Character Sheet
Green Lantern II (Hal Jordan) (iconic take)
Category : Comic Books
Subcategory : DC universe
Type : Hero
Game System : DC Heroes (Blood of Heroes S.E.)
Green Lantern Hal Jordan (Iconic take) v1.1
Source of Character: DC Universe
Helper(s): This is an 'iconic take' entry, so : everybody with Mayfair who worked on the official DCH writeup, everybody in the DCH community who commented on it, everybody with Green Ronin who worked on the official DCA writeup, everybody at the Atomic Think Tank who commented on it. This specific entry also draws important material from an article about the power ring by Robert Leary, Joshua Macquart and Ray Winninger ; draws from a discussion on characterisation with comicbookresources.com forum members ; draws from the Green Lantern wiki and the DC wikia ; and draws from specific comments by Darci, Roy Cowan, Eric Langendorff, Chris Cottingham, Gareth Lewis, Brian Patrick Young, John Colagioia, Peter Piispanen, Morgan Champion
Reasons: This entry uses the 2008 Secret Origin background for Hal Jordan rather than Emerald Dawn or any previous one. This iconic take entry is mostly informed by the Johns take on the character, given its popularity - but Jordan has changed very little over the decades, and this article includes notes about earlier era.
What's an iconic take ?
Writeups.org's usual methodology is conducting thorough primary sources research. This has obvious advantages, but it runs into complications when writing characters with a long history. These can be done via long series of big entries, with lots of cool material... but these take years. Literally.
An "Iconic" (as opposed as "specifically researched version of the character appearing during a given era") take offers a version of the character as they're best known, and serve as a 'default version' of the character. It will not exactly match the stats of the character during any specific era, and it will usually be chiefly informed by the eras during which the character had the most exposure. It will also never match the current state of the character, since it's intended to be a gisted version for general use.
So how do we do it if we don't run the usual, systematic research ? We take the official DCH writeup. We take the DCA writeup, if there is a good one. We combine the DCH and DCA entries using somewhat involved calculations designed during the prototyping of the OMACS project. We tweak using feedback from DCH players about the official DCH entry. We tweak using feedback from DCA players about the DCA entry. The Worgmeister does some tuning and adds special sections. We work the CBR forums to get articulate fan descriptions of the characterisation. In the end, that's a lot of input and research and takes that gets compacted into an iconic writeup. Whereas our work is normally only based on primary sources, iconic entries are chiefly based on high-quality secondary sources, with lots of backstage toiling to make it all work.
"Iconic" writeups also stem from a 2010 policy change. For many years, we had a hands-off policy about characters with a Mayfair writeup, unless there were genuine, numerous changes to be made (some writeups largely quoting from Mayfair are still on WORG - they all date from before that time). But the times change. The last DC Heroes 3rd edition books were published about 15 years ago and can be hard to find, and the amount of people reading our archives has expanded way past the number of DCH RPG fans. The hands-off policy, chiefly intended to respect the work of writers working for Mayfair, has outlived its usefulness - and the iconic takes usually bring enough differences and new material to the table, anyway.
Game Stuff
Green Lantern
"In brightest day, in blackest night, no evil shall escape my sight. Let those who worship evil's might, beware my power... Green Lantern's light !" (Jordan's Green Lantern Oath)
"You can't foresee all the consequences of your actions -- but that's no excuse to do nothing."
"I need to get back in the air."
"Try what you wish with me, Beast, but don't you dare lay a stinking finger on the woman I love !"
"Shut your mouth, or I'll shut it for you."
" I'm real glad you mentioned that, Predator, because knowing you've laid your slimy paws on her is going to make it all the more pleasurable to clean your clock !"
"You pit me against this thing... you put this power on my hand... and you want me to be a nice boy ? Hell, no !" (FTOOM !)
Sinestro: "Never question a superior officer. Never challenge those more powerful than you."
Jordan: "Um... yeah. That's not gonna work for me."
"I don't need a plane to fly anymore. The ring makes it easy." (beat) "The ring makes it *too* easy."
Hal Jordan
| Dex: 05 | Str: 04 | Bod: 05 | Motivation: Responsibility/Thrill |
| Int: 08 | Wil: 13 | Min: 14 | Occupation: Green Lantern |
| Inf: 06 | Aur: 07 | Spi: 15 | Resources {or Wealth}: 003 |
| Init: 021 | HP: 150 |
Advantages: Credentials (Green Lantern Corps, Low), Expertise (Aircraft repair and maintenance), Familiarity (USAF military equipment and protocols), Iron Nerves, Leadership, Local Hero (Green Lantern Corps rank-and-file)
Connections: John Stewart (High), Justice League (High), Green Lantern corps (Low, from Credentials), Flash (Barry Allen, High), Green Arrow (Oliver Queen, High)
Drawbacks: Secret identity, MIA toward Cockiness/Impulsiveness, MIA toward Thrill. After the Parallax disaster, Hal developed Guilt for a while.
Equipment: Power battery [BODY 25, Invisibility: 15]. Green Lantern power batteries are shaped pretty much like late-XIXth century railroad lanterns, and contain an uplink to the central power battery in Oa. They are used to recharge Green Lantern power rings, usually while reciting the oath. Power batteries can become invisible if their owner wishes, presumably to reduce the chances of being stolen. One battery can simultaneously recharge at least two rings.
Green Lantern's light !
The Green Lantern Power Ring has the following revised stats ; see the special sections below for how the Power Ring Skill works.
Powers: Acuity: 13, Comprehend Languages: 20, Data storage: 40, Detect (Superior candidate for GLC recruitment): 20, Dimension travel (Storage Tesseract): 01, Dispersal: 10, Flight: 40, Force Manipulation: 26, Invulnerability: 07, Life sense: 45, Miniaturisation: 10, Omni-Power: 13, Regeneration: 04, Sealed systems: 16, Skin armour: 04, Spirit travel: 70, Telepathy: 05
Formulas: The above scores are for iconic Hal Jordan ; however some of the major scores for the ring are actually User-Linked. Use the following formulas when somebody else uses a power ring :
- Acuity is Half-User-Linked to MIN + Power Ring Skill APs (round up)
- Force Manipulation is User-Linked to MIN + Power Ring Skill APs
- Invulnerability is Quarter-User-Linked to MIN + Power Ring Skill APs (round up)
- Omni-Power is Half-User-Linked to MIN + Power Ring Skill APs (round down)
- None of the Powers has an AV (-1 or -0 Drawback, depending on house rules) - use the relevant Accuracy Skill instead
- As long as APs of Skin Armour are active, the same number of APs is always subtracted from every use of the following three Powers - Acuity, Force Manipulation, Omni-Power.
- Detect can only be used upon the death of the wearer, to scout for a successor (though Acuity could be used to perform similar scans in less dire circumstances). This functionality apparently has been uninstalled now that Mogo is the "sector scanner" of the GLC.
- Dimension travel (Storage Tesseract) can hold a Green Lantern Power Battery
- Dispersal can only be used when the Green Lantern is not under imminent threat, and the Green Lantern cannot perform Dice Actions whilst Dispersed (though Omni-Power could be used to emulate a form of Dispersal free of these Limitations)
- Life sense is limited to detecting Green Lanterns
- The Spirit Travel form can be perceived by other Lanterns and Guardians of the Universe, and doesn't take place in a different dimension
- Telepathy cannot be used to engage in mental combat - only for communication, often helped by the ring's Comprehend Languages
- When used to communicate with the green Central Power Battery, Telepathy has a special +75 Range Bonus. Communicating with the Central Power Battery can also be used to send a distress signal to either the closest Green Lantern (usually in the next sector) or a Corps-wide SOS, though currently only one ring (Kilowog's) can perform that function.
Advantages: Area Knowledge (Universe ; Wormholes locations), Insta-Change (note that the glowing force field around the wearer obscures features - though the ring prefers to also create a mask just in case), Misc.: part of the Data Storage power is used to store the Green Lantern database in its mobile version
Drawbacks:
- Power Loss: the ring used to run out of charge after one full planetary revolution (on Earth, 24 hours) had elapsed, and could only be recharged with a green power battery. Nowadays they store a charge that does not expire after a revolution, but seems to roughly correspond to 24 Earth hours of fairly heavy use. When the ring's charge is exhausted, all Powers go to zero until recharged. The ring provides updates as to its charge status (usually as a percentage) whenever requested or when passing certain thresholds.
- Gradual Power Loss: Mental conditions that make it difficult to accurately visualise force constructs drastically lower the efficiency of the ring. These include psychoactive drugs, neural scrambling, inner ear scrambling, some sonic attacks, etc. Any RAPs from such an effect means an immediate Gradual Power Loss of (RAPs+1) Columns on all of the ring's Powers, as long as these effects are active. In the same spirit, RAPs from Mental and Spiritual attacks are subtracted from the EV or RV of any power ring use during the next Dice Action
- Partial Power Loss: the rings used to be unable to directly affect anything coloured yellow - they couldn't 'touch' yellow matter or energy, and these passed through green force constructs without resistance. Nowadays, this vulnerability only resurfaces in the presence of fear and doubt, which chiefly means :
- Any attack or interaction based on fear and doubt that scores a RAP or more. That includes Aura of Fear, some Broadcast Empath projections, Charisma (Intimidation), etc. Even a single RAP activates the Partial Power Loss for as long as the fear effect lasts.
- Any doubt in the Green Lantern's own abilities as part of a Character Subplot
- Complete rookies, not yet trained with the ring, are powerless against yellow objects and defenceless against yellow attacks. This is supposed to go away during boot camp.
- Some minor, incompetent or inexperienced Green Lantern are not sufficiently proofed against fear, and may experience a resurgence of the yellow vulnerability. In game terms, this only concerns characters with a green power ring who lack Iron Nerves. When trying to affect (or to defend against) a yellow thing, these characters must gain RAPs using their WIL/MIN against an OV/RV of 10/10. This roll can be done using an Automatic Action rather than a Dice Action if desired. In case of failure, the Partial Power Loss reasserts itself for 08 APs of time (about 15 mn).
- Some Green Lanterns can rally themselves against an active Partial Power Loss against yellow, but that requires full RAPs using WIL/MIN against an OV/RV of 14/14 (as a Dice Action).
During the Silver Age, the rings had Sorcery rather than Omni-Power, regularly producing some fantastic effects well outside the scope of Force Manipulation and without special effort (sometimes even without the conscious control of the user).
Are Green Lanterns born fearless ?
From a game standpoint, do Green Lantern candidates possess a high MIN, SPI and (usually) WIL when they are detected and recruited ? Well, we can't really say. But a likely answer is 'no, though they sometimes have Iron Nerves when they are recruited'. It makes more sense to assume that the people being recruited have both the potential to develop these high scores, and a certain form of mental compatibility with the Green Lantern energy, but are not running around with double-digit Attributes as they live largely ordinary lives.
Thus, in a way, the ring 'takes over' part of the mentality of the new Green Lantern and helps them improve these abilities scores at a rapid pace until they reach their current potential. It is possible to read this hypothesis in a sinister way (it's brainwashing !) or just as the result of certain kinds of person becoming able to express their latent mental strength to its fullest through the medium of the ring.
The question of what sort of Attributes Green Lanterns have before and after training is also informed by a few incidents. A number of thugs who stole Jordan's ring were able to use it to an extent - and in some case they could even pump out APs of power that were not completely trivial. On the other hand, Batman once sweated bullets by using a GL ring to do something simple - he has a very strong MIN, but his mental defences are too tough for the ring to really take over specific parts of his mentality and Batman has a special relationship with fear which doesn't work well with the Oan approach. Ditto for Green Arrow (who struggled to create but a single arrow with Hal's ring) - he's too wilful, cynical and stubborn to cooperate with the ring.
Superman, on the other hand, has a naturally high Power Ring Skill, and it has often be said he would have been a fantastic Green Lantern. Mongul and the Cyborg Superman seem to be in the same case - Green Lantern rings just work really well for them.
These incidents are particularly interesting when it comes to disproving the Linking approach - see the next section - and coming up with an approach that works - see the section after that.
The missing Link
There's an old, old bug with the official Green Lantern writeups. The system describes power rings Linked to the WIL of the Character, but the WIL in DCH is not... really 'willpower' in the usual sense of the word. The ability to Link some aspects of the Green Lantern ring to WIL was fairly important in the system, and may in fact have been the impetus for the whole Linking mechanic back then.
There have been various attempts to find ways to make this Linking approach work better, but it never quite worked to everybody's satisfaction, especially if you take into account the facts mentioned in the "Are Green Lantern Born Fearless ?" boxed section above. Having some simple Link that works would be great and elegant, but at this point I think it's reasonable to throw that specific towel. It's been 25 years of Green Lantern stats and nobody seems to have found the Grail with the simple Linked approach, even though there were further spirited attempts during the construction of the writeup.
Therefore we collectively came up with a new approach - a special sort of Skill, explained below.
The Power Ring Skill
Power Ring (Colour)
Link: Attribute associated with the colour (MIN for green light)
Skill
Range: Self
Type: Auto
Base cost: 10
Factor cost: 07
This unique Skill is used by those DC Universe characters with power rings (Green Lantern Corps, Star Sapphires, Indigo Tribe, Sinestro Corps, Larfleeze, Red Lanterns, etc.) to augment their power output and the strength of the light they can emit.
Defining what a low, high or medium score in this Skill represents outside of game terms is difficult, since the approaches vary from writer to writer. It seems to be a complicated mix of talent, experience, mental stamina, imagination and ability to visualise, training, destiny, ability to refine one's mental state (of willpower, rage, spurned love, etc.) into a way that is most compatible with a ring, etc. Some characters such as Hal Jordan had a high score even before boot camp, while most ring wielders must train long and hard to reach a 05 or 06 - it is possible that power ring wielders of middling power tend to Link their Skill to save points, and then find it very difficult to increase their scores.
The core use of this Skill is to add to a specific Attribute when calculating the APs of User-Linked Powers of the relevant power ring. For instance, Force Manipulation APs for a Green Lantern Corps power ring are User-Linked to the sum of MIN and Power Ring Skill (Green). This is a straight addition : a MIN of 10 and a Power Ring Skill (Green) of 08 produce a score of 18 APs for User-Linking purposes.
This Skill doesn't provide any particular AV, EV, OV, RV, etc. on its own. It is purely intended for User-Linking purposes. Most power ring wielders develop a separate Accuracy (Power ring) to increase their AV, since rings generally seem to fall outside of the domain of the Weaponry Skill (even Exotic). Such an Accuracy Skill seems to work the same with all sorts of Emotional Spectrum power rings.
A complete rookie usually has a Power Ring score of 04 or 05, and most "faceless" Green Lanterns you see for a handful of panels of a score of 05 or 06. The big-name Green Lanterns starring in their own adventures tend to have a 10, and scores above 10 are reserved for the very greatest power ring wielders, such as Hal Jordan, Sinestro or Atrocitus. Since what helps having having a good Power Ring Skill involves some arcane and/or innate elements, some folks who have never seen a power ring can happen to have APs of Power Ring without knowing it. It may in fact look completely random to the outside observers and the most unlikely beings such as G'Nort or Dex-Starr can turn out to innately have APs in the Skill. Such beings are usually the ones the various Emotional Spectrum Corps will consider for recruitment - they know that they have the right shade of mindset to be competent ring-wielders.
Since there is no OV/RV when it comes to this Skill, the Unskilled Penalty is handled in a slightly different way ; rather than a +2CS OV/ RV penalty when it comes to Unskilled Used, lower the main Attribute by -2CS when using Unskilled User-Linking. For instance Green Arrow, when using a green power ring, would have his MIN (a 07) considered as a 03 - two Columns lower, giving him 3 APs of Force Manipulation. Unskilled Use of the User-Linked Powers of a Power Ring is Fatiguing, and attacks MIN/MIN with an OV/RV of 09, plus the APs of power being used. Note that, unlike the normal rule, it is possible to employ Last Ditch Defence against this Fatiguing Damage.
How many APs of Power Ring Skill a person can use when wearing a ring of a different colour is best left to GMs, based on their view of how compatible each character is with the various lights of the Emotional Spectrum. This seem to range from a mere Unfamiliarity penalty to being unable to use more than 0 APs of Power Ring (which prevents Unskilled Penalties, though). In some other cases, though, things are more complicated - for instance Power Ring (Red) doesn't normally teach force constructs, but it is possible to use Power Ring (Green) with a red ring to perform Force Manipulation.
A fistful of colours
There is a small number of cases where powerful people have used multiple power rings at once - though there is a upper limit of one per terminal manipulative appendage, such as fingers (the lower limit is one even without a manipulative appendage, such as Dex-Starr wearing his ring around his tail).
Doing so provides enormous benefits - each additional ring adds one AP to all the Powers of the first ring. In the rare cases where it was possible (Hal Jordan as Parallax, Hank Henshaw aka the Cyborg Superman, Hal Jordan with an arsenal of yellow rings, Mongul...) the person wielded enormous power.
The problem with doing this is a/ to find these rings in the first place and b/ that these rings normally have a firm programming to fly away and execute on contingency measures when they have no owner. The wielder essentially has to cancel this programming to have the ring stay on their fingers - this is a Power Ring/Power Ring roll against an OV/RV of 12. Partial RAPs let the ring stay with the user for another Phase ; full RAPs mean that the ring stops trying to get away and can be fully used by this specific wielder without further hindrances.
Rings can be programmed not to have this behaviour by Corps leaders, such as Alpha Lantern Boodikka's additional power ring from the Guardians, or those rings given to Hank Henshaw by the Anti-Monitor. Jordan also once found a cache of yellow rings which didn't have their full programming yet and would thus stay on his hands.
The ballad of lucid Jordan
Hal Jordan seems to have slowly progressed in power output using his ring - since he started at a genuinely exceptional level and most DC comics stories have house rules ensuring a much slower Character Advancement than in the rulesbook, it takes a while. Here are a few likely values for his earlier career:
- Rookie Hal Jordan: MIN 13 + Power Ring Skill 10 APs = 23 APs of Force Manipulation
- Hal Getting more skilled: MIN 13 + Power Ring Skill 11 APs = 24 APs of Force Manipulation
- Classic Hal Jordan: MIN 14 + Power Ring Skill 11 APs = 25 APs of Force Manipulation
No evil shall escape my sight
This entry marks a change in the handling of Green Lantern stats. Which creates to a small problem - how to adjust other Green Lanterns, who have official stats all benchmarked against Hal, to the new paradigm ? Here are a few rules of thumb to align official DCH Green Lantern writeups with Hal's:
- Multiply WIL by .52, round down
- Add five APs to MIN, and three to SPI
- Keep the DEX APs as Accuracy (Power Ring) and Acrobatics (Hard target), and lower DEX as needed to represent the actual melee performance (now that ring use and agility have been taken out of the DEX and put into Skills). Some Skills that could be abstracted away since they were about as good as Unskilled use thanks to a high DEX may have to now be specified.
- Assume ten APs of Power Ring Skill unless there's a reason not to
- Use the new stats for the ring
Background
Real Name: Harold "Hal" Jordan
Other Aliases: Pol Manning, Parallax, Spectre, "the Emerald Gladiator"
Marital Status: Single
Known Relatives: Martin H. Jordan (father, deceased), Jessica Jordan (mother), Jack Jordan (brother), Jim Jordan (brother), Susan Williams Jordan (sister-in-law), Howard Jordan (nephew), Jane Jordan (niece), Lawrence Jordan (aka Air-Wave I, cousin), Hal Jordan (aka Air-Wave II, cousin), Jeremiah Jordan (uncle), Steven Jordan (cousin), Doug Jordan (cousin), Lizzie Jordan (descendant), Jason Jordan (nephew), Jennifer Jordan (niece), Titus Thomas Jordan (uncle)
Group affiliation: Green Lantern Corps ; Justice League ; former USAF officer and former Ferris Aircraft employee ; former and brief member of the Blue, Orange, Red and White Lantern Corps
Base Of Operations: Coast City
Height: 6'2" Weight: 186 lbs.
Eyes: Brown Hair: Brown
Powers and Abilities
Captain Jordan is a top-notch test pilot, able to handle the most experimental, high-performance military jet fighters - or anything else that flies. He has superb reflexes, stamina and calmness under pressure. Jordan is a tall, powerfully built man ; furthermore his years as an adventurer made him a strong, fast athlete and fighter who can superbly hold his own in a bare-knuckles fight. Jordan is a veteran, quasi-cosmic hero and has developed a superior sense of observation and adaptation, a very strong presence, a sharp deductive intelligence and other traditional assets of Silver Age super-heroes.
Even with all of this, Hal's most starkly astounding asset remains his towering willpower, which he further developed over decades of power ring-slinging. Once set on an objective, Hal Jordan is basically unstoppable. His fearlessness cannot be exaggerated either - Hal stays completely calm and rational under even the most ridiculously tense, dangerous and chaotic circumstances, coming up with plans and ideas even when things seem utterly hopeless. As noted by his high WIL, Jordan traditionally has phenomenal intuition, coming up with accurate questions and challenges based on very little data (spotting traitors among thousands of Green Lantern, immediately spotting and questioning the incoherence of the Guardian's story which everybody has written up, saving the universe about after realising something about Qward that even the Monitor had missed, etc.) - though that aspect was underplayed during some eras.
Hal packs what has often been said to be the most powerful weapon in the universe - a Green Lantern ring, turning his crushing willpower into raw emerald power. Most famously this means Force Manipulation - including BODY 0 offensive constructs, such as giant melee weapons or simple blasts, which disappear right after they crash into the target. The ring also allows Flight at space-worthy speeds, provides a skintight forcefield (/BODY/, Skin armour, Sealed Systems) and is able to maintain and repair the body of the wielder to some extent (Sealed systems, Regeneration, Invulnerability). Green Lanterns often use their rings to intangibly fly through walls, hulls, windows and the like - and power rings seem to use some sort of low-key telepathic ability to allow Green Lantern to 'speak' in a vacuum.
Power rings are artificially intelligent (INT) and pack a comprehensive universal database (Data storage, Area Knowledge, Scientist). They can be given orders, programmed (say, with security measures against unwanted wearers, or to execute some routines even if the wearer is unconscious), set to perform actions at a later point or in response to a stimulus, ordered to play back scenes as holograms, etc. They also include a limited but instantaneous communication channel, routinely serve as universal translators (Comprehend language) handling even the most exotic alien languages quite well, and can allow the wearer to project an intangible "energy twin", capable of crossing galactic distances in hours and confer with fellow GLs and/or the Guardians of the Universe. The rings can also perform very broad and quite detailed scans of practically anything, shining green light on the target (Acuity, Scientist), and sense other Green Lanterns about one sector away.
The database in the ring includes an enormous amount of data about the universe, its history, its races and cultures, known criminals, etc., though as edited by the Guardians based on what they think Lanterns should know. It can download additional information from the Book of Oa, the giant-book-shaped central database of the Green Lantern Corps.
Even beyond all of this, power rings have a long history of producing, though the sheer willpower of the wielder, some strange and unusual effects (Omni-Power). Examples have included Fabricating some green kryptonite, Invisibility, Energy Absorption (even feeding into a Power Reserve), Time travel, Hypnosis to permanently alter the minds of sapient beings, Dimension Travel to a pocket dimension within the ring, Metal Manipulation and other oddities.
History:
Here's a concise history of the greatest Green Lantern, as retold in 2008.
Harold Jordan is the son of Martin Jordan, a former USAF pilot. Martin became the star test pilot at Ferris Aircraft, which was then a major aerospace firm. Fascinated by planes and pilots, little Hal would often indulge in truancy to go at the Ferris airfield and watch his father fly. One day, when Hal was about eight, Martin Jordan was killed in a plane crash, flying on rather than bailing out in order to prevent his plane from crashing into occupied buildings.
This death traumatised the Jordan family, and in particular Jessica, a mother of three, but didn't seem to affect Hal much. As he grew up he still continued to spend time on airfields, to his mother's growing anger - motivated by her fear that Hal was going to become a pilot and eventually die as Martin did. This fear was justified. On the night before his eighteenth birthday, Hal ran away to spend the night in front of the USAF recruitment office, and signed on the dotted line as soon as the recruiter came to work.
In the USAF, Jordan quickly became a star pilot, doing aggressive test flights of new planes delivered to the military. However, he soon developed a track record for insubordination and excessive risks-taking. His mother was furious - she forbade him to see her again as long as he was with the USAF, and the cancer she later developed was blamed on her constant worrying about Hal's very risky occupation.
After a night of heavy drinking and being told by his brother Jim that Jessica Jordan was about to die but still refused to see him, Hal snapped and publicly punched an officer. Knowing he was about to be dishonourably discharged, he considered that he was out of the USAF and could visit his mother. Unfortunately she had passed on but hours before, and all the visit brought was a fight with his brother Jack, who accused Hal of being responsible for their mother's death.
Abin Sur
With a dishonourable discharge, Hal Jordan could barely find any work, and ended up as a ground pounder, doing aircraft mechanic work ; he was trained by his colleague, the gifted mechanic Tom Kalmaku. Jordan yearned to get back in the air, but his track record at pushing planes too hard and crashing them prevented that.
Jordan was thus at his personal nadir when the Green Lantern of sector 2814, Abin Sur, was fatally wounded by Atrocitus. Before he died, Abin Sur had his ring seek out a successor, and Hal Jordan was chosen. Though somewhat dazzled by space aliens and magical rings, Jordan was elated - he was flying again. Within hours, he saved one of the test planes of his employer from crashing, though he had little idea of what he was doing or how the ring worked. During this sortie, he unexpectedly discovered a mutual attraction with Carol Ferris, the CEO of Ferris Aircraft.
Shortly after that, the ring whisked him to the planet Oa by flying him into outer space through a wormhole. Though he found himself on a fantastic alien world crammed with strange sapient creatures, Jordan took everything in stride. He performed well during boot camp, training under Kilowog and demonstrating both very strong willpower and a marked lack of discipline. He became friends with Tomar Re, Kilowog and other reputable Green Lanterns. When he came back to Earth, Jordan became the sole pilot agreeing to work for Carol Ferris, as the once-mighty Ferris Aircraft had fallen on difficult times. Being her employee started one of the periods where they put their relationship on hold ; things would later be even more complicated when Ferris started being possessed by the alien entity Star Sapphire.
Suspecting that Abin Sur's strange death had been caused by a genuinely dangerous menace, one Guardian uncharacteristically gave himself a name ("Ganthet") and had the greatest Green Lantern, Sinestro, go to Earth to pair up with Hal Jordan against regulations to investigate.
Sinestro
Despite their strong differences, Jordan and Sinestro managed to work together well. Abin Sur had recorded messages for Sinestro, who had been his best student, within the ring now worn by the Earthman. In the message, Abin Sur explained what he had learned about some dark and hidden episodes of the past of the Guardians of the Universe - and in particular the fate of sector 666, the end of the Manhunters and the struggle for vengeance of the Five Inversions. Abin Sur had grown convinced that the prophecies of the Five Inversions were true, and that some sort of dark light would come to destroy the universe. The message tasked Jordan and Sinestro with investigating the prophecy.
Realising that the murderer of Abin Sur had been the leader of Five Inversions, Atrocitus, the two Green Lanterns arrested him. During the fight, the rookie Jordan produced a desperate effort to save Sinestro and had one of his force construct blast through a yellow object - which back then was thought to be physically impossible. Sinestro and Jordan parted as good friends and esteemed colleagues after the Guardians berated them for violating the territorial edict -- though Sinestro would eventually be corrupted and become one of the greatest enemies of the Green Lantern Corps.
In brightest day
For decades, Jordan, as the Green Lantern of space sector 2814, had numerous adventures and defeated numerous menaces, from the cosmic to the mundane. As one of the great heroes on Earth and beyond, Jordan was one of the founding members of the Justice League of America, along with the Flash, Aquaman, Black Canary and the Martian Manhunter.
Beyond participating in most of the Justice League efforts, Jordan also distinguished himself with recurrent team-ups with two of his friends - fellow Justice Leaguer the Flash, the fastest man alive, and the greatest archer in the world, Green Arrow, who also had joined the League. Jordan also met with the original, wartime Green Lantern (Alan Scott), who wielded different but related energies.
Jordan associated with several senior alien Green Lanterns (such as Kilowog, Ch'p, Arisia, Salaak, etc.) and several major Green Lantern from Earth - including such ring-slinging legends as John Stewart, Guy Gardner and Kyle Rayner. For a time, following the Guardian's retreat from the universe and the dissolution of the Green Lantern Corps, Jordan even recreated a seven-members strong GLC operating on Earth, with a mix of local and alien GL veterans. Though this experiment ultimately didn't work, the Guardians then came back and a new universe-wide Corps was created.
In darkest night
When the powerful alien Mongul attacked Earth after the apparent death of Superman, Jordan's home city, Coast City, was destroyed. Devastated, Hal started becoming unhinged and used his ring to recreate the razed metropolis, but the Guardians castigated him. In his weakness, Jordan was subtly possessed by the Parallax entity, which eventually led to his decision to remake the universe 'right', with Coast City never having been destroyed and several other friends and loved ones being spared death and/or suffering.
Jordan stormed Oa, defeating and killing several Green Lanterns and absorbing the power of the Central Battery ; he then claimed the name "Parallax". His plan to recreate the universe was mostly foiled by Earth heroes and Jordan eventually sacrificed himself, seeking redemption by destroying a Sun-Eater that was about to make Earth's solar system uninhabitable.
After his death Jordan became the new host for the Spectre, which eventually made it possible to expel the Parallax entity from him. Ganthet, one of the Guardians of the Universe, then helped resurrect Jordan. Though still marked by his madness, death, sacrifice and time as host to the Spectre, Jordan resumed his responsibilities as the Green Lantern of Sector 2814.
There... are... seven... lights !
Back with the Green Lantern Corps and the Justice League, Jordan fought many menaces - including the Sinestro Corps, formed by his former mentor and equipped with power rings from the anti-matter universe of Qward, emitting yellow energy.
Not too long after that war, the existence of the Emotional Spectrum was documented - that is, the ability to harness certain states of mind into producing powerful colour-coded energies, much like a certain form of willpower could harness the green light of Oa. Jordan was briefly a member of the Blue Lantern Corps (harnessing a form of hope) then the Red Lantern Corps (harnessing a kind of rage) ; he also discovered that the Guardians planned to turn his willpower into some sort of central battery for the Blue Lantern Corps, but Hal wanted to remain a Green Lantern.
For a time Hal wore both a green ring and a blue ring. That was during that time that he and the GLC discovered the existence of an obscure colour in the Emotional Spectrum (orange light, harnessing greed), and the reason why the Guardians had made a deal with a being controlling orange energy, Larfleeze, to make the Vega star system off-limits to the GLC. The GLC finally intervened in the decades-long wars and reigns of terror in the Vega system, and when clashing with Larfleeze Jordan managed to get rid of his blue ring and briefly control the orange light.
Several other colours were discovered. The Star Sapphire entity were discovered to have strong ties with violet energy (harnessing a type of spurned love), and violet power rings and a small violet Corps, the Star Sapphires, emerged. As prophesied decades before by Atrocitus, the Black Lantern Corps arose, harnessing death and with its agents being zombies with power rings. During this major crisis, the Indigo Tribe (with power rings harnessing a form of compassion) came to help, and the fall of the Black Lanterns was facilitated when Jordan managed to wield a power ring harnessing the power of life (manifested as white energy).
Green Lantern Hal Jordan remains one of the major heroes of the DC Universe.
Description:
See illustrations. Hal Jordan is reportedly patterned after actor Paul Newman (though with brown eyes), and should look like Newman did in his mid-30s.
Personality
Some people call him a space cowboy, some people call him a gangster of love. Hal is a flagship hero of the Silver Age, and thus was not meant as a flawed character or as somebody the reader can commiserate with. He's the Big, Manly Damn Hero who Gets Things Done and is meant for readers to relate to as a role-model, not a peer.
Hal is from the traditional, pulp-ish American Hero mould. He's the maverick cowboy who gets in trouble with the corrupt sheriff because it's the right thing to do ; he's the two-fisted fighter pilot with a flight jacket, a dashing smile and who's afraid of no man. This brazen, cocky brawler archetype, with his heart fundamentally in the right place, might be familiar to modern geeks as Han Solo from Star Wars.
Jordan is in fact so cocky and fearless as to border on recklessness ; he never hesitates to jump headlong into danger, takes unreasonable risks whenever it will get things done, and simply doesn't mind getting into grave trouble. He's more a doer than a thinker - though he's certainly not dumb and routinely comes up with excellent plans. This intelligence, however, shines when he reacts to dangerous situations, not as extensive Batman-style planning about every contingency. If people need help, Green Lantern will charge right in and start looking for the guy in the black hat, without a second thought. Jordan's most formative job has been being a test pilot, and he's used to taking snap life-or-death decisions, never freezing up or taking time to ponder as he rides a poorly tested high-performance flying coffin.
Jordan doesn't do slow, careful and ordinary. He's one of the few men who could actually die of boredom due to his irrepressible need to turn stale, sedate, mundane situations into something dangerous or at least fast and exciting. He doesn't quite do analytical either - he never really thought about social issues of his time until his trip with Oliver Queen.
Green Lantern's brashness extends to his other emotions. He wears his heart in his sleeve, is quite obviously the Good Guy and is something of a romantic, letting his heart make the decisions in many aspects of his life - especially love. He's not into rationalising or hypocrisy - what you see is what you get. This can make him come across as a bad boy, a rough-and-tumble type who does whatever he likes - and damn the consequences. This certainly should not be confused for flightiness, even if that may seem so at times ; Jordan is actually utterly loyal toward his friends and allies.
However, Jordan can have a bit of a problem with authority and commitment, due to his maverick and freedom-loving nature. If he senses that he's going to have to shoulder some heavy, lasting, personal responsibility (which he then won't be able to forego due to his sense of loyalty), he might pack up and leave before it's too late and he's actually committed. In matters of the heart, that may make him look like a womanizer and something of an immature rogue. Likewise, he's probing and sceptical of any authority he's serving under, and needs to be very, very sure that they're the white hats - Hal Jordan brashly makes his own rules, he certainly isn't a blind follower, and he questions every constraint.
Due to his unabashed, sincere emotions, Hal doesn't deal terribly well with loss and defeat -- such as the Parallax incident, or the losses and dramas that have marked his early life. Pop psychology would almost certainly postulate that his desire to move away from these incidents, which he's too sincere to forget or get over, is what led him to become a roguish, brazen man of action who takes crazy risks, lives in the instant -- and lets his amazing skills and willpower make a statement about who he is.
Writeup completed on the 25th of July, 2010.
