But why are they #1 in your eyes? (a more elaborate "favorites" thread)

[Guest Close Satyrquaze]

Kyle is my favorite because he has an abundance of imagination. That's is what it would realistically take to use a Power-Ring on a fundemental level, sure you could have all the willpower in the universe... you might be able to blast things into nothingness all the time, but then the Power Rings become little more than weapons, and I don't think anyone will disagree when I say they are more than that. What do you do if a starship is disintegrating around it's occupants.

One needs imagination to properly use a Power Ring. That is why Kyle appeals to me, I was that kid, who sat in math class doodling on my paper and couldn't for the life of me figure out Algebra (which requires a lot of... math) to save my life despite the fact that I was a natural at Geometry (which requires some imagination)

Kyle made his first appearance when I was in high school, and I really liked what I read. ET got me into the Green Lantern mythos, but it was Kyle (a guy who could have been me if little blue guys and power rings were real) that kept me there.

I readily accepted Hal as Parallax (a hero who had suffered far too much) and then later as the Spectre, a mentor to Kyle, giving him sage advice when he needed to.

Kyle is my favorite because he's like me in a lot of ways, He's creative, He's proven his worth time and time again. He's always repected all those who came before him and he's earned the respect of those same people.

I see a lot of people on this site and others who say that Hal can do no wrong in their eyes and yet they continuingly disagree with Hal on one point.

Hal respects the hell out of Kyle for all he's done, he even told Sinestro to respect him, and yet...

[Kane2814 Weaponer of Qward Find all posts View Profile Close Kane2814]

The reasons why Hal's #1 for me:
-- Fearless test pilot who has the "right stuff". These men were a breed apart - ridiculously capable, intelligent and daring. Their control at the stick was always countered by their ability to let loose when they weren't in the cockpit. While not exactly a wild man, Hal was definitely one of the more personable of the "stiff uptight" heroes of the silver age - he was close friends with Superman, Ollie and Barry.
-- Of all the original Justice Leaguers, he seemed the most naturally himself. We all know Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman had "alternate ID's" that were almost separate personalities . Martian Manhunter, Aquaman, Wonder Woman and Superman were all torn between two worlds or outsiders in some way. Flash comes the closest, but Hal always seemed like Hal - he was daring and heroic in or out of uniform and didn't really have psychological issues that made him decide to put on a pair of tights to fight crime - it was a responsibility bestowed upon him because he was already worthy and he answered the call.
-- In addition to doing things like jumping out of a burning plane to recharge his ring from the Manhunter, he also jumped out an airlock (with a powerless ring) into space to retrieve his battery and once used his last bit of energy to trace his stolen battery while 50 feet in the air (and yes, he figured his way out of the problem on the way down). Hal is a "man of action" - he represents the best notion of (if you read the book "Blink") rapid cognition, the power of thinking without thinking. It's a fancy term for instinct and going with your gut, but it is a way of operating that works for some (musicians, athletes). It's about being in the moment, the polar opposite of Batman who thinks everything through and tries to anticipate every contingency. Someone like Hal knows one can't anticipate everything, but trusts in himself to take on whatever comes.
-- His willpower: despite having the most powerful weapon in the universe, it's only as good as the person who wears it and Hal was considered the best. His will is something innately his own, *that's* not something that was handed to him or the result of a botched experiment.
-- I never really understood the "too perfect" criticism - doesn't every hero almost always do the right thing, beats the bad guy and saves the day? Is it his confidence? His competence? Is it the fact that being "totally fearless and honest" is touted as part of the job description? Maybe it's because he's comfortable in his own skin? (something most comic book geeks like myself aren't) All the big iconic heroes of DC's silver age were perfect in their own way. Hal had his niche among them (the fearless space cop) and it was the one that appeals to me the most.

[Brother Eye Green Lantern Initiate Find all posts View Profile Close Brother Eye]

I like GL as a concept (when it is not being watered down and writers are wimping them down) so therefore I like them all and don't have a #1. The one thing I will agree with Geoff Johns on is "Green Lantern is cool, period." Nuff said fanboy.

[Big Daddy Dave Skywalker Moisture Farmer Find all posts View Profile Close Big Daddy Dave Skywalker]

I fell in love with Hal Jordan as a kid. I found him on the Superfriends cartoon, and the guy just looked friggin' COOL. I'm watching it, and though Superman, Batman, WW, and Robin were well known to me, there were these other guys that interested me. And who's this guy with the green and black costume? I remember the voice being amazing. It was over the top rigidness the way the guy played the lines, but what a cool voice! For some reason, they must've known Hal was from California, because he had the best tan on the show, lol.

Anyway, I discovered GL comics after that, and though I had my flirtations with Marvel heroes, it was really the DC pantheon of second tier characters that kept me coming back to comics. Yeah, Supes, Bats, and WW were the ones all the other neighborhood kids liked, but I liked MY heroes a little more on the fringe side. Little did I know how many other fans out there there were of GL, Flash, Aquaman and the other heroes that tickled my fancy!

Joe Staton was the guy that was drawing GL when I got into the book, and was drawing it again when I got really hardcore about it later on, so I'll always identify with his version on a personal level. A lot of people don't like his cartoony style, but I did. His Hal was great.

As for Hal, I firstly liked his costume. The Kane green and black design. Just enough white thrown in. The pointed shoulders look, the cool domino mask (that would never conceal a secret ID in real life, but was cool anyway). Hal even had badass hair! Hal also had about the coolest job a boy could imagine. A test pilot? He tested jets for a living? How could you beat that? He was like one step down from being an astronaut!

In the comics (when done right that is), Hal was confident. He wasn't an ass or anything, he just had this macho confidence. and he got the girls. Hal wasn't Peter Parker or Ronnie Raymond, who were designed to identify with the problems of the youth of the time. Hal was designed to be the guy we all WANTED to GROW UP to be. If he had a fault, it was that he put up with this selfish bitch, Carol Ferris all the time. I kept hoping he would lose her and take up with one of the women they would introduce from time to time, or just play the field. It was only later that I realized how much Carol Ferris meant to the strip.

Hal also had the two coolest best friends any guy could ever hope to chum around. One was a left wing crazy nutjob that made the more conservative Hal look like a straight man. The other was so nerdy he made Hal look like a wild party animal. But the two of them were my second and third favorite heroes ever. I just loved the whole clique! I liked the way Hal was portrayed with both of those guys. They were completely different, and lent themselves to completely different sets of dialogue, but Hal could basically be written the same way and you could see him in a different light when he teamed up with other guys. I liked how the rest of the DC heroes looked up to and at Hal Jordan. He also had a guy who was in between a sidekick and a supporting character in Pieface. Different time, and he doesn't work now as Hal's toesucker, but it was cool back then.

Also, I liked how from time to time, and especially later on, Hal would start to question the Guardians. Here was this guy who was supposed to be the cookie cutter superhero and cop, and he was questioning his masters?? What, did Ollie rub off on him after all those years? Yes and no. It just kind of made sense that the Oans would start to be depicted as secretive and not always the chummy good guys we grew up with. Hal responded appropriately, as he was our window to see all this stuff through. It was like he was growing up with us (okay, at least me anyway), and took a better look at the world around him.

One thing I always liked about the Hal Jordan character was how every writer took it as a right of passage to from time to time tell a story of how Hal Jordan overcame obstacles WITHOUT his ring to protect him and get the job done. This ties in to Hal having this amazing and dangerous test pilot job. If he has a weapon to protect him and can never get hurt, where does tha bravado and manhood come in? Well, I loved the stories where he would lose the ring, lose it's charge, or hell, just leave it in his locker. Him flying without the ring has been going on for years when the writer thought to do it right. And remember how Carol got Hal to give up the ring, and then he had to go toe to toe with the Predator? Remember the story where the Predator kidknapped Carol, and Hal had to fight the fight of his life to save her? Even the STORY was called "Macho"! I remeber him putting on all this shit to protect himself from the Predator's claws and even arming himself with a gun to go after him and save his woman. I was like 11 years old reading that thinking, "Hal's not even a GL anymore and he kicks ass!". It was an image that stayed with me as a comic fan to this day (thank you Misters Englehart and Staton!).

Yeah, there were writers that wrote things I didn't like and who mishandled the character. Gerard Jones, Ron Marz and JM DeMatteis did a LOT to hurt the character in an effort to make him more believable. But the image of what Hal was, and what made him my all time favorite character was FIRMLY planted in my mind by then, and NO amount of mishandling could take that away. So it was with welcome arms that I've embraced Geoff Johns' take of Hal Jordan. I think Geoff NEEDS to take the time to write some more character driven stuff for Hal to do and should do a better job of it. But overall, the current series takes me back to what made me fall in love with the Green Lantern to begin with. Hell, Geoff even tackled the age old question of WHEN was Hal leaving his ring in his locker going to come back to bite him in the ass?? Now we know.

And it was a really good story, told only as it could be with Hal Jordan.