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I should look for more Brooke & Kane.
Damn, now I want a Hal crossover with the 4th Doctor (Who).
I weirdly came out if the Johns' run not liking Hal.
I quietly think Guy got the best characterization during that era.
I thought Morrison's run was okay but even as someone who has read most of their work I'm not much of a "Morrison" guy.
Somewhere along the lines, I became a Morrison guy despite initially rolling my eyes at how "overrated" I used to think they were (I probably have some really old posts here bashing them). Eventually it just clicked, and they are one of my favorite comic writers now, their DC work in particular.
Their GL run gets typically self indulgent in the second season, so YMMV on how appealing that would be (even I have to be in a very specific mood when I read it). But Hal's characterization remains great throughout. Along with Clark and Bruce, they write my favorite Hal.
Johns' run did its job when I first read it and made me a fan of the character. But it's been a while since I've read it, and I'm not sure that if I was first exposed to Johns' Hal now if I would be as taken with him. Johns' idea of what makes Hal a cool guy seems to unintentionally at times line up with the traits that make people think he's an outdated douche.
Morrison, Waid and Darwyn Cooke are much better at the nuances of his character. But Johns struggles with nuance in general, I think his characters get more two dimensional as his writing career progresses.
GL: TAS imo was the better, more refined, version of Johns "hot shot" take on Hal.
Ya know funnily enough I recently read the Johns run up to the end of the Sinestro War, didn't really found the issue with how Hal was portrayed aside from I guess him being a soldier
Sure he's somewhat acerbic but ehhhh I didn't find him that much of a douche
Last edited by Mantis-Ray; 11-29-2022 at 07:17 PM.
Imo - Johns really only wrote Hal as a douche in his "Justice League" book. It's still baffling to me that Johns did that - even if it was a younger Hal. And after the 5 year jump, he still wrote Hal as douchey - to the point where Wonder Woman wanted to punch his teeth in, leading to him taking the blame and resigning.
As for Morrison, I really liked their characterization of Hal but as others have said the series was too self-indulgent, esoteric, and weird for larger audiences to connect to it. Which is a shame, because if the book had a more traditional narrative and reached more people, their take on Hal might've gotten more legs for other writers to pick up on it. (and also those new Guardians)