LogFAQs > #973734197

#1 - Hal Jordan
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/8/5/4/AAOJ0pAADYB2.png
Is it this picture? Or is it...
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/9/1/8/AAUHRBAAEgzG.jpg
Or is it...
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/9/1/9/AAUHRBAAEgzH.png
...Or is it...
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/9/2/0/AAUHRBAAEgzI.jpg
Hal Jordan. The greatest Green Lantern. Their worst villain. The wrath of God.

When history has finished writing the tale of Hal Jordan, it is sure to be a story filled with no end of controversy. Hal Jordan was the man who succumbed to Parallax, the embodiment of fear. Hal Jordan was the man who was thought to possess the greatest force of will the Guardians had ever seen, and yet as effortlessly as he wielded his emerald ring, he was just as easily coopted by the yellow aura of fear. Hal had spent his life in service of two things - the Corps, and his hometown of Coast City, where he flew fighter jets for the love of his life, Carol Ferris. But Hal was never able to serve both of these masters at the same time, and as his professional life as a Lantern grew more prominent, Hals personal life fell apart until he had virtually abdicated all responsibilities to Ferris Air, to the woman in his life, to his family. Ultimately, however, Hal could never let go of what made Hal Jordan Hal Jordan, and when Cyborg Superman and Mongul destroyed Coast City, Hal nearly broke. Seizing this opportunity, Parallax began to worm its way into the made of the greatest Lantern, and within days, the Green Lantern Corps had been massacred, the Central Power Battery destroyed and the Guardians killed. By this point, Hal had been consumed entirely by Parallax, who used Hals mind as a template to foster further insanity. Hal was driven to try and unmake the universe, the hope to rebuild it in his own image - one where Coast City survived and thrived. Stopped by Earths heroes at the Dawn of Time, Hal retreated into space, where he brooded and planned, Parallax still inside of him. Eventually, however, when the sun began to fail, Hals greater angels arose, and taking control of himself in a moment of heroic clarity, he sacrificed his life to reignite the sun. This left his soul in a strange state of balance. In the afterlife, Hal Jordan was called upon to serve as host of the Spectre, and for years, he wrestled with Aztar for control of a mission of vengeance, one he thought of as a mission instead of mercy. However, Parallax still remained attached to Jordan, and after years of hosting two of the most powerful entities to ever exist, Parallax broke free. In this moment, the Spectre was excised from Hal Jordan unexpectedly, and Jordan had opportunity, his destiny his own again, to make right the actions of the past. Using what energies remained from the Spectre and Parallax, Hal resurrected the Guardians and reinstated the Corps. Hoping to pay penance for his actions, Hal has returned to active duty as the Green Lantern of Sector 2814, though he has begun to question the Guardians decisions in the wake of the erection of the Grid and the attacks by the Sinestro Corps.

The burden of guilt is crushing, smothering, all-consuming. It takes the greatest will in the world to carry the greatest sin imaginable. And that's the story of Hal Jordan in a nutshell.

The test pilot born in California was a natural beacon of courage and bravery, almost bull-headed and incapable of retreat or retraction. For so long, his great weakness wasn't the color yellow - it was his inability to see himself as anything other than the star, the field leader, the hero. But after the year as Parallax, things changed. Darkness settled in, and the name of Hal Jordan became a curse hurled at the worst of enemies. And as we've gone through this twisting, turning journey of redemption, reacceptance, rebirth, recharge, we've had a chance now to see what Hal's name means to the world, to the heroic community, and, most recently to the Corps he both created and destroyed.

Thankfully, it wasn't in that order.

Hal, to me, is the most fascinating character study we could have of the Big 6. This rendition of Jordan, however, is a departure from comics. I am so committed to this examination, seeing how guilt changes a man, how it serves as a replacement, in some ways, for that yellow imperfection, that simmering fear that lurks within all of us. Only great men can overcome their darkest sins. Will Hal be able to ever live with the knowledge that his hand has slain friends, teachers, mentors, brothers? Does he possess that strength of character? Or does he possess something else - a farther-reaching understanding of emotion that has led him to demonstrate enough compassion to wield the indigo light, enough rage to wield the red? Has Saoirse perhaps pique the pink light of love within him? Certainly Parallax has revealed the capacity for fear.

Hal Jordan. Multifaceted. The first true multi-colored Lantern. His past connects him to every storyline in a deep resonant way, but the future of the #1 character is where my eyes are focused as we close out this list.