Hal Jordan: The Green Lantern Appreciation 2022

[Refrax5]

Once characters start doing evil **** and try to justify it they're no longer the same characters, they're no different than the villains they fight. Parallax isn't Hal Jordan, and I'm not referring to the space bug retcon. Hal Jordan isn't the kind of person who will start murdering his friends because he went through a traumatic experience. Hal Jordan isn't Anakin Skywalker, he's not a character who was specifically created with the intention of turning heel, he turned heel because the DC regime at the time wanted to be "edgy", did not see him as important enough of a character and wanted shock value for the sake of boosting sales and bringing in another character to replace him with. On top of it there's nothing original about Parallax as a concept. He is little more than bootleg Sinestro, the former greatest GL who got corrupted by his power and went sideways. Been there, done that.

The people who like Parallax and still insist it "made Hal so much more interesting", "did a lot of good for his character journey" or "makes sense" are mostly those who simply want the character out of the picture so their favorite GLs can get the spotlight and beat him up, while conveniently stealing his content, friends, villains and stories at the same time. When all is said and done, that's really what this has been about. In the past I could give people the benefit of the doubt about this, nowadays it's been increasingly difficult to do so. The notion that making a founding Leaguer a murderer, then killing him off and having him gone for a decade somehow "did a lot of good" for his character is insulting to my intelligence. No it didn't "make sense".

Weird, since I just said it added depth to the character and Hal is literally my favorite Green Lantern.

[j9ac9k]

Do you think she, the red lantern, would fight Hal? She’s most likely alive present day so Hal vs an Alan villain legacy would be cool. Plus more magic lantern powers vs our usual space corps would be neat to see.

She's going to end up dating Kyle. Then Jade(green) and Soranik (yellow) will show up. It'll be a blast - Kyle's time as White Lantern will come in handy.

[sifighter]

She's going to end up dating Kyle. Then Jade(green) and Soranik (yellow) will show up. It'll be a blast - Kyle's time as White Lantern will come in handy.

Kyle: oh god, the daughter of my mentors former nemesis….and she’s my type! What would the others do?

John(slept with fatality), Hal (dated Star Sapphire), Guy Gardner (nuff said): Eh we’ve made worse decisions go for it.

Kyle:….maybe I shouldn’t listen to the others

[j9ac9k]

Jade: Kyle - how can you be in love with a woman who's father tried to kill my father multiple times?!?
Kyle: Well, I dated a woman who's father killed my mother, so...
Soranik: I'm still mad at you.

[Captain Nostalgia]

I like a good balance. Morrison's "Doom Patrol" hit the right notes for me in that way. His "Animal Man" was about the Big Ideas, but it was balanced by Buddy's humanity. I enjoyed "TGL" for the most part, but the big climax of the book was basically Hal standing still and talking, while we're being thrown a bunch of metaphysical concepts that ... I don't even remember what happened, honestly.

I lost interest sometime after Green Lantern season 1, so unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) I didn't get to the big climax. Have to say it doesn't sound to enthralling though. Still... I'm going to give the whole run a second go when it hits tpb.

I'd say that was a pretty definitive conclusion. Morrison & Sharp left it all on the field.

I don't think so, because I don't think the sales were especially high. The book seemed like something from Metal hurlant, and that could either be good or bad depending on one's tastes. I don't think the readers in general at the time responded all that well to it, though. Of course, some people love it, but from what I've seen consensus seems to be that the second season is especially off the rails.

I wasn't enthusiastic about the comic, but I appreciate the attempt to do something tonally completely different from what Geoff Johns did because I think Green Lantern needed that at the time. Though, I still don't think Green Lantern has really found its footing since. It's just gotten worse.

Sounds like a wrap then, oh well. It was still selling in the top 50 before Morrison got up and left, which is still pretty solid (though the sales numbers pale in comparison to Johns)

I do think your right though, a lot of people, at least in social media, appeared to be put off by his writing style. I don't think breaking things down into separate runs helped much either (Ie Blackstars, Green Lantern vol 1, vol 2 ect)

[Mantis-Ray]

Jade: Kyle - how can you be in love with a woman who's father tried to kill my father multiple times?!?
Kyle: Well, I dated a woman who's father killed my mother, so...
Soranik: I'm still mad at you.

The other funny thing is Kyle also killed his and Soranik's future kid which is prolly some kind of magnitude worse than the others

[Johnny]

Weird, since I just said it added depth to the character and Hal is literally my favorite Green Lantern.

Well my favorite hero in all of fiction is Spider-Man and I hope the day doesn't come where he starts killing his friends and I start thinking it adds more depth to his character. But stranger things have happened in comics.

[Mantis-Ray]

This is an underrated moment for me, seeing Hal describe the personal ways of ring-slinging of his comrades, especially because Hal really has the soul of a poet here

https://www.reddit.com/r/DCcomics/co...have_become_a/

"John's constructs are built from the inside out. You look close, you can see every nut and bolt that makes it work. Nothing he creates is hollow. With or without the ring."

"Gardner's ring is like a leaky water faucet. Sparks always fly. Even when he's just standing still. His willpower can't wait to get free. He opens it up. And attitude disappears in a storm of emerald energy."

"Kilowog steps up to bat. His ring is the only one that makes a sound. Like a cannon exploding."

"Kyle's sketching in his head. It sharpens into view, constantly being refined by his own imagination. Kyle's never satisfied. He's an artist."

"For me it's about precision. Doing exactly what I need to do to get the job done. Concentrated Power. Focused Ambition. Tangible Glory."

Tangible Glory, **** that should be how constructs should be described from now on.

[Triniking1234]

Not sure really, I started reading comics around the time they made Hal the Spectre and then when they revealed Parallax in Green Lantern Rebirth. So for me it was kind of this nebulous thing I would hear about that got retconned.

Having random books where Hal was GL, Parallax and Spectre growing up was pretty funny. Didn't realise it was the same dude until I got internet.

[j9ac9k]

Tangible Glory, **** that should be how constructs should be described from now on.

To me, "glory" can sound self-serving, which is a bad look for Hal and feeds into the negative depictions of him.

[Johnny]

I think "focused ambition" sounds better.

[sifighter]

Having random books where Hal was GL, Parallax and Spectre growing up was pretty funny. Didn't realise it was the same dude until I got internet.

Yeah and I was only more confused with the Justice League cartoon having John, so I was wondering who the heck Hal was at first.

[Johnny]

I first remember Hal from Super Friends reruns I randomly saw around the time the 90s Flash show aired, but didn't become a fan until much later. I do remember being confused when I read the Emerald Knights story which was the first GL story I ever read, since it had a young Hal, Parallax Hal and Kyle all at the same time, while the other GLs had supporting roles but weren't GLs anymore. So this blonde guy is the OG Lantern but for some reason looks younger than all the rest and Hal is Kyle's predecessor who was transported from the past, while his current self who is also supposed to be dead is now evil and they both fight each other because the former doesn't want to turn into the latter. I could barely understand what was going on but it was fun.

[Refrax5]

Well my favorite hero in all of fiction is Spider-Man and I hope the day doesn't come where he starts killing his friends and I start thinking it adds more depth to his character. But stranger things have happened in comics.

The point is that you probably shouldn't be making negative assumptions about people with that opinion like you were doing. It's not always because people are out to get him so their favorite can take over.

[Johnny]

The point is that you probably shouldn't be making negative assumptions about people with that opinion like you were doing. It's not always because people are out to get him so their favorite can take over.

My assumptions are based on years of experience. In the past I would very much echo your sentiment and I would ask people not to generalize fans and give them the benefit of the doubt, and I still think it's not always about people being "out to get him" but at this point it's hard to keep that mindset after seeing some of the reactions towards the character even after DC purposely do him wrong. You're welcome to disagree if you feel I was being unfair to other fans or generalizing them, but there's no need to imply that my assumptions are meritless or unreasonable.