Hal Jordan: The Green Lantern Appreciation 2022

[Robanker]

I don't believe DC movies are real until I own it for three months on blu-ray.

Two months in, does it start slowly materializing on your shelf?

[silly]

This was peak Saturday Morning Television to me:

Seems just like yesterday.

[NathanS]

Haha, I really like the Mike W. Barr run actually. Many will mention the Wolfman run or the Englehart run but IMO, in terms of characterization for Hal, the Mike W. Barr run absolutely stands out. And next to the Beatnik-inspired stuff in the Broome stories, it's the characterization that's most in line with Morrison's writing of Hal. This is a Hal who respects difference, believes in rehabilitation, hates the idea of profit being a motive behind people's actions, has no time for vanity, and helps liberate a planet from its oppressors. At the same time, Barr shows Hal's fun side too, like when he turns Evil Star into a literal punching bag or his almost childlike happiness at the Talkorians gifting him with a spaceship. With all the limitations of that era of comic book writing, IMO, Barr still managed to tap into both Hal's fearless test pilot side and his more Bohemian side. I think that's what makes the character so fascinating and I wish more writers would explore this.

Barr's stuff always felt like it suffered from him never really giving Hal a new cast. those periods where Hal is just kind of wondering are clearly a touchstone for Morrison but they feel like they lack the ability to ground Hal as a person rather than a set of ideals. Your right Barr doesn't forget to try and add it with the spaceship bit you mentioned or establishing Hal's love of Sword and Sorcery that feels like a BIG inspiration for Morrison. And of course, his stories are wonderful pulp scifi. It's fitting the guy who helped put references to the Lensmen in would have a plot where a planet is planned to be used as a weapon. But it feels like he knows this is a temporary gig and don't want to bother building much for Hal and I think the run suffers for that. With some writers you can feel when they come in with a vison and drive, and well his goals seemed to be not rocking the boat too much but giving us as I said fun classic pulp feeling scifi adventuers that clear vison is obvious form the start. I still hold Wolfman's run as the gold standard, but I respect what Barr did.

[Mutatis_Mutandis]

Barr's stuff always felt like it suffered from him never really giving Hal a new cast. those periods where Hal is just kind of wondering are clearly a touchstone for Morrison but they feel like they lack the ability to ground Hal as a person rather than a set of ideals. Your right Barr doesn't forget to try and add it with the spaceship bit you mentioned or establishing Hal's love of Sword and Sorcery that feels like a BIG inspiration for Morrison. And of course, his stories are wonderful pulp scifi. It's fitting the guy who helped put references to the Lensmen in would have a plot where a planet is planned to be used as a weapon. But it feels like he knows this is a temporary gig and don't want to bother building much for Hal and I think the run suffers for that. With some writers you can feel when they come in with a vison and drive, and well his goals seemed to be not rocking the boat too much but giving us as I said fun classic pulp feeling scifi adventuers that clear vison is obvious form the start. I still hold Wolfman's run as the gold standard, but I respect what Barr did.

Well, I personally prefer wanderer Hal to grounded Hal, provided this wandering is not turned into some character flaw or midlife crisis. But ymmv, of course. I don't think who a person is and a set of ideals they stand for are necessarily at odds. Also, Barr did bring back Dorine. The Wolfman run does have that great story though where Hal is blinded and I think both runs have their strengths but they reveal and revel in different aspects of the character. That said, I wish the writers would mine these Bronze Age runs more. The character has a lot of history and interesting aspects that can be delved into by going back to these runs. We do not need to keep seeing retreads of Emerald Twilight.

[Gaius]

Two months in, does it start slowly materializing on your shelf?

No, it's still just a very impressive-looking fan film that Warners/DC for some reason never sued into oblivion.

[NathanS]

Well, I personally prefer wanderer Hal to grounded Hal, provided this wandering is not turned into some character flaw or midlife crisis. But ymmv, of course. I don't think who a person is and a set of ideals they stand for are necessarily at odds. Also, Barr did bring back Dorine. The Wolfman run does have that great story though where Hal is blinded and I think both runs have their strengths but they reveal and revel in different aspects of the character. That said, I wish the writers would mine these Bronze Age runs more. The character has a lot of history and interesting aspects that can be delved into by going back to these runs. We do not need to keep seeing retreads of Emerald Twilight.

Part of it is sadly so much of his history hasn't been reprinted till recently. And even now there are gaps that only obsessive fans will bother tracking down. (... may or may not be doing a full re-read and just hit The Green Lantern Corps 202). I mean even the Silver Age until recently was only fully available via the black and white Showcase collections. Otherwise, they made... three attempts to do a high-quality hardcover reprint of the Silver age and always stopped at around issue 30, till finally getting the full damn thing out on the fourth attempt. of the 70's they've been reprinting in trades and such the Hard Travelling heroes basically as soon as those twelve issues wrapped up, but beyond that... Well, we finally got from issue 90 up till 106 in 2020! And the odds of getting the half-decade Hal spent as a backup in Flash are slim. Then the 80s was a wasteland of reprints till very recently and we're still missing big chunks!

[Johnny]

[Johnny]

[Frontier]

I like the art. And the heart .

[Refrax5]

I had read some of the Gerard Jones GL stuff in the early 90s when I was a kid, but Emerald Knights was when I became a huge GL fan and became pretty much obsessed with Hal and the whole mythos. Then there was JLA Year One and Flash and GL: The Brave and the Bold that cemented it. But, man, young Hal confronting his dark future in that story was pretty heartbreaking.

[Robanker]

No, it's still just a very impressive-looking fan film that Warners/DC for some reason never sued into oblivion.

Like that five hour one with Ollie as the Spectre?

[Gaius]

Like that five hour one with Ollie as the Spectre?

[HsssH]

So DC is basically claiming that someone from JL will actually die, for real, in Dark Crisis. My money is either on Ollie or Hal.

[Vordan]

So DC is basically claiming that someone from JL will actually die, for real, in Dark Crisis. My money is either on Ollie or Hal.

Hal technically isn’t on the JL so he should be safe

[Johnny]

Hal technically isn’t on the JL so he should be safe

You can also see him on the cover of Dark Crisis: War Zone, which comes out in December, while issue 5 of Dark Crisis that features the so-called "permanent death"(try not to laugh) comes out in October.

I guess that can't really stop DC if they do want to kill him off but yeah, I don't think it's Hal either. Given that they've said before the next "event" of 2023 will be about magic, it could very well end up being Zatanna. Take her off the board for the time being so the heroes won't have their most important magic character(the hell with Constantine) around when they need her the most, so when things are looking really sour, Zee comes back to save the day.

There should be more Hal/Zatanna team-ups. And Hal/Diana team-ups. And Hal/Barry team-ups. And Hal/Clark team-ups. And on and on.