Hal's gray temples

[304]

Some are forgetting, I think, that the reason why they did what they did with Hal and brought in Kyle was to shake things up and attract a younger audience...they needed big events *i.e. Death Of Superman, Emerald Twilight, Broken Bat* to boost sales and they needed to attract younger readers.

They did it with Batman by giving Robin is own book and making a new, edgier Batman

They did it with Superman by bringing in the Supermen and Superboy

and they did it with GL by bringing in Kyle.

Point is...to have Hal come back as in his 40s again, that would've destroyed the point of the past 10 years of GL comics...attract younger readers.

[Trey Strain]

My attitude about it was that you had younger Lanterns in Guy, John and later Kyle. So it was not harmful for Hal to be older, and it gave him a gravitas that I liked.

I think Geoff has kind of gone off-track. Hal has been Parallax and the Spectre, and he's possessed all the power of the Central Power Battery. I think those experiences should have aged him, and I mean that in a good way.

[Colonel Xonic]

Point is Hal + Grey= Bad
Hal + Parallax + Grey= Good
KC Supes looks pretty good with the grey temples.

[304]

They experiemented with making the heroes older in Kingdom Come. I still didn't care for it...

I think that they should all stay in their early 30s except for the JSA, I think that their should be a mentoring affect for some of the others.

Like in WANTED when Alan Scott just commands attention from Hal, I thought that was a powerful statement.

[Mister Ed]

Personally, I never had a problem with the grey hair, though it WAS a bit odd that Hal was the only hero of his generation who was showing any real signs of aging.

[Mister Ed]

But if Hal was the Greatest Green Lantern, wouldn't it take more than the short amount of time between Vol.2 and Vol.3 to get such a grip on him? To affect the man who is suppose to "overcome great fear"?

Such a grip? It turned some of his hair grey. And maybe colored his thinking a bit. It didn't get "such a grip" until Coast City was destroyed. And the whole idea was that it was a subtle effect. No matter how iron a will you have, it is difficult to bring it to bear against an enemy whose existence you are unaware of. (And bear in mind that, in Rebirth it took FAR LESS time for Parallax to get a much STRONGER grip on John, Guy, and Kilowog, with Kyle resisting due to his unique (among those GLs, anyway) ability to actually FEEL fear.)

And frankly, I don't really know how much time there was between the end of Vol. 2 and the beginning of Vol. 3. Quite a lot of stuff happened in that interval. Several months at least, I would estimate, but you know comic book time...

[304]

But if Hal was the Greatest Green Lantern, wouldn't it take more than the short amount of time between Vol.2 and Vol.3 to get such a grip on him? To affect the man who is suppose to "overcome great fear"?

[Mister Ed]

yes, Hal's grey temples were hinted at Parallax getting a foothold in his psyche...but he went grey in the 80s didn't he? Thats a long damn foothold...especially since Sinestro hadn't been in the CPB for that long to influence Parallax into getting his foothold in...

Actually, he had. Sinestro ended up in the CPB at the end of Vol. 2. Hal had the grey temples from the beginning of Vol. 3.

[304]

Johns is Parallax...good point! He is rewriting history so things "can be better"...which is subjective.

yes, Hal's grey temples were hinted at Parallax getting a foothold in his psyche...but he went grey in the 80s didn't he? Thats a long damn foothold...especially since Sinestro hadn't been in the CPB for that long to influence Parallax into getting his foothold in...

I agree though. I never was a huge GL fan, I was drifting towards Superman, in the 90s because Hal looked old enough to be my grandpa...the grey temples and the obviously older lines in his face just made him impossible for me to relate to...which is why I liked Kyle...chronilogically speaking Kyle was most likely 20 or so when he recieved the ring...which is why he seemed so immature, young looking and in awe of Superman and the League...which is also what made Kyle a fun character, cause we got to watch him grow up in all aspects.

I didn't like the grey temples in Hal, but I loved them in Parallax...made him seem wiser. Plus, did anyone notice how old he looked when he faced off against Cyborg Superman ??

[Dr. Naysay]

Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Tim Drake Stephanie Brown* and now Damien Wayne

*Stephanie on her "Death-bed" asked Bruce if she was ever really Robin or if it was just a ploy to get Tim to come back Batman told her she was truly Robin for that time
Technically, Bruce only did go through four Robins as Damien didn't get the nod 'til Dick took over but the general public doesn't know Batman is now the former Nightwing

Well I was talking about when Hal had the white hair... which was about the time Tim Drake showed up.

[Colonel Xonic]

lol Good point

[ion.nai]

Who cares? The whole age concept has been Geoff-conned anyway.

I love how Mr. Johns makes it his mission to rewrite the history of GL as he sees fit. Much like Parallax Hal tried to re write the history of the universe.

[Fearless]

Who cares? The whole age concept has been Geoff-conned anyway.

[ion.nai]

I couldn't help but notice all the posts about Hal getting older-- Hal's age wasn't the reason for the gray hair. The reason was that Parallax had infected Hal before-hand, and the gray hair was a sign of fear (At least that's how Geoff explained it...)

True, but when the hair first appeared it was due to age. The gray was never added with Parallax in mind.

[Fearless]

I couldn't help but notice all the posts about Hal getting older-- Hal's age wasn't the reason for the gray hair. The reason was that Parallax had infected Hal before-hand, and the gray hair was a sign of fear (At least that's how Geoff explained it...)