Gonna' break up the retrospective a bit differently this week. Rather than cover a specific book of Green Lantern, I'm going to divvy up the contents of three books, "No Fear", "Revenge of the Green Lanterns", and "Wanted: Hal Jordan" over this and the next review, using the One Year Later gap as the dividing line. The plots are a lot less complicated than "Rebirth", making it easier to explain the events therein.
The other reason for this, though, is that the recurring theme of the first two years of GL stories under Johns is unfortunately "wasted potential". Just about every Earth-bound character and plotline Johns establishes is ignored after the Sinestro Corps War. In a few cases, this is because they're brought to their logical conclusion. In most, however, it's simply because after SCW, Jordan goes off into space to get involved in the rundown to Blackest Night, which leaves no logical way for Edwards Air Force Base, Cowgirl, or Coast City to be involved or referenced.
I'm of two minds on the subject. On the one hand, I enjoyed the characters and conflicts introduced after SCW. On the other, I also enjoyed the pre-SCW status quo, if not the characters. (Cowgirl is little more than a female Hal Jordan, and the rest of the cast apart from Jim Jordan are fairly forgettable.) I'll deal more with what I like about this status quo after we examine the events of these issues.
After returning to life at the end of "Rebirth", Hal Jordan returns to the slowly-restoring Coast City. The federal government is putting a lot of money into getting the place rebuilt, but not a lot of people are interested in moving to "Ghost City".
On the personal front, Jordan gets a position at Edwards AFB, under a commander who knows his secret identity. He meets a flirtatious female AF pilot, call-sign "Cowgirl." He has a heart-to-heart with his little brother Jim, a rather timid man who is inspired by Hal's return to move his family back to Coast City.
But to Hell with that! Super heroics!
Edwards AFB is essentially acting as Area 51, holding pieces of alien technology they've found over the decades. This causes problems when one of their pieces, an old Manhunter robot, reactivates after detecting a Green Lantern in the area. Unfortunately, a new model Manhunter comes to destroy the outdated on, leaving Hal caught in the middle. The new Manhunter is equipped with a power battery in its skull, making it able to drain a GL's power ring. This is important to remember, because although Hal is able to destroy both of these Manhunters, it's not the last time we'll hear from them.
The next storyline revolves around the Gremlins, a race of amoral alien scientists (who all speak German, for some reason.) They've taken an interest in playing with evolutionary freaks of nature, enhancing them to sell as weapons to galactic despots. Old Green Lantern foe Hector Hammond, a man with psychic abilities so powerful that his brain has completely overcome the rest of his body, senses that the Gremlins are coming for him, so he alerts Jordan of their plan.
Hal is preoccupied when another of the Gremlins' pet projects, the Shark. The Shark is exactly what his name implies, a hyper-evolved shark man. None too bright, but huge, powerful, hungry, and off the California coast. While the Shark keeps Hal busy, the Gremlins abduct Hammond, as well as the villain Black Hand, last seen when the Specter mutilated the poor sap's hand. The Gremlins give Black Hand the means to regenerate his lost limb, at the cost of sucking life from those around him. Unfortunately, the poor guy's been so far traumatized by what the Specter (and, to Hand's mind, Hal Jordan, did to him that he's become a death-worshiping nihilist. This new ability is right up Black Hand's ally.
Hal manages to save Hammond, as well as defeating the Shark, Black Hand, and the Gremlins. He turns the first three over to Earth authorities, and the Gremlins over to the Green Lantern Corp. The evolutionary experiments are considered alien technology, and are held at Edwards AFB.
The next story is a direct tie-in to the events of the mega-event Infinite Crisis, which will tangentially effect the stories we examine next week. Mongul II, son of the alien who allied with the Cyborg Superman to destroy Coast City, is determined to avenge his late father and earn his legacy. Ambushing Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman in the then-destroyed JLA Watchtower, he steals a Black Mercy from the JLA vault, and teleports to Earth, being intercepted by Green Lantern and his buddy Green Arrow. I've already made my thoughts on Green Arrow clear, so I won't go into that further.
Now, a Black Mercy is a symbiotic alien plant that bonds to a host and creates an illusion in the host's mind of a perfectly content life to prevent the host from resisting the bond. Mongul II (hereafter, just "Mongul") plans to follow in his father's footsteps and weaponize the Mercy's, growing a whole field of them on Earth. Green Arrow and Green Lantern are captured by one, but are able to see through the illusion it created because the plant had to split its resources between two individuals, creating what wasn't Green Arrow's ideal world, but what Hal Jordan thought Green Arrow's ideal world would be. Freed, the two fight back Mongul, who has further competition from his own sister, Mongal. When the siblings are teleported back to their point of origin, Mongul kills his sister, determined to honor their father himself.
Finally, Green Lantern and Batman team up to take down the mysterious Tattooed Man, a former Marine covered in mystical tattoos that can manifest as demons and attack those in the real world. Hal is understandably nervous about working with Bats again. Back in Rebirth, before Hal could lead the charge against Parallax, Batman had tried to intervene, still not trusting Jordan. Hal then punched out Batman before continuing on his way.
Yeah, Hal, you'd better be scared. You don't punch Batman. Not ever.
Sure enough, when Hal steps out of line, Batman takes the opportunity to put him in his place. Hal backs down, but the two still have trouble approaching the problem; Batman plans every move and acts from the shadows, while Green Lantern literally covers himself in light and dives in head first. They ultimately use this to their advantage; Green Lantern distracts the Tattooed Man and get attacked by the demons he can manifests, while Batman ambushes Tattooed Man and fight the human host hand-to-hand.
They defeat him, and as a peace offering, Hal offers Batman a chance to use his ring. To do so requires focusing on the moment of ultimate fear in your life, and being able to move past it. Batman is able to do this (no prizes for guessing what Batman's most fearful memory is), but chooses not to, saying that the memory is what motivates him to keep fighting. However, by issue's end, he and Hal are back on friendly terms. As friendly as terms are with the Batman, anyway.
So, what do we have, here?
We have what I think is one of the coolest status quos for a super hero ever: working at Area 51. I would absolutely love for another character, a more Earthbound one, to operate at the fictional Edwards AFB and deal with both government intrigue and threats from beyond the stars. Upon looking back, a Green Lantern isn't really the best fit for this type of setting; Hal Jordan already splits his time between Earth and space. The creatures kept at Edwards aren't as frightening or mysterious to him as they would be to someone a little more grounded. And, as I've noted before, this status quo is eventually dropped entirely as Hal spends most of the next couple years in space. Still, I hope Edwards is eventually revisited.
Next we have Hector Hammond, who is reimagined by Johns as a creepy Hal-Jordan fanboy/stalker. It's actually a clever idea; Hammond is unable to move on his own because of his huge head. Really, it's like an orange on a toothpick. It's like Sputnik: spherical, but quite pointy in parts. It's got its own weather system. He cries himself to sleep every night on his huge pillow. By using his psychic abilities, he can live the exciting life of a superhero by leeching off of Jordan's memories. And, unlike the other plot threads introduced in this part of the run, Hammond actually comes back after the conclusion of Blackest Night, serving as a meat-puppet for the serpentine embodiment of Greed. I'm interested in where Johns goes with this.
The Black Hand is another character who comes back in a big way ,being the centerpiece of the Blackest Night crossover. In fact, Hand is the first character to speak of the coming of the Blackest Night, but seeing as he's out of his mind half the time, no one listens to his ramblings. It's ironic, however, that the Specter, by choosing to mutilate Hand rather than kill him outright, not only allowed for the deaths of all the people Hand kills to regrow his limb, but also allowed for the Blackest Night to occur in the first place. At the time, it would seem that the Specter's attack pushed the Hand completely over the edge, but Secret Origins and one of the Blackest Night prologues will reveal that Hand was always destined to be the avatar of death. (Admittedly, mostly via revised continuity in the wake of "Infinite Crisis".)
Mongul will play a larger role in the Green Lantern universe following the Sinestro Corp War, albeit mostly in the sister title "Green Lantern Corps". I'll deal with those developments in due time, but I think it's worth noting that Johns missed a good opportunity with this character; Mongul rivals Hal Jordan when it comes to Daddy issues. This isn't the last time such an opportunity is going to be missed, and it's a bit frustrating. The defining element of Jordan's background is his relationship with and admiration of his father, and the defining moment of his life was witnessing his father's death. Jordan is surrounded by foes with warped family relations, but they tend to be tangential rivals; none of his main enemies has any paternal angst. This is wasted dramatic potential.
As for Mongal, I'm a bit irritated at her fridging. I don't know a thing about her, or her history, but killing her seemed rather anti-climatic. If you were just going to kill her off, why bring her into this story to begin with? (Ask Raynie about the Kingpin's fate in Ultimate Spider-Man sometimes; it's a rather similar situation.) Instantly, there are two problems with her death: first, it robs us of future drama. It'd be much more interesting to bring her in as a rival during Mongul's later rise to power.
Additionally, killing her completely muddies Mongul's motivation. He claims the only reason he bothers with Earth is because his father deemed it a worthwhile target, and he's going to live up to his father's legacy. Yet when he kills his sister, he claims that family is a weakness, and he won't allow himself to have any weaknesses. So, which is it? Is family a weakness or something to honor? I suppose one could say that Mongul changes his mind during the course of the story as a result of being defeated by Green Lantern and Green Arrow; he decides not to bother honoring his father, and simply take what he can for himself. (It's worth noting that he doesn't target Earth again.) But if that's the case, it's not made very clear. Either way, Mongal should have at least gone out fighting, rather than from a comically violent cheap-shot.
Finally, we come to Batman. Jordan punching Batman was one of the most controversial events of "Rebirth", and Johns was accused of punking Batman in order to make Hal Jordan look good. Now, ignoring those rubes who insist that no one short of Jesus Christ himself should ever be able to get in a shot at Batman...there's frankly some truth to the charge. Batman in "Rebirth" is right to be skeptical of Jordan in the circumstances, and there was frankly no dramatic benefit in introducing a conflict between the two. The fact that said conflict is firmly resolved here and never mentioned again signifies how pointless it was in the first place. The original pitch for "Rebirth" had Parallax choose Batman as his host after being expelled from Jordan, and that wasn't a particularly good idea, either. For whatever reason, Johns seemed to have plans for this Batman/Green Lantern rivalry, plans he quickly dropped once he got Hal Jordan re-established.
It's just as well because, as I noted last week, Johns doesn't seem to "get" Batman, or, more accurately, his vision of Batman is firmly stuck in the worse era of the '90's. John Stewart accuses Batman of hating Hal Jordan because Batman hides in shadows and gains power through fear, which wouldn't work on Jordan. Parallax calls Batman a "disciple" of fear. And the Sinestro Corp even tries to recruit Batman as a being able to generate great fear. Now, admittedly, that last example makes sense in the context of how a Sinestro Corp ring would operate, seeing as one would later try to recruit a being whom instilled fear without any intention of doing so. Still, the recurring message of Johns' run in regards to Batman is that Batman operates through fear, without which, he is powerless.
And this is a bunch of crap.
Not to bring up the Emotional Spectrum meme again, but if Batman is a member of any Corps, it's the Blue Lanterns. Bruce Wayne gets up every day and fights against a never-ending tide of crime, violence and corruption. He knows that despite how hopeless it may seem at times, every life he saves is a step in the right direction. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, maybe not in his lifetime, but sooner or later, Gotham City is going to be a city of virtue instead of vice. Bruce never loses that hope; it drives him. He's driven by a desire to ensure that no one else will have to suffer as he had.
And aside from that, Batman isn't universally feared. His arch-enemies, for the most part, don't fear him. The Bat-family is rather expansive, and even those he doesn't see eye-to-eye with don't fear him. Most of the big members of the Justice League don't fear him. Most of the Gotham Police Department knows they don't have to fear him. And, perhaps most tellingly, children almost never fear him. Fear isn't a weapon for Batman so much as it's a defense to make up for his very human frailties. He's not someone who thinks fear is a tool used to instill social order; that would make him an ideal member of the Sinestro Corp. Batman isn't that, and it's a bit irritating that Johns implies the only reason Batman was able to reject the Sinestro Corp ring is because of his brief contact with Hal Jordan's ring.
Now, in fairness to Johns, all of my conjecture here is based not on anything he's said, but on what characters written by him have said. But more than a couple characters and events have painted a fairly consistent image of Batman, and if it's analogous to how Johns sees the character, then Johns sees one of the worse incarnations of the character. (I'm choosing not to address the Brother Eye storyline leading up to "Infinite Crisis" because I only read bits and pieces of it years ago, and can't trust my memory on the matter; additionally, I don't know who wrote/originated the plot in the first place.)
Of course, I could be wrong; I suppose we'll see when Johns presents his take on Batman's origin in "Batman: Earth One" next year. And since I should probably remember what superhero this post is really about, I'll say that next week, we'll glance over relevant events in "Infinite Crisis", deal with the One Year Gap, and see the lead-in to the Sinestro Corp War.
Oh, and Hal Jordan macks on every woman in the series with a pulse. Seriously.
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With enough prep-time, Batman can take out the Shark with little problem.
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