Workshop: Writing Hal Jordan by Merfilly
Once again, I thank jen_in_japan for giving me a chance to share the love I hold for a DC Character. Though we have seen many Green Lanterns, my appreciation of them began with a man named Hal Jordan, gifted with enormous power and responsibility by a dying alien…
Introducing:
In the late fifties, to revive the comic book industry, Julius Schwartz had new writers and artists come into the fold, creating characters that were new to the readers, though based on older, popular icons. Bill Finger and Mart Nodell's Green Lantern was given to John Broome and Gil Kane to be redesigned as ace test pilot, Hal Jordan.
His debut came in the September/October 1959 edition of Showcase, issue 22, and presented a startling contrast from his predecessor. Whereas the Flash reboot of 1956 had given readers a character with at least a similar look and feel, Green Lantern was taken in different directions entirely. Alan Scott, the Lantern of the 40s, was a bright, flashy hero with a mystic origin. Hal received a snug, no-frills costume in subdued colors and a solid science fiction origin.
Origin:
Like most of the heroes created in the Silver Age, there have been multiple versions of the Origin story for Hal Jordan. What follows draws against all these tales, to present what appears to be the current origin.
Abin Sur, a dying alien of the planet Ungara, rightfully appointed Green Lantern of Sector 2814, crash-landed his ship on Earth. He willed his ring to find a successor, which it did after ruling out one non-Earth native named Kal-El, finding two likely candidates in the form of Hal Jordan and Guy Gardner. As Hal was closer, he was chosen, brought to the ship, and given the ring and his charge to serve the Guardians of the Universe.
Hal Jordan was an amazing test pilot, prone to trying the most dangerous new planes out. He had no fear and amazing will power, often refusing to bail out long after a sane pilot might have. His friend and mechanic Tom Kalmaku, an Inuit, would often chastise him about this tendency. The ring appreciated these traits, as well as the inherent need 'to do good' that Hal possessed.
Hal Jordan, Green Lantern:
Point-blank, Hal Jordan has been through hell and back. From meeting a dying alien to meeting the makers of the ring (who tragically thought themselves his masters at times), Hal's high-flying life took a turn toward the strange and unusual in the science fiction manner. He met with an open mind many aliens, refused to wear his ring when he flew because that took away the danger of it, and forged through life with a will stronger than any ever seen in the Corps.
He made enemies that ranged from Sinestro, an ex-Corps member who wielded a yellow ring, to Hector Hammond, arguably the most powerful mentalist in the DCU. Many of Hal's enemies, in fact, were mental-based characters, due to the fact his willpower controlled the ring, a very powerful tool that was only limited by Hal's inventiveness. By attacking Hal's mind, or his will, he could be weakened, if only for a time. Otherwise, the old weakness of the ring to yellow was a stand-by mechanism for conflict.
By both pre- and post- Crisis on Infinite Earths' canon, Hal Jordan helped found the League. In JLA: Year One (now to be considered an Elseworld, I suppose) Hal viewed himself as the leader, because he was the one who pop off first with suggestions or deal with the public. In the book, he came to accept Barry Allen (Flash II) as the proper leader over him. This was well placed, as the classic comic had always maintained a friendship between Hal and Barry that rivaled his friendship with Ollie. Later, once Barry had died so heroically, Hal transferred a good part of that bond to Wally West, giving the suddenly mature boy a shoulder at the times he most needed it.
His longtime love interest, Carol Ferris, was transformed into the rather murderous Star Sapphire. Their battles tended to be laced with heavy regret on Hal's part, and innuendo on hers. Another love interest was created for him, Arisia, a fellow Lantern. That's a pairing that squicks me, to be perfectly honest, because she was introduced as a child (12 or so, if I recall) with a crush on Hal. She used the ring subconsciously to age herself to a point that was acceptable for Hal to date her, though he was slow to accept her as an adult. (I learned they retconned this, to make it that she was an adult, but originally… no.)
His friendship with Green Arrow, and by extension Black Canary, was well detailed in their joint book, the Justice League of America, and Green Lantern's own solo title. The story of Hard-Traveling Heroes is one where both men, with a disguised Ganthet of the Oan Guardians, go off to discover America, to see if justice truly existed at all strata of society. It was a groundbreaking storyline, one that would set up the much more tragic and harder-hitting storyline of Roy Harper's addiction to heroin.
According to Identity Crisis, Hal was the critical vote over what to do to Doctor Light. That he argued against the mind wipe, with Black Canary and Green Arrow, is in line with his ideas of proper justice. Responsibility for your own actions is a tenet that rang throughout their interactions in the Green Lantern title.
Hal has been prompted, from time to time, to give up his ring. Generally this came from the Guardians telling him 'no', or feeling he had gone too far, or Hal just being torqued at what was happening around him. This would set a pattern that later would lead to the greatest tragedy in Hal's life, that of his own corruption and fall from grace.
Enter Doomsday. Superman dies, the Reign of the Supermen begins. In the grand scheme of things, Coast City, Hal's beloved home, the place of so many of those he knew, loved, and needed, was destroyed. In his grief, he tapped every essence of power he had, bringing it back for just a few brief moments. When it drained away, he demanded that the Guardians let him have the power to make the resurrection permanent.
They said 'no'.
Thus began the fall of Hal Jordan, transforming him from the Green Lantern so invested in justice to a power-mad demigod. He started with a quest to gain enough power to right the injustice of Coast City's destruction. As the Corps was mobilized to stop him, he grew ruthless, hurting…killing…stranding in space…the men, women, and other beings who had been his peers and allies, including his best friend among the Corps, Killowog. It all came to a crashing halt, as far as the universe knew, with the destruction of Oa, after Hal killed Sinestro and absorbed the Central Battery.
So now we have a man with all the energy of the Battery that fueled a Corps of 7200 beings, a mad-on for hard justice, and the blood of people who trusted him on his hands. What else could the powers that were do to him?
Oh, that is a question that would haunt Green Lantern and Green Arrow fans for years. Hal, having found all the cosmic power he could use, and calling himself Parallax, decided it was not enough to merely remake Coast City. No, it was necessary to right every wrong he had ever perceived, by remaking the universe that had been forged with Barry's heroic death into something of his own design. Waverider gathered heroes to stop this, and a battle was waged at the beginning of time. One of those heroes was Green Arrow, already a darker and grimmer character in a spiral of self-destruction following the end of his relationship with the Canary, and one firmly against everything Hal now was.
One arrow fired more perfectly than any other, and it seemed that Hal Jordan was dead, killed by the man who arguably loved him most.
We get to leave the saga of power-mad Hal, right? Ollie killed him…except not really. We got a brief Hal story that was Hal still as a Green Lantern, working with Kyle from a point in Hal's history where he was still innocent. *sigh* What this did, though, was let Kyle meet the man whose shoes he now had to fill, not the egomaniacal creature they had encountered in Zero Hour. So, when the Earth is facing its darkest hour, headed for outright doom…Kyle flies off into space and argues with the near-omnipotent Parallax.
We don't get an immediate answer, and Kyle flies home, but Hal…is Hal. Before he goes to save the Solar System from the Sun Eater…sentiment reigned. He tried for peace with Guy Gardner, with the League, and he resurrected one man, Oliver Queen. This storyline showed that Hal still felt his way, the idea of harsh justice and imposed order, was the way to go, but he was willing to give everything he had to save everyone he had ever loved, one last time. The last we see of Hal in this, he's channeled everything he was by way of his oath, one final time, buying him redemption at last in the eyes of his longtime fans. It had been a very long road, considering his history was one of the few left intact by Crisis on Infinite Earths, avoiding the massive reboot so many got.
The Oath:
In brightest day, in blackest night
no evil shall escape my sight
let those who worship evil's might
beware my power-Green Lantern's light!
Hal Jordan: Spectre
For a character that had begun in hard sci-fi roots, making him the Spectre was an interesting transition. The Spectre, a Spirit of Vengeance, seemed well suited to the Hal who became Parallax…but Hal wanted redemption, and he reasoned that so did the victims of the Spectre's wrath. Exploring theses issues in a series written by J. M. DeMatteis (of JLI/JLE fame), we saw Hal's well-meaning efforts cause havoc and help both in the mortal world, such as convincing Oliver Queen's soul to rejoin its body and making the world, including Wally himself, forget the Flash's identity. Eventually, this need to find redemption led to a conflict in the Spectre, just as the DC editors decided it was finally time to resurrect Hal Jordan, Green Lantern.
Rebirth
So how did the big wigs at DC pull it off? Without fans screaming at the poor handling? (Some did; some always do. I did.)
Turns out that 'Parallax' was an entity in its own right. It had 'infected' Hal at about the time his hair started graying at the temples. It lived on and bred fear, all as a means to ultimate power. The Guardians had imprisoned this creation in the Battery, and it fully possessed Hal after the battle with Sinestro (who was supposedly merely a construct by Parallax to trick Hal into freeing him). The vulnerability to yellow was a manifestation of this corruption at the source, because fear and the color yellow are the same. Fear was the leading cause of doubt, which could also affect the way Lanterns wielded their power.
By separating out that Parallax was its own entity, Hal was left relatively blameless in the matters that had caused him to be reviled. Ganthet had been guarding his body, and as the Spectre and Parallax warred, Hal was convinced that his body looked darn comfy again. By this point, Sinestro was involved again, and in classic Green Lantern style, Hal's return to life began with him ordering the Korugarian away from his friends, and backing it up with a helluva fight.
I'm not going to lie. I both hate and love Rebirth for very complex reasons. The love is obvious. I got my Hal back, the one who loved Ollie, who argued with Guy, who knew just where he stood in the battle of good and evil.
I hated the copout of possession for all his despicable actions. Worse, I had a very hard time reconciling Rebirth to Final Night. Final Night had given me great closure on a very deeply psychologically scarred Hal Jordan. Now, everything that took him to that point was a lie, of sorts. But, in the end, it set us up for a Hal in the JLA again.
OYL
I'll keep this brief. OYL opened with Hal still being gung-ho militant about catching the wrongdoers. And getting in trouble for it. A little treaty designed to keep the meta heroes out of certain countries really didn't seem like a barricade to someone who has been a Universal Cop for most of his life.
And then we have the JLA. While the Trinity was plotting and planning and voting on whom they wanted 'in', Hal rounded up Dinah Lance and Roy Harper to start the actual forming of a League. They weren't calling it that at first, but even Roy could see that was what Hal wanted, offering up Donna Troy and Dick Grayson as potential help.
As JLA continues past the Meltzer era, Hal is a firm, core member of the League, for now. How the Sinestro War (currently afflicting the Green Lantern Corps) will affect him in the long run remains to be seen.
Thoughts
So some of you are asking who else does he interact with heavily? Obviously, anyone on the League is fair game, but there are three people I did not mention above that I should now.
Batman. Half of several "Brave and the Bold" pairings, not the least of which is the one with Hal Jordan as Lantern. This was seen beautifully in the opening of the new BatB title. With all the years, they've had a friendship, an uneasy peerage, and out right antagonism. Apparently the editors have allowed them to become friends once more, to my relief.
Guy Gardner. If Guy and Hal are in the same space, at least one punch will get thrown. I'm not current on the Guy in the Green Lantern Corps book, but Guy was Hal's replacement, and an alternate to him in the beginning. (granted, that is a partial retcon…but Guy was created in the 60s, so it is an OLD retcon.) They tend to mix like oil and vinegar, and irritate each other. Still, in the end, they're both Corps, and will have each other's backs in the end.
John Stewart. This one is a bit touchier off some pieces of canon. John has a lot of problems in his history, and at least one of them he blames fully on Hal, with partial reason. When Katma Tui, his wife, was murdered by Star Sapphire, it was merely to prove a point to Hal, a fact that was driven brutally home to John before Satr Sapphire left apparently. (As a side note to all the women-in-refrigerator followers, the writer, Christopher Priest, later admitted it was a horrible mistake on his part.)
I didn't want to write a how-to ship essay. I wanted to share the history of the character with you, let you each see and decide how he fits in the stories now. If you have questions I failed to touch on…please ASK! This essay ran away from me, but I know I'm forgetting something. Thank you again for letting me fangirl.
Impact on Comics:
I know this is supposed to be all about Hal, but I can't get across just why Hal is a defining character in the DCU without showing how his first title affected the industry as a whole. It enveloped several characteristics that would later underscore the "Marvel Revolution" when Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, among others, would give DC its serious competition.
Tom, despite the racial slur of "Pieface" as his nickname, was far from the stereotypes of ethnic characters at the time he was introduced. Though the Blackhawks (published at a similar time) had Chop-Chop, a very stereotyped, derogatory depiction of an Asian character, Tom was shown to be a strong supporting cast member, willing to argue with Hal at times, and hold his own ground in intelligent, strong ways.
Likewise, Carol Ferris was a far cry from the stereotype of the 'dame' in the books. Yes, Lois Lane was already out there, as the dazzling lady reporter, but she was, by and large, a damsel in distress for many plotlines in Superman's titles, as well as consistently depicted as being 'scooped' by Clark Kent. Carol, though, was a tough cookie of a woman. She ran her company, an inheritance from her father, in a very no-nonsense manner. While she would agree with Hal's romantic notions, they had a definite back burner to her company. Just to showcase this in its cultural snapshot, the writers had Carol use an old tradition of women being allowed to initiate a proposal on Leap Day to show just how strong-minded she could be on her own.
Most important of all, though, Green Lantern's title had the impact of redefining how comic book stories were told. The issues became interwoven, with plot points carrying forward. Things that happened in the Justice League of America book were allowed to affect him in his own title. In short, continuity was born in the Green Lantern title.
Stylistically, there were key changes embraced here as well. Rather than sticking to the standard six-panel equally sized boxes, Gil Kane started alternating the sizes of them, as well as developing a far more fluid style in dynamic posing.
The Green Lantern Corps versus the Lensmen
Mysterious, ancient entities. Omni-powerful, super tech devices that work almost like magic, fueled by willpower. Wearers who are of the sternest moral fiber, with a head for justice. A police force spanning the galaxy…
Sound familiar? Sounds a lot like the Guardians, the rings, the Lanterns, and the Corps itself.
It also happens to be the premise of a series by E. E. 'Doc' Smith, collectively called the Lensmen series. As they originated in 1937, it's no surprise some critics assaulted the new Green Lantern as being a riff on the series. Writers, artists, and editors have all denied this link. However, two Green Lanterns were created specifically to acknowledge the similarity…Arisia (the name of the world the Lenses come from) and Eddore (the world of the bad guys).
Introducing:
In the late fifties, to revive the comic book industry, Julius Schwartz had new writers and artists come into the fold, creating characters that were new to the readers, though based on older, popular icons. Bill Finger and Mart Nodell's Green Lantern was given to John Broome and Gil Kane to be redesigned as ace test pilot, Hal Jordan.
His debut came in the September/October 1959 edition of Showcase, issue 22, and presented a startling contrast from his predecessor. Whereas the Flash reboot of 1956 had given readers a character with at least a similar look and feel, Green Lantern was taken in different directions entirely. Alan Scott, the Lantern of the 40s, was a bright, flashy hero with a mystic origin. Hal received a snug, no-frills costume in subdued colors and a solid science fiction origin.
Origin:
Like most of the heroes created in the Silver Age, there have been multiple versions of the Origin story for Hal Jordan. What follows draws against all these tales, to present what appears to be the current origin.
Abin Sur, a dying alien of the planet Ungara, rightfully appointed Green Lantern of Sector 2814, crash-landed his ship on Earth. He willed his ring to find a successor, which it did after ruling out one non-Earth native named Kal-El, finding two likely candidates in the form of Hal Jordan and Guy Gardner. As Hal was closer, he was chosen, brought to the ship, and given the ring and his charge to serve the Guardians of the Universe.
Hal Jordan was an amazing test pilot, prone to trying the most dangerous new planes out. He had no fear and amazing will power, often refusing to bail out long after a sane pilot might have. His friend and mechanic Tom Kalmaku, an Inuit, would often chastise him about this tendency. The ring appreciated these traits, as well as the inherent need 'to do good' that Hal possessed.
Hal Jordan, Green Lantern:
Point-blank, Hal Jordan has been through hell and back. From meeting a dying alien to meeting the makers of the ring (who tragically thought themselves his masters at times), Hal's high-flying life took a turn toward the strange and unusual in the science fiction manner. He met with an open mind many aliens, refused to wear his ring when he flew because that took away the danger of it, and forged through life with a will stronger than any ever seen in the Corps.
He made enemies that ranged from Sinestro, an ex-Corps member who wielded a yellow ring, to Hector Hammond, arguably the most powerful mentalist in the DCU. Many of Hal's enemies, in fact, were mental-based characters, due to the fact his willpower controlled the ring, a very powerful tool that was only limited by Hal's inventiveness. By attacking Hal's mind, or his will, he could be weakened, if only for a time. Otherwise, the old weakness of the ring to yellow was a stand-by mechanism for conflict.
By both pre- and post- Crisis on Infinite Earths' canon, Hal Jordan helped found the League. In JLA: Year One (now to be considered an Elseworld, I suppose) Hal viewed himself as the leader, because he was the one who pop off first with suggestions or deal with the public. In the book, he came to accept Barry Allen (Flash II) as the proper leader over him. This was well placed, as the classic comic had always maintained a friendship between Hal and Barry that rivaled his friendship with Ollie. Later, once Barry had died so heroically, Hal transferred a good part of that bond to Wally West, giving the suddenly mature boy a shoulder at the times he most needed it.
His longtime love interest, Carol Ferris, was transformed into the rather murderous Star Sapphire. Their battles tended to be laced with heavy regret on Hal's part, and innuendo on hers. Another love interest was created for him, Arisia, a fellow Lantern. That's a pairing that squicks me, to be perfectly honest, because she was introduced as a child (12 or so, if I recall) with a crush on Hal. She used the ring subconsciously to age herself to a point that was acceptable for Hal to date her, though he was slow to accept her as an adult. (I learned they retconned this, to make it that she was an adult, but originally… no.)
His friendship with Green Arrow, and by extension Black Canary, was well detailed in their joint book, the Justice League of America, and Green Lantern's own solo title. The story of Hard-Traveling Heroes is one where both men, with a disguised Ganthet of the Oan Guardians, go off to discover America, to see if justice truly existed at all strata of society. It was a groundbreaking storyline, one that would set up the much more tragic and harder-hitting storyline of Roy Harper's addiction to heroin.
According to Identity Crisis, Hal was the critical vote over what to do to Doctor Light. That he argued against the mind wipe, with Black Canary and Green Arrow, is in line with his ideas of proper justice. Responsibility for your own actions is a tenet that rang throughout their interactions in the Green Lantern title.
Hal has been prompted, from time to time, to give up his ring. Generally this came from the Guardians telling him 'no', or feeling he had gone too far, or Hal just being torqued at what was happening around him. This would set a pattern that later would lead to the greatest tragedy in Hal's life, that of his own corruption and fall from grace.
Enter Doomsday. Superman dies, the Reign of the Supermen begins. In the grand scheme of things, Coast City, Hal's beloved home, the place of so many of those he knew, loved, and needed, was destroyed. In his grief, he tapped every essence of power he had, bringing it back for just a few brief moments. When it drained away, he demanded that the Guardians let him have the power to make the resurrection permanent.
They said 'no'.
Thus began the fall of Hal Jordan, transforming him from the Green Lantern so invested in justice to a power-mad demigod. He started with a quest to gain enough power to right the injustice of Coast City's destruction. As the Corps was mobilized to stop him, he grew ruthless, hurting…killing…stranding in space…the men, women, and other beings who had been his peers and allies, including his best friend among the Corps, Killowog. It all came to a crashing halt, as far as the universe knew, with the destruction of Oa, after Hal killed Sinestro and absorbed the Central Battery.
So now we have a man with all the energy of the Battery that fueled a Corps of 7200 beings, a mad-on for hard justice, and the blood of people who trusted him on his hands. What else could the powers that were do to him?
Oh, that is a question that would haunt Green Lantern and Green Arrow fans for years. Hal, having found all the cosmic power he could use, and calling himself Parallax, decided it was not enough to merely remake Coast City. No, it was necessary to right every wrong he had ever perceived, by remaking the universe that had been forged with Barry's heroic death into something of his own design. Waverider gathered heroes to stop this, and a battle was waged at the beginning of time. One of those heroes was Green Arrow, already a darker and grimmer character in a spiral of self-destruction following the end of his relationship with the Canary, and one firmly against everything Hal now was.
One arrow fired more perfectly than any other, and it seemed that Hal Jordan was dead, killed by the man who arguably loved him most.
We get to leave the saga of power-mad Hal, right? Ollie killed him…except not really. We got a brief Hal story that was Hal still as a Green Lantern, working with Kyle from a point in Hal's history where he was still innocent. *sigh* What this did, though, was let Kyle meet the man whose shoes he now had to fill, not the egomaniacal creature they had encountered in Zero Hour. So, when the Earth is facing its darkest hour, headed for outright doom…Kyle flies off into space and argues with the near-omnipotent Parallax.
We don't get an immediate answer, and Kyle flies home, but Hal…is Hal. Before he goes to save the Solar System from the Sun Eater…sentiment reigned. He tried for peace with Guy Gardner, with the League, and he resurrected one man, Oliver Queen. This storyline showed that Hal still felt his way, the idea of harsh justice and imposed order, was the way to go, but he was willing to give everything he had to save everyone he had ever loved, one last time. The last we see of Hal in this, he's channeled everything he was by way of his oath, one final time, buying him redemption at last in the eyes of his longtime fans. It had been a very long road, considering his history was one of the few left intact by Crisis on Infinite Earths, avoiding the massive reboot so many got.
The Oath:
In brightest day, in blackest night
no evil shall escape my sight
let those who worship evil's might
beware my power-Green Lantern's light!
Hal Jordan: Spectre
For a character that had begun in hard sci-fi roots, making him the Spectre was an interesting transition. The Spectre, a Spirit of Vengeance, seemed well suited to the Hal who became Parallax…but Hal wanted redemption, and he reasoned that so did the victims of the Spectre's wrath. Exploring theses issues in a series written by J. M. DeMatteis (of JLI/JLE fame), we saw Hal's well-meaning efforts cause havoc and help both in the mortal world, such as convincing Oliver Queen's soul to rejoin its body and making the world, including Wally himself, forget the Flash's identity. Eventually, this need to find redemption led to a conflict in the Spectre, just as the DC editors decided it was finally time to resurrect Hal Jordan, Green Lantern.
Rebirth
So how did the big wigs at DC pull it off? Without fans screaming at the poor handling? (Some did; some always do. I did.)
Turns out that 'Parallax' was an entity in its own right. It had 'infected' Hal at about the time his hair started graying at the temples. It lived on and bred fear, all as a means to ultimate power. The Guardians had imprisoned this creation in the Battery, and it fully possessed Hal after the battle with Sinestro (who was supposedly merely a construct by Parallax to trick Hal into freeing him). The vulnerability to yellow was a manifestation of this corruption at the source, because fear and the color yellow are the same. Fear was the leading cause of doubt, which could also affect the way Lanterns wielded their power.
By separating out that Parallax was its own entity, Hal was left relatively blameless in the matters that had caused him to be reviled. Ganthet had been guarding his body, and as the Spectre and Parallax warred, Hal was convinced that his body looked darn comfy again. By this point, Sinestro was involved again, and in classic Green Lantern style, Hal's return to life began with him ordering the Korugarian away from his friends, and backing it up with a helluva fight.
I'm not going to lie. I both hate and love Rebirth for very complex reasons. The love is obvious. I got my Hal back, the one who loved Ollie, who argued with Guy, who knew just where he stood in the battle of good and evil.
I hated the copout of possession for all his despicable actions. Worse, I had a very hard time reconciling Rebirth to Final Night. Final Night had given me great closure on a very deeply psychologically scarred Hal Jordan. Now, everything that took him to that point was a lie, of sorts. But, in the end, it set us up for a Hal in the JLA again.
OYL
I'll keep this brief. OYL opened with Hal still being gung-ho militant about catching the wrongdoers. And getting in trouble for it. A little treaty designed to keep the meta heroes out of certain countries really didn't seem like a barricade to someone who has been a Universal Cop for most of his life.
And then we have the JLA. While the Trinity was plotting and planning and voting on whom they wanted 'in', Hal rounded up Dinah Lance and Roy Harper to start the actual forming of a League. They weren't calling it that at first, but even Roy could see that was what Hal wanted, offering up Donna Troy and Dick Grayson as potential help.
As JLA continues past the Meltzer era, Hal is a firm, core member of the League, for now. How the Sinestro War (currently afflicting the Green Lantern Corps) will affect him in the long run remains to be seen.
Thoughts
So some of you are asking who else does he interact with heavily? Obviously, anyone on the League is fair game, but there are three people I did not mention above that I should now.
Batman. Half of several "Brave and the Bold" pairings, not the least of which is the one with Hal Jordan as Lantern. This was seen beautifully in the opening of the new BatB title. With all the years, they've had a friendship, an uneasy peerage, and out right antagonism. Apparently the editors have allowed them to become friends once more, to my relief.
Guy Gardner. If Guy and Hal are in the same space, at least one punch will get thrown. I'm not current on the Guy in the Green Lantern Corps book, but Guy was Hal's replacement, and an alternate to him in the beginning. (granted, that is a partial retcon…but Guy was created in the 60s, so it is an OLD retcon.) They tend to mix like oil and vinegar, and irritate each other. Still, in the end, they're both Corps, and will have each other's backs in the end.
John Stewart. This one is a bit touchier off some pieces of canon. John has a lot of problems in his history, and at least one of them he blames fully on Hal, with partial reason. When Katma Tui, his wife, was murdered by Star Sapphire, it was merely to prove a point to Hal, a fact that was driven brutally home to John before Satr Sapphire left apparently. (As a side note to all the women-in-refrigerator followers, the writer, Christopher Priest, later admitted it was a horrible mistake on his part.)
I didn't want to write a how-to ship essay. I wanted to share the history of the character with you, let you each see and decide how he fits in the stories now. If you have questions I failed to touch on…please ASK! This essay ran away from me, but I know I'm forgetting something. Thank you again for letting me fangirl.
Impact on Comics:
I know this is supposed to be all about Hal, but I can't get across just why Hal is a defining character in the DCU without showing how his first title affected the industry as a whole. It enveloped several characteristics that would later underscore the "Marvel Revolution" when Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, among others, would give DC its serious competition.
Tom, despite the racial slur of "Pieface" as his nickname, was far from the stereotypes of ethnic characters at the time he was introduced. Though the Blackhawks (published at a similar time) had Chop-Chop, a very stereotyped, derogatory depiction of an Asian character, Tom was shown to be a strong supporting cast member, willing to argue with Hal at times, and hold his own ground in intelligent, strong ways.
Likewise, Carol Ferris was a far cry from the stereotype of the 'dame' in the books. Yes, Lois Lane was already out there, as the dazzling lady reporter, but she was, by and large, a damsel in distress for many plotlines in Superman's titles, as well as consistently depicted as being 'scooped' by Clark Kent. Carol, though, was a tough cookie of a woman. She ran her company, an inheritance from her father, in a very no-nonsense manner. While she would agree with Hal's romantic notions, they had a definite back burner to her company. Just to showcase this in its cultural snapshot, the writers had Carol use an old tradition of women being allowed to initiate a proposal on Leap Day to show just how strong-minded she could be on her own.
Most important of all, though, Green Lantern's title had the impact of redefining how comic book stories were told. The issues became interwoven, with plot points carrying forward. Things that happened in the Justice League of America book were allowed to affect him in his own title. In short, continuity was born in the Green Lantern title.
Stylistically, there were key changes embraced here as well. Rather than sticking to the standard six-panel equally sized boxes, Gil Kane started alternating the sizes of them, as well as developing a far more fluid style in dynamic posing.
The Green Lantern Corps versus the Lensmen
Mysterious, ancient entities. Omni-powerful, super tech devices that work almost like magic, fueled by willpower. Wearers who are of the sternest moral fiber, with a head for justice. A police force spanning the galaxy…
Sound familiar? Sounds a lot like the Guardians, the rings, the Lanterns, and the Corps itself.
It also happens to be the premise of a series by E. E. 'Doc' Smith, collectively called the Lensmen series. As they originated in 1937, it's no surprise some critics assaulted the new Green Lantern as being a riff on the series. Writers, artists, and editors have all denied this link. However, two Green Lanterns were created specifically to acknowledge the similarity…Arisia (the name of the world the Lenses come from) and Eddore (the world of the bad guys).