Who's This? A space cop.
The facts: A complete, science-oriented revamp of the Green Lantern concept, Hal Jordan first appears at the dawn of the Silver Age in Showcase #22 (October 1959), credited to John Broome and Gil Kane (at Julius Schwartz's direction). The Green Lantern of Sector 2814 would graduate to his own series in May of 1960, after already having co-founded the Justice League of America. Hal would share his book with Green Arrow in DC's first "relevant" comics 10 years later, and eventually with Green Lantern Corps in the 1980s. After the Crisis, his origin would be updated in Emerald Dawn, leading to a renaissance for the GL brand. Though Hal is in rotation with John Stewart and Guy Gardner at first, he eventually becomes his own book's main star, at least until the Death of Superman storyline destroys his contextualizing city and drives him insane. He becomes a villain - Parallax - destroys the Corps, has his spot usurped by new Lantern on the block Kyle Reiner, sparks the Zero Hour event, and then redemptively dies in Final Night. But that's not the end of Hal Jordan! He takes on the mantle of the Spectre until he is resurrected in 2004's Green Lantern: Rebirth. With hot writer Geoff Johns at the helm, his book becomes a bestseller for a long while, thanks to limited-scope events like the Sinestro Corps War which eventually takes the whole DCU into Blackest Night and Brightest Day. Because of his popularity at the time, he pulls a Batman in the New52 (i.e., doesn't get totally rebooted). Post-Rebirth (the big Rebirth, not just his Rebirth), Grant Morrison writes him in two "seasons" of a "space cop" type series (The Green Lantern).
How you could have heard of him: A new Hal Jordan series was launched as part of Dawn of DC. Many also remember Ryan Reynolds' live action film, though few claim to like it.
Example story: Green Lantern #24 (October 1963) "The Strange World Named Green Lantern" by John Broome, Gil Kane, Frank Giacoia and Joe Giella
Before Mogo, there was... the second story in this issue (which got the cover instead of the Shark headliner). Now, as with the original Green Lantern (as discussed last week), a comic relief sidekick was part of Hal's formula, but by 1963, it looks like Thomas Kamalku is a fairly serious, angsty supporting character with a hot wife. Like an Inuit Peter Parker or something. Now if they can only stop calling him by his racist nickname. To add insult to injury, the Guardians have sent Hal away, forcing him to ditch on Tom and Terga's dinner party. Well... it's a big Sector.
If fact, the weird planet at the center of this story is in Sector 18 of GL's "quadrant"... had they not set Galactic Sector nomenclature in stone yet? Subsectors within Sectors, I guess. Regardless, a mystery is afoot: How can a Thomas Kamalku be on some random planet and also at home eating for two? GL tracks us back a bit, basically remembering that weird cover. A continent in the shape of a person (of GL in flight, actually) and fires a yellow missile from its "fist" that makes Hal crash down. He's soon being attacked by the planet itself!
And soon his villains start showing up, much like Tom now just did. But every time, Hal flashes his ring on someone or something, it vanishes. In a coincidence to end all coincidences, the ring acts like a "truth detector", just like it did in the Golden Age story we covered last week! And then, the planet speaks:
The planet SPEAKS? Yes, and it has a story to tell. It entered our galaxy a billion years ago and has been alone since, every planet it crossed paths with dead worlds that couldn't answer its telepathic calls. Sad! And then Green Lantern flew by and it made contact. Finally, a mind (even if it's Hal's). And so it drew him to the surface. Look at those panels again... It was trying to EMBRACE HIM, trying to give him familiar faces! So... "Can we be friends?"
But then a quake! Something cancerous has been growing inside the planet's core, where it cannot reach. But maybe GL can. Hal drills down and finds a "mass of pulsating fire"... heartburn, I guess. #Relatable
Some interesting ring tricks here - haven't seen a boxing glove or fan in this story YET - including creating water to douse the fire, and ultimately what I would describe as one of those claw machines to lift the mass out of Planet Green Lantern. Would you believe this works? Well, it does:
The "fire" cools and becomes a moon, and Not-Mogo is happy that it won't be lonely anymore. So are they saying this thing is sentient? It did attack Hal like it had a mind of its own. And since it was in the planet's core (no explanation), is it... an offspring? Is this how these planets procreate, and Planet GL was never told about the birds and the moons? Inquiring minds want to know! It's just that Hal doesn't really have an inquiring mind (are you tired of Hal is dumb jokes yet?), so he never really asks.
Hal is the basic bitch Green Lantern, and while I've generally liked his adventures over the years, he's not my favorite GL. Who is? Well... we'll get there.
Who's Next? A RELEVANT space cop.
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