Hal Jordan WAS/IS Parallax!

[Rod G]

Hal Jordan became Parallax in the infamous Emerald Twilight storyline.

IMO,it came about because Ron Marz wanted to get rid of the GL Corps,reasoning that there should only be ONE Green Lantern with only ONE
Power Ring which he considered as THE most powerful weapon in the universe.Clearly,he didn't like the idea of a whole bunch of aliens having the same power as Hal,so,NO GL Corps.Only ONE power ring,only ONE GL.Thus Hal went nuts and became Parallax.

Kyle Rayner became GL becuase he had a creative mind,which enabled him to make unique one of a kind ring constructs,while all Hal did were boxing gloves or spheres.

While I could go on,I'd rather have this be a fodder for the following debate :

Do you feel Hal was meant to be Parallax?


(BTW,I'm aware of his eventual transformation into the Spectre,but that's neither here nor there,so don't bother pointing it out.)


(I am NOT against Hal being GL again.In fact,I'm fine with it and I understand Hal's Emerald Advancement Team's position on the whole thing.I merely state a particular view on the whole thing,nothing more.)

[Jack Zodiac]

I'm pretty sure Ron never wanted to destroy the entire Green Lantern Corps and that the Emerald Twilight story wasn't entirely his idea, but a collaboration of interests between himself and DC's editorial department who were shaking up all of the main titles at the time. Having been a Hal fan since I was four years old, at the time I was very pissed off by the idea of Hal becoming a villain, but it was silly as hell to have any severe emotional attachment to any character in hindsight, considering what they do with superhero characters on a regular basis nowadays.

I don't think Hal made a good villain. The snapping point where Hal flips out and attacks the Corps and the Guardians seemed forced to me. And the eventual outcome of him becoming Parallax, Zero Hour, was even worse. Hal becoming The Spectre and how he was handled in that series made more sense than him becoming a universe-threatening villain. After reading about Gerard Jones' idea for Hal, I think I would've been happier with him becoming the Ion-like entity he had in mind than anything else.

That said, I loved Ron's run on the book with Kyle, and I quickly liked Kyle as a main character, in spite of how he came about. I'm glad he got the chance to write a fresh character with a clean slate on the book for a little while, and it gave Hal's character time to simmer before someone was ready to do something big with him again, which we probably wouldn't have seen otherwise. So, while I dislike the course taken with him in becoming Parallax and destroying the Corps, I think that it paid off more in the long run than anything else they would've tried.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

Ron has told in interviews that had he been able ...he would have told a longer story with Hal slowly going mad over Coast City's destruction. But DC's editors told him he'd either be a part of the change at #50 or someone else would be.

Now the best part of Emerald Twilight that still resonates for me is Hal on OA. He's crying some after he kills Sinestro in a hard fought contest. "Your right...there is no going back for me now."


Over in Green Lantern Corps Quarterly they discussed a very good thing. Hal like Sinestro became consumed by grief and needing power. How much does absolute power corrupt ? And in Hal's case how much did it corrupt him as a person ? Was he always gonna be Parallax at some point ? Or was it just Coast City that made him get so corrupted by the power ?


Parallax was a good villain. He was someone who ala Magneto ..had lost things and felt he was still a good guy. But in reality he wasn;t. Not anymore...and Hal fit his role as the man who felt he was doing right...even if it was a wrong.

They lost that when they pushed Hal from that role.

[Alan2099]

I found Hal a dull and unintresting Green Lantern. He's even worse now than he used to be. Kyle was much more entertaining in the role and Hal made a much better gray aea type villian.

[newscott]

You can also count me in the Kyle camp. The idea of Hal falling, and having to earn of his debt as the Spectre was, in my opinion, a great long term plan for Hal Jordan. His return, not matter how highly touted was not really of any interest to me.

Jordan as a villain wasn't even fully explored. His relationships with the former Justice League could have been a well of great stories should it had continued. I have never felt that the Guy/Hal dynamic was fully explored during the Parallax story, and I would have liked to see more interaction by Parallax with Batman, Ollie Queen, Black Canary, John Stewart and so on.

[Sizzle]

I found Hal a dull and unintresting Green Lantern. He's even worse now than he used to be. Kyle was much more entertaining in the role and Hal made a much better gray aea type villian.

Never thought about Hal as a Magneto type villian, that would of been good. I always found Hal dull and uninteresting as well. I much prefer Kyle or JLU's John. Heck, I even like Guy when he's not being made a offish jerk.

[jesse_custer]

No, he wasn't meant to be Parallax. He was meant to poke around in buildings with green microphones and call his Eskimo helper "Pieface."

Kyle, on the other hand, is about as boring as I could imagine any character getting.

[Zero Hunter]

I always thought that Hal could have become the "Magneto" of the DCU if they had played it right too. The fallen hero who just wants to make the world better as he thinks it should be by whatever means he needs to take. The few times he appeared as Parralax in the Green Lantern book were actully pretty good. Then they pissed it all away with him dying in Final Night and then becoming the Spectre. Him as the Spectre was the biggest mess of the whole thing.

With all that being said I have really liked Hal since he came bakc in Rebirth alot more than I did for quite awhile before Emerald Twilight.

[Eumenides]

I loved it when Hal became Parallax; to me it made as much sense as it could in comics: his entire town is obliterated; he goes power-crazy trying to find a solution to reverse the destruction of Coast City; he goes too far and realizes he can't stop anymore; tries to recreate the universe to make everything better but is stopped; tries to become Green Lantern again but realises that can never happen; then dies to save the world. Perfect redemption arch!

Hal's sacrifice in Final Night affected me like no other death in comics except Captain Marvel's sacrifice in Kingdom Come, and I feel he should have been left dead. I don't even think he needed to come back as The Spectre: whatever redemption he needed, he found it when he stopped the Sun-Eater.

But what really upsets me about Hal's return is the lenghts Johns went to make Hal 'safe', chalking it up on some fear parasite :rolleyes: he's not even responsible for his actions anymore. He's just another bland super-hero without skeletons in his wardrobe. Dull.

[botch]

Hal became Parallax because sales were flagging and people found Hal boring. Then they brought in Kyle and sales went up.

[Suicide Squad Fan]

Hal became Parallax because sales were flagging and people found Hal boring. Then they brought in Kyle and sales went up.

How much you wanna bet that there'll be "The Return of Parallax" in ten years time, after folks (including certain people who wanted him back) realize "yeah, actually Hal really IS pretty boring...".

[Superbeast]

How much you wanna bet that there'll be "The Return of Parallax" in ten years time, after folks (including certain people who wanted him back) realize "yeah, actually Hal really IS pretty boring...".

Well it's already made a return but is now stuck in 4 power batteries.

[CYOTI]

How much you wanna bet that there'll be "The Return of Parallax" in ten years time, after folks No need to bet, he was back in SinestroCorps wearing Kyle's body.

[soda]

I always thought that Hal could have become the "Magneto" of the DCU if they had played it right too. The fallen hero who just wants to make the world better as he thinks it should be by whatever means he needs to take. The few times he appeared as Parralax in the Green Lantern book were actully pretty good. Then they pissed it all away with him dying in Final Night and then becoming the Spectre. Him as the Spectre was the biggest mess of the whole thing.

With all that being said I have really liked Hal since he came bakc in Rebirth alot more than I did for quite awhile before Emerald Twilight.

Magneto of the DCU? Isn't that Superboy Prime's job?

[Jack Zodiac]

Magneto of the DCU? Isn't that Superboy Prime's job?

Wha'? :confused: How's that?

[Mr Omnis]

Hal Was Parallax??!??!

[Raker616]

To answer the question ET never made sense, it was poorly written and horrible executed and only became redeable after Rebirth.

[Den]

To answer the question ET never made sense, it was poorly written and horrible executed and only became redeable after Rebirth.
While Kyle had some great moments later on, this is about how I feel about it. The story did not make sense to me. Hal was suddenly out of character, and cast aside in a damn disrespectful manner... of COURSE his old fans would be upset.

To see how it might be done right would probably to look at Barry's noble sacrifice instead. They tried that with Hal later, but it was too little, too late.

I much prefer Geoff's fix on it, that way both Kyle AND Hal are heroes, but that's me.

[Bored at 3:00AM]

If Parallax had been written with a little more depth and intelligence, I would have had no problem with Hal Jordan going to the dark side. However, since everything from his fall from grace to his every subsequent appearance afterward, he was written as a dim-witted one-note lunatic, he was usually an absolute bore.

With the notable exception of Marz's swan song to the character in the Final Night crossover special, his writing of Hal Jordan left a lot to be desired. His Kyle Rayner, on the other hand, was quite good at the beginning...until the character got stuck in a holding pattern of graduating into becoming a "real hero" over and over and over again.

[marshal99]

Hal was getting a bit stale , Hal becoming Parallax made sense to me , he failed to protect HIS city , it broke him and it's all because of the guardians. He was off in space risking his life fighting for the blue midgets while his city , his people , millions all died because Hal wasn't there and when Hal wanted to grief and use his ring to just try to recreate coast city , the guardians not only denied him his grief but reprimanded him for it.
Hal as Parallax was a real tragic figure , trying to do right , he's not a villain , nor is he a hero , he's pretty much a gray area on itself.
He shouldn't have to die in final night , for someone as powerful as parallax who can walk between time , it should have been easy for him to just remove the sun eater to another timeframe . Heck , he froze time and send ferro back to earth when ferro was going to make the sacrifice when Hal step in.

He should never have died and he should never have been spectre. It was a mistake . Current Hal is a bit much though , it's damn cheesy - he's the good old american pie hal , the man without fear , and it's like he's in pleasantville where he's the central attraction , everyone idolised him , everyone worship him , everyone wave at him when he passes by , basically the idealised world that Parallax actually envisioned back in Green lantern issue 65. (i think)

Maybe 10 years from now , like OMD , maybe they will just retcon the entire geoff johns run as a dream , he's still parallax dreaming of the perfect existance as the one true hero , the green lantern. :D ;)

[SUPERECWFAN1]

How much you wanna bet that there'll be "The Return of Parallax" in ten years time, after folks (including certain people who wanted him back) realize "yeah, actually Hal really IS pretty boring...".

If you write a character with no faults and no past sins its pretty hard to really even get close to them. Had they not done the POW arc where all the people Jordan killed as Lantern's were being held then Hal would have something to make up for. He killed some people...it may have been Parallax driving him but he has to redeem himself and make up for it.

They could have showed rare glimpses of Jordan thinking about it. Vowing to make up for this horrible thing he had done.


Instead they did that arc and Hal became even more boring a character.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

Hal was getting a bit stale , Hal becoming Parallax made sense to me , he failed to protect HIS city , it broke him and it's all because of the guardians. He was off in space risking his life fighting for the blue midgets while his city , his people , millions all died and when Hal wanted to grief and use his ring to just try to recreate coast city , the guardians not only denied him his grief but reprimanded him for it.
Hal as Parallax was a real tragic figure , trying to do right , he's not a villain , nor is he a hero , he's pretty much a gray area on itself.
He shouldn't have to die in final night , for someone as powerful as parallax who can walk between time , it should have been easy for him to just remove the sun eater to another timeframe . Heck , he froze time and send ferro back to earth when ferro was going to make the sacrifice when Hal step in.

He should never have died and he should never have been spectre. It was a mistake . Current Hal is a bit much though , it's damn cheesy - he's the good old american pie hal , the man without fear , and it's like he's in pleasantville where he's the central attraction , everyone idolised him , everyone worship him , everyone wave at him when he passes by , basically the idealised world that Parallax actually envisioned back in Green lantern issue 65. (i think)

Maybe 10 years from now , like OMD , maybe they will just retcon the entire geoff johns run as a dream , he's still parallax dreaming of the perfect existance as the one true hero , the green lantern. :D ;)

Pretty much. They had something at DC and just screwed it up. And bah.... the new series is just horrible .Johns was good on Flash and other books but here it reads like a LOVE HAL JORDAN , HE IS AWESOME fest each month.

[Raker616]

HAL JORDAN, HE IS AWESOME

Yes he is.

[Micro]

I really liked the idea of Hal Jordan becoming Parallax. It just seemed to work well having atleast one of the big heroes in the DC universe become somewhat of a villain, or atleast an anti-hero. It created a great dynamic within the DC universe, and the many characters that had a history with him.

However, I will agree that it was rushed in Emerald Twilight, but I think the idea was logical and I think any of the big heroes in a similar situtation could have also gone "too far" in their quest to fix things. I think what made it acceptable to me, was the fact Hal knew what he was doing was wrong, but felt he was doing it for a purpose that would be right in the end.

In the end, I do think Hal should have returned to a hero agian. I loved that his past self came to the current time in Emerald Knights, and I wished that verison of Hal Jordan would have stayed in the regular DC Universe.

I think this would have made Hal even less likely to turn evil after seeing what he would become if he did. This would also create new situtations where he would have to deal with crimes he did not comment. Plus, what better villian for Hal Jordan to face, but a villianous verison of himself. Under this status quo, Hal Jordan would be a very interesting character, will a lot of various types of issues that could be brought into his own book.

Hal being the Spectre was stupid, and bringing Hal back the way they did, just to de-throne Kyle was a bit cheap. Kyle should have continued on as the current Green Lantern, and the GL member that appears in Justice League.

Hal Jordan should have started back up in his own book, where he could go about discovering what he's missed out on, and rediscovery the DC universe(this would be a great way to get new readers into DC, they could discover all the characters along with Hal). While also, trying to undo all his future self has done.

I know majority of fans seem to love Geoff Johns, and I appreciate his attention to DC history, but I'm not a fan of his and others "Pre-Crisisizms" that they keep trying to force back into comics. As it is now, I find Hal Jordan to be more or less uninteresting.

[PretenderNX01]

Kyle and Hal have both had good stories and bad ones. No one has to hate one character to love another.

With Paralax now the personification of fear and Ion the personification of will power and Kyle, Hal, Guy and John all back in the Corps I think the stories as they are being told with the Sinestro Corps and the other emotional engeries are much better than any of the old suggestions would be.

There's room for all the Earth GLs, JLA has a bit of a rotating roster. Hal was in now John and in the future who knows?

[Alex L]

Magneto of the DCU? Isn't that Superboy Prime's job?

Not particularly, because it misses the important aspect of us, as readers, being able to say "y'know, I sort of agree with that guy."

Magneto, as a survivor of Auschwitz, vows to never let anything like that happen to mutants. And, seeing how humanity at large looks at mutants, and that people spend billions on giant robots with the intent of hunting and killing them, y'know... I can see where Mags is coming from.

Hal/Parallax, is a person who did what he thought was right, which was to fix everything. He still saw himself as a hero, but one who would go back in time to prevent a tragedy. All that he did, the murder of Kilowog and such, would all be undone once he got into the timestream and made things proper again.

While you may not agree with the goal or the methods, it's easy to see and attribute his attitude to a weird vision of heroism. Ends justify the means and all that.

SBP's motivation is "This universe is stupid and should die." Nothing particularly heroic about that.
Or, to be a little more generous, he wants to find his way back to his own universe and is willing to kill the DCU to make that happen. A very selfish motivation, as opposed to Hal's or Mags'.

[Rod G]

So far,we haven't heard from the H.E.A.T. camp.

[David Walton]

So far,we haven't heard from the H.E.A.T. camp.

I think HEAT was officially dissolved when their president's mother kicked them out of her basement.

[David Walton]

To answer the question ET never made sense, it was poorly written and horrible executed and only became redeable after Rebirth.

Have to disagree. While it would have made more sense to have Hal gradually go insane, ET is one of the best Green Lantern stories ever.

Try reading it as just an "Elseworlds" story now, since all the developments have been reversed.

[Choppa]

Regardless of how it was handled I also think it was a good idea for the character to gain some progression.

But as we all obviously know progression and comics go together like oil and water.

[BoosterBronze]

Regardless of how it was handled I also think it was a good idea for the character to gain some progression.

But as we all obviously know progression and comics go together like oil and water.

I thought Jordan going a little nutso and trying to remake the universe was AWESOME.

Having a long term hero 'turn heel' to use rassling slang, was awesome adn I belive unprecedented. I wish it had stuck and Paralax/Hal was a mainstay top tier DCU villain.

I dug Rebirth, and I like GL, but I still loved Hal as Paralax.

[jesse_custer]

But rassling slang can't top Pieface.

[AdamYJ]

I thought Hal as Parallax was pretty cool, too. He was just so utterly convinced that what he was doing was right. And of all the villians that came out of that era of GL, he was probably the one with the most gravitas.

Apparently, Johns is going to revisit Hal's time as Parallax in the Booster Gold series. Hopefully, he'll get the portrayal right. Everytime he's used any form of Parallax in the current comics it's been as the big fear-demon or in the case of when the bug possessed Kyle, as a grinning lunatic. Hal as Parallax has to be convinced he's doing the right thing. He's got to be more "You can't stop me! I won't let you! I have to make it right!" and less "Bwah-ha-ha! Fear me!"

[Choppa]

^I doubt it since Johns is the one who retconned Parallex into a yellow bug in the first place. His Zero Hour issue of Booster Gold is probably going to have Hal act more like his version of Parallex than how he actually did all those years ago.

[marshal99]

Parallax Hal was never a grinning lunatic or acted like a true villain. Even when he defeated Guy's band of heroes on OA during emerald fallout , he still send them back to earth unharmed and safe. He has never acted like a crazed villain but more of a apologetic obsessed being. After the events of Zero hour , Parallax Hal still went to visit Oliver Queen who shot him in zero hour , and tried to explain why he did what he did , when he attended arisia funeral as a former friend , when he came back to take kyle's ring , he still apologies for his actions later and return back the ring. Parallax Hal was never truly evil.

Unfortunately after Johns retcon Parallax to the yellow fear demon and absolve Hal of all its sins , it's another matter altogether , parallax kyle was a cackling one note villain. If Johns is writing Parallax Hal , it'll likely be another cackling one note villain.

[TROUBLEZ]

I started getting into the rest of the DC titles right when the Death of Superman, Knightfall and Emerald Twilight was happening. I thought Zero Hour was fun, but even though I hadn't known that much about Hal Jordan as Green Lantern, I also felt it was forced.

He was the greatest Green Lantern and had been since the 60s and I think they only made him go crazy because DC needed some big events and new character designs to compete with Image and to a degree, Marvel.

[Raker616]

Have to disagree. While it would have made more sense to have Hal gradually go insane, ET is one of the best Green Lantern stories ever.

Try reading it as just an "Elseworlds" story now, since all the developments have been reversed.

Actually thanks to Rebirth and Johns the many plot holes in the story and Hal's action make more since now than the ever did before.

[NotSuper]

I have to agree with the "it was a bad idea" camp. I think the rushing of it was perhaps the worst part. Hal slowly going mad could've worked, but he would've had to lose more than just Coast City. Hell, Kilowog lost his whole planet and since his species was very collectivist, it was even worse for him. Yet he didn't go crazy. And since Hal had even greater willpower, it should've taken something more for him to go nuts.

I can actually understand someone like Prime going nuts because he lost his Krypton, his Earth, his universe, and was condemned to "paradise" for twenty years with only two senior citizens and an emotionally stunted-man-child (who manipulated him) for company. And since he was a teenager (who had JUST gained super-powers) he was still immature and hadn't learned responsibility. Plus, he came from a world where super-heroes were FICTION and probably doesn't view them as being "real' (or not as real) as those from Earth-Prime.

Given all these elements, I could accept a version of Kal-El going crazy. The same could not be said for Hal Jordan.

[Jack Zodiac]

Actually thanks to Rebirth and Johns the many plot holes in the story and Hal's action make more since now than the ever did before.

Surprise, surprise, gonna have to disagree with you. Hal went crazy well before he went into the Central Battery on Oa. Johns' explanation for Parallax was that it possessed him inside of the Central Battery, which helps retcon away his craziness in Zero Hour, but not all of his craziness on the way to Oa from Coast City. If anything, it creates a plot hole of its own.

[Superbeast]

Surprise, surprise, gonna have to disagree with you. Hal went crazy well before he went into the Central Battery on Oa. Johns' explanation for Parallax was that it possessed him inside of the Central Battery, which helps retcon away his craziness in Zero Hour, but not all of his craziness on the way to Oa from Coast City. If anything, it creates a plot hole of its own.

Although there is a big difference between trying to ressurect the city and trying to re-write the order of the universe just to ressurect a city. There is an easy retcon waiting there seeing as Hal repowered his ring before he first resurrected the city in GL energy form. Since all power batteries draw energy from the Oan Central Power Battery, Parallax might have sensed Hal's weakness and used his battery as a conduit to inhabit Hal when he feared he lost his own city and loved ones due to a sense of neglect. If Parallax and Sinestro's ultimate goal was to make the GL Corps feared as potential killers to feed Parallax's power source, making their greatest Lantern their betrayer, slayer of Sinestro as a prop to get Hal to break one of the main rules of the Book Of Oa and responsible for the apparent deaths of several senior GLs, so much so that even after Rebirth he was much maligned, was a key element in setting up the Guardians re-writing the Book of Oa and compromising the GL's code of ethics.

Oh yeah, intellectually copyrighted, fools. Don't steal my idea for a future issue. :P

[Jack Zodiac]

It's great when a writer has to have his fans decipher his writing, like that, or like how Ion could've existed and entered Kyle without his knowing it.

[Raker616]

Surprise, surprise, gonna have to disagree with you. Hal went crazy well before he went into the Central Battery on Oa. Johns' explanation for Parallax was that it possessed him inside of the Central Battery, which helps retcon away his craziness in Zero Hour, but not all of his craziness on the way to Oa from Coast City. If anything, it creates a plot hole of its own.

Rebirth #3 explains how Parallax once it was awoken used his connection to the AI from the rings to search for someone to help it excape and it found Hal. How it connected through his ring to make his willpower weaken and to make Hal afraid making GL volume 3 #1 the point of infection. Once Coast City was destroyed that was when Parallax was able to get a real hold on Hal and warped his sense of right and wrong.

Sounds like a pretty good explanation to me, and the Ion/Kyle thing hasn't been touched on so I it's hard to see whether it makes since or not yet.

[Bored at 3:00AM]

Surprise, surprise, gonna have to disagree with you. Hal went crazy well before he went into the Central Battery on Oa. Johns' explanation for Parallax was that it possessed him inside of the Central Battery, which helps retcon away his craziness in Zero Hour, but not all of his craziness on the way to Oa from Coast City. If anything, it creates a plot hole of its own.

No plot holes there. According to Rebirth, Hal was infected with the Yellow Impurity by Sinestro when he entered the Central Power Battery way back in 1988 (at the end of the first GLC monthly), which thereby explained why Hal's personality suddenly shifted from Uber-confident Alpha Male to a Self-Doubting Thomas going through a mid-life crisis (and explained away the gray hair). It was the destruction of Coast City that allowed Parallax to get a real foothold within Hal's mind though. Once he entered the Central Power Battery again, Parallax grafted itself onto Hal's soul (thereby allowing him to survive Hal's suicide during Final Night).

[marshal99]

Uber confident alpha male ? At one point , yes he was but Hal had a lot of failings , he was exiled from earth for one year by the guardians and soon after that , he quit the corps in anger. He only regained back the ring during COIE and even then , he was allowed to keep the ring just as the guardians were leaving the sector. And without the guardians , the green lantern corps soon after disintegrated.
At the same time , he no longer has his job at ferris so he was soul searching and looking for his own identity , basically the same progression of his character even before he got back his ring in COIE.

[carabas]

Parallax Hal was never a grinning lunatic or acted like a true villain. Even when he defeated Guy's band of heroes on OA during emerald fallout , he still send them back to earth unharmed and safe. He has never acted like a crazed villain but more of a apologetic obsessed being. After the events of Zero hour , Parallax Hal still went to visit Oliver Queen who shot him in zero hour , and tried to explain why he did what he did , when he attended arisia funeral as a former friend , when he came back to take kyle's ring , he still apologies for his actions later and return back the ring. Parallax Hal was never truly evil.

Unfortunately after Johns retcon Parallax to the yellow fear demon and absolve Hal of all its sins , it's another matter altogether , parallax kyle was a cackling one note villain. If Johns is writing Parallax Hal , it'll likely be another cackling one note villain.There's a huge difference between Halallax and Kyllax.
Way back when, Hal Jordan was influenv-ced by the Parallax entity through his ring, but the 'yellow fear bug' was still bound inside the Central Battery, so it's influence was minimal, and Hal acted like Hal for the most part.

When Kyle was infected, Parallax was free, and Kyle was pretty much relegated to a small corned way back in his mind while Parallax could do exactly as it pleased.

[Jack Zodiac]

No plot holes there. According to Rebirth, Hal was infected with the Yellow Impurity by Sinestro when he entered the Central Power Battery way back in 1988 (at the end of the first GLC monthly), which thereby explained why Hal's personality suddenly shifted from Uber-confident Alpha Male to a Self-Doubting Thomas going through a mid-life crisis (and explained away the gray hair). It was the destruction of Coast City that allowed Parallax to get a real foothold within Hal's mind though. Once he entered the Central Power Battery again, Parallax grafted itself onto Hal's soul (thereby allowing him to survive Hal's suicide during Final Night).

Oh, that's right, that's how Johns explained the very necessary retcon of Hal actually aging. :rolleyes:

Sounds like a pretty good explanation to me, and the Ion/Kyle thing hasn't been touched on so I it's hard to see whether it makes since or not yet.

Sounds like a pretty silly and unnecessary explanation to me, but then most retcons are. And the Ion thing hasn't been touched on, in all likelihood, because of how little sense it makes. Presumably it lived in the Central Battery with Parallax, because where else are you going to keep giant anthropomorphic avatars of cosmic emotions? But Kyle was never connected to the Central Battery before it was destroyed. Again, presumably, Hal had both Ion and Parallax in him after destroying the Corps, which might be why he was able to control time and space as a villain while all Kyle-Parallax could do was screw with peoples' heads. And, for some reason, when Hal died reigniting the Sun, Ion remained there with the power from the Central Battery until Kyle beat Nero for it while Parallax hitched onto Hal's soul and became The Spectre, because the big green guy's power hasn't been trivialized enough in years, now he's a doormat for a big yellow grasshopper.

But like I said, it shouldn't be the fans' jobs to try and decipher a story like that.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

No plot holes there. According to Rebirth, Hal was infected with the Yellow Impurity by Sinestro when he entered the Central Power Battery way back in 1988 (at the end of the first GLC monthly), which thereby explained why Hal's personality suddenly shifted from Uber-confident Alpha Male to a Self-Doubting Thomas going through a mid-life crisis (and explained away the gray hair). It was the destruction of Coast City that allowed Parallax to get a real foothold within Hal's mind though. Once he entered the Central Power Battery again, Parallax grafted itself onto Hal's soul (thereby allowing him to survive Hal's suicide during Final Night).

Yeah I was gonna post this. Thanks for doing it. I can agree that Parallax played a part in Hal's loss and sadness. But Jordan should have still been the guy who took blame. That he was in the drivers seat and fueled Parallax.

I didn't agree with the POW arc since now Hal has nothing to push himself for. No long mistakes on him or past sins.

[David Walton]

I didn't agree with the POW arc since now Hal has nothing to push himself for. No long mistakes on him or past sins.


It's kind of like the last minute reversal Marvel pulled with Onslaught, where Magneto "infected" Xavier with his hatred and absolving him of personal responsbility.

The thing is that Onslaught as Xavier's personal demon made more sense, and even though I never read GL long before Hal's descent into madness I think it made sense. The thing is, you could create circumcstances for virtually any hero that could plausibly lead them down a dark path.

I like the idea of him finding absolution as the Spectre better, and then returning to his role as GL instead of the argument that he was never evil. But then, I can definitely see why Johns didn't want to deal with that baggage.

[Captain Mobra]

How much you wanna bet that there'll be "The Return of Parallax" in ten years time, after folks (including certain people who wanted him back) realize "yeah, actually Hal really IS pretty boring...".
If by that you mean "When Hal-fans die or give up on comics", which really doesn't look like it's going to be soon.

[Zero Hunter]

Even with all the minor retcons to Hal going nuts I can live with it since we are now getting some of the best Green Lantern stuff we have ever had.

[Froggy]

I'm pretty sure Ron never wanted to destroy the entire Green Lantern Corps and that the Emerald Twilight story wasn't entirely his idea, but a collaboration of interests between himself and DC's editorial department who were shaking up all of the main titles at the time. Having been a Hal fan since I was four years old, at the time I was very pissed off by the idea of Hal becoming a villain, but it was silly as hell to have any severe emotional attachment to any character in hindsight, considering what they do with superhero characters on a regular basis nowadays.

I don't think Hal made a good villain. The snapping point where Hal flips out and attacks the Corps and the Guardians seemed forced to me. And the eventual outcome of him becoming Parallax, Zero Hour, was even worse. Hal becoming The Spectre and how he was handled in that series made more sense than him becoming a universe-threatening villain. After reading about Gerard Jones' idea for Hal, I think I would've been happier with him becoming the Ion-like entity he had in mind than anything else.

That said, I loved Ron's run on the book with Kyle, and I quickly liked Kyle as a main character, in spite of how he came about. I'm glad he got the chance to write a fresh character with a clean slate on the book for a little while, and it gave Hal's character time to simmer before someone was ready to do something big with him again, which we probably wouldn't have seen otherwise. So, while I dislike the course taken with him in becoming Parallax and destroying the Corps, I think that it paid off more in the long run than anything else they would've tried.

what was GJ's idea?

[Jack Zodiac]

His idea was for a set of Guardians to come out of nowhere claiming to be the real Guardians and turning the Corps against itself and Hal was going to be the champion of the real Guardians and try to rally Corpsmen to their side. There was something about the Zamarons involved, too; they were trying to mate again and the children of their next coupling with the Guardians would be even more important and powerful than the Guardians themselves. And the fake Guardians brought Sinestro back to face Hal, and in the end Hal takes the power of the Central Battery and becomes The Protector or something like that, basically an Ion-like character who's a Green Lantern with internalized powers.

But yeah, it sounded awesome- Hal becomes more important that just a Green Lantern, the floor's open for a new main character to take his place, but he can stick around as this "more-than" character, kinda like they did with John when he became a Guardian himself in Mosaic. And no one had to die, especially not the entire Corps.

[Micro]

His idea was for a set of Guardians to come out of nowhere claiming to be the real Guardians and turning the Corps against itself and Hal was going to be the champion of the real Guardians and try to rally Corpsmen to their side. There was something about the Zamarons involved, too; they were trying to mate again and the children of their next coupling with the Guardians would be even more important and powerful than the Guardians themselves. And the fake Guardians brought Sinestro back to face Hal, and in the end Hal takes the power of the Central Battery and becomes The Protector or something like that, basically an Ion-like character who's a Green Lantern with internalized powers.

But yeah, it sounded awesome- Hal becomes more important that just a Green Lantern, the floor's open for a new main character to take his place, but he can stick around as this "more-than" character, kinda like they did with John when he became a Guardian himself in Mosaic. And no one had to die, especially not the entire Corps.


That actually sounds like a great alternative to the story they went with. I heard they didn't go with it because they wanted something resolved quickly, which is a bad reason to rush everything. I agree no one should have had to die, and I prefer this idea to the way the introduced the "Ion" thing. It would be cool to see it as an Elseworlds story at very least.

[Froggy]

His idea was for a set of Guardians to come out of nowhere claiming to be the real Guardians and turning the Corps against itself and Hal was going to be the champion of the real Guardians and try to rally Corpsmen to their side. There was something about the Zamarons involved, too; they were trying to mate again and the children of their next coupling with the Guardians would be even more important and powerful than the Guardians themselves. And the fake Guardians brought Sinestro back to face Hal, and in the end Hal takes the power of the Central Battery and becomes The Protector or something like that, basically an Ion-like character who's a Green Lantern with internalized powers.

But yeah, it sounded awesome- Hal becomes more important that just a Green Lantern, the floor's open for a new main character to take his place, but he can stick around as this "more-than" character, kinda like they did with John when he became a Guardian himself in Mosaic. And no one had to die, especially not the entire Corps.

wow! that's actually kind of awesome!

[PretenderNX01]

Even with all the minor retcons to Hal going nuts I can live with it since we are now getting some of the best Green Lantern stuff we have ever had.

I totally agree. The only thing that makes the Green Lantern concept different from all the other heroes DC and Marvel have, is that he's not different in his universe. He's a member of an entire corps with the same powers and all with the duty of policing the universe. There's whole stories of political intrigue and cover-ups going on, new Rules in the Book of Oa, more Corps for other colors and the fact that two Guardians left the 12 two become Blue ring wielders.

Oh, that's right, that's how Johns explained the very necessary retcon of Hal actually aging.
Since none of the other heroes aged and went gray, by comparison Hal aged more than he should have. So yes his graying hair needed to be undone. In a shared universe why would Hal suddenly age more than Bruce Wayne?

[Babylon23]

I'm not sure I understand why the Kyle fans are complaining so much. Kyle is still alive and still part of the GLC. He hasn't gone nuts in a poorly conceived story, turned into the lame villain for an awful company-wide crossover, died, or been resurrected as the Spectre. The character is still there, and sales permitting, he could have his own series at any time. That's certainly a lot more than Hal fans got back in the 90's.

DC have set up a situation where fans of all the GL's can be happy. If you want a Kyle book, petition DC for it. If enough people ask for one, you'll get it.

Before anybody asks, no I wasn't a member of H.E.A.T. I'm just curious as to why Kyle fans can't just be happy to have both Kyle and Hal alive and well.