or later and we'll learn what those aborted plans for the Infinite Frontier GL book were.

I guess that would explain how the focus of the run seemed kind...off at times.

[j9ac9k]

I just read the first appearance of Javelin, and it's that kind of stuff I miss (Hal on Earth, fighting crime, corporate espionage, working at Ferris Air, etc.)

And it's always fun to see how they work in and work around the weakness to yellow back then .

I was not a fan of how small-time criminals like Javelin and Goldface could give Hal a hard time just because they had yellow weapons, but I do miss seeing Hal mixing it up with his old rogues and I 100% miss seeing Hal use his brain to find ways around the yellow weakness. As silly as the weakness was, it gave Hal a chance to showcase his ingenuity in tight spots, rather than just willpower his way through anything.

[Frontier]

I was not a fan of how small-time criminals like Javelin and Goldface could give Hal a hard time just because they had yellow weapons, but I do miss seeing Hal mixing it up with his old rogues and I 100% miss seeing Hal use his brain to find ways around the yellow weakness. As silly as the weakness was, it gave Hal a chance to showcase his ingenuity in tight spots, rather than just willpower his way through anything.

It seems like the only weakness the GL's have now is their charge running out. I don't even remember the last time that's happened though.

[Redjack]

It seems like the only weakness the GL's have now is their charge running out. I don't even remember the last time that's happened though.

Pretty sure those high-level cosmic magic users gave them something to think about.

[Frontier]

Pretty sure those high-level cosmic magic users gave them something to think about.

Good thing I'm picking up the first trade tomorrow I guess .

[NathanS]

I was not a fan of how small-time criminals like Javelin and Goldface could give Hal a hard time just because they had yellow weapons, but I do miss seeing Hal mixing it up with his old rogues and I 100% miss seeing Hal use his brain to find ways around the yellow weakness. As silly as the weakness was, it gave Hal a chance to showcase his ingenuity in tight spots, rather than just willpower his way through anything.

To be fair Wolfman really ramped up how strong Goldface was, and positioned him as part of a wider indirect threat of politics and corporate espionage. Seriously why is that run not available yet? Get Earth stuff, great space stuff, especially when combined with the Tales of the Green Lantern Corps mini-series that came out. Strong character work, it's just damn good.

[Bored at 3:00AM]

Well, apparently it is so successful that many issues couldn’t be ranked in top 100 comics in sales with a Green Lantern title.
And my point remains, it’s just a lame excuse to say the original creative team quit so it’s reasonable that we don’t have a book. It’s not us costumers’ duty to make excuses for the DC editorial team. You are happy with some cameos. That’s great. Just please don’t try to persuade me we should be satisfied with this situation and grateful for DC’s lousy management.

But we did have a GL book, just not the one focused on Hal Jordan, which wasn't their initial plan, but the one they went with when their creative team fell apart. At no point have I said you should be satisfied or grateful by the situation, I'm simply saying it's understandable given the circumstances DC has been dealing with over the past couple years.

Now, I'm sure if DC wanted to simply put out a Hal Jordan comic, regardless of quality, they could have certainly done that, but would have really have been what was the best thing for the character? I would think as a Hal Jordan fan, you'd understand that finding the right creators that would be worthy of the character isn't something that can or should be done carelessly.

I absolutely want to read Hal Jordan comics, but I want them to be great Hal Jordan comics, not simply comics published because the corporation deems the IP viable enough to make a few bucks from.

[Bored at 3:00AM]

I'm pretty sure the main point Bored was making in bringing up the Hal-centered series that fell apart was to assuage fears that DC was intentionally sidelining Hal. Do they do enough for him? No, but that's another topic.

Bingo.

Sometimes projects fall apart. I know comics fans love conspiracies involving stalwart heroes and dastardly villains, but the real world is generally just flawed human beings who are trying their best, and sometimes come up short trying to deal with an imperfect situation. That appears to be the case here.

[Bored at 3:00AM]

I just don’t see the point here. Whether it was intentional or not doesn’t change the fact that Hal’s been sidelined. And even DC wasn’t intentional to do this, apparently they don’t think it’s a big deal and don’t want to fix it either.

Since we don't know what DC's plans for GL are beyond Dark Crisis, we absolutely don't know any of this. They could very well be attempting to fix it right now, but just haven't announced anything yet.

Do you honestly think that DC is simply going to let a character with a proven track record in regards to sales and popularity just sit there? DC is in the business of making money. It may take a little while longer than anyone planned, but the character will be back sooner or later when they find the right creative team.