Friday, March 06, 2009

Pic of the Day 19

I don't just collect toys, I've got a growing collection of comic trades. Green Lantern has always been a favorite super hero of mine, way back when I was a kid I probably heard of him through the Super Friends show, and didn't know much about him. I've since learned that Hal Jordan was really lame before he became evil.

Evil Cousin Derek and I have discussed how we really are interested by stories where the good guy eventually becomes the bad guy, so naturally, the story in which Hal Jordan goes a little crazy and decides to kill or de-power all the Green Lanterns, and kill the Guardians of the Universe and absorb all the Green Lantern energy was something I was interested in.

Also naturally, I really like Hal's replacement, Kyle Rayner. I don't have any of the hate that many Hal Jordan fans have (you know, seeing their favorite hero become a mass murderer and be replaced by some two-bit comic artist), and in fact he's still my favorite Green Lantern, though I also quite like John Stewart from his Animated Series' appearances, and Hal got much more interesting once he embraced his darker side and became Parallax and tried to reform the universe in his image, was stopped, was convinced (by Kyle) to try to stop the sun-eater, subsequently died, became the host for the Spectre, and was eventually resurrected and reinstated as a Green Lantern, apparently he went all Red Lantern (Rage) for a little bit, and then put on a Blue Lantern ring (Hope). I don't think he's been Yellow or Orange or Pink yet (Fear, Envy and Love, respectively), but hey, he was dead, maybe he can still be a Black Lantern (Death).

Anyway, it's a good story about Hal rejecting the rules and regulations of the Guardian and using the ring's power for entirely selfish reasons, and consequently becoming one of the most powerful villains ever (and getting a much cooler costume, but I'm always a sucker for armor), and the calling of a new Green Lantern, the first to have no yellow weakness (which was eventually given to all GL Corps members, once the GLC was reinstated), and the first to have to train himself, there being no Green Lantern Corps left to train him.

Okay, I'll stop talking now. These posts are supposed to be about the picture, with little commentary, but obviously I failed on this one.

Remember Kids: Thinking about things isn't the same as doing things. Otherwise everybody would be in jail. - Scary Go Round

2 comments:

Marissa said...

Wow. Hal has quite the history. I didn't realize how complicated he was.
I still think of John Stewart as the only GL, just because of Animated JLA. I haven't seen any other GLs in action.
So this is the story where he goes evil and destroys the Guardians? You threw out quite a few story lines, so I wasn't sure.

ryanlb said...

Yes, this is the one where he goes evil and kills everyone.