Often times people will ask "who is the greatest green lantern of them all?" - And thanks to Geoff Johns, people say "Hal Jordan". Which is of course ridiculous.  
  
By what measure could Jordan be considered "The Greatest"?  

John Stewart's willpower exceeds his rings capabilities.  
 
Kyle Rayner beat Jordan one on one. He saved the entire universe from Jordan when Jordan was Parallax,  without the benefit of any kind of lantern training.  
 
Its not that Jordan has more strength of will than other lanterns, especially not John Stewart, and he doesn't have a resume of feats that is even close to comparable to Kyle! 
 
Rayner: Defeated the Hal Jordan Parallax, one on one 
Rebuilt the Green Lantern Corps after it had been destroyed  
Resurrected the Guardians 
Weld the power of god (ion power) WITHOUT going insane and trying to bring back his loved ones from the dead, or recreate the universe, etc.  
 
I mean really, I could go on. Kyle Rayner is also a far more interesting character, there's just so much more to him. Jordan is your standard "one of my parents died when I was a kid, that gave me trauma, I'll become a super hero." " An alien crash landing gave me super powers" - Kyle got a ring thrust on his hand in the middle of an insane crisis, beat his predecessor, lost his girlfriend in the process and persevered through it all.  
 
Jordan is most interesting as a tragic anti-hero, the fallen champion trying to rebuild his legacy, but that characterization of Jordan ended years ago.  
 
All in all, Jordan does not have the resume to back up the claim that he is the "greatest green lantern of them all" - that is a bunch of crapola. 

Kilowog.

Sinestro

Sinestro

• Former member of the Green Lantern Corp
• Knows more about the capabilities of power rings than the Guardian would allow
• Leader of his own corp
• Incorporated a safeguard against mutiny within his own corp
• Former host of the Life entity
• Has broken a power ring under stress of use, twice
• Talks down to Hal Jordan upon every encounter

@jsphsmth said:

Sinestro

Agreed. The greatest GL of all time will always be sinestro. He can do things with the ring that would normally exceed the rings capability with no struggle. I don't care if he's "evil" or he "rules with fear and tries to conquer everything." His will power is exceeded by no one. Not Jordan. Not Rayner. And most definitely not Gardner or Stewart.

The willpower exceeding the ring thing is bs. And how the hell does John get to rebuild a whole freaking planet and not get in any trouble at all but Hal almost gets his ring taken away for creating a construct of Coast City?!? Complete and utter bs. But anyway back on topic yeah Hal isn't the best Lantern (though he is a great deal cooler than most IMHO)? And to be completely fair Kyle DiD offer to fix everything that happened with Hal but it was Hal himself who talked him out of it.

@Avenging-X-Bolt said:

The willpower exceeding the ring thing is bs. And how the hell does John get to rebuild a whole freaking planet and not get in any trouble at all but Hal almost gets his ring taken away for creating a construct of Coast City?!? Complete and utter bs. But anyway back on topic yeah Hal isn't the best Lantern (though he is a great deal cooler than most IMHO)

Thank you sir. For calling out Stewarts BULL CRAP, I reward you with a follow.

@ ArturoCalaKayvee. I tip my hat to you sir and offer my heartfelt thanks

@Deranged Midget. Yeah that sounds right I suppose

@royal with cheese 
 
Okay, Sinestro isn't even in the conversation here. First off, "beats Jordan on every occasion" - uh, no. That is downright silly. Sinestro got blasted time and time again by Jordan even WITH the yellow weakness, while Sinestro was using a yellow ring. That yellow ring was the only reason Sinestro was even able to hold his own against Jordan, and when Hal decided "enough is enough",  Jordan broke Sinestro's freakin neck. 
  
If not for Geoff Johns and the stupidest retcon in the history of Comics, Sinestro would have stayed dead and buried, after suffering his final - of MANY - defeats at the hands of Hal Jordan.  
 
Furthermore, Kyle Rayner beat Jordan one on one. Smacked him around and spent a decade as the final remaining member of the Lantern corps, before restoring the entire corps to life.  
 
Kyle Rayner wins this one, hands down. 

@DcMarvelUnity

Johns work with Hal was still massively better than Ron Marz's contrived piece of crap.

Hal>>>sinestro>>>>Kyle

No offense to the blogger here, but I can't remember the last time anyone referred to Hal Jordan as the greatest Green Lantern. He's called everything from jackass to forgetful but they've really moved away from him being some prophetic GL savior. He's a normal man who often screws up but when really steps out when it counts. That's it.
Again, not directing this at anyone in particular, I'm just getting a little bored with the "HAL ISN'T THE GREATEST GL, MY FAVORITE ONE IS" threads.

@avenging x-bolt - No, it really wasn't. I'd take Ron Marz over Johns any day of the week. Geoff Johns chief creative accomplishment goes like this: "I'm going to take GREEN lanterns, see? And then, then! I'm gonna make em RED AND BLOO AND YELLOW TOO" - and fanboys proceeded to hop out of their jeans and worship him.   Pathetic.  Oh, and lets not forget his beautiful "UHMM. HAL JORDAN WAS POSSESSED"  little retcon. Well done Johns,  that's some unique and powerful writing. Way to go. Undue the most interesting thing DC has ever done with one of its characters outside Vertigo in the most slapdash and overdone of ways. Super-dooper.  
 
@Kal'smahboi - DC has spent at least the last 7 years referring to Jordan as the "Greatest GL of all time" - the new 52 doesn't do that as much, but everything before the big reboot has him listed as "the greatest of all time" - and Kyle Rayner isn't even my favorite Lantern, I like Stewart because Mosaic was so darn good. I'm talking 'resume' here, and the way I see it, Kyle is the logical choice to be listed as the greatest...

Kilowog

@Avenging-X-Bolt

And yet Hal being possessed makes more sense than Hal going insane and wiping out everything he ever loved. But who cares right because a bunch of newbies got their EXTREME crab faced Lantern. I mean seriously, no Lantern fan with any integrity would indulge Marz's defaming crap and any who do are either mislead or simply kidding themselves.

It's also pretty damn funny how people slam Johns only when things relate to Hal. Yet Johns brought Gardner out his douchebag stage and if and returned the corps to a level of badassery never seen before.and as for Johnny boy, he couldn't even bring back Xanshi, yet Tom friggin Kalmaku brought back OA

@Deranged Midget said:

Kilowog.

@HolySerpent said:

Hal>>>sinestro>>>>Kyle

Sinestro is the best there ever was. If its a battle between the human GL's, though, I give it to Kyle. An artist is the ideal person you give a power ring to.

@avenging x-bolt - yes it does make much more sense for Hal to go off the deep end the way he did than to have some kind of magical fear entity influence Hal for years without even the slightest hint of its presence being noticed by the billion+ year old guardians of the universe.  
Men in positions of responsibility and power have nervous breakdowns after traumatic events, it happens all the time and made absolute perfect sense in Jordan's context. Coast City was wiped out and right in front of Hal there were beings with the power to undue that devastation - choosing not too. So Hal tried to re-write history. He hadn't intended to permanently kill anyone he cared about, the corps etc, his intention was to gain the power to re-write time itself.  
 
Look, I like Geoff Johns well enough. He's an adequate writer.  He sets up stories really really well but the payoff is lacking a-lot of the time. Marz's run on GL with Kyle Rayner was awesome.  Kyle's first encounter with Nero is fantastic, I just re-read it and it gave me the shivers.  Johns has yet to write a story to compare to that one in terms of payoff, in my opinion. 
 
The Sinestro corps war was fun but it just didn't live up the hype.  It was set up really well, and I was ready to see this huge epic confrontation go down. I was like "holy hell, they have the f'in Anti-Monitor" and then it all falls apart way too quickly, its all wrapped up in a superboy prime temper tantrum and there is just no payoff. Cyborg Superman was the most interesting, emotionally involving character in that story, and he was a peripheral side character who didn't even really need to be there.  
  
I like Hal Jordan, he's a cool green lantern and Geoff Johns is a good writer. But Johns is NOT incredible. Peter Tomasi wrote the most interesting story of the entire blackest night crossover, in spite of the fact that the whole thing was John's brainchild. Geoff Johns just hasn't done as good  job with the Lantern as Marz did, and Jordan ain't better than Kyle in terms of resume and feats.  
 
In my opinion, of course. Everyone's entitled to theirs. 

Kilowog.

Kilowog

@Onemoreposter: are you serious?

@Avenging-X-Bolt

Read everything Green Lantern related from Rebirth to the end of the first volume of Sinestro Corps War, as well as Blackest Night, Brightest Day, and the first two issues of the New 52 Green Lantern Corp and The New Guardians, along with a bunch of other stuff, such as Identity Crisis, Cry for Justice and Infinite Crisis that incidentally include a few Green Lanterns. So far, Hal seems to be a pretty average Lantern, vastly outranked by Guy Gardner. Guy Gardner is part of the Honor Guard, is the first human to be initiated into the Corpse Corps, and holds a position of leadership. The Guardians are constantly sending him off to train rookies and show them the ropes.

Hal, so far, is just a run of the mill Lantern who has a habit of continuously getting the tar pounded out of him. His greatest feat, as of what I’ve read, is defeating Sinestro, but after that, he doesn’t even appear to be in the same league as him. The second New 52 issue of Green Lantern made the gap between them look especially vast, while making Hal look especially incompetent. If I didn’t know better, I’d say that Geoff Johns doesn’t like him, and I certainly don’t get the vibe that he’s supposed to be the “Best Green Lantern Ever” or anything. Going off from what I’ve seen so far….

Sinestro>>>>>>>>>>Kyle>Guy>John=Hal

@DcMarvelUnity

Old characterization. As he’s been written over the last seven years, Sinestro is one of the most hyper competent characters in the DCU, and he quite frankly has a better handle on things than the actual Guardians do. Sinestro Corps War did a lot for him, both in terms of character depth and raw ability.

I've read them. Except for blackest night. And that Star Sapphire arc.And Hal didn't become an inflamed douche until the new 52, in a similar vein that Guy Gardner was back in the day. All of the recent advances Guy has made in the last of years are completely random. Guy was drummed out of the Corps back in the late 80's/ early 90's and most people would never have followed him. He tried to murder Hal on several occasions (as well as attacking several other heroes) and got beaten horribly. Nearly everything that's happened with him recently is complete PIS

And didn't Hal y'know......kill Krona? Saving the entire universe/GLC and stuff

Kyle is the youngest and the most powerful IMO!

John Stewart is easily the most powerful and could beat any of the other gls in a fight, he has maxed out the power ring and his constructs are the strongest. But for the lantern with the best resume its probably either hal or kyle. And I hate saying that becuase I hate kyle.

Do not short change John Stewart, Stewart was not trying to recreate a planet, he was trying to recreate a solar system, that would be planets, moons, suns, beings and all other celestial bodies...During that process, the ring stated willpower exceeds the rings capabilities, and the ring is limitless. And just so we do not forget John Stewart we the first mortal GUARDIAN. Kyle Rayner, is a joke to me, We can debate Jordan and Stewart all Day, I know Stewart the Marine while he might not be the greatest, he is easily the most powerful, and maybe by more than two times. But Kyle a freaking artist is more powerful than combat military men, I highly doubt that. Yes by virtue of his mind he should be able to wield the multi color ring, but in battle he is distant when it comes to battling any of the other Green Lantern, he just doesn't have the strategy nor the savvy-ness...Kyle even being mentioned in the conversation when it comes to most powerful weakens the topic, he is an artist period, he knows nothing about combat, in fact he was given the ring simply because he was in the right place at the right time, and he was given the multi color because a simple Green Lantern ring in his hands against Hal means he gets crushed...But Rayner and the multi-colored ring vs John Stewart would get Rayner crushed real quick...

@avenging_x_bolt: It wasn't a planet. IT WAS AN ENTIRE SOLAR SYSTEM, SUN, MOONS PLANETS AND ALL...PLEASE DO NOT SHORT CHANGE John Stewart...More powerful Green lantern of all Green Lanterns, and he was the first Mortal Guardian...Let that sink in...

@myround0: bro, this was a very old comment. It's time to let it go.

@dcmarvelunity:

I thought Kyle had his ring only after Jordan wiped out the entire core they knew about? he was the last lantern, right? more powerful ring?

how can we have, Hal Jordan was SAURON, how can we have, every green lantern ever talked about in the same era? it's all in Batman's 30 year lifetime at arms? ever major space galactic battle was?