Justice League - Darkseid War - Green Lantern
Or why this comic with too many hyphens is one of the best Hal Jordan issues ever written.
I’ll start off with saying I don’t particularly enjoy for the way Hal has been written in recent years because while the core of his personality is still recognisable, his subtleties have been overlooked. Tom King manages to bring some of that back while exploring what it means to be human and divine. It’s the sort of thing that has an impact even if one isn’t familiar with Hal’s history with Parallax.
However knowing the events of Emerald Twilight definitely makes the story more meaningful. We know at one point Hal despaired at the ruins of his hometown and made a similar decision to attain great power, but refused to let go of it. While later issues retconned his actions to being under the influence of a space bug, I couldn’t help but think of it as he asked the Mother box ring to destroy itself. If the events of Zero Hour had gone the way he intended it to, would he also have given up that power like he had after fixing Oa? Personally I thought it was unlikely, but I appreciated the parallels nonetheless.
This issue canonises Hal’s Jewish origins and makes it clear in a way the previous mentions in a more obscure series was unable to. Although it was explicitly mentioned in his Spectre run, it didn’t become common knowledge until now. While this comic makes clear that his father wasn’t particularly religious, it isn’t far fetched to assume neither was his mother. The Jordan’s have been shown to celebrate Christmas even in Spectre.
This isn’t the first time Hal has interacted with his younger self, the end of Geoff John’s run on Green Lantern had a younger Hal mistaking his older self for their father, but while that interaction occurred almost immediately after the crash that killed their father this time it’s after the funeral. This time his younger self is a lot more emotional and raw over the events as he’s had time to process what happened, but not enough time to start moving on.
And if that wasn’t enough, Doc Shaner’s art is absolutely gorgeous and it’s definitely worth reading just for the artwork. I also really enjoyed the Green Lantern take on Lightray’s costume to the point I’m genuinely disappointed it was only a one off and not continued for his Renegade stint.
