Hal Jordan: The Green Lantern Appreciation 2022

[Frontier]

I haven't re-read "Rebirth" in probably 10 yrs, you'll have to refresh my memory.

Was it stated that Parallax took hold *after* Coast City's destruction? Because if the grey temples were supposedly a manifestation of the infection, he was already rockin' those ~4 yrs before...

I think it happened before but Parallax only took possession when Hal was at his lowest.

[Johnny]

Hal going grey early was supposed to plant the first seeds of doubt but it wasn't enough yet since he apparently didn't think much of it. After all Parallax affected him through his ring to influence his psyche so after Hal was reprimanded for trying to use his ring for personal gain to restore Coast City, that was when the possession was finally in full effect since it was followed by his rampage to Oa, while killing Kilowog and then Sinestro was the final straw. The grey hair was the first sign of bad things to come but it wasn't enough since Hal isn't the kind of character who would start doubting himself just because he'd realize he's getting older.

It was just a bad design choice that Johns used Rebirth to retcon away. You can't have your protagonist that you're supposedly trying to keep relevant suddenly start looking like a middle-aged man even if he's realistically supposed to be somewhere around that age. The DCU isn't meant to be realistic, least of all in terms of the main characters' aging process. After Hal came back there were still some "old man" jokes from some of the younger characters at first but it was very different than it would've been if he got those jokes while still being drawn to look older.

[SJNeal]

Such ageism around here!* We should all hope to look as dashing as Hal did with grey hair!!!



*Kidding of course.

[Bored at 3:00AM]

This is very true.

However those were my formative years as a GL fan, and the idea that he was essentially a villain-in-disguise during those stories still doesn't sit right with me...

I don't see late 80s/early 90s Hal as a villain in disguise, but rather a hero who's unknowingly been infected with malevolent parasite that is slowly warping him into something he's not, which makes his heroism during that period even more impressive. Everything Hal did during that period still stands, but now it's even more impressive because we know that Hal was fighting an internal battle within his psyche to stay the hero he was in the face of pretty staggering obstacles.

Think of it as Hal being a firefighter who runs into a burning building while fighting a terrible fever at the same time.

[Bored at 3:00AM]

I haven't re-read "Rebirth" in probably 10 yrs, you'll have to refresh my memory.

Was it stated that Parallax took hold *after* Coast City's destruction? Because if the grey temples were supposedly a manifestation of the infection, he was already rockin' those ~4 yrs before...

Everything from the moment Hal entered the Central Power Battery in '88 to fight Sinestro, who had merged with the Yellow Impurity, is Parallax-infected Hal. So, all the uncharacteristically sad-sack behavior that Hal displays from the Action Comics Weekly run to the middle-aged hobo run, Hal is being slowly broken down by Parallax, but Hal is simultaneously fighting back against it and trying to reassert his own self.

Like I said, as retcons go, Johns's Parallax one is spectacular.

[j9ac9k]

It was just a bad design choice that Johns used Rebirth to retcon away. You can't have your protagonist that you're supposedly trying to keep relevant suddenly start looking like a middle-aged man even if he's realistically supposed to be somewhere around that age.

Firstly, I hated the grey temples - it placed him as an "elder stateman" hero and dad role for younger heroes. Hal's the maverick, not the dad.

That said, I think DC was trying to keep him relevant - to an older audience that had grown up with him. They saw how aging up Ollie in "Longbow Hunters" actually breathed new life into him. However, that was a more adult book, so it made sense. Aging up Hal was their way of keeping Hal as Ollie's contemporary and tried to inject some "maturity" to his character, so that he was more seasoned and in a different phase of his life, but I don't think it worked.

[NathanS]

From what I hear there was also an element of wanting to make sure Emerald Dawn was firmly in the past to line up JLI having Gardner around.

[silly]

Brings back memories. I was never able to complete Who's Who, but I made sure I bought GL's issue.

[Johnny]

Firstly, I hated the grey temples - it placed him as an "elder stateman" hero and dad role for younger heroes. Hal's the maverick, not the dad.

That said, I think DC was trying to keep him relevant - to an older audience that had grown up with him. They saw how aging up Ollie in "Longbow Hunters" actually breathed new life into him. However, that was a more adult book, so it made sense. Aging up Hal was their way of keeping Hal as Ollie's contemporary and tried to inject some "maturity" to his character, so that he was more seasoned and in a different phase of his life, but I don't think it worked.

I think it didn't work because the whole "alpha male space jokey" type hero doesn't usually tend to be portrayed that way. Those characters are usually always in their prime and when you turn that around and make them the "grizzled veteran" type, it loses a lot of what endeared the audiences to them imo. It's one thing when Hal is seen as the cool uncle by younger characters he's close to like Roy or Wally, but when he is actually depicted in a way that makes him look like a relic of the past, that kind of portrayal just seems to have a very limited shelf life, especially if he was still supposed to be the premier GL at the time. From both marketing and in-universe perspective, your main Lantern can't be an elder statesman, it's just not sustainable on a long-term basis. Because of that I always thought that Hal wouldn't have made it through the 90s even if Emerald Twilight never happened. He would've still been replaced or killed off, just not character assassinated prior to that.

[SJNeal]

^ ^ ^

I agree with 99% of this; I just don't recall ever seeing him depicted as a "relic of the past".

There was plenty of hero-worship from younger heroes - most notably in the JL books - but I never got the impression he was being portrayed as uncool or an old fogey (and I was like 10-12 yrs old reading these stories).

[Johnny]

Not as uncool, but as someone who is past his prime, who's had his time and should no longer lead a franchise into the future.

And don't take this the wrong way please, since I'm really starting to worry about coming off as discriminatory towards middle-aged people here, I'm just trying to look at the bigger picture here. As such I really don't understand how they thought aging up Hal and making him a disillusioned veteran was going to somehow either breathe new life into the character or make him more appealing to a 90s audience. Not implying it was some kind of elaborate hatchet job or anything of sorts, but in perspective it seems like an odd decision to make.

[Anthony Shaw]

I don't think I paid too much attention to the white temples at the time. I did not think it made Hal less. He did beat up Guy, who was in his prime, and was not damaged goods as I perceived John.

Hal reminded me of Reed Richards. In my head canon, Reed is the most dangerous human in the Marvel Universe. As Bendis once said: Reed is the cosmic bogey man from Earth in the minds of various advanced alien races.

I would imagine several alien races might have thought the same of the GL from 2814.

Still, I am enjoying reading different perspectives here.

[ducklord]

The grey temples didn't bother me much.

In the post-Crisis DCU, various small retcons aside, it was well established that the Silver Age characters (Barry, Hal, Ollie et al) were veterans. They'd been around a long time, and had seen some things. Ollie was canonically 40. It made sense that Hal was more or less the same age, and might be showing it.

Letting the original JLA and their cohorts age a little allowed the original Titans to be plausible young adults, and gave Young Justice room to be distinct adolescents. It all, more or less, kind of gelled, and allowed the DCU to (verrrrrrrry slowly) age in an organic fashion.

The only thing that could mess that up would be gratuitously de-aging characters, gratuitously speed-aging characters, or doing something REALLY stupid like half-rebooting the entire universe, eliminating almost all your legacy characters, then trying to bring them all back.

[SJNeal]

Not as uncool, but as someone who is past his prime, who's had his time and should no longer lead a franchise into the future.

And don't take this the wrong way please, since I'm really starting to worry about coming off as discriminatory towards middle-aged people here, I'm just trying to look at the bigger picture here. As such I really don't understand how they thought aging up Hal and making him a disillusioned veteran was going to somehow either breathe new life into the character or make him more appealing to a 90s audience. Not implying it was some kind of elaborate hatchet job or anything of sorts, but in perspective it seems like an odd decision to make.

Omg I'm totally just messing around with the ageism comments! I'm barely 39, but since I started reading comics at 5/6 yrs old, the books of my youth are often seen as "vintage", even by other readers my age who started later. No offense has ever been taken by any of your posts!

As far as what DC was thinking, I gotta agree with j9ac9k's post. DC was still coming off of their "Comics Aren't Just for Kids!" phase, and what we got with GL was informed by the success of the gritty books of the late 80's. The fact that "Hard Travelin' Heroes" (already considered a classic at the time) cemented Ollie and Hal as BFF's, it made sense to age up Hal given the super successful "Longbow Hunters" had just done the same to GA.

[silly]

Everything from the moment Hal entered the Central Power Battery in '88 to fight Sinestro, who had merged with the Yellow Impurity, is Parallax-infected Hal. So, all the uncharacteristically sad-sack behavior that Hal displays from the Action Comics Weekly run to the middle-aged hobo run, Hal is being slowly broken down by Parallax, but Hal is simultaneously fighting back against it and trying to reassert his own self.

Like I said, as retcons go, Johns's Parallax one is spectacular.

Yep. And Geoff was able to elevate GL to new heights.