In 1993, DC Comics issued Green Lantern 48 and 49, labeled “Emerald Twilight.” It was the latest case of a the comics group making major changes in a popular character simply because the shock value would sell a few more books than usual that month.
That’s why they “killed” Superman and had Batman break his back and become paralyzed, to be replaced with the new and improved Batman — this one even more psychopathic than the original has become.
The end result was that Hal Jordan, driven by grief at the loss of Coast City, tries to resurrect the his home town, only to be stopped by the Guardians. Hal turns insane and kills every single member of the Green Lantern Corps, breaks the neck of Sinestro (his greatest enemy) and then kills most of the remaining Guardians and destroys the Power Battery. He emerges as Parallax, a villain who exists to change the course of history and is the major villain in the then=upcoming “Zero Hour” mini series, which was yet another DC Comics attempt to to retroactively change continuity and sell more books.
Eventually, Parallax died saving the Earth from the Sun Eater in the huge “Final Darkness,” series crossover spectacular. Feh.
LIke the death of Superman and the crippling of Batman, readers just knew it wouldn’t last. They would bring him back, eventually. The only question is how. Hal’s behavior would turn out to be the result of mind control or an evil lookalike, or DS would simply change continuity through a new “Zero Hour” or “Crisis on Infinite Earths”-type cross-over mini- or maxi-series.
The resurrection started several years back when Parallax is discovered in Limbo (not quite Hell, but certainly not in heaven) with other tragic, but flawed heroes. He agrees to become the next host for the Spectre and returns to Earth to redeem himself. For a while, the Hal Jordan Spectre even had his own comic. But, it never seemed to click. Jordan is a hero in the classic mold. He doesn’t fit into the Spectre universe, which is dark and evil.
The spoiler is below:
So now we have “Green Lantern: Rebirth,” a six- issue mini-series.In the recently releases Issue #3 its finally revealed that Parallax is actually an ancient entity that the Guardians had captured and imprisoned into the Power Battery. It is revealed that Sinestro, the evil turncoat Green Lantern, had awakened Parallax, who in turned influenced Jordan into experiencing fear for the first time. Hall succumbs to Parallax’s influence, and that is why Jordan went insane destroyed the Corps.
The Spectre entity chose Jordan as a host in hopes of destroying Parallax and punishing the creature, but Parallax is too powerful and is affecting the Spectre’s behavior as well.
The series tweaks the backstory of the GL Corps and how their power rings work as well. It turns out that the green energy — previously described as green plasma energy — is actually the collected will power of all sentiment beings in the universe. All thought energy exists on a spectrum, and green is simply the color of will power. Yellow is the color of fear. The yellow Parallax being — when it was captures in the heart of the great Oan Power Battery — was the actual “necessary impurity” that for years made the GL’s rings useless against the color yellow.
The art is excellent. The writing is passable, and serves the function of advancing the plot line, and little else.
The questions: Will the Hal Jordan GL take his place as one of the iconic DC heroes? Or will be remain the angst-plagued, flawed, post-modern shell he had become in the 1980s and 1990s.
Will DC put the Hall Jordan character into the JLA, of keep the John Stewart character, which would be consistent with the Cartoon Network version of the character? After all, they dumped the Kyle Rayner character for that very reason.
Now that DC has brought back Hal Jordan, how long until they bring back Barry Allen as the Flash? How long until Jason Todd returns as Robin? It’s inevitable. DC used to boost sales by killing off its major characters, and replacing them with new characters wearing the same uniforms. Now they boost sales by bringing the originals back.
And when will be see decent new, all-original character from the minds at DC? Or will we get a fifth version of Supergirl, a sixth reboot of the Legion of Superheroes or a fifth version of the Doom Patrol?
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