@ungoliantschilde / ungoliantschilde.tumblr.com
Hal Jordan appreciation
DC does not need 50 green lanterns for Sector 2814. It has the best 2, and it should stick with them. The absolutely fearless test pilot, and his partner the steady as a rock special forces operative turned architect. Every other green lantern from Earth annoys me.
Beyond his art, Neal Adams is rightfully remembered as an eternal champion of creators’ rights and for the part he & his work played in the Comics Code revision of ‘71 but his contribution to John Stewart’s creation is – I think – a rather underrated aspect of his career, especially as it’s such a great reminder of the kind of person he was. Taken from an interview conducted and transcribed by Allen W. Wright over at the Green Arrow: Bold Archer fansite, here’s Neal discussing John’s beginnings (x).
I mean I love Kyle but there did seem to be a string of women he cared about dying. Like we all know Alex DeWitt, But there was also Donna Troy (very breifly & not in relationship to him), Jade of course, His Mother was a casualty of the Sinestro Corps sentient virus. The only one that seem to escape was Soranik Natu who got brainwashed to being like daddy-dearest (I assume) & taking control of the Sinestro Corps.
Not my idea of good writing. If you have to kill off the women in your character’s life in order to give them motivation or a sense of angst then it’s not a good sign of the writer’s skill nor the potential of the character involved.
My first introduction to the Green Lantern character was Morrison’s JLA. And, from the get-go, Kyle Rahner’s defining character quality was that the other members of the team had to constantly support him emotionally.
He’s the kind of early 90s character that an early 90s artist would dream up. He’s a green lantern that is a comic book artist as a day job. So, it’s like free reign to draw all kinds of crazy manga robots and stuff that an early 90s comic book artist would love to draw in glowing green. But his personality, um, sucks.
The defining quality of all Green Lanterns is being without fear. Confident. Guy Gardner is the cocksure “Stifler” of the corps. John Stewart is the former Marine turned Architect, consummate professional and soldier. Supremely confident in his abilities.
And Hal. Well, Hal is Maverick from Top Gun with a Power Ring. He’s the guy that you hate at first but wind up routing for. He’s a fighter jet test pilot.
And then, there’s Kyle. The guy who can draw but has all kinds of confidence issues. Why the heck did Kyle get a ring.
Yeah the original idea according to Matt Draper when he did a video essay on Emerald Twilight was that after Coast City was destroyed he began dedicating himself more to space, Fake Guardians usurped the Old ones, Hal goes into the battery to get more power to fight the fakes, learns that the Old Guardians killed his father out of some goal to fight Entropy, & Then becomes "The Protector" with this new found power....Yeah sorry Parallax was a better take-away since I feel like that would've permanently killed the GL franchise for a couple years like Hawkman in the 90's.
Excellent points. Emerald Twilight was a rough tale, I barely remember it other than I didn’t like it. The retcon was fine...
the only problem being it inadvertently sidelined John Stewart... who is to many THE Green Lantern. The Justice League cartoon was just hitting its heyday when I was cutting my teeth as a social worker. GL John Stewart was a pretty big deal for a lot of the young African American kids I knew. It bums me out that DC hasn’t given him the proper respect and spotlight he deserves.
I jockey back and forth on who is the better standard bairrer for the Green Lantern Corps: Hal or John. Ultimately, I think Green Lanterns are cops. Hal and John are the space cops in charge of Sector 2814.
I got into reading Lantern after the Morrison/Porter JLA book (which was all about Kyle Rayner). Kyle is, in retrospect, the Dan Ketch to Hal’s Johnny Blaze.
Upon reading the 60s and (especially) the 70s lantern books, Hal and John are just... better characters than Kyle. Kyle is the guy you keep hoping will get his shit together and realize how awesome he can be one day.
Hal is the captain of the football team/prom king/fighter plane test pilot jock that you really want to hate and want to call a douche... but’s too good of a dude. He’s the guy that will win every game for your team. And John is the solid, introspective, intelligent workhorse that holds Hal in check. Giving anyone else the focus of a solo green lantern book, to me, feels like making a Batman book about anybody but Bruce Wayne. It’s Hal Jordan and John Stewart. That’s the team.
Emerald Twilight then, was a kick in the nuts:
Imagine if the next year of Batman involved Bruce slowly getting more fed up with the revolving door at Arkham. Bane murdered Alfred in front of Damian. And Bruce just powered thru it at the time. But now, a couple months in, and Bruce has been breaking more arms than he ever has. It used to be one punch and then cuffs. Now, Bruce goes for the knockouts. He makes sure they remember that Batman kicked their ass. And it gets worse. Nightwing tells Bruce to ease off, and Bruce yells at Dick in the cave, in front of Damian, Timm, and the other bat family. Selina and Bruce stop seeing each other. They don’t get divorced, but Selina is not a fan of Bruce’s current “mood”. It gets worse. Bruce let’s a mugger fall off of a roof. He puts Joker in a coma. He hits Harvey hard enough that he permanently blinds him in one eye. Breaks Oswald’s leg in 4 places. Wayne Enterprises loses shareholders. It gets worse. He hits Damian for questioning him. Hard. In front of Gordon. Gordon finally confronts Batman, and Batman shrugs it off. Not knowing where else to turn, Gordon makes the impossible choice. He lets Bane out and tells him to stop Batman. Cold. Bane recognizes that his cherished rival is off of his leash. Tries to reason with Bruce. Appeals to his sanity. And in the lobby of Wayne Towers, Bruce incapacitates Bane and then executes him by snapping his neck. In broad daylight. Bruce then takes off his mask and declares himself the Marshall of Gotham. THAT is what Emerald Twilight felt like.
Now, as for Parralax.
Parralax is the source of the yellow impurity in the Lantern’s rings. The brilliance of that concept is evident in just how many stories have been spawned from it. The last 2 decades of Green Lantern has been dominated by stories spawned from the redemption of Hal Jordan. And it’s not like he went away. When Parralax/Hal Jordan died, he made a noble sacrifice and was bonded to the Spectre. Hal’s spirit persisted in a state of penance. And the people that were wronged by the Spectre in that time have circled back as Green Lantern villains. Black Hand, most notably.
Good event books create problems, as opposed to solving them.
Parralax is a great a big bad villain for DCU that can be used in conjunction with a variety of other big bads. And best of all, Parralax and Darkseid have almost no contact. They’re universal level threats with no overlap. More story possibilities mean better and more varied stories (in theory, anyways).
Green Lantern: Lost Army, Vol. 1 # 03 Variant, illustrated by Ben Oliver.
*I think he used Idris Elba as the model for John Stewart, and I think Idris would be great in that role on screen!*
toys that DC Collectibles will be releasing in the next year or so, part 2 of 3: -Adam Strange and Supergirl (with Krypto and Streaky), designed by Darwyn Cooke. -Heatwave and the Reverse Flash, based on the Show. -Firestorm, Wonder Woman, and John Stewart all look like really nice molds. -that Greg Capullo Joker design is creepy in a really awesome way. -Batman and Lex Luthor, designed by Lee Bermejo.
Green Lantern # 40, Pgs. 06-07. This issue was written by Geoff Johns, pencilled by Philip Tan, inked by Jonathan Glapion, colored by Nei Ruffino, and lettered by Rob Leigh.
