The Green Lantern Corps has the reputation of being one of the most daunting branches of the DC Universe continuity-wise, a status that certainly isn't helped by the neigh-impenetrable web spun around one of the GLC's most prominent members: Hal Jordan. Worse yet, on top of being pretty dense, Hal is also understood as being pretty… well, boring. However, writer Grant Morrison hopes to help Hal shed some of his stigma with his upcoming ongoing series, The Green Lantern, alongside artist Liam Sharp. But Morrison doesn't want to win Hal new fans by scraping his intimidating history -- he wants to prove that Hal has been worth your time all along.
Hal Jordan's slip in overall GLC popularity is considerably less difficult to understand than his actual in-fiction history. He was the first "modern" Green Lantern, an invention of a time in comics known as the Silver Age where the names and loose concepts of original ‘40s-era heroes were repurposed and reapplied to fresh faces. Hal's adventures epitomized the pulp sci-fi ethos of ‘50s and ‘60s comics by weaving a splashy, ray-gun slinging, alien punching fantasy mythos. However, after 30-some years of space adventures, DC attempted to execute the same move again and replaced whole swaths of its Silver Age heroes with fresher faces. Batman's back was broken, Superman was killed by a monster named Doomsday, Barry Allen sacrificed himself during a cosmic crisis -- you get the idea. Hal was not spared from the cull. This made room for new Green Lanterns like Kyle Rayner, John Stewart and Guy Gardner to step into the spotlight. Hal was eventually resurrected in true comic book fashion in the mid-2000s, but he never managed to root himself a prominent place in the younger generation of Green Lantern fans.
Continue reading…
Continue reading...
Hal Jordan's slip in overall GLC popularity is considerably less difficult to understand than his actual in-fiction history. He was the first "modern" Green Lantern, an invention of a time in comics known as the Silver Age where the names and loose concepts of original ‘40s-era heroes were repurposed and reapplied to fresh faces. Hal's adventures epitomized the pulp sci-fi ethos of ‘50s and ‘60s comics by weaving a splashy, ray-gun slinging, alien punching fantasy mythos. However, after 30-some years of space adventures, DC attempted to execute the same move again and replaced whole swaths of its Silver Age heroes with fresher faces. Batman's back was broken, Superman was killed by a monster named Doomsday, Barry Allen sacrificed himself during a cosmic crisis -- you get the idea. Hal was not spared from the cull. This made room for new Green Lanterns like Kyle Rayner, John Stewart and Guy Gardner to step into the spotlight. Hal was eventually resurrected in true comic book fashion in the mid-2000s, but he never managed to root himself a prominent place in the younger generation of Green Lantern fans.
Continue reading…
Continue reading...