Hal Jordan
Hal Jordan is a male comic character that features in DC Comics.
Contents |
Biography
Origin
Hal Jordan was the son of Martin Jordan (Green Lantern: Emerald Dawn v1 #1) and Jessica Jordan. (Green Lantern v4 #29) He was one of three brothers with him having an older sibling named Jack Jordan and a younger one named Jim Jordan. (Green Lantern v1 #9)
As a child, his father operated as a pilot where he held the rank of Lieutenant and went by the call sign Bishop. (Green Lantern: Emerald Dawn v1 #1)
In the aftermath, his mother did not want her son to enter into the same career as his father and forbade him from going back to Ferris Air. Hal promised but had an intense desire to fly like his father and snuck onto another airfield in his early teenage years with him being caught by the staff. This led to his mother taking him back home where she was angry with her son. (Green Lantern v4 #29)
Despite his mothers objections, he joined the Air Force which created a wedge between him and his mother as she did not want to see him in the same speciality as his father. (Green Lantern v4 #29) Hal instead continued on the career path with his mother cutting ties with him and not speaking to him again. (Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps v1 #12) By adulthood, his mother suffered from cancer in the pancreas with the doctors advising that anything upsetting could trigger a range of physical problems. Thus, Hal was told by his brothers not to visit their mother as she could suffer more as a result. The next day, he had an altercation with one of his superiors and punched him leading to him being discharged from the Air Force. He then decided to visit his mother in the hospital as he fulfilled his promise of meeting her out of the service but he was informed by his brother Jim that she suffered from a complication and had passed away. His brother Jack blamed Hal and attributed their mothers death to him. (Green Lantern v4 #29)
Whilst at Ferris Aircraft Company, he operated as a test pilot in a trainer of his own design when the machine was taken the crash-site of Abin Sur's vessel who had used his Power Ring to select a worthy replacement. Upon gaining the ring, he decided to use its power to become a superhero but decided to keep his true identity a secret. (Showcase v1 #22)
Green Lantern
The Guardians of the Universe later summoned Jordan to their home world by creating an energy duplicate of him as they had learnt that Abin Sur had died and had only then received the news due to an ion-storm disrupting communications to Earth's region of space. After he recounted events, they determined he was a worth successor and allowed him to remain as Green Lantern where they erased his memory of the encounter as they deemed that they would wait until a proper time before they introduced themselves to him. (Green Lantern v2 #1) He later encountered the Weaponers of Qward when he met with a Qwardian named Telle-Teg who was one of a number of his people that sought to escape the evil rule of the Anti-Matter Universes rulers. (Green Lantern v2 #2)
Parallax
Spectre
Jordan journeyed into the Spectre to battle Asmodel for the Spirit of Vengeance with Neron entering into the conflict to claim the power for himself. However, the Spectre Force restrained all three in order to judge them and ultimately decided that Hal Jordan would become its new host. Thus, Hal was transformed into the new Spectre with this appointment being blessed by the Presence. The Spectre defeated Neron and Asmodel whereupon he restored the damages done to the city before embarking on his new mission as the Spirit of Vengeance. (Day of Judgement v1 #5)
Rebirth
The Corps discovered a badly wounded Tomar-Tu who revealed that he and the other Lost Lanterns had been prisoners of the Manhunters. Around this time, there was still resentment among the Green Lanterns over Hal Jordan due to his actions as Parallax with some Corpsman attempting to attack him though he was aided by Guy Gardner. Jordan then petitioned the Guardians over launching a rescue mission for the remaining Lost Lanterns but he was denied was deemed an emotional reaction. Furthermore, they stated that there was a threat of reawakening the Manhunters in Sector 3601 and that Hal should not stray from his assigned sector of space. Instead, they said that they would launch their own mission at a latter time though Jordan ignored their command and took Gardner to rescue the Lost Lanterns. (Green Lantern v4 #11)
Upon being returned to Earth, he attempted to resume his life with Carol but came to struggle with losing his status as a Green Lantern. This was until Sinestro arrived where Jordan attempted to attack him but he was effortlessly defeated. The Korugarian offered Hal another chance and created a ring construct linked to his own thus deputising him as a Green Lantern. Together, they helped save civilians on Earth when a bridge collapse that was caused by a Sinestro Corpsmen that had arrived on the planet to kill Sinestro to claim his position as leader of the Yellow Lanterns after he was deemed a traitor. Sinestro revealed that he wanted Jordan's aid to help free his homeworld of Korugar which had become enslaved by his Yellow Lanterns. (Green Lantern v5 #2)
The New 52
Overview
Personality and attributes
He noted on himself that he was his fathers son whilst his brother Jim was their mothers and Jack took his own path. Hal looked up to his father was a hero where he always attended his test flights at the airfield. He was willing to be late at school or be leaving early from school in order to attend these events. After watching him fly in the morning, he would sit with his father in the cockpit and share a meal from his brown lunch bag. This was to the extent that he asked his mother to make his fathers meals for him as well. (Green Lantern v4 #29) It was his fathers death that led to Hal becoming a pilot as flying was the only way he could learn who his dad was as he was very young when Martin Jordan passed away. By adulthood, Hal's father was always on his mind when he flew as it helped him to think his dad was in the air with him. (Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps v1 #28)
His choice to become an Air Force pilot drove a wedge between himself and his mother with him never being able to reconcile with her as she died and this being a regret in his life. (Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps v1 #12)
Whilst referred to as 'the Greatest Green Lantern Of Them All', Hal admitted that he was not comfortable with that term. (Justice League of America Wedding Special v2 #1)
Powers and abilities
Upon being given the Power Ring, he could achieve anything that he could will to happen though a yellow impurity meant that he initially could not affect objects that were coloured yellow. (Showcase v1 #22) After forging his own Power Ring, the device was unlike any other Green Lantern ring as it was tied to Jordan's own will. As such, he could not truly be separated from it and it was a part of him with him able to sense its location even if the ring was taken from him. This link allowed him to summon the ring even if it was trapped in a containment barrier. He could also command it to work for another person and set commands to it for that individual such as telling it to take the other wearer to safety. (Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps v1 #38)
One construct he used to communicate with comrades in space was a headset that latched onto the ears and Hal called greentooth. (Brave and the Bold v3 #2)
He could apply the green beam to himself to turn him invisible. (Green Lantern v2 #2) Whilst able to travel at high speeds, the extreme speed limits could cause his construct to lose integrity as the willpower was not able to go at such levels with the threat of a Speed Force singularity forming. (Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps v1 #28)
At one point, he had trained his Power Battery to come to him when he called for it. (Brave and the Bold v3 #1)
For a time when he was a renegade, Jordan took the Power Gauntlet of Krona that had the combined strength of over 10 Power Rings. The gauntlet responded to his thoughts allowing him to create extremely powerful constructs. However, its interface was sensitive and even reacted to the most stray of thoughts that came into his mind such as knocking someone that he did not like but did not intend to hit.
During a brief moment, Hal Jordan became a god-like being following Darkseid's death when the Mother Box that guided the Parademons sought a new master to wield it. Jordan accepted leading to the Box merging with his Power Ring to create the Mother Ring as he became the new god of light. With his new powers, he reversed time to prevent Oa's devastation and the deaths inflicted by the Parademons whilst even going back in time to his childhood in order to console his younger self after the death of his father. Jordan, however, removed this newfound divinity and returned to being a mortal once more. (Justice League - Darkseid War: Green Lantern v1 #1)
Notes
- The Hal Jordan Green Lantern was created by John Broome and Gil Kane where he made his first appearance in Showcase v1 #22 (October, 1959).
- Writer Grant Morrison in DC Nation v1 #4 (2018) commented on the character, "He's like a cowboy trying to survive in the 21st century in a lot of ways. I think there's a kind of 1970s-cinema feel about Hal Jordan that goes back to the fact that Gil Kane based him on Paul Newman to a certain extent... With Hal, I think it's so simple and direct. That's why it comes out as giant hands, and giant hammers, and giant nails-very, very specific physical things."
- Morrison later commented on the character, "The Hal Jordan character has been around since the 1950s, and he’s one of the few characters whose history has gone pretty much unchanged through that whole time… [H]is personality has changed quite radically through that time. He’s gone from being this test pilot, this man without fear. Then John Broome came… basically DC’s own version of the Beats generation back in the 60’s. He looked at Jordan and obviously wanted to bring him on a similar kind of journey he was on. It was kinda the whole Jack Keroic The Dharma Bums, the Beat on the road trying to find yourself. I think that has always wrung through the various iterations of Green Lantern... I love that sense of disconnection, of dislocation. Some of the American astronauts, Buzz Aldrin and people have talked about having coming back from space and finding it really difficult to deal with the life on Earth after seeing this giant perspective. And that’s only from the moon. This is a guy who’s been to the other side of the galaxy,” the writer continued. “He’s seen planets where it’s a utopia, where people live for thousands of years, where the political system is perfect, where they don’t use money and capitalism is a distant memory. And he comes back to this and it’s like coming home to the village, you know, the mud hut that is Earth. How do you reintegrate? And I loved the way Broome played that… to just try different versions of himself."
Alternate Versions
- In Justice League America v1 #72 (1993), Hal Jordan as Green Lantern appeared in a dream-world setting crafted by Doctor Destiny where the Justice League imposed their totalitarian rule on the world. Jordan was manoeuvred into the position of Vice-President in the United Stares government and took control from the President in this world.
- In Superman & Batman Generations III (1999), Hal Jordan operated in the 1980s where he became President of the United States of America and had married Carol Ferris. During his term in office, he ordered the deployment of Kryptonite against Superman after he witnessed him killing Lex Luthor though the sample was taken by Bruce Wayne, Junior who operated as Batman. In 1997, Sinestro began targeting all Green Lanterns for elimination and pursued Alan Scott along with his successor Kyle Rayner on Earth. During the battle, Jordan took Rayner's Power Ring and overcame fear allowing him to defeat Sinestro. For his actions, the Guardians of the Universe made him a member of the Green Lantern Corps. In 2008, as Green Lantern he participated in the battle against Metallo who held the transplanted brain of Lex Luthor.
- In Superman: Red Son v1 #3 (2003), Hal Jordan of Earth-30 was a decorated United States Air Force pilot who fought in the Cold War and was caught by the Soviets in the battle in Malaysia. After returning, he was selected by President Lex Luthor's Project: Green Light where he became part of the newly formed United States Green Lantern Marine Corps against Superman.
- In Superman/Batman v1 #14 (2005), the timeline was altered by the actions of the Legion of Super-Villains who sought to change history by raising Superman and Batman. Their actions included Cosmic King being on the day when Hal Jordan was flying his plane and using his magnetic powers to destroy the craft to prevent him from being chosen to be a Green Lantern.
- In Countdown: Arena (2007) parallel versions of various characters were taken by Monarch to fight one another in order to develop an army to serve him. Among them included Hal Jordan of Earth-5 who was his Captain Marvel's worlds version of Green Lantern. A further one was Hal Jordan III of Earth-12 who was the grandson of Hal Jordan in the future in Batman Beyond.
- In Injustice: Gods Among Us v1 (2013), a prequel of the video game series showed the rise of the One Earth Regime when the alternate world's Superman accidentally killed his wife Lois Lane along with their unborn child. Hal Jordan was the Green Lantern of this alternate universe where he sided with High Councillor Superman in order to bring order to their world. The authoritarian and near tyrannical rule of High Councillor Superman provoked the Guardians of the Universe and Green Lantern Corps into defeating the One Earth Regime. During the battle with Ganthet's forces, Hal Jordan was stripped of his power ring and instead got a yellow ring from Sinestro making him into a member of the Sinestro Corps.
- In Justice League v2 #26 (2014), the New 52 version of Earth-3 showed a version of the character known as Harold Jordan. He was shown as being a coward who desired power but was scared of everything and lacked any willpower. Jordan worked at Ferris Aircraft where he spied on Carol Ferris as he desired her but was discovered by Carl Ferris who was ready to beat him to death when Earth-3 Abin Sur arrived on Earth. Sur's arrival killed Carl Ferris and Abin Sur offered the Ring of Volthoom that gave ultimate power to Harold Jordan. He would take it only to learn that the ring was cursed and that the dying Abin Sur gave it to him in order to free himself. Jordan became the supervillain Power Ring whose emotions were regularly fed upon by Volthoom with Harold becoming part of the Crime Syndicate that escaped the destruction of their world to the mainstream Earth. He was killed in a battle with Sinestro and the Ring of Volthoom passed to new a bearer named Jessica Cruz.
- In Green Lantern: Future's End v1 #1 (2014), a possible future had a war fought when the survivors from Earth-2 came to the main Earth bringing a conflict with Apokolips that saw thousands killed. During this time, Hal Jordan's mother was killed and he decided to abandon his role as leader of the Green Lantern Corps as he did not want to leave Earth unprotected again. He lived a seemingly bachelor life when he was visited by his father in an undead state who warned him that the dead Krona had taken over the Black Lantern Corps. Hal thus broke his vow and took the battle to Krona with the help of Relic with the fight taking place at the Source Wall. Relic channelled the Emotional Spectrum into Jordan to defeat the Black Lanterns but this comes at the cost of his life with his body turning into stone as it came into contact with the Source Wall.
- In Convergence: Green Lantern v1 (2015), the Zero Hour Parallax featured who was the corrupted Hal Jordan with his timeline city being abducted by Brainiac and placed on Telos. Within the city, he reverted to being Hal Jordan and remained in prison with Kyle Rayner visiting him. This was until the Convergence when his power was restored and he sought to defend Coast City from Electric City where he destroyed it despite Rayner attempting to stop him. In Convergence v1 #8 (2015), Parallax killed the supervillain Deimos that had kept the various cities hostage and travelled back in time with a number of superheroes to avert the Crisis of the Infinite Earths thus changing the timeline. In Green Lantern v5 #48 (2016) Parallax was shown to be in the current universe where he sought to prevent the tragedies of his timeline such as the destruction of Coast City with him deciding to eliminate the Hal Jordan of the main universe.
In other media
Television
- In Justice League Unlimited, the character was introduced into the DC Animated Universe where he appeared in part of the episode "The Once and Future King" and voiced by actor Adam Baldwin.
- In Green Lantern: The Animated Series, the character was one of the primary characters where he was voiced by actor Josh Keaton.
- In Justice League Action, Hal Jordan as Green Lantern appeared in the animated television series in the episode "Ringer" where he was voiced by actor Josh Keaton once again.
Films
- In Green Lantern: First Flight, Hal Jordan as Green Lantern featured in the 2009 animated film where he was voiced by actor Christopher Meloni. He said that his uncle was a good man who worked as a police officer in the Coast City police who led his nephew ride in the police car and play with the siren.
- In Green Lantern, Hal Jordan appeared in the 2011 live-action film where he was portrayed by actor Ryan Reynolds.
- In Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox, Hal Jordan appeared in the animated movie where he was voiced by actor Nathan Fillion. He was among the Justice League members that responded to the Flash's distress signal and arrived at the Flash Museum to help disarm Professor Zoom's future technology bombs that were implanted on the Rogues with the devices threatening to severely Central City. Similar comic storyline, a separate reality was accidently created as a result of Barry Allen going back in time to save his mother. In this altered timeline, Hal Jordan was a pilot in the United States military who never became Green Lantern. He was called by General Sam Lane to his facility in order to pilot the deceased Abin Sur's starship that carried a nuclear weapon which was intended to be deployed against the Atlantean armada. Hal was onboard the refitted ship that was heading towards the Atlantean flagship when the Aquaman of this world summoned a sea monster that swallowed the craft causing it to explode prematurely thus killing Jordan.
Videogames
- In Infinite Crisis, the character appeared as one of the numerous Protectors available to the player where he was played by actor Adam Baldwin. Alternate reality versions of the characters were playable as well that included Atomic Green Lantern from a post-apocalyptic radioactive wasteland and Arcane Green Lantern that resided on a mystical Earth.
- In Injustice: Gods Among Us, the character was playable in the video game where he was voiced by actor Adam Baldwin.
- In Injustice 2, Hal Jordan returned as a playable character in the fighting video game sequel where he was voiced by actor Steve Blum.
Appearances
- Showcase v1:
- Green Lantern:
- Green Lantern: Emerald Dawn:
- Green Lantern: Emerald Dawn II:
- Green Lantern:
- Justice League of America v2:
- Justice League v1:
- Green Lantern:
- Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps v1:
External Link
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