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Kyle Rayner and Hal Jordan || Green Lantern and Parallax

Green Lantern Vol 3 #63 (1995)

art by Darryl Banks

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It's a missed opportunity that despite Roy Harper and Jason Todd hanging out now there's been never any tension between about them or exploration of their differing approaches and perspectives on the drug crisis. Particularly because for both of them it is deeply personal.

Roy Harper.

Roy became addicted to drugs in the 1971 comic Snowbirds Don't Fly which was Neil Adam’s and Dennis O'neill's attempt to tackle the "youth's greatest problem!" drug use and addiction. I feel like all most people know is that Speedy took drugs and Ollie took it badly, but that honestly ignores the whole point of the story. The story challenged contextual stigma around addiction and drug use as a personal failing or something that only happened to weak people. It explored how it could happen to anyone, even a hero like Speedy. It focused on the social factors such as racism and poverty and how they push people into substance abuse as a way to cope. It even turns the trope of the evil foreign drug cartel on its head by making the guy behind the drug supply a wealthy white American man in who runs a Pharmaceutical company, doesn't do drugs, and actively mocks the people he profits off the suffering of.

The point therefore is twofold. Firstly, drug users are people just like you and me and it is vital to be compassionate to people struggling with addiction. Ollie who yells at and hits Roy and leaves him due to anger and fear is clearly in the wrong. Hal and Dinah who look after Roy and stand beside him at his friend's funeral and as he confronts Ollie are clearly in the right. Secondly, the solution is not to focus on the drugs but instead to deal with the systemic problems of inequality, oppression, trauma and disenfranchised youth.

Despite parts of it ageing bad (the use of slurs was to demonstrate the damage of racism, but I feel uncomfortable having slurs uncensored in a comic book written by white authors) it is a surprisingly progressive take on addiction for a mainstream 70s DC comic. It also clearly demonstrates Roy's opinion on the drug problem and how to deal with it. He sees anger and going after dealers/manufacturers (like Ollie did) to not be enough. Instead the real change comes from helping the people in that situation by improving their lives and compassionately helping them at their worst.

Enter Jason Todd.

For context Jason Todd has had almost his entire life shaped by trauma of substance abuse. His (adoptive) mother Catherine struggled with addiction and overdosed just months before he met Batman, effectively orphaning him. Soon after he was found by Batman who essentially drafted him into his crusade on crime, not considering that being a vigilante may be potentially damaging for an already traumatised child.

But when he came back in UTRH he decided he could best help Gotham if he killed (largely non-costumed) criminals and controlled the city's criminal underworld himself. After violently assuming control of the drug trade, Jason imposed his own rules for dealers, most famously that he would kill anyone who sold drugs to children or near schools. Later while incarcerated Jason Todd killed 82 Blackgate inmates (and harmed over a hundred) by poisoning the prison food. This mass murder was intrinsically indiscriminate and due to the US prison system it is reasonable to assume people charged with drug offences were included in the death count.

Jason does have deep childhood trauma associated with addiction and drug use and wants to help prevent suffering. That being said, his approach treats drugs as a criminal problem to be eradicated or controlled, not just a symptom of deeper social issues. He kills people who sell drugs to kids, rather than helping building a support system so kids aren't pushed into abusing substances to cope and people don't have to deal to survive.

What does this mean?

Scott Lobdell got details of Roy's addiction wrong and distorted him into a reckless idiot who has been ostracised from the community. But if it was done right their interaction and opposing perspectives/experiences could be really interesting. Both hate drugs and the drug trade, but the way they conceptualise this hatred differs significantly.

Roy focuses on helping the individual and addressing deeper social problems, seeing drugs as a devastating but ultimately symptomatic. Jason sees drug use as first and foremost a criminal issue, with true benefits being achieved through controlling the criminal underworld.

Roy's priority is therefore supporting people struggling with addiction and showing compassion for their situation. Jason doesn't really focus on ways to help the individuals suffering from addiction, as much as mitigating the overall harm and fitting the drug trade into parameters he views as acceptable.

I think it would add needed complexity to their relationship (and to Jason's redemption if we're going that route) as well as dealing with the more 'war-on-drug' elements of UTRH. Also it would help Roy stand on his own as a strong, articulate leader with a dark past rather than being (at least for a while) reduced to essentially Jason's sidekick.

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Why can’t I find a civilian life that suits me?

Hal Jordan in Wonder Woman 80th Anniversary 100-Page Spectacular (2021) #1

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BILLY BATSON WEEK 2024 DAY 1: BEARING THE BOLT + FAVORITE COSTUME →  A few of the various Captain Marvel designs throughout the years.

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Absolute Wonder Woman by Hayden Sherman

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Wonder woman icons

Like/reblog if you save or use

© @batgirlbarbg

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do you have a hal Jordan reading list? Also he's a character that's been around for agesss so I wanted to ask you about your favourite storylines/comic runs with him

WELL it's both a simple and complicated answer. the simple answer: read all of it! the complicated answer: still read all of it but technically not actually :/

1. Green Lantern (1960)

The Beginning. I personally recommend starting from #76 (the beginning of the famed Hard Traveling Heroes arc) and then just reading the whole rest of the run from there, and maybe going back to start from the actual very beginning later. Not that it's bad, per se, just... very notably from the time in both writing and art style and imo takes a little time to get used to. I will admit it's been a couple years since I read this run all the way through so I can't recommend any specific arcs, but as a whole I found it genuinely interesting to read and provides a nice chill way to get comfortable with the lore.

2. Action Comics (1938)

regrettably at the end of his original run gl does get canceled and hal gets booted to having a spot in Action Comics Weekly from #601-635. these are some of my favorites, though! hal's living in hotels, breaks up with arisia, and gets on oprah! a little sillier in places than his original run but overall entertaining and a nice bit of characterization.

INTERLUDE: THE HAL-OLLIE GOOD OL DAYS SPECTACTULAR

-Action Comics Weekly #606

-Green Arrow (1988) #20

-Secret Origins (1990) #50

-Green Arrow (1988) #69

-Green Arrow (1988) #96

YOU WANT THE PAIN OF LOST FRIENDSHIP? THE HURT OF WHAT MAYBE NEVER WAS AND DEFINITELY WILL NEVER BE AGAIN? TRY THIS ON FOR SIZE BABEYYYYY

3. Green Lantern (1990)

the end of acw happens to lead directly and nicely into the 90s gl run. hal's a bit older, a bit more abrasive, and clearly heading somewhere no one wants to go. #1-50 is all hal, and thereafter switches to kyle. i really enjoy this run because if you pay attention, hal's decent into parallax isn't nearly as much of a surprise as you might think. I may be a bit biased due to emerald twilight being one of my favorite arcs of all time, but what can you do.

for more specific recommendations regarding parallax, @ufonaut does have this handy dandy list available which I myself wholeheartedly recommend. It includes Zero Hour as well as Final Night, two major comic events whish are among my absolute favorites as well.

ADDENDUM: Day of Judgment (1999)

here is where hal jordan becomes the spectre. while he doesn't show up until about halfway through, i still find it to be a pretty good read. plus you get this

from here on out hal see's being the spectre solely as a punishment and never truly moves on from that, which contributes to his struggles of accepting his new identity and role.

ADDITIONALLY: I personally find DeMatteis' run on The Spectre to be pretty boring compared to the likes of Ostrander and even Moench, HOWEVER following his demise in Final Night and becoming the Spectre following the events of Day of Judgment, hal's initial period as the spirit of vengeance is.... tumultuous, to say the least. JLA (1997) #35, Green Lantern (1990) #119, and Legends of the DC Universe #33-36 detail that journey spectacularly. hal struggles hard with both becoming the spectre and with the guilt he still carries from parallax. It ultimately culminates in the arc Redemption Lost from JSA (1999) #60-62 in which all those struggles come to a head at once and force hal to give up his attempts at turning the spectre into a spirit of redemption and finally accept his ultimate purpose as the spirit of vengeance.

however! do not fret, as that last story came out in 2004, thus setting the stage for the next part of hal's life.

4. Green Lantern: Rebirth and Green Lantern (2005)

listed together because one is the prequel for the other. yes, I've come to really dislike geoff john and his work in the past year or so, but I unfortunately can't deny that his gl run is. good in places. yes geoff objectively reduces hal to boring space cop and absolves him of all guilt by blaming parallax on a whole separate entity all together. HOWEVER. the main three arcs, Sinestro Corps War (alternating Green Lantern #21–25, #26 and Green Lantern Corps #14–18), Blackest Night (primarily #43-52, but uhhh go here for absolutely everything it's insane), and War of the Green Lanterns (Green Lantern #63-67, Green Lantern Corps #58-60, Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors #8-10). while hal isn't necessarily the main focus in some of these crossover issues, I included them anyhow so you have the full story. if nothing else geoff manages to develop hal and sinestro's relationship EXTREMELY well throughout these arcs, a small favorite of mine being Rage of the Red Lanterns (Green Lantern #28, #36-38) and I regrettably must thank him for that.

5. Green Lantern (2011)

Main focus here is geoff's run, from #1-20. not that vendetti is a bad writer, just..... nothing really interesting happens after geoff leaves, imo. not bad, just not as exciting. hal ended the last run getting kicked out of the glc and has to deal with sinestro getting invited back in. Wrath of the First Lantern is all the more unfortunately probably one of my favorite arcs of all time, a lot of it dealing with how hal and sinestro are sooooo close to being friends yet still on opposite sides of a war. like fellas!!!

FELLAS!!!!!

reading after that is optional, everything in new52 is honestly unreadable and the rest of this run comes pretty close to it.

6. Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps (2016)

honestly no real opinion unfortunately. vendetti is one of those writers who feels like he takes no risks and so most of his work comes off as a little too "safe". again, not bad. just. mostly boring. I can't remember anything of real note happening other than the beginning of it coming fresh off the heels of Cullen Bunn's Sinestro run and immediately throwing away and subsequently butchering any and all characterization made there for the sole purpose of making sinestro a one-note villain again.

7. The Green Lantern S1 (2018)/S2(2020)

Starts off great, ends kinda eh. I can appreciate morrison for tying in all the references to the classics but ultimately falls short. Fine for what it is, though. the Blackstars interlude is honestly the best part of it.

8. Green Lantern (2021)

YES it just started YES it's still REALLY good. you may say it's too early to tell but geoffery thorne is already starting to shine. admittedly hal IS taking a back seat to it all BUT I'm hardcore hoping all of thorne's ranting about how much hal sucks when he's not parallax goes. somewhere.

OPTIONAL: Green Lantern: Sleepers is a surprisingly good novel series by Christopher Priest. unfortunately while no digital copies exist (to my immediate knowledge) you can find the audiobook version on youtube here. book three is the one that focuses on hal specifically, but there are interludes in the first two books which include him still. they all can usually be found pretty cheap on thriftbooks and the like if you ever want a physical copy.

sorry this got so long, but unfortunately I'm.... just not a Specific Rec List sort of person. I find a character I like and consume content until there's absolutely nothing left. Here's hoping this at least gives you a good idea of what's in store for each chunk of hal's history. thank you!

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Hey, question, where can I read Hal’s Full Descent into Parallax?

it's been a couple days in the making and you'll have to excuse the delay but i offer you

The Complete Chronological Masterpost of Parallax

optional context - while hal's breakdown doesn't start until the destruction of coast city, a case can be made that he's not exactly the hero he once was all throughout the nineties run as he's vaguely depressed or otherwise worn out by being a lantern

green lantern (1990) #1-43

dc universe: trinity (1993) #1-2

green lantern (1990) #44

the beginning/reign of the supermen - the annihilation of coast city and all that followed

green lantern (1990) #45 - coast city is destroyed

superman: the man of steel (1991) #26

green lantern (1990) #46-47

superman (1987) #82-83

emerald twilight - hal's breakdown, also the period he starts calling himself parallax

green lantern (1990) #48-50

emerald fallout - the world at large learns of parallax

guy gardner: warrior (1992) #18-21

green arrow (1987) #88

the road to zero hour - relevant tie-in issues

guy gardner: warrior (1992) #24

darkstars (1992) #24

green arrow (1987) #90

zero hour - hal's attempt to make everything right again by rewriting time and its consequences

green lantern (1990) #101

zero hour (1994) #4-0

green lantern (1990) #105-106

green lantern (1990) #0

green arrow (1987) #96

green lantern (1990) #60-62 - epilogues

green lantern (1990) #63-64, annual #4

guy gardner: warrior (1992) #44

final night - hal gives his life to save the world

final night (1996) #1-3

parallax: emerald night (1996) #1

the spectre (1992) #47

final night (1996) #4

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Black Canary reads?

Yes, Black Canary can read.

...

Speaking seriously tho, I've always dreaded that someone would ask me this about Black Canary instead of ANY OTHER CHARACTER cause despite loving Dinah, a lot of stuff she's in isn't good.

The only stuff with "Black Canary" in the title that I actually like is:

- Black Canary and Zatanna: Bloodspell

- Black Canary: Ignite

That's it. I REALLY love Bloodspell and completely recommend it. Ignite is cute

She has 4 solos and all of them are pretty bad. You can read it though! Maybe you'll like it!

They are: Black Canary (1991), (1993), (2007) and (2015)

If you want to experience her appearances in other titles, I'd go:

- The Hard Traveling Heroes Era: Green Lantern (1960): #78-79, #81-84, #86-87 / The Flash (1959): #217-219 / Green Lantern (1960): #93-110, #113-117, #119-122 (I'm obsessed with these books, but Dinah isn't exactly the focus. Still, she's there and she's great)

- Green Arrow: Longbow Hunters (a bunch of BC fans hate it for the way Dinah is victimized, which is an extremely valid point)

- Green Arrow (1988) (deals with Dinah better than it's predecessor and I actually like the portrayal of her and her flaws here. That is a bit controversial tho)

- Birds of Prey (1999) (I have... Some complicated feelings towards this, but it's where you'll mainly get Dinah Lance shining. Her portrayal, especially when you get to Gail Simone, is really good)

- JSA (1999): Secret Files and Origins #1 / JSA (1999): #1-4, #6-14, Annual #1, #15-22 / JSA Secret Files and Origins #2 / JSA Our Worlds At War / JSA (1999): #31-32 (I haven't read these so I can't give you an opinion, but I've heard good things!)

- Green Arrow (2001): #1, #4-6, #8-9, #12-15, #17, #21 (I only like this until issue 21 and I frankly would recommend that you read all of them so it makes more sense), #21, #29, #34, #40 (those are... A MESS)

- Road to the Altar (definitely not a fan, but it's important)

- Green Arrow/Black Canary (not a fan either, but the Dinah here is not the problem, Winick just isn't very good at telling stories)

Then! New 52

- Birds of Prey (2011):

Rebirth

- Green Arrow (2016) (I have my problems, but it's overall kinda fun. I really like Dinah here)

Batgirl and the Birds of Prey

Infinite Frontier

- Green Arrow (2023) (it starts meh and then just gets worse)

- Birds of Prey (2023) (I really enjoy this! Great Dinah and fun storylines)

She's also in a bunch of Justice League stories, but then we'd be here all day.

Link to a complete reading guide:

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Check this out the adult lanterns looking after the (more like babysit) Younger lanterns.

he's listening! he doesn't get it, but he's listening!

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Babys first intergalactic death battle

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I really love your panel redraws! The colors and the inking style looks amazing!!!❤️❤️❤️

TYSM!!! here's todays redraw lol its from. somewhere in the GL 70s run probably. original under the cut :J

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I've been thinking about how one might compose a gltas dnd party for like, MONTHS. And I think I've finally cracked it.

I think Kilowog as a Battlemaster speaks for itself, he trains all the GLs, he's a strategist, etc. Hal I feel like could be really any charisma-based character, but sor/pal is my favorite multi-class, and I think that works (and my brother convinced me to do different subclasses for parallax and spectre so okay). I know Aya should have been some sort of int-based character, but I couldn't pick one i really liked and I wanted to draw her in a big suit of armor and I think cleric works to her nature to want to help others. I had a similar problem for Razer, he's obviously a rouge, but there wasn't a subclass that just SCREAMED Razer, so soul knife it is. And ya gotta have the one-level barbarian for that RAGE babey!!

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Ollie: Yeah I actually knew Connor was my son the whole time :(

Hal, who literally was the person to tell Ollie that Connor was his son:

[ID: A man looking confused with floating question marks around him]

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apparently hal was modelled off paul newman so! little sketches from yesterday between studying

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they should have put more thought into hal's transition from the spectre to being. alive and flesh and blood again. it would be so cool to delve into how he has to get used to being alive again, solely being hal jordan, put back into the box of being mortal and not having that connection to the universe around him anymore. he should be WEIRD and OFF-PUTTING and DISTRESSED

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geoff's rewrite of Hal as always rebellious misses the whole point! Hal is loyal to the point of fault, to the point of destruction, he's fearless because he has nothing to lose, his whole life has been kinda fucking shit (obvi there's his dad but there's also the uh he was kicked out of the air force because he was attacked and he's grateful because they only discharged him, not courtmartialed him thing that no one talks about and the blames himself for the death of his best friend (Andy) thing and just the amount of shit this man has been through in about 15 or so years of service to the guardians) and thus he's fearless, he doesn't care about anything-not even his own life, it makes him loyal, it makes him cocky, he doesn't disobey until Parallax-he doesn't disobey until he lost everything, and suddenly he's scared-suddenly he has a life he wants back, he just wants to make everything right, why can't they see that. He doesn't see himself as disloyal-not even then, then he was just loyal to the people of Coast City, the people who died. He's loyal and that's his flaw, not rebelliousness