Reading Comics #117 "Just Who is Hal Jordan, Anyway?"

So, just who is Hal Jordan, anyway?

The answer seems simple enough for comic book readers.  He's Green Lantern.  For diligent readers, he's the second Green Lantern, who debuted in 1959's Showcase #22, the second of the signature DC Silver Age icons to reinvent a classic Golden Age persona.  Unlike Barry Allen's Flash, Hal Jordan represented a radical departure from the original model, introducing a whole corps of space cops, an entirely new superhero concept, one that is still seldom duplicated (Marvel's Nova Corps is the rare exception).

This has made Hal and the Green Lanterns themselves a little hard to identify in the same iconic way as other superheroes like Batman and Spider-Man.  Hal's origin is mostly one of luck.  After the previous protector of the space sector of which Earth is a part is mortally wounded, his ring is sent to the nearest ideal candidate, who turns out to be test pilot Hal Jordan.

Since the whole concept of test pilots lost its romantic allure when its brightest era gave way to the dawn of space exploration, Hal's primary human occupation has been one of the many challenges the character has faced over the years.  The 2011 movie version based a portion of Hal's appeal on the continuing legacy of Top Gun, a movie released twenty-five years earlier.  The comics have softened the transition by emphasizing Hal's military experience (which to my mind would be more relevant if he had war memories such as the Mogadishu crisis featured in the film Black Hawk Down).

That particular aspect of Hal's background is also another of the many elements that may be more of a stumbling block for new fans than anything.  There are many competing characters in Green Lantern's own mythology.  As previously noted, there's a whole corps of fellow space cops, and there have been to date four other humans.  One of them is John Stewart.

John may actually lay claim to being the most famous mainstream Green Lantern after his prominent role in the Justice League cartoons.  Being one of the rare black superheroes, John is also in a unique position to represent something other than strictly being Green Lantern.  For that reason, there have been arguments that if Green Lantern should become relevant to the mainstream again, it ought to be in the form of John Stewart and not Hal Jordan.  John has been depicted as both soldier and architect.  He also briefly worked for rival space cop agency the Darkstars.

Besides John there's also hothead Guy Gardner, who at times has been a comic figure but has also branched into his own mythology.  Although John was the first one to gain his own spin-off series (the short-lived Green Lantern: Mosaic), Guy had one for longer, which was eventually retitled Warrior (when someone realized that, incredibly, no superhero had ever claimed that name before).  Guy has worn the green ring, a yellow ring, and had independent powers granted to him by alien DNA.  When the entire corps was wiped out for a time, there was Kyle Rayner.  Recently there was also introduced Simon Baz, who represents the modern world of the war on terrorism.  (No human Green Lantern has ever been a woman, unless you count the stint by the Golden Age version's daughter Jade; plenty of aliens have been, however.)

Really, what distinguishes Hal?  Some comic book fans argue, very little.  The failure of the 2011 film would seem to support that.

The ring worn by a Green Lantern channels willpower, allowing its bearer to create whatever they can imagine with green energy.  The conceit of a magical ring is rare in comics, but common in literature, famously in J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings.  A Green Lantern must have great willpower and also have the ability to overcome fear.

In Green Lantern lore, fear became represented by the rival yellow ring, eventually wielded by Hal Jordan's mentor and one-time friend, Sinestro.  (When Guy had it, he used it more as an alternate to his lost green ring than as a weapon of fear.)  There are a number of other rings, including the red ring (representing rage), the violet ring (representing love), the blue ring (representing hope), the indigo ring (representing compassion), the orange ring (representing greed), the black ring (representing death), and the white ring (representing life, as well as the so-called "one ring to rule them all").

So what makes Hal special, other than being the first of these new Green Lanterns?  Plenty.

Hal is the rebel who also represents the mainstream, the challenge to authority who is nonetheless routinely considered himself an authority.  His initiation into the Green Lantern Corps was not without controversy.  Sinestro worked alongside his predecessor, Abin Sur, and never considered Hal worthy to wear the same ring.  On Earth, Hal is just another superhero.  In space, he's just another Green Lantern.  And yet, Hal never let either of those ignominious descriptions limit himself.  It was his effort to combine both these roles that led him to have such a rough relationship with the Guardians of the Universe, the Oans who created the corps.

John and Guy only became Green Lanterns themselves because Hal frequently stepped away from his responsibilities.  Kyle became at that time the last of them after Hal became possessed by the fear entity Parallax and went on a murderous rampage.  Simon inherited the ring after the Guardians awarded it to a reformed Sinestro, who subsequently lost it.

Hal's legacy as Green Lantern, then, is one of the few erratic superhero careers, one that is as much defined by his deeds as his efforts to avoid performing them.  His ambivalence is informed by a tortured relationship with Carol Ferris.  All comic book characters have tortured romantic relationships, but Hal and Carol's remains unique.  They are former working colleagues, former boss (Carol) and employee (Hal), and even rivals (Carol was the first of the Star Sapphires, after gaining possession of a violet ring early in Hal's career).  To this day they have never resolved their conflicts.

Hal's relationships often define him, moreso than any other solo character.  John and Guy were both alternates, and Hal met both of them before passing the ring to them (both eventually got their own and became regular contemporaries, as did Kyle).  His relationship with Sinestro is one of the most unique in comics: former friends, former mortal enemies, former grudging allies.  Hal is also defined by his relationship with Green Arrow.  The two were presented in a classic series of stories featured social commentary as natural opposites.

As a character with apparently no definable characteristics, Hal has managed to carve out quite an independent role for himself, a true maverick in a medium that often plays at the type but more often succeeds in presenting variations on the same lone wolf archetype.  Hal has always been different.  He never really struggled with the role of Green Lantern so much as what it represented.  He was doubtful about his place in the grand scheme, and found it hard to reconcile with what he had known before being drafted into the role, infinitely capable and equally skeptical.

The 2011 film is more representative than fans might think.  Part of its relative failure was Hal's lack of mainstream pedigree, as well as the fact that superhero movies in the twenty-first century most succeed when represented as distinct brands.  There's Batman, Superman, the X-Men, Spider-Man, and the Avengers, the most successful of the genre.  When you stray from them, the results are always erratic. Green Lantern was no different.

Fans less familiar with the Green Lantern comics often have a hard time reconciling with Hal Jordan's selection over John Stewart for the honor of being the one represented in the film.  To them, as with general audiences who had never heard of the concept, everything was totally new.  Apparently it didn't work, but I thought it did.  Often a failure is the result of something that seems to too limited in its appeal.  Superman Returns, for instance, was deemed as too reliant on the legacy of movies that at that point were two decades old.  Green Lantern had nothing to do with Christopher Nolan's films, or anything else.  It was in a bubble, right when it was much cooler to be connected to something else.

It tried to explain everything about Hal, and everything about the Green Lantern concept itself.  To someone like me, who was already familiar with both and very much enjoyed the effort, it made total sense.  To others, it was a cluttered mess.

So what to do with Green Lantern in other movies?  The suggestion goes, ignore the 2011 film and move forward with something new.  John Stewart, obviously, so some say.  The beauty of the Green Lantern concept is that you can do it both ways, and it would make total sense.  You could have the same continuity, have your John Stewart, and still return to Ryan Reynolds' Hal, use them both at the same time, in any number of combinations.

Green Lantern as a property has never been hugely popular.  It was always more of a cult thing.  Consequently, the mythology expanded beyond the norm for superheroes.  It wasn't until Geoff Johns came around in 2004 and brought Hal back that the character and franchise became truly important to DC, where it now stands as a cornerstone of the New 52 (with Green Lantern, Green Lantern Corps, Green Lantern: New Guardians, Red Lanterns, Larfleeze, and soon Sinestro all present as monthly publications, with plenty of room for more).  It was this expansion that gave birth to the mainstream credibility the 2011 film represented as an initial offering.

With a little more momentum, Hal Jordan won't need to be explained anymore.  As a character who can easily identify with the struggles of an ordinary human and the responsibilities of being a superhero, his storytelling potential is limitless and really is only beginning to be explored, more than fifty years in the making.  In fact, all his supposed weaknesses are strengths, which Hal's publishing history has proven time and again.

Who is Hal Jordan?  Someone any self-respecting comic book fan ought to know.  And now you know why.