The first episode of Lanterns on HBO ended with quite a shock, as John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) was called into the small town of Rushville, Nebraska, to investigate a crime. This happens in the 2026 portion of the timeline. And that crime was the probable murder of the former Green Lantern of Sector 2814, Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler). The local sheriff found his frozen body sitting in the snowy bleachers of the local high school. This has enraged several DC Comics fans, angry that this iconic hero is already dead in the DCU. However, Hal Jordan has died before in the source material. And he actually stayed dead for nearly ten years. So yes, there is DC Comics precedent for all of this.
Hal Jordan’s Fall from Grace
For most of his existence in the DC Universe since 1959, Hal Jordan was a stalwart guy, a test pilot who was painted in a traditional heroic light. However, that changed during the early ’90s. Thanks to fallout from The Death and Return of Superman, Hal Jordan’s hometown of Coast City, California, was destroyed. This happened thanks to the evil schemes of the villainous Cyborg Superman. As a result, Hal went into a deep depression. Despite all his power, he couldn’t save his own hometown and loved ones. So he went to his bosses, the immortal Guardians of the Universe, and begged them to resurrect his home. They flat out refused.
From Green Lantern to Parallax
To say Hal did not take it well is putting it mildly. Despite his reputation as the greatest Green Lantern in the Green Lantern Corps, the Guardians refused to change the course of known events for one man. Hal Jordan went, to use a scientific term, batshit crazy. He entered the central power battery on the planet Oa, home of the Guardians, absorbing its power, killing all but one of them. Hal later went on a rampage against his fellow Green Lantern Corps members, slaughtering them all, including lifelong friends. He now used the name Parallax, and was a bonafide villain. It was a heel turn no one saw coming. Especially after 35 years of portrayal as a cocky but stand-up guy.
Many DC Comics fans did not appreciate this change to Hal’s character in the Emerald Twilight story. Especially when Parallax tried to “fix” the DC timeline in the Zero Hour event. Defeated by the Justice League and other DC heroes at the end of that 1994 series, Hal then began to fully see the error of his ways. In the 1996 event series Final Night, as a way of redeeming himself, Hal Jordan sacrificed his life to reignite a burned-out sun, which had gone out, leaving Earth in a deep freeze. His role as Green Lantern of Earth was now fully that of rookie Lantern, Kyle Rayner. Rayner was now the only Green Lantern in the universe. Hal Jordan went out a hero, saving the entire world.
Hal Jordan as The Spectre
All of that was not the end of Hal Jordan, however. As atonement for his crimes, the soul of Hal Jordan took on a new role in 1999. He became the new host of the Spectre, the embodiment of God’s wrath. Technically still dead, Jordan anchored an ongoing Spectre series from 2001-2003, where he sought his redemption as a vengeful ghost. But to the world at large, Hal Jordan was still a dead man. Hal Jordan wouldn’t properly come back to life until 2005’s Green Lantern: Rebirth by writer Geoff Johns. This series would relaunch the character as a Green Lantern, and explain away Parallax as a fear entity that possessed him. But at that point, Hal had been dead for the better part of a decade.
What Does This Mean for Lanterns?
Does this mean Hal Jordan in Lanterns is headed for the same resurrection story? Not necessarily. We don’t see any evidence of Parallax or any of that stuff in the series. But Hal dying and then finding a way back from the afterlife is completely canon with the comics. So maybe just because Hal died on Lanterns doesn’t mean it’s the last we’ve seen of him in the present-day DCU timeline. So before longtime Hal fans get those pitchforks out, remember this lesson. The DC heroes famously have a strong aversion to staying dead and buried. Just ask the Flash and Supergirl. They might have a thing or two to say about it.
Lanterns is currently airing new episodes Sunday nights on HBO and HBO Max.
The post Is This Lantern Character’s Fate Canon in DC Comics Lore? appeared first on Nerdist.
This articles is written by : Nermeen Nabil Khear Abdelmalak
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