hi hi hi hi I found out about Hal Jordan TODAY and am going so autistic over him it’s insane can you please give me a rundown on what his deal is I think you’re the Tumblr Green Lantern guy
omg hi, insane compliment btw, tysm! i'm glad to give you a rundown!! also definitely check out @katmaatui for more hal info, red is SUPER knowledgable abt him. @rillette, @catboyollie, @halcarols, @starsapphire and @yellowcorps (along with so many others that i cant think to tag off the top of my head) have some great hal takes too! (edited the post just to tag more ppl)
apologies if this is a bit rushed/messy, i'm doing this while i smelt stone in minecraft LMAO
that being said... i think this will be a long one, so more below the cut :3
(cw for light mentions of pedophilia, abuse, canon typical violence)
okay, so hal jordan is the first human green lantern of the GREEN LANTERN CORPS. it's important to note that there was technically a human green lantern before him (alan scott, originally from earth two/the justice society, but integrated into main DC canon after crisis), but his power comes from a different source- which is a whole different ballpark that would take ages to explain, lol, so i'll move on from that.
hal was originally introduced in a showcase issue in 1959, but ended up getting a solo run in the mid 60s because of his showcase issues doing well. he's been a test pilot, middle brother, compassionate, rule follower (although being surprisingly liberal for the time) with an interesting relationship with star sapphire carol ferris since those first appearances. for the first 20 odd years of his appearances we had no information on his parents, but we got a lot from other family members, such as uncle titus, cousin hal jr (aka airwave), younger brother jim jordan and older brother jack jordan. through the 60s and 70s those members of his family were developed along with him; with the audience learning that jim's wife sue thought jim was green lantern, rather than hal, and hal himself training his cousin, hal jr.
the most known version of how hal got the ring in the first place is probably based off of geoff john's rewrite in the mid 00s, reiterating the original story of abin sur crashing onto earth and dying, leaving hal with his ring to be trained by sinestro and the rest of the glc, while also changing miniscule details that had been developed in emerald dawn 1 & 2 (which was released in the 90s, more on that later). the main premise of abin sur's crash has stayed the same, but the story around hal's current life, job, family and stability keep changing. for instance, the original comic with abin sur in showcase only showed hal getting the ring, the guardians choosing him. the first rewrite i can think of was emerald dawn volume 1, published in 1989 and continued in emerald dawn v2 (1991). here we get the classic hal watches his father die in a plane crash with carol ferris beside him as a pre adolescent, and some of the biggest implications of the mistreatment from his father. we also get introduced to hal, despite his stick to the rules, straight edge attitude, making some serious mistakes and putting people in danger and even death- with the implication of alcohol abuse. the audience HAS known hal used to be in the air force since sometime in the late 60s or early 70s (sorry, i don't remember the exact issue!), but emerald dawn shows us that hal's moved on from the air force and into test piloting, and that his mother keeps having to bail him out for making mistakes. emerald dawn vol 1 shows the abin sur moment, followed by fights that cost hal's friends life, and is followed up by sinestro training hal in emerald dawn vol 2, where we get to see the iconic scenes of hal finding out about sinestro and his... dictatorship.
along with that; how the guardians and rings are treated and hal and the glc's perception of them is vastly changed over time. in the early days of gl in the 60s, the guardians were really never to be seen. hal was repeatedly summoned to them and then had his memory almost fully wiped- only leaving a vague notion of his orders. the guardian's called hal to them at seemingly the worst times, ending up with him almost getting injured, getting in trouble at work, and even ending up jobless and homeless. the chaos of being a green lantern has been around the WHOLE time, but originally, the green lanterns didnt really... fight it. the guardian's were their masters (and even father figures, to hal) and not to be questioned. the rings in the 60s were also much more powerful, despite the yellow weakness (the yellow weakness is the notion that from about the 60s to the mid 90s the green lantern rings were completely unable to be used against anything yellow). time travel, phasing, teleporting, etc were all very viable and common things- as well as forceful shapeshifting, invisibility, mind control, mind reading, etc etc. these days, writers have dampened these powers down to mostly shooting light and constructs.
okay, it's parallax time. the emerald twilight arc from the mid 90s wasn't an arc that was as thoroughly planned out over a long period of time as it probably should have been. a lot of fans at the time (and even now) hated what happened there, and claimed it ruined hal's character entirely. i can understand why! but, at it's core, the parallax arc is a story about a broken man pushed to the limit, fully grieving his home and family (originally, he lost his brother jim in the destruction of coast city, along with a lot of other family members) and being goddamn fed up with how his "masters" treated him and the rest of the corps. the so called "perfect lantern" (no, he wasn't that much of a rebel, despite what johns wants you to think) snapped and essentially tried to gain as much power as he could to bring back coast city. when the guardians stripped him of his powers so he couldn't, hal became enraged and took down every lantern in his path, just to get to the guardians and that power. long story short, he kills the guardians and absorbs all the energy from the central power battery on oa, becoming parallax- essentially a god. this marks the start of zero hour, an event made by dc to restructure and reset; giving the comics a new generation of heroes. hal destroys the world and remakes it, but is ultimately taken down by kyle rayner, the new green lantern, with the help of the jla, jsa and associates. there are a few more run ins with parallax after this, before kyle convinces parallax/hal that he can make up for all of this by reigniting the sun after it went out- aka killing himself. hal does it, is stuck in limbo for awhile and then becomes the spectre to continue to make up for the horrible things he did as parallax. the spectre is the spirit of god's wrath and vengeance, a weapon used to drag sinners to their very own, self made hells, and scare the shit out of people. the spectre, from it's very first appearance, is a ghost like spirit that takes on a host, and is primarily described using christian terms and is used in a very... christian ideology. HOWEVER, the spectre 2001 confirms that hal is jewish (jewish mom, catholic dad) and that belief system, plus his personality as a whole, literally makes him change the spirit of vengeance into the spirit of redemption, for at least as long as they are bonded. the whole parallax to spectre arc is about grief, pain, cycles of abuse and terror, redemption and guilt. it is NOT about a fear bug that possess hal. (im so serious though, the spectre 2001 is one of the best comics ive ever read. amazing. changed my world view) but... geoff johns changed all of it, decanonized the spectre, and ruined the legacy of parallax and hal's growth as a person by releasing green lantern: rebirth in 2004/2005. this retcons hal's breakdown and journey through grief into him BEING POSSESSED BY AN ENTITY CONTROLLED BY SINESTRO THAT FULLY CHANGES PREVIOUS GREEN LANTERN CANON AND IMPLICATIONS. also, fucks up the importance of kyle becoming ion, but whatever. geoff johns writes hal (and even more so, carol) so very wrong, and change their stories so vastly in ways that go against the stories very meanings.
SIGH.
now... time to get started on some rougher stuff. hal jordan misconceptions. i'm saving that arc for last.
- hal jordan wasn't much of a rule breaker or rebel until the 70s/80s, where he BEGAN (very slowly, mind you) to be radicalized by oliver queen during denny o'neil's green lantern/green arrow. hal was painted as more of a conservative during this period (which, admittedly, kind of goes against previous canon... he's always been relatively central to liberal, not to any extremes like ollie though, lol) but gets more and more understanding of how power structures work and how lower classes are mistreated during this time- which ends up opening his eyes a bit to how shitty the guardians are. (this is helped by the guardians literally just. leaving. the green lanterns and kind of disbanding them so they can go fuck the zamarons, lmao). geoff johns tried to change this narrative into making hal a very... maverick-from-top-gun type of character, who punched his way out of the military (when, in reality, the original story during emerald knights in the late 90s was that hal had been framed for stealing a jet and was dishonorably discharged, which he took the punishment for because he knew someone had to) and hits on women constantly and gets ladies and allat (which, funnily enough hal was awful at getting carol to like him for a long time, since carol fell for green lantern rather than hal. not to mention the awkwardness of carol's proposals or hal's many, many failed relationships). hal has always been insecure and lowkey boyfailure, he is NOT a top gun maverick tom cruise sorta guy! fuck you jeremy adams!
- hes not that much of an idiot asshole. hal can be a real dick, he's had that going for him since the beginning, but he isn't what you read in batfam fics. he's not stupid and shouldn't be the laughingstock of the justice league. i assume this idea started from the obsession with batfam and the fact that the jla has quite the history of ignoring hal and his issues (as well as. all of their issues. theyre not so great at work life balance), but it's gone too far. hal isn't making fun of the robins and pissing bruce off bc of that. hal isnt fooling around on the job 24/7 (he takes being a gl and pilot VERY seriously, although he does enjoy some danger and high stakes) or slacking off to get girls. again. not top gun maverick.
- hal has not been a creep since the beginnings. hal was not weird with carol in the 60s. things were weird between them, yeah, but that's based off circumstance and the craziness of star sapphire and green lantern. he was NOT being horribly sleazy! i hate that i even need to say this, but i see this take too much not to
- going off of what was said above, lets discuss the arisia arc. if you want to be a real hal fan, this is unfortunately something you need to know about. in action comics, after crisis and the guardians left to go fuck the zamarons, most of the green lanterns fell apart and seperated. a small group went to earth- led by hal and consisting of hal, john stewart, katma tui, kilowog, salaakk, ch'p and arisia rrab. (also sometimes guy gardner, but that's complicated) previously to this arc, hal treated 14 year old arisia like a beloved little sister, welcoming her and leading her into the corps just like everyone else. things started to change once the timeline gets closer and closer to crisis, where arisia starts showing that she has a crush on hal (who is roughly 30s at this point). any advances made by arisia are shut down by hal at the beginning, because she's a child. now, it's unfortunately a common thing to just call hal a "pedophile" because of what happens in this arc- but it really isn't that simple. still weird and icky, but definitely not to the degree of which some fans like to act like it is- esp to attack hal fans for, which is... an odd choice regarding how many fucked up things every character (esp male characters) did back in the day. arisia ends up using her power ring to artifically age herself up, making her body AND MIND into that of a young adult (the comic makes this very clear). once this happens... hal stops rejecting her. they get together, they kiss. the only person in the group of green latnerns who actually has an issue with it is john (salaakk is meh about it, but he just doesn't like human-esque romance no matter what), and katma even directly encourages their relationship. kilowog ends up crushing on arisia as well, and guy gardner hits on her repeatedly throughout the whole period. eventually, hal and arisia break up, but this legacy (thank so much englehart, for wrtiting this. /sarc) is a big controversy among the comics crowd. "is hal jordan a predator?" personally, and i know a lot of friends/mutuals/other gl fans choose to erase the arisia arc entirely (versus how canon ended up retconning it to be 14 earth years is equal to that of an adult and she didn't really get super ages up, or whatever) and go with the familial relationship between hal and her. that's my preferred version! i know red (@katmaatui) has explored that version as well as an alternate version where the arisia arc did happen, and how it affects arisia in particular, which is really depressing but super interesting. anyway, it's complicated and weird and nuanced, but that whole occurence doesn't mean hal's a bad character or person (cause yk. retcons) and it's certainly not bad to like his character. (definitely ignore any guy gardner fans who try to bitch about this arc. cough cough. guy was ALSO into her and hit on her repeatedly. smfh) most people who bring this up to demonize fans didn't even read the arc, and don't know the nuance or the other weird shit that happens in it. (hal is not a horse, sigh)
OVERALL NOTES!
hal jordan is a super complicated character with an extensive history spanning from the 60s to his worse written appearances in modern age. it's okay to like any version of the character, but it is important to note the changes that have been made, the storylines butchered and lost, and more. he has quite the legacy, and he's particularly interesting as from a moral standpoint. hal's a real sweetie though, when it gets down to it! he's neurodivergent coded (imo at least.. his dad very much gets onto him for being disrtracted, hes kinda shit at social interaction (and then amazing at it the other half of the time) etc etc. "spacecase") and his dad is an abusive asshole, who he desperately doesnt want to be like but thinks he NEEDS to be like!
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Pink Really Is Your Colour
This is just a repost from my ao3 because I feel like it belongs here too
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The fact that Edwin was faster than Charles was… less than ideal when Charles had to escape Edwin.
Or
Charles plays a prank and gets his comeuppance :)
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Edwin had always been faster than Charles. Not that he minded, that is, Charles knew that he was stronger and it was one less thing to worry about in a fight. He would never tell Edwin that he preferred it this way, because it meant that if they were ever running away from some evil monster, Charles would be the first line of defense, the first one that that thing would reach. He would always put himself between his best mate and any danger that was after them.
But. The fact that Edwin was faster than Charles was… less than ideal when Charles had to escape Edwin. Had to escape him right the fuck now, in fact, and no matter what he did, Edwin remained hot on his heels.
Fingers snagged at his jacket and it was only by sheer luck that Charles managed to shake them off and keep running, taking a sharp corner in an effort to put some distance between them.
“Look, mate! This isn’t necessary! I said that I was sorry!” He yelled this over his shoulder, breathless despite not needing to breathe, in a last-ditch effort to appease his friend. Maybe get him to grant Charles some sort of mercy.
He continued to dodge in and out of people on the sidewalk when, suddenly, Edwin finally caught up with him and grabbed hold of his wrist, pulling them through a reflective enough window and back into their office. Charles had a sneaking suspicion that Edwin had only allowed him to stay ahead for so long in order to tire him out.
He hated that it worked.
Realizing that Edwin had placed himself in the way of both the door and the mirror, and that he wasn’t going to be phasing through any walls unless he fancied a pretty long drop, Charles spun around to face him. Keep it together Charles, now is not the time to lose it.
“Heyyyyyyyy Edwin. What’s uh, what’s up?” Oh yeah, that was real smooth.
Edwin took a step forwards and Charles took a matching one backwards. “What’s up? What’s up? Charles, what is up is the fact that you, for some inane reason, thought that it was a good idea to place a balloon filled with paint above the doorway and then pop it when I walked in.” Edwin took another step, and Charles matched it. “That is what’s up.”
The best part was, it wasn’t just any paint. It was bright pink and magicked to be immune to any ghostly attempts to phase through it paint. This meant that Charles was currently being scolded by a very colourful, paint-covered Edwin. And that made it a bit hard to take anything he was saying seriously.
Actually, it made paying attention to anything he was saying difficult, seeing as the vast majority of Charles’ focus was on not laughing in his friend’s face.
“Okay. Look. There is a perfectly reasonable explanation for this!” I just have to think of one.
If Edwin’s eyebrows rose any further, they would be floating above his head. And probably dripping pink. Chalres nearly choked on his—non-existent—breath at the visual but managed to keep himself under control. “And what, pray tell, is your explanation for this,” he said, gesturing at the pink droplets that had begun accumulating on the ground. Not even their run had managed to dry the paint and it was still seeping through Edwin’s clothes.
“It...” Come on, think of something. “Was…” Literally anything. “An accident?” Except for that. Anything except for that.
Edwin let out an incredulous scoff before taking a deep breath, pressing his hands together and looking upwards as though pleading for patience, or maybe just mercy, from some sort of deity. “An accident.”
“Well—”
“An accident!?” Charles took another step back and bumped into the desk, he quickly sidestepped to give himself some sort of maneuverability. “Charles. An accident is forgetting a book here in the office. An accident is tripping on an uneven floorboard and phasing halfway through a wall.”
The paint was still dripping off of Edwin and Charles’ lips began to twitch.
“What an accident is not,” he continued, “is filling a balloon up with hot pink, ghost-proof paint, then very carefully positioning it over an entryway that I use, and then, with impeccable timing, popping that balloon so that I was then covered in said paint. Also, the fact that you started running the second it happened does not lend any credibility to your innocence.”
Edwin had ended that sentence in a prim and proper fashion, voice even and arms clasped in front of him like a gentleman. A gentleman who was still, if he might add, dripping pink paint onto the floor.
Charles couldn’t help it. A small giggle slipped out. Then another. Within seconds he was doubled over in laughter, wiping non-existent tears from his eyes. He glanced up to see Edwin trying very hard to keep up his stern facade, but he couldn’t hide the way his eyes danced with mirth or the way his jaw tightened ever so slightly when he was holding back a smile.
Couldn’t hide it from Charles at least.
“Mate, Edwin,” Charles got out between wheezing laughs, “if it makes you feel any better, I think that pink really is your colour.”
Through his renewed laughter, he sees a fond smile make its way across Edwin’s face as he looks down on Charles. It stubbornly remains there as Charles straightens up, softening his face and making his eyes crinkle in a way that made him look like a regular sixteen-year-old boy. It was a good look on him.
Then, that smile shifted into something much more mischievous and Charles felt a nervous twisting in his gut. Edwin starts casually moving towards him again, prompting Charles to resume walking backward.
Thump. And that’s the wall. Edwin’s smile grows just the slightest bit sharper, the look of a predator that knows its prey is trapped. He slowly wipes his hands along his coat, gathering up the still-damp paint onto his hands.
Charles raises his hands in front of him in a feeble defense, a wobbly smile refusing to be tamped down. “Edwin. Come on. You really don’t have to do this.”
Edwin lifts his paint-covered hands towards him and says, “Oh Charles. I think you’ll find that yes, I really do.”
And then he promptly shoves his hands under Charles’ jacket, smearing the paint all over his sides and up his ribs, fingers digging in in an effort to spread as much paint as possible. Charles find himself doubled over for the second time today, hands on his ribs frozen still at the sound of a choked-off squeal.
Charles looks up from his position curled around Edwin’s hands and the mischievous grin on his face has turned downright evil. An experimental curl of the fingers earns a small shriek and Charles grabs desperately onto his friend’s wrists.
“Edwin. Edwin, please. We can talk about this!” He was trying to press himself as closely against the wall as he could. Also, he could’ve sworn that Edwin wasn’t this strong a few days ago but his tugging was doing nothing.
It definitely wasn’t because Charles didn’t mind this. The playfulness and the affection sparking a warmth in his chest that he wasn’t all that eager to get rid of.
Definitely not.
“I don’t think we need to talk about this at all. In fact, I feel as if you’re doing far too much talking.” And with that, fingers are scribbling against his ribs once more and Charles lets out a near-piercing shriek before falling back into frantic laughter.
Edwin had to raise his voice to be heard above the noise, “Maybe this will teach you to not pull pranks such as this on me again, don’t you think?” Charles’ knees buckle, sending him sliding down the wall as he furiously shakes his head. “No? Well, that’s too bad, maybe I should try somewhere else.”
Charles was slumped on the floor now, soft giggles streaming from his mouth as he watched Edwin lower himself next to him. “Edwin! Edwin no! Nononono wahahahait!” His hands had found their way to Charles’ knees, squeezing around them before abruptly switching tactics which almost had Charles phasing through the fucking floor, holy shit.
Edwin bunched his fingers on his kneecaps before slowly, torturously, spreading them outwards. In. Out. In. Out. As a result, Charles’ laughter went high and squeaky, his hands desperately shoving at Edwin’s and yet not making any progress in actually getting away.
“So, Charles, what do you say?” Edwin spoke casually as though he wasn’t taking Charles apart piece by piece, “Do you promise to refrain from pulling your little pranks?”
“Like hell I will!” Look, Charles has a reputation to uphold, alright? He can’t be seen giving in after such little effort. It sets a bad precedent. So, he rallies himself and sends a kick flying towards Edwin.
Who catches it.
What the fuck?
The room goes quiet as they both stare in shock at Charles’ leg wrapped up in Edwin’s arm. They then look at each other, eyes wide, and start cracking up, laughing over the absurdity of it all.
But, when Charles goes to tug his leg back, Edwin’s grip tightens. The nervous butterflies come back in full force as Charles hold his hands out in supplication. “Edwin, please.”
He doesn’t even know what he’s asking for any more. Please stop, because it’s unbearable and I can’t handle it? Please keep going, because I love feeling close to you and this is a display of how far we’ve come?
It didn’t seem to matter much as Edwin made the decision for him. Suddenly, there were five fingers dancing across the soft underside of his knee and Charles’ laughter went silent almost immediately.
“I’m terribly sorry, Charles,” said Edwin who didn’t sound sorry at all, “but I’m afraid that I’ll need your word that you won’t attempt this foolishness again.”
It took him all of three seconds to yield, frantically slapping his hand against the floor. “Okay! Okahahay I give! I promise!”
“What is it that you promise, exactly?” Oh, that smug bastard.
“I prohomise that I won’t play any more pranks! Please, Edwin!”
Finally, Edwin released him, allowing him to properly curl up into a ball to soothe his tortured knees, giggles still leaking sporadically out of his mouth.
Charles only looked up again when he felt a slight breeze that usually accompanied his friend’s particular brand of magic and heard the snap of a book being closed. Lo and behold, there stood Edwin, completely spotless, and when Charles checked himself there was no smear of pink paint in sight.
He looked very pleased with himself when he spotted Charles gaping at him. “You had a cleaning spell this whole time?!”
“Why yes, Charles. Yes, I did.” Charles could practically hear Edwin laughing at him through his voice.
“Then what was all that for?!”
“That,” said Edwin with no small amount of amusement, “was to make sure that you wouldn’t do something like this again. I might not be so lenient next time.”
What?! “Lenient?! Are you out of your mind?! You practically killed me!”
“Now Charles, don’t be so dramatic,” Edwin offered a hand to help Charles up, which he made sure to take while grumbling the whole time, “you’re perfectly all right. And frankly, that was rather adorable.”
Charles felt heat rushing back to his face, the memory of blushing making itself known even though he technically didn’t have blood anymore.
Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately depending on which side one’s on, technicalities don’t matter much when they’re both getting settled on the couch, Edwin having already chosen which book he was going to read to Charles. Before Charles could lie his head down, Edwin softly brushed his knuckles against his cheek and said, “You know, pink really is your colour.”
Damn ghost rules. “Yeah yeah, why don’t you get to reading.”
He could feel Edwin’s chuckle reverberating through his chest as he pressed his ear against the space where his heart would be. “So you can dish it out, but you can’t take it? Is that what this is?”
“Ugh Edwin, mate, I am literally begging you to shut up.”
“Or else what?”
“Or else I’m going to burn a hole in the floor and wallow in there for the rest of forever.”
Charles’ eyes fluttered shut as Edwin ran calming fingers through his curls. “Alright, alright. We wouldn’t want that to happen. Now, where were we? Ah yes. All children, except one, grow up…”
As Edwin’s voice carried the tune of the story and Charles felt warm from the inside out, he knew that everything was worth it for days like these.
Everything was worth it for him.
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