Hal Jordan: The Green Lantern Appreciation 2023

[Refrax5]

Two of my favorite takes on Hal.

[NathanS]

If there is one thing people talk about when it comes to Hal in GL volume 3, its the gray temples and the age that went along with that. Again you have fans that liked it, but others that, REALLY dislike it, and saw it as the symptom of everything going wrong with Hal that lead to his downfall. And of course Geoff was clearly in the latter camp and retconed it to hell and back. So how did Hal end up for a bit being the most experienced of the heavy hitters from the Silver Ag? Yes for like four years Hal had been doing the Superhero thing longer than even Batman and Superman, though that bit got retconed away in the wake of Zero Hour. A few theories have been proposed but as far as I know we don’t have a concrete explication. Busiek links it to the reverence for the HTH stuff and wanting to keep it in its time of the seventies. Which adds up to a degree, Hal at the Start of Volume three says he’s been GL for 15 years, which in 1991 puts him getting the ring in 1976. Just enough time for it to believable that he spent a few years doing the GL thing in Coast City, leave it and then run into GA before the 70s are out. As also noted it seems the head editor of DC at the time was willing to experiment with older characters, having already done so with GA, so keeping Hal and Ollie in spitting distance of each other age wise makes sense.

But based on interviews with Gerard, who wanted to either have a clean slate reset with Hal one of the deciding factors seemed to be Guy and the League in general, and likely to a lesser extent John. Well Gerard had plans to get Guy and John back in as GLs as quickly as possible it does seem likely that Andy Helfer, the editor, who was also the editor of JLI didn’t want to throw a wrench into that book. The JL had not had a clean start, the original Silver Age league existed and that its current set up wasn’t that iconic bunch was something the comic leaned into. If Hal was a brand new hero, then he would need to join Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman in the line up of founders who no longer could be founders. And at that point the league’s original line up is starting to look a little thin. Also Guy’s existing history was played with a bit, namely the brain damage thing, in JLI, so it was likely seen to be for the best if Hal had been GL for a bit so they could fit in at least some of Guy’s existing backstory (the phantom zone stuff would need to go though…) and Hal as a founder of the JL. I suppose at that point there might have been a feeling of, why not just commit to him being an older hero?

And it kind of seems to have worked, Hal as uniquely a hanger on form the silver age in the wake of the Crisis does seem to hang to him more than again the Hawks or Ray who are just as much of the Silver Age. (Well okay the Hawks are a little hard to talk about, but really a LOT of stuff for the modern Hawks still come form their silver age stories just pasted onto the golden age origin… look its complicated and we all know that.)

In some ways Gerard did himself no favors, the first arc of Volume 3 starts with Hal at his most contemplative, reaching back to the era he favored, Broome’s later stuff when Hal was on the road, yeah same stuff Morrison loves, and he made the same connection Morrison did, to the works of Kerouac. To the beatnick vibe. But he started with Hal still in the doldrums he wanted to drag him out of. So he’s a moody Hal caught in thought and philosophizing. For some this is a period of pure gold and some of the best character work ever done with Hal.

But its also an opening arc in which Hal spends the first four issues running from being GL, from doing Superhero stuff. As you can imagine for others a man caught up in his thoughts, actively avoiding doing classic heroics well committing the cardinal sin of the 90s, being older than 20? Oh well The Road Back seems to have done well enough to push GL back onto its feet in the short run, for some, and I have to imagine a lot of younger readers in particular, it may have helped cement Hal as the old fuddy duddy. Gerard’s Hal may have also end up make declarations about being over self-doubt, and been the first to try and make Hal’s behavior in HTH was an outside force effecting, it came to little too late for anyone who looked back at his stuff in the wake of ET. I have to imagine anyone looking at the back-issues, reached issue two where Guy forces the Tattoo Man to have a fight with him and Hal coming in and breaking it up, and making it clear how little internist he has in the classic “fight the bad guy” set up at the moment and wrote it off as a run all about moody self-doubting Hal.

Amusingly the run is the one that starts to point to some of modern Hal, his issue with authority is… kind of odd due to Gerard and the his editor seeming to have completely different ideas of what it should be, but it does mean we get Hal having trouble with authority. Gerard really pushed for Hal as okay with the Guardians, taking them on faith. But And we get Hal learning a hidden secret of the Guardians leading to him questioning how much he can trust them and a big shouting confrontation. A few of those had happened before, and like those earlier ones Hal comes away fine with the Guardians, but it was a lot bigger and lasted a lot longer than the earlier ones. This run is also the first place were “Hal has lots of lady friends” really first shows up. So amusingly I’ve seen at least one person unhappy with it for being the first version of Geoff Johnes Hal.

There was one other element that is worth noting in the 90s conversation around Hal. One that didn’t get a ton of attention at the time, but Hal did have some more appearances as a GL. By going back in time. There was of course the in-universe time traveling of Kyle that saw him team up with a young Hal. Which played him as a fish out of water, a man dealing with his future actions, but also as again that heroic ideal. Someone who always took things seriously, but some of the sly charm and sly humor that some takes have was present. Still when the main complaint was “Hal is a perfect hero” it wasn’t going to do a ton to change minds. Though of course also at the time some people like the “Hal as a perfect hero” bit. So, always some tension there.

But we also had Waid take a whack at him. Partly in JLA, year one, but more notably in his Barry, Hal Flash/Green Lantern The Brave and the Bold. And there he really honed in on just how much change there was in Hal’s life, contrasting it with Barry who’s time as the Flash was, very stable, well till towards the 80s.

At a time when the focus was often on Hal’s ‘iconic’ status quo when talking about his time as GL, reinforcing that image of him as unchanging relic form the 60s, or a baston of a simpler time, take your pick, he reminded us how little Hall spent in that set up. And added the idea of Hal having money problems. Again its to contrast him with Barry, but it did somewhat overstate it a little I think. Hal would spend most of the first half of the 70s scrapping by on unemployment checks, living in his car and out of motels, but his time as a Toy Salesman is not shown to be one of hardship. Well no longer living a cushy upper middle class/lower upper class income of a test pilot a salesman would at least be a lower middle class job. (really none of Hal’s time unemployed play him as having trouble living that way pre-rebirth. He’s more shown to just roll with the punches and live simply enough that he’s fine scrapping by.)

You can see how his Hal and with it the modern idea of Hal starts to emerge form this maelstrom. On hand Hal is boring for being too much of a by-the-book type? Let’s take that questioning side and the image of the pilot as highly independent who doesn't play by the rules but damn they get results type and use it to treat him as more of the forever rebel. But not too much of one. He is still the firm solider. And then put that ladies-man thing to the forefront to really end idea of him as old fashioned. Being old is bad, so let’s just swipe that under the rug. Mix liberally with the GL being not just the idea of police but set up like them… and very militarized, oh boy, so that “rouge cop” that steps out of line only because its the only way to uphold the system of authority that is right thing. Then take that reminder of Hal’s time dealing with job issues and throw it all in the blender and hit frappe.

[Refrax5]

If there is one thing people talk about when it comes to Hal in GL volume 3, its the gray temples and the age that went along with that. Again you have fans that liked it, but others that, REALLY dislike it, and saw it as the symptom of everything going wrong with Hal that lead to his downfall. And of course Geoff was clearly in the latter camp and retconed it to hell and back. So how did Hal end up for a bit being the most experienced of the heavy hitters from the Silver Ag? Yes for like four years Hal had been doing the Superhero thing longer than even Batman and Superman, though that bit got retconed away in the wake of Zero Hour. A few theories have been proposed but as far as I know we don’t have a concrete explication. Busiek links it to the reverence for the HTH stuff and wanting to keep it in its time of the seventies. Which adds up to a degree, Hal at the Start of Volume three says he’s been GL for 15 years, which in 1991 puts him getting the ring in 1976. Just enough time for it to believable that he spent a few years doing the GL thing in Coast City, leave it and then run into GA before the 70s are out. As also noted it seems the head editor of DC at the time was willing to experiment with older characters, having already done so with GA, so keeping Hal and Ollie in spitting distance of each other age wise makes sense.

But based on interviews with Gerard, who wanted to either have a clean slate reset with Hal one of the deciding factors seemed to be Guy and the League in general, and likely to a lesser extent John. Well Gerard had plans to get Guy and John back in as GLs as quickly as possible it does seem likely that Andy Helfer, the editor, who was also the editor of JLI didn’t want to throw a wrench into that book. The JL had not had a clean start, the original Silver Age league existed and that its current set up wasn’t that iconic bunch was something the comic leaned into. If Hal was a brand new hero, then he would need to join Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman in the line up of founders who no longer could be founders. And at that point the league’s original line up is starting to look a little thin. Also Guy’s existing history was played with a bit, namely the brain damage thing, in JLI, so it was likely seen to be for the best if Hal had been GL for a bit so they could fit in at least some of Guy’s existing backstory (the phantom zone stuff would need to go though…) and Hal as a founder of the JL. I suppose at that point there might have been a feeling of, why not just commit to him being an older hero?

And it kind of seems to have worked, Hal as uniquely a hanger on form the silver age in the wake of the Crisis does seem to hang to him more than again the Hawks or Ray who are just as much of the Silver Age. (Well okay the Hawks are a little hard to talk about, but really a LOT of stuff for the modern Hawks still come form their silver age stories just pasted onto the golden age origin… look its complicated and we all know that.)

In some ways Gerard did himself no favors, the first arc of Volume 3 starts with Hal at his most contemplative, reaching back to the era he favored, Broome’s later stuff when Hal was on the road, yeah same stuff Morrison loves, and he made the same connection Morrison did, to the works of Kerouac. To the beatnick vibe. But he started with Hal still in the doldrums he wanted to drag him out of. So he’s a moody Hal caught in thought and philosophizing. For some this is a period of pure gold and some of the best character work ever done with Hal.

But its also an opening arc in which Hal spends the first four issues running from being GL, from doing Superhero stuff. As you can imagine for others a man caught up in his thoughts, actively avoiding doing classic heroics well committing the cardinal sin of the 90s, being older than 20? Oh well The Road Back seems to have done well enough to push GL back onto its feet in the short run, for some, and I have to imagine a lot of younger readers in particular, it may have helped cement Hal as the old fuddy duddy. Gerard’s Hal may have also end up make declarations about being over self-doubt, and been the first to try and make Hal’s behavior in HTH was an outside force effecting, it came to little too late for anyone who looked back at his stuff in the wake of ET. I have to imagine anyone looking at the back-issues, reached issue two where Guy forces the Tattoo Man to have a fight with him and Hal coming in and breaking it up, and making it clear how little internist he has in the classic “fight the bad guy” set up at the moment and wrote it off as a run all about moody self-doubting Hal.

Amusingly the run is the one that starts to point to some of modern Hal, his issue with authority is… kind of odd due to Gerard and the his editor seeming to have completely different ideas of what it should be, but it does mean we get Hal having trouble with authority. Gerard really pushed for Hal as okay with the Guardians, taking them on faith. But And we get Hal learning a hidden secret of the Guardians leading to him questioning how much he can trust them and a big shouting confrontation. A few of those had happened before, and like those earlier ones Hal comes away fine with the Guardians, but it was a lot bigger and lasted a lot longer than the earlier ones. This run is also the first place were “Hal has lots of lady friends” really first shows up. So amusingly I’ve seen at least one person unhappy with it for being the first version of Geoff Johnes Hal.

There was one other element that is worth noting in the 90s conversation around Hal. One that didn’t get a ton of attention at the time, but Hal did have some more appearances as a GL. By going back in time. There was of course the in-universe time traveling of Kyle that saw him team up with a young Hal. Which played him as a fish out of water, a man dealing with his future actions, but also as again that heroic ideal. Someone who always took things seriously, but some of the sly charm and sly humor that some takes have was present. Still when the main complaint was “Hal is a perfect hero” it wasn’t going to do a ton to change minds. Though of course also at the time some people like the “Hal as a perfect hero” bit. So, always some tension there.

But we also had Waid take a whack at him. Partly in JLA, year one, but more notably in his Barry, Hal Flash/Green Lantern The Brave and the Bold. And there he really honed in on just how much change there was in Hal’s life, contrasting it with Barry who’s time as the Flash was, very stable, well till towards the 80s.

At a time when the focus was often on Hal’s ‘iconic’ status quo when talking about his time as GL, reinforcing that image of him as unchanging relic form the 60s, or a baston of a simpler time, take your pick, he reminded us how little Hall spent in that set up. And added the idea of Hal having money problems. Again its to contrast him with Barry, but it did somewhat overstate it a little I think. Hal would spend most of the first half of the 70s scrapping by on unemployment checks, living in his car and out of motels, but his time as a Toy Salesman is not shown to be one of hardship. Well no longer living a cushy upper middle class/lower upper class income of a test pilot a salesman would at least be a lower middle class job. (really none of Hal’s time unemployed play him as having trouble living that way pre-rebirth. He’s more shown to just roll with the punches and live simply enough that he’s fine scrapping by.)

You can see how his Hal and with it the modern idea of Hal starts to emerge form this maelstrom. On hand Hal is boring for being too much of a by-the-book type? Let’s take that questioning side and the image of the pilot as highly independent who doesn't play by the rules but damn they get results type and use it to treat him as more of the forever rebel. But not too much of one. He is still the firm solider. And then put that ladies-man thing to the forefront to really end idea of him as old fashioned. Being old is bad, so let’s just swipe that under the rug. Mix liberally with the GL being not just the idea of police but set up like them… and very militarized, oh boy, so that “rouge cop” that steps out of line only because its the only way to uphold the system of authority that is right thing. Then take that reminder of Hal’s time dealing with job issues and throw it all in the blender and hit frappe.

Interesting. Was the Jones era really the first time Hal was depicted as a ladies man type? I remember Mark Waid depicted him as such in JLA Year One a few years later, but in the Flash and GL: Brave and the Bold mini Waid played Hal as more of a serial monogamist type, who had a lot of relationships he kept screwing up despite his best intentions.

I've read a lot of older GL stuff in the years since, but I originally got into the character from the time-travel story with young Hal from Kyle's era (#100-106) and Waid's stuff. I always assumed Hal being a womanizer had always been there, but I guess I don't really remember it explicitly in the older stuff.

[NathanS]

There had been, hints of Hal as a ladies man. He hung out with a lot of ladies as GL in second Showcase issue he appeared in, but it was quick, just a page and one could read it as him trying to get Carol jealous. And in GL v2 #36 he tries to woo a woman, Onu Murtu, going as Dorine Clay on Earth. I was period where his relationship with Carol is starting to get a bit better, hard to say with the Silver Age stuff lots of 'they go on dates" but then "she only has eyes for GL" going on. The trying to win Clay over is mostly framed as his ego really. He and her are staying with a couple who are friends of Hal and the wife keeps trying to get Clay and Hal together. Hal only starts going out when he notices Clay seeming to not even notice the attempts to get them together. But that's like one issue out of 50 where he's only focused on winning Carol over. After that he's mostly treated as a serial monogamist as you say. And Barr retcons in that the time he tried to woo Murtu on Earth was a period when he and Carol were broken up. But Jones added a ladies-man element. Still on the serial monogamist side with one clear focus at a time, but well:


He also played Hal, as not the most enlighten on woman. Not awful but lots of classic stuff you would see in the 90s. Hard to say a lot of heroes at the time were hugely better, but it does stick out.

[Mutatis_Mutandis]

Yeah I'll talk about the fan perception of his run later, but especially that early stuff was for me gold. One of the first writers to really dig back to that wondering period and the beatnik vibe Morrison would also tap into. And well his stuff can be sort of love it or hate it, I've found in the past if people bump hard off Geoff's Hal "The Road Back" can really capture them on the charterer. (Though amusingly I do think there is a lot of cross over between some notes on their Hals... but again talk a bit about that later.) I don't always agree with everything with Jones, but there was some real thought in it, and then what he is comes out and blaaaaaaaaaaah.

That's my favourite take on Hal too, and yeah shame about Jones himself (blergh). I enjoy "The Road Back" but the difference between Morrison and Jones' takes on the later Broome stories is that Morrison doesn't portray Hal as a "loser" because of his nomadic beatnik ways but turns it into one of the character's strengths. Jones' Hal does wax poetic about "the road" but ultimately, it feels like Jones wanted him to "grow up" from that, as do many other writers it seems. That seems like the wrong-headed approach to me because if you put the nomadism and the beatnik vibes in the context of the time period (that is to say, the late 60s), such movements of "withdrawal" were very common and were about leaving behind the alienation of daily life (a theme, if portrayed well, can be very, very relatable and relevant today as well, because certainly, we have more alienation, not less).

If there is one thing people talk about when it comes to Hal in GL volume 3, its the gray temples and the age that went along with that. Again you have fans that liked it, but others that, REALLY dislike it, and saw it as the symptom of everything going wrong with Hal that lead to his downfall. And of course Geoff was clearly in the latter camp and retconed it to hell and back. So how did Hal end up for a bit being the most experienced of the heavy hitters from the Silver Ag? Yes for like four years Hal had been doing the Superhero thing longer than even Batman and Superman, though that bit got retconed away in the wake of Zero Hour. A few theories have been proposed but as far as I know we don’t have a concrete explication. Busiek links it to the reverence for the HTH stuff and wanting to keep it in its time of the seventies. Which adds up to a degree, Hal at the Start of Volume three says he’s been GL for 15 years, which in 1991 puts him getting the ring in 1976. Just enough time for it to believable that he spent a few years doing the GL thing in Coast City, leave it and then run into GA before the 70s are out. As also noted it seems the head editor of DC at the time was willing to experiment with older characters, having already done so with GA, so keeping Hal and Ollie in spitting distance of each other age wise makes sense.

[...]

You can see how his Hal and with it the modern idea of Hal starts to emerge form this maelstrom. On hand Hal is boring for being too much of a by-the-book type? Let’s take that questioning side and the image of the pilot as highly independent who doesn't play by the rules but damn they get results type and use it to treat him as more of the forever rebel. But not too much of one. He is still the firm solider. And then put that ladies-man thing to the forefront to really end idea of him as old fashioned. Being old is bad, so let’s just swipe that under the rug. Mix liberally with the GL being not just the idea of police but set up like them… and very militarized, oh boy, so that “rouge cop” that steps out of line only because its the only way to uphold the system of authority that is right thing. Then take that reminder of Hal’s time dealing with job issues and throw it all in the blender and hit frappe.

Another great post and a lot to touch on here (which I can't immediately since I'm stuck at work, haha). But just wanted to say that I think some of the conundrums and problems you listed were very real, but it seems like Johns and others took a pretty bad approach to resolving these issues (hey, the "Corps" sounds too police-like, let's militarize it even more!). I think a better approach might be possible that can incorporate both aspects of Hal's rebelliousness toward the Guardians (without letting that rebelliousness be about the Guardians failing to actually uphold the status quo) and not portraying the Corps in a militarized/police-like manner. I'm actually inclined to agree with much of what Busiek said regarding the view of the Corps and the Guardians, but I don't think everything from the O'Neil portrayal needs to end up in the dustbin. He didn't really "get" either Hal or the Corps but there are aspects to his Hal that I do like, like his love of nature (which is not often explicit but is implied a lot of times).

[Refrax5]

There had been, hints of Hal as a ladies man. He hung out with a lot of ladies as GL in second Showcase issue he appeared in, but it was quick, just a page and one could read it as him trying to get Carol jealous. And in GL v2 #36 he tries to woo a woman, Onu Murtu, going as Dorine Clay on Earth. I was period where his relationship with Carol is starting to get a bit better, hard to say with the Silver Age stuff lots of 'they go on dates" but then "she only has eyes for GL" going on. The trying to win Clay over is mostly framed as his ego really. He and her are staying with a couple who are friends of Hal and the wife keeps trying to get Clay and Hal together. Hal only starts going out when he notices Clay seeming to not even notice the attempts to get them together. But that's like one issue out of 50 where he's only focused on winning Carol over. After that he's mostly treated as a serial monogamist as you say. And Barr retcons in that the time he tried to woo Murtu on Earth was a period when he and Carol were broken up. But Jones added a ladies-man element. Still on the serial monogamist side with one clear focus at a time, but well:


He also played Hal, as not the most enlighten on woman. Not awful but lots of classic stuff you would see in the 90s. Hard to say a lot of heroes at the time were hugely better, but it does stick out.

Interesting. I did read the Jones run some years ago and I remember a bit of that, but the rest of that background I didn't know. Thanks! Ivr been reading this character for decades and there's still stuff to learn.

[j9ac9k]

It's interesting how many times Hal had been written to contrast whomever he was paired with. Ollie's a flaming liberal now? Then Hal's a conservative establishment guy. Barry's a mild-mannered traditional guy? Hal's a free-wheeling rascal. The Guardians are emotionless authoritarians? Hal's a passionate rebel. Batman's the "man with the plan?" Hal's the guy who "flies by the seat of his pants."* Guy's a young loose-canon? Hal's the steadfast, finger-waving elder stateman, etc. So all these have become some aspect of Hal, and which side expresses itself seemingly depends on the writer and the dynamic they want him to have with those he interacts with.

*I typed that saying without looking at it and upon examination, it's a weird phrase. So I looked it up: To 'fly by the seat of your pants' is to decide a course of action as you go along, using your own initiative and perceptions rather than a predetermined plan or mechanical aids. 'Fly by the seat of your pants' is parlance from the early days of aviation. Aircraft initially had few navigation aids and flying was accomplished by means of the pilot's judgment. The term emerged in the 1930s and was first widely used in reports of Douglas Corrigan's flight from the USA to Ireland in 1938. (-- https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/...our-pants.html)

[Frontier]

It's interesting how many times Hal had been written to contrast whomever he was paired with. Ollie's a flaming liberal now? Then Hal's a conservative establishment guy. Barry's a mild-mannered traditional guy? Hal's a free-wheeling rascal. The Guardians are emotionless authoritarians? Hal's a passionate rebel. Batman's the "man with the plan?" Hal's the guy who "flies by the seat of his pants."* Guy's a young loose-canon? Hal's the steadfast, finger-waving elder stateman, etc. So all these have become some aspect of Hal, and which side expresses itself seemingly depends on the writer and the dynamic they want him to have with those he interacts with.

*I typed that saying without looking at it and upon examination, it's a weird phrase. So I looked it up: To 'fly by the seat of your pants' is to decide a course of action as you go along, using your own initiative and perceptions rather than a predetermined plan or mechanical aids. 'Fly by the seat of your pants' is parlance from the early days of aviation. Aircraft initially had few navigation aids and flying was accomplished by means of the pilot's judgment. The term emerged in the 1930s and was first widely used in reports of Douglas Corrigan's flight from the USA to Ireland in 1938. (-- https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/...our-pants.html)

With Kyle he's also the fun older brother and Jessica he's the steadfast and serious mentor figure.

[Johnny]

[Frontier]

Kyle would approve of that last one!

[Mutatis_Mutandis]

With Kyle he's also the fun older brother and Jessica he's the steadfast and serious mentor figure.

Sort of a recurring theme with the character, he is different things to different people. For some of his friends, he's loyal and ride or die. Some find him cool, for others, he's reckless. For Beelzebeth, he was "the most dangerous man in the universe." I actually like it because we do play different roles for different people in real life, instead of being the exact same thing for everyone.

[j9ac9k]

Knight Terrors #2 had some great art, and very cool images on Hal. I liked the rationale of why the nightmares didn't work on Hal and his description of his worst moments, complete with the obligatory pilot metaphor, but for me Adams keeps depicting Hal as too glib for my taste. It's one thing when taking down the Demolition Team, but here it just crosses over into being too cocky, but ymmv. (and yes, I know Adams is going somewhere with it and that Hal is repressing what happened on Korugar, so... maybe that payoff will negate all this by placing it in its proper context, but it didn't change my reading experience of this issue)

And even though it's a cool sequence, I generally have an issue with Green Lanterns using the ring to create hand-held weapons. It's either the most powerful weapon in the universe or it only makes hard-light constructs of weapons and transports. I get that it's more fun, but it still detracts from how powerful they're supposed to be.

[Frontier]

I feel like this and the second issue read best together because the first issue set up all of the stuff Hal should ostensibly be afraid of or hung up only to pivot in the second issue to him steamrolling through them in the most Hal Jordan way possible.

What exactly happened on Korugar? Am I missing something?

I'm not really sure what the Sinestro back-up was about. I think they tease he might have another kid (which we know is happening) but it's mostly him stewing on Earth as a pathetic shell of himself, his various persona's clawing at his heart, only to end on him doubling down on being, well, himself.

[j9ac9k]

What exactly happened on Korugar? Am I missing something?

I'm not really sure what the Sinestro back-up was about. I think they tease he might have another kid (which we know is happening) but it's mostly him stewing on Earth as a pathetic shell of himself, his various persona's clawing at his heart, only to end on him doubling down on being, well, himself.

The initial promotion for this series said that Hal experienced a huge set-back or loss. Nothing in the series has really touched on this yet, but there's the speculation that Kilowog's dead and Hal's just been imagining him. So based on this issue, that bad thing seems to have happened on Korugar, whether it's Kil's death remains to be seen.

And in terms of the Sinestro backup, I wonder if the intent is to walk back on Johns's more sympathetic handling of the character - to say, "Nope - Sinestro's no anti-villain or a sympathetic bad guy. He's going back to being straight-up evil."

[clonegeek]

I feel like this and the second issue read best together because the first issue set up all of the stuff Hal should ostensibly be afraid of or hung up only to pivot in the second issue to him steamrolling through them in the most Hal Jordan way possible.

What exactly happened on Korugar? Am I missing something?

I'm not really sure what the Sinestro back-up was about. I think they tease he might have another kid (which we know is happening) but it's mostly him stewing on Earth as a pathetic shell of himself, his various persona's clawing at his heart, only to end on him doubling down on being, well, himself.

Didnt Korugar blow up?