Hal Jordan: The Green Lantern Appreciation 2023

[Frontier]

Love the art .

[j9ac9k]

Love the art .

That narration though... someone about to get woken!

[silly]

Far too late to the party but since the solicits hadn't been posted:

Man, these covers are amazing!

[Bored at 3:00AM]

I'm baffled by the idea that we were ever supposed to view Hal Jordan as being 27 because....no. Hal has NEVER seemed young enough to still be in his 20's.

Given that it was established in the Silver Age that Hal was a veteran of the Korean War, it's possible that he could've been in his late 20s, but, once the sliding timeline kicked in, that became less and less plausible. And when they made him a Vietnam Vet in the 90s, it made it even less likely.

The New 52 Hal, though, was absolutely meant to be young dumb and full of...enthusiasm, which was the corporate mandate for the entire DCU when Didio pressed the reboot button.

Currently, I'm sure Hal is in the nebulous "physical prime" age range that DC is sticking with.

[Refrax5]

Given that it was established in the Silver Age that Hal was a veteran of the Korean War, it's possible that he could've been in his late 20s, but, once the sliding timeline kicked in, that became less and less plausible. And when they made him a Vietnam Vet in the 90s, it made it even less likely.

The New 52 Hal, though, was absolutely meant to be young dumb and full of...enthusiasm, which was the corporate mandate for the entire DCU when Didio pressed the reboot button.

Currently, I'm sure Hal is in the nebulous "physical prime" age range that DC is sticking with.

You're right about that. I remember when he came back in Johns' run, Johns established that Abin Sur crashed 13 years earlier and Hal got his ring at that time, right after being booted from the Air Force. Since Hal joined on his 18th birthday and was said to be in 4-5 years, Johns' Hal would be 35 or 36, although likely a bit younger physically since he was dead. I know Geoffery Thorne referred to Hal as currently being in his mid 40s on one of the forums here, but I'm not sure if that's official or just his personal view.

It does seem like they've been depicting that original era of Leaguers as a bit older these days, with Clark and Bruce having teenage sons. Barry has been referred to as "getting up there" in age and he and Hal were reminiscing about being young in Dark Crisis.

I don't mind it, honestly. Even as a kid, I never cared if my superheroes were youthful. Growing up with the Batman movies and James Bond and stuff, I was pretty accustomed to my heroes being 35-45 years old. It gives them some gravitas and experience.

[Frontier]

I'm fine with the original Big Seven being in their late 30's (minus J'onn and Diana whose ages are kind of skewed).

[Stanlos]

I was wondering about this because in trying to understand the choices around Flashpoint and New 52, I keep coming to the conclusion they wanted the Big 7 to be late teen cliches or something. Id DC fandom only okay with young heroes? Is that why Silver Hal has been so .... demonized?

[Timber Wolf-By-Night]

That narration though... someone about to get woken!

In the 70s! Where everybody knows nobody ever wrote comics about "issues!"/s

[Johnny]

Nice interview with Adams. Looking forward to the third issue.

https://screenrant.com/green-lantern...ams-interview/

[Lairston]

Given that it was established in the Silver Age that Hal was a veteran of the Korean War, it's possible that he could've been in his late 20s, but, once the sliding timeline kicked in, that became less and less plausible. And when they made him a Vietnam Vet in the 90s, it made it even less likely.

The New 52 Hal, though, was absolutely meant to be young dumb and full of...enthusiasm, which was the corporate mandate for the entire DCU when Didio pressed the reboot button.

Currently, I'm sure Hal is in the nebulous "physical prime" age range that DC is sticking with.

He's probably a veteran of Afghanistan now.

[StarSpangledMan]

Nice interview with Adams. Looking forward to the third issue.

https://screenrant.com/green-lantern...ams-interview/

And what was interesting about going into Hal and just trying to find little bits of it — it was fans going like, “Are you going to explore his Jewish heritage,” and I'm like, I didn't know he was Jewish! I literally had no idea. And it was like, “Oh, that's really cool!” And then that suddenly informed part of Knight Terrors. I was like, “Oh, this is kind of interesting, you can have a little taste of it here.” His dad was Catholic, his mom was Jewish and that's a little piece of his identity, it's a little piece of the puzzle. And he was also the Hand of God, like he was the Spectre for a long time. And those are all pieces. Holistically, I'm trying to make a character that's been around. He's hung out with Superman. He has a certain knowledge.At the same time, he's a human being, and there's this woman that he loves that's moved on. And is it fair for him to even pursue [Carol Ferris] in the way that he's pursuing her? I've seen people go like, “Oh, it's so cringy!” I'm like, “Maybe!” But also, she's not married yet! I haven't even determined in my own self — do they end up together? I don't know yet. Maybe I should have a 1-800 number like Jason Todd, like, should they end up together? Or should they not?But it's everything. Because if you don't care about the character you're reading about, then you just don't care. There's no stakes, there's no nothing. And so having him, and then the other key component — and I obviously was attracted to this in the Flash run. It's like, having Linda [Park-West] there as a character was really important. And so I find Carol, like — who's Carol, too? Because that's another integral piece of the story that I need to look at.

So I have two speeds: ‘80s action movies and like, teenybopper romance. There's that moment in the first issue where she looks up, and she's like, “Oh no.” The ex-boyfriend is back. The guy you're almost defenseless against, in a way. But I also liked the idea of twisting the trope a little bit. [Hal and Carol have] been doing the on and off thing for years and years and years and years. And I am definitely leaning into that.But I'm also trying to look at it from a more mature angle. They've been through all this stuff. So when Hal acts a little juvenile, it almost feels disingenuous sometimes, because you're like, “But you're a grown man.” And I think with her, she's actually doing the mature thing. She's like, “I'm moving on, I can't emotionally sit here.” It's like anybody that is married to a soldier or married to a police officer or whatever. The painful part is, is my husband going to come home? You know? So there's this magnetic attraction, but is it healthy?

All I can really say is that in issue one, when, at the end of it, when [Hal] pulled the energy out of the defunct Manhunter, part of the clue is the fact that like, this guy bought Manhunter armor, and it switched on. Why the heck did it switch on? That's part of the clue. And why the heck doesn't he have to charge [the ring] right now? And he can't seem to leave the atmosphere. It really is reminiscent of his Silver Age ring, where he was able to not just make green constructs, he was able to make other color constructs and do certain things. And some of that is just me diving into the history of Green Lantern. But it's all clues to what's coming. I mean, I will tell you, if you’ve read The Flash, you know that I'm like such a nerd-loser for pulling on threads from like, 30 years ago. And there's one coming that is just like, three people are gonna be like, “Oh my God!”

Um, oh my gosh, that's hard. I like the idea that Hal Jordan is an everyman, in a weird way. Yeah, he's a test pilot and stuff, and he's stubborn. But I think that the stubbornness, in my mind, is learned. I think it's a defense mechanism. Seeing his dad die and just living his life the way he's lived it, to pursue after his father in a weird way. But every piece of his brain is geared toward achieving a goal. That's one piece of it. He's the guy that they gave the ring to, because he's the guy that has the ability to do these things.There's this other piece of it, and it’s sort of how I feel about Wally too. It's like he's the sum of his experiences. Right now, he's the guy that has been at the lowest lows, and he's been at the highest highs. He's been the guy who has been possessed and destroyed everything he loved. And yet now he's the guy that became the spirit of vengeance and then gave it all away to come back and save the universe time and time again. So anybody that has that experience has both a humbleness and the foreknowledge to go, “I can save the universe again. I've done it. I've done it multiple times.” It's kind of the Buffy [the Vampire Slayer] angle. It's like, this is a Thursday, you know?And that breeds more confidence. And you give a guy that has confidence more confidence? That's a big problem. I mean, you saw in Knight Terrors. They presented it to me like, “This being preys on the fears of these characters.” And I'm like, “What?” I was like, “But Hal!” And then I was like, “Okay, that'll be what it's about.” A little bait and switch of like, this guy [Insomnia] tried to figure out his fears, and in the second issue Hal is like, “Yeah, you came to the wrong place.” It wasn't that he's not afraid. It's just that he's figured out how to overcome them. That's super powerful. I don't know why it makes him an ideal Green Lantern. He just is the Green Lantern. So you know, he doesn't even need to talk about why he's ideal.

Interesting parts of the interview. Adams describes Hal a bit like how Morrison does which is cool; though his voice for Hal makes him feel like he's too eager to prove himself at times, at least around Carol, which makes sense if she's his weakness in that regard. Adams' comment on the ring and more "bringing back" some of his Silver Age abilities is noteworthy, though Morrison already did that so... bummer about losing Pengowirr, Hal's one true love!

[j9ac9k]

Adams says all the right things, but I kinda wish he weren't playing the long game this much so that we can get to him turning the tropes on their ears as we're right in the middle of the old tropes right now.

[Frontier]

Really looking forward to what Adams has cooking .

[Johnny]

He's probably a veteran of Afghanistan now.

I think one of the Knight Terrors GL covers showed that Hal's father died around 1996 meaning that if Hal was a kid when that happened then in the current continuity he must have been born around the late 80s. As such he would've been too young to serve in Afghanistan as it first started, so if he has served it was probably during the 2010s rather than the 2000s.

[Vordan]

I’m intrigued by all the hints that something is going on in space. Seems like the John book will be tapping into that, but Adams basically admits Hal will be heading out to space too eventually.