I've been called paranoid and told I'm overreacting time and again when I feel DC isn't doing well with Hal, and I admit I had it coming on certain occasions. But I would never do that if I genuinely didn't feel the current DC management did not seem to have the best intentions with this character. And here we are. 2022 and in the first GL-movie we've had in 11 years, Hal gets Parallaxed again. It is what it is.
Last edited by Johnny; 07-10-2022 at 03:09 PM.
I mean, it's not good for any of us to get overly paranoid over every less-than-great thing that happens to our favorite characters (and I've been there myself), but most of the time when you smell smoke, there's fire.
Morrison gave Hal a great send off at the end of their run. Why can't DC/WB just leave it at that if they have no use for him? What the hell is the point of any of this?
- Okay, so they took "Zero Hour" and made it into John's origin? With Parallax, Hal wanting to remake the universe and Ollie shooting him in the heart, it seems to take a lot of the beats from the comics. Honestly, I guess I'm glad for the silver lining that they kept the use of Parallax as a corrupting influence so that it's something we've seen in the comics, as opposed to just making Hal inherently bad or a corrupt cop. (which was my fear) I wonder who voiced him this time around?
The point is that in order for them to put the corporate machine fully behind one GL they need to make sure to destroy the only other real competition for the top GL spot. The same thing that happened 28 years ago. A few hours ago I wouldn't say this because I did not really believe it. I'd wonder as well why not just leave this character alone if they don't want to push him anymore? Well, because that's not good enough. You'd want to make sure to destroy his credibility as a major hero entirely. After all I don't believe DC would approve this otherwise. It's clearly very intentional.
Nolan North. And when Hal mentions that Sinestro used Parallax on him with the intention of having Hal under his control, but Parallax "opened Hal's eyes", so Sinestro became a follower of Hal instead. Sinestro actually calls him "master" at one point. It is a corrupting influence but without any of the redeeming qualities that Hal had even when he was Parallax in the comics. There's none of that, he is a mad man who still wields a bunch of different rings(yes, of course they recreate that cover) and talks about how evil the universe is, just without having any of the trauma of losing Coast City or wanting to "make things right". He just got infected by Parallax and he embraced it.
It sounds worse than ET to be honest. At least there, you could somewhat sympathize with Hal and say he was acting out of grief. This just makes him look bad, and I don't think the mention of Parallax as a corrupting entity mitigates the harm if he has no redemptive moment. It just makes him look like someone who would easily give in to a power fantasy.
Makes you think if Hal really was "the worst Green Lantern" as some like to say, why would DC feel the need to do any of this to him whenever they feel like pushing someone else. If I was an executive and felt this way about him, I wouldn't go anywhere near this character or his content. DC knows that he is a strong character with a big fanbase but they don't want him as the lead protagonist of a franchise that traditionally revolves around him, so they need to do anything to make sure that doesn't happen. It's scummy but it's smart.
Last edited by Johnny; 07-10-2022 at 04:28 PM.
I just...I can't even muster up the enthusiasm to complain about this.
I was probably a bigger fan of the Tomorrow-verse than most or at least one of their biggest supporters but this might be my breaking point.
And the sad part is I like John but the fact that I know there are going to be John fans who are going to eat up and justify this just...bothers the heck out of me. Like, I assumed this movie would be a John Stewart fans' wet dream and it sounds like it succeeded on that front more than I could have possibly guessed.
When the movie is officially out soon, obviously people can still see it and make up their own minds. I was disgusted by what I saw but a lot of you guys are usually far more optimistic than I tend to be when it comes to Hal, so who knows, maybe some of you won't find it as awful as I did.
Yes, one of the big downsides of this is that it will just cause further divisions in an already fractured fanbase. Whereas a movie that just didn't have Hal or opened with him as having already died in the line of duty off-screen and just focused on John would cause MUCH less damage.
And I don't want to fall into the trap of resenting John and his fanbase, because John SHOULD be utilized more and even have a turn in the spotlight as the lead. He's earned that. But man, it's going to be hard not to, because this is all tailor made to prop John up with a little bit of cashing in on DCAU nostalgia on the side.
Johnny you know how much of an optimist I try to be and I see no way of positively spinning this unless you don't care about Hal Jordan.
I echo Johnny's statement that none of Hals' appearances in other media have demonized or disrespected any of the other Earth Lanterns, which makes it more glaring what they did for John's movie.
No it's not smart.
An executive with a brain cell would ask the question-where is all the John Stewart centric stuff at? If there is none-WHY?
That falls on Dan and friends-who were yelled at about stuff like this. Characters with little or no material.
I think most John fans expected a story where something happened to the others and John got recruited. We get some battle with Sinestro or someone else. Not Kyle's origin and Zero Hour mixed together.I assumed this movie would be a John Stewart fans' wet dream and it sounds like it succeeded on that front more than I could have possibly guessed.
This story would be the LAST story I would use.