Hal Jordan is the first human Green Lantern of Sector 2814. It's true that Alan Scott was the first Green Lantern, but he wasn't a member of the Corps. Hal Jordan has been called time and time again "The Greatest of the Green Lanterns," but is he truly the greatest?
Hal is just the first of four human Lanterns from sector 2814, but he's the most memorable. His history is pretty dense and he's gone through some crazy moments, watching his home town get destroyed, to murdering other Green Lanterns while under the control of Parallax, to being the host for the Spectre.
But what's most important are those first few moments that made him who he is today, the Green Lantern of Sector 2814, and overall, the most popular Green Lantern. His origin is tightly tied-in with Abin Sur's origin, which Tony covered earlier in the week, but it's more than just that origin that turned him into a Green Lantern.
== TEASER ==
Hal Jordan first appeared in Showcase #22, but the retelling of his origin took place more recently in Secret Origin. Hal's hero was his father, who was a pilot. At the age of 8, Hal, after meeting Carol Ferris for the first time, saw his father die in a plane accident. Hal becomes obsessed with all things aviation, and he knows from that point he will one day become a pilot.
Hal joins the Air Force, and later finds that the company he works for is being sold to Carol Ferris, who he has not seen in decades. Hal spends one afternoon sitting in a beat-up plane when an energy grabs him physically out of his seat and drags him to the scene of alien wreckage. There is Green Lantern, Abin Sur, and he passes on his Green Lantern ring to Hal Jordan, who becomes the first human Green Lantern.
The newly appointed Green Lantern flies off to Oa to meet the corps after meeting the current greatest Green Lantern of all time, Sinestro, who would later become his greatest enemy. Hal trains under Kilowog, who is in charge of training all of the Green Lanterns. Eventually, Hal becomes an official Green Lantern, after teaming up with Sinestro to fight future Red Lantern Corps leader Atrocitus, but that's not where is story ends.
Over the years, some strange things have happened to Hal Jordan. Coast City, Hal's home town, was destroyed by Mongul to make room for a new War World. Hal attempted to reconstruct the city, but left himself open to fear and the embodiment of fear, Parallax took control. Cue Hal Jordan going nuts.
During the Emerald Twilight storyline, Hal defeated a bunch of Lanterns, and even gave a whooping to Kilowog, the man who trained him. Guess who got himself a very fancy collection of rings?
Hal then proceeded to kill Sinestro (who was freed by the Guardians to stop Hal), the Guardians themselves (except for Ganthet), and absorbed all of the Central Power Battery. Parallax was a supremely powerful character.
He was so powerful that he attempted to recreate history in the Zero Hour story line. Eventually, he was stopped when all of the world's heroes came together with Doctor Fate and recreated everything before Parallax destroyed it all. Hal dies trying to reignite the sun in order to save everyone.
At this point, everyone thought Hal Jordan was dead, but of course, he wasn't. Hal was saved when the entity known as the Spectre took over his body to cleanse his body of Parallax.
2005 is where the current Green Lantern really started in the storyline Green Lantern: Rebirth. The pieces of the puzzle are finally put back together as the Green Lantern Corps is rebuilt, and Parallax is explained to be the impurity withing the central power battery. Hal is released from the influence of the Spectre and Parallax and all seems right with the world for now.
That brings you decently up-to-date on Hal Jordan, at least everything you know before the current series. And if you thought all of that was crazy, you should see what happens to him AFTER the Rebirth series. So many of these older issues are pretty tough to get a hold of, but the newer issues are all collected in trade.
Hal has lead one of the craziest lives in the land of comic books. What is your favorite crazy Hal Jordan moment?
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