Green Lantern Hal Jordan

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Background

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 also is a tall, powerfully built man.

Furthermore his years as an adventurer made him a strong, fast athlete. As a fighter, he 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.

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Even with all of this, Hal’s most starkly astounding asset remains his towering willpower. He further developed it 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.

Jordan traditionally has a phenomenal power of intuition. He often comes up with accurate questions and challenges based on very little data – though that aspect was underplayed during some eras.

Examples include detecting traitors among thousands of Green Lantern, immediately spotting and questioning the incoherence of the Guardian’s widely accepted story, saving the universe after realising something about Qward that even the Monitor had missed, etc.

Most powerful weapon in the universe

Hal packs what has often been said to be the most powerful weapon in the universe. A Green Lantern ring turns his crushing willpower into raw emerald power. Most famously this means creating constructs of green force from thin air. In DC Heroes RPG terms that includes 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 (in DC Heroes terms /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. Power rings also 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), which also means that :

• They pack a comprehensive universal database (Data storage, Area Knowledge, Scientist).
• They obey orders.
• They can be programmed (say, with security measures against unwanted wearers, or to execute some routines even if the wearer is unconscious).
• They can be set to perform actions at a later point or in response to a stimulus.
• They can be ordered to play back scenes as holograms.
• Etc..

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.

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 communication suite includes :

• A limited but instantaneous communication channel.
• Universal translators (Comprehend language) handling even the most exotic alien languages quite well.
• Allowing 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.

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

This section uses the 2008 Secret Origin background for Hal Jordan rather than Emerald Dawn one or any previous one.

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 8, Martin Jordan was killed in a plane crash. He flew on rather than bail out, to prevent his plane from crashing into occupied buildings.

This death traumatised the Jordan family, and in particular Jessica, a mother of 3. However it didn’t seem to affect Hal much. As he grew up he continued to spend time on airfields, to his mother’s growing anger. She feared that Hal would become a pilot and die as Martin did.

This fear was justified. On the night before his 18^th 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. He conducted 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 perilous occupation.

After a night of heavy drinking, Hal’s brother Jim told him that Jessica Jordan was about to die but still refused to see him. Hal snapped and publicly punched an officer. This meant that he would be dishonourably discharged, meaning that he was arguably out of the USAF and could now visit his mother.

Unfortunately she had passed on but hours before. 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. He 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 an amazing 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”). He 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. In particular he knew of 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.

The 2 Green Lanterns established that the murderer of Abin Sur had been Atrocitus, the leader of Five Inversions. 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. Back then, that was thought to be physically impossible. Atrocitus was arrested.

Sinestro and Jordan parted as good friends and esteemed colleagues after the Guardians berated them for violating the territorial edict. However, Sinestro would later become one of the greatest enemies of the Green Lantern Corps.

In brightest day

For decades, Jordan was the Green Lantern of space sector 2814. He 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 and fellow Justice Leaguers. These were the Flash, the fastest man alive, and the greatest archer in the world, Green Arrow. 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.). He also knew the major Green Lanterns from Earth – including such ring-slinging legends as John Stewart, Guy Gardner and Kyle Rayner.

For a time, the Guardians retreated from the universe and disbanded the Green Lantern Corps. Jordan recreated a 7-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. This 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. 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. This later 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… 7… lights !

Back with the Green Lantern Corps and the Justice League, Jordan fought many menaces. These included 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. This meant 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). They also determined 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.

Thus the GLC finally intervened in the decades-long wars and reigns of terror in the Vega system. 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

Hal Jordan is reportedly patterned after actor Paul Newman  – albeit with brown eyes.

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 more 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 on his sleeve. He is quite obviously the Good Guy and 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. With Hal, 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. Examples include the Parallax incident, or the losses and dramas that have marked his early life.

Pop psychology would postulate that part of his incredible drive is his desire to move away from these incidents. Hal is too sincere to forget or get over. It 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.

Quotes

“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.”

By Sébastien Andrivet.

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 and Azraelfl.

Writeup completed on the 25^th of July, 2010.