Hal Jordan Appreciation

[HAN9000]

I like how Dan Jurgens handled Hal in GL #52. Not many scenarios but I haven’t seen that kind of solid writing of Hal in the main Universe for a long time.
I have a feeling that I’m gonna miss him after GLs ends.

[Anthony Shaw]

I don't think Carol Ferris has ever been interested in being Star Sapphire. It's always seemed like a huge derailing to what she really wants to do--fly planes and build a business to push the boundaries of flight. Granted, I haven't read many of her New 52 appearances, so many she's changed her tune.

Keep in mind that Carol didn't become Star Sapphire like Hal became GL. It was forced upon her against her will by the Zarmarons again and again. It was an assault upon her mind and body that led to the murders of several people, including Katma Tui, the wife of her former employee and friend John Stewart. Being Star Sapphire has never been a fun time for Carol. I can totally understand why she would be perfectly fine with leaving that life behind.

Between that, and the sexual tension with another former employee...Carol is a human resources nightmare!

Agreed.

Honestly, It's one of the reasons I don't LIKE Carol as 'hero'. I love her as the girlfriend... I love her as an antagonist/boss/authority figure... I love her as an occasional villain... but I HATE her as a co-star/partner/sidekick. She has always worked best as a plot device. In any book that has to deal with 4-6 Green Lanterns... the LAST thing they need is MORE heroes fighting for the spotlight.

Carol and Hal were never Ollie and Dinah... the 'partner' mentality was never really there. Hal NEEDS supporting cast... And he NEEDS a connection with humanity and earth... but the job of a Supporting cast is to support the main character. Having Carol retire from heroics to focus on her own goals is both a great idea for a Hal centric book... AND completely in-character for Carol.

I agree with both of you. It was nice she got the chance to see what Hal's life as a superhero is like. It would have been better if she had to make key sacrifices like Hal has done during her adventures.

I think it is best she stopped being a SS. I would think that power has done more harm than good.

IMO, Hal's true partner in the field might be Ollie.

Looking at Carol, Yrra, & John...man to hell with the SS crew. It's only a matter of time before a writer comes up with a story where somebody justifiably goes to war with them.

[AngryComicBookNerd]

Just random opinions...

The old school daddy's little brat role and later the ice princess roles got old and were ridiculously sexist. That's saying a lot coming from me because I never notice that stuff, even throughout the 90s I just thought women liked to be saved by superheroes... go figure? Anyway, Johns, give him credit he made her an actual human with actual human motivations in Secret Origins.

She should be a star sapphire, but it should not come easy. She should struggle with the decision. At first when she was going out as a hero sapphire, she only did it because she percieved it as a last resort. The only way to do X was to wear the ring. Then somewhere along the lines, she just... did it. I prefer my heroes to have a purpose.

Coming to terms with the bad things Star Sapphire did. This was just brushed off by saying she wasn't in the driver's seat. Maybe she and Hal should share some stories over a cup of coffee with her's about evil SS and Hal's about Parallax.

She doesn't have to be Hal's partner/sidekick. She could do it on her own.

She is flawed in such a beautiful way that you don't see in many female characters. She gets jealous, irrational, selfish, she can be uncaring at times, needy, manupulative, has a bit of a temper. And yet we've also seen her be caring and charge head first into danger to save Hal. Usually you get the Jessica Jones scenario, or more relevantly, the Jessica Cruz one, where the character has some mental struggle she has to overcome but those struggles are the result of some other outside force (usually a masculine one). With Carol, she was born this way. She's got no excuses. Now there's a redemption story I'd like to read because I myself am somewhat of a scumbag through no one's fault but my own.

So many missed opportunities.

[Frontier]

He has a few lines, but nothing memorable. It's nice to hear Nathan Fillion as Hal again tho.

He's also going to be in Reign of the Supermen.



Fillion pops up around the 5:44 mark.

[Johnny]

They are probably going to blow up Coast City...

[Anthony Shaw]

Just random opinions...

The old school daddy's little brat role and later the ice princess roles got old and were ridiculously sexist. That's saying a lot coming from me because I never notice that stuff, even throughout the 90s I just thought women liked to be saved by superheroes... go figure? Anyway, Johns, give him credit he made her an actual human with actual human motivations in Secret Origins.

She should be a star sapphire, but it should not come easy. She should struggle with the decision. At first when she was going out as a hero sapphire, she only did it because she percieved it as a last resort. The only way to do X was to wear the ring. Then somewhere along the lines, she just... did it. I prefer my heroes to have a purpose.

Coming to terms with the bad things Star Sapphire did. This was just brushed off by saying she wasn't in the driver's seat. Maybe she and Hal should share some stories over a cup of coffee with her's about evil SS and Hal's about Parallax.

She doesn't have to be Hal's partner/sidekick. She could do it on her own.

She is flawed in such a beautiful way that you don't see in many female characters. She gets jealous, irrational, selfish, she can be uncaring at times, needy, manupulative, has a bit of a temper. And yet we've also seen her be caring and charge head first into danger to save Hal. Usually you get the Jessica Jones scenario, or more relevantly, the Jessica Cruz one, where the character has some mental struggle she has to overcome but those struggles are the result of some other outside force (usually a masculine one). With Carol, she was born this way. She's got no excuses. Now there's a redemption story I'd like to read because I myself am somewhat of a scumbag through no one's fault but my own.

So many missed opportunities.

As it was mentioned, a lot of stuff about Carol was just swept under the rug during Johns' run.

I was thinking she could be more like Mary Jane Watson, than Jessica Jones.

Carol should be Hal's closet confidant not named Oliver or Barry.

Plus, Carol is Hal's anchor to Earth. He should be her confidant, and support her endeavors & stand by her.

[liwanag]

They are probably going to blow up Coast City...

coast city blowing up... is a precursor for emerald twilight. which i'm not too interested to see in the dc animated universe.

[liwanag]

what.. double post again?

[AngryComicBookNerd]

As it was mentioned, a lot of stuff about Carol was just swept under the rug during Johns' run.

I was thinking she could be more like Mary Jane Watson, than Jessica Jones.

Carol should be Hal's closet confidant not named Oliver or Barry.

Plus, Carol is Hal's anchor to Earth. He should be her confidant, and support her endeavors & stand by her.

I would argue that some of those things swept under the rug were for the better. But some things like the Katma death should've been explored further.

I'm glad she's not Jessica Jones, though I guess you could go with that template since the Sapphires were once controlling her. I may be reaching here, but at its core I see her as a flawed person with a chance at redemption. That's sort of how I've always seen Hal too. Depending on what version of Hal's backstory we have, before he got the ring, his life was kind of a mess due to his own personality traits. He learned to be a better person with the ring.

It seems like there's 2 types of female superhero characters. The saints, and the ones who would be saints if they weren't victimized by someone else. But you know, I'm sure there's dozens of examples to contradict me. Just saying that not every female character has to be a saint, and they don't all have to be villains either. Most people live in between.

At this point, Hal's brother is more of an anchor to Earth than Carol is.

[Johnny]

coast city blowing up... is a precursor for emerald twilight. which i'm not too interested to see in the dc animated universe.

Unfortunately it's a big part of GL history, so I can imagine it's probably not something they are willing to ignore, given they are doing an adaptation of Reign of the Supermen. Why would they even have Hal in the movie if they didn't plan to destroy Coast City. Plus, it would give them the convenient opportunity to replace Hal with a rookie GL like the comics did. Maybe in this universe it would be Jessica instead of Kyle.

[j9ac9k]

I didn't see the movie, but it seems this is more "inspired by" the comic book story rather than an outright adaptation, following the same plotpoints. They might have the whole Four Supermen and Kal's resurrection resolve itself in a totally different way that doesn't even involve Coast City and Mongul. All they really need is for Cyborg Superman to be evil.

[vartox]

Just random opinions...

The old school daddy's little brat role and later the ice princess roles got old and were ridiculously sexist. That's saying a lot coming from me because I never notice that stuff, even throughout the 90s I just thought women liked to be saved by superheroes... go figure? Anyway, Johns, give him credit he made her an actual human with actual human motivations in Secret Origins.

She should be a star sapphire, but it should not come easy. She should struggle with the decision. At first when she was going out as a hero sapphire, she only did it because she percieved it as a last resort. The only way to do X was to wear the ring. Then somewhere along the lines, she just... did it. I prefer my heroes to have a purpose.

Coming to terms with the bad things Star Sapphire did. This was just brushed off by saying she wasn't in the driver's seat. Maybe she and Hal should share some stories over a cup of coffee with her's about evil SS and Hal's about Parallax.

She doesn't have to be Hal's partner/sidekick. She could do it on her own.

She is flawed in such a beautiful way that you don't see in many female characters. She gets jealous, irrational, selfish, she can be uncaring at times, needy, manupulative, has a bit of a temper. And yet we've also seen her be caring and charge head first into danger to save Hal. Usually you get the Jessica Jones scenario, or more relevantly, the Jessica Cruz one, where the character has some mental struggle she has to overcome but those struggles are the result of some other outside force (usually a masculine one). With Carol, she was born this way. She's got no excuses. Now there's a redemption story I'd like to read because I myself am somewhat of a scumbag through no one's fault but my own.

So many missed opportunities.

I agree with a lot of this! I would really like to see a writer take all these negative traits and inconsistencies and poor writing Carol has endured and reconcile them into a complete picture of her character, flaws and all. A female character who has negative traits like selfishness, fickleness, jealously, etc is often played off as either not actually having flaws at all and these are just acceptable traits that everyone around her has to deal with or they're played off as more quirky and fun, or if they're an antagonist then they're just supposed to be a bitch with no redeeming qualities. They don't often get to be fully fleshed out characters and I think Carol getting a run with solid writing and a good amount of attention could be a great opportunity to have a female character with a lot of depth and traits that aren't often explored on women.

I liked Wolfman's Carol for that reason, she admits she's selfish and somewhat indecisive but she's still a strong, loving, likeable person.

I am really excited for Morrison's GL in general but I am a little wary of either how he's going to handle Carol, or the lack of her if he doesn't

[Frontier]

They are probably going to blow up Coast City...

Unfortunately it's a big part of GL history, so I can imagine it's probably not something they are willing to ignore, given they are doing an adaptation of Reign of the Supermen. Why would they even have Hal in the movie if they didn't plan to destroy Coast City. Plus, it would give them the convenient opportunity to replace Hal with a rookie GL like the comics did. Maybe in this universe it would be Jessica instead of Kyle.

I didn't see the movie, but it seems this is more "inspired by" the comic book story rather than an outright adaptation, following the same plotpoints. They might have the whole Four Supermen and Kal's resurrection resolve itself in a totally different way that doesn't even involve Coast City and Mongul. All they really need is for Cyborg Superman to be evil.

I don't think they're guaranteed to follow the story to the letter, but I do find it conspicuous that, in a Reign of the Supermen adaption, Hal is the only member of the League they confirm to be returning from the last movie.

[Johnny]

Judging by Hal's dialogue in the video("Come on, how long were WE gone?!"), I doubt he would be the only JL member returning, but to only show him of all the Leaguers in the featurette does raise questions.

[liwanag]

I don't think they're guaranteed to follow the story to the letter, but I do find it conspicuous that, in a Reign of the Supermen adaption, Hal is the only member of the League they confirm to be returning from the last movie.

really? haven't seen the list of voice actors yet myself, but i would have at least thought bruce and diana would have parts in the sequel.