GREETINGS EVERYONE!
My name is Hal Jordan. You probably don’t know this but I protect Earth and the rest of Sector 2814 from Intergalactic threats. No, it OK. Don’t thank me. I do it because it’s the right thing to do and because no one else can. Do I get paid? Not much but, and I know this sounds like something Gardner would say but, the tail you get with this job is more than worth it! I’m a Green Lantern.
In a nutshell this is my life:
I used to be a test pilot for Ferris Aircraft. I was the best at it. Everyone says it’s because I am without fear. Don’t tell anyone but that’s not entirely true. It’s just that I have incredible willpower that allows me to overcome it. So anyway, one day this dying alien crash-lands on Earth. His name was Abin Sur and he was a Green Lantern. The duty of a dying Green Lantern is to command his weapon, a power ring, to seek out a worthy successor. The ring found me...
So here I am with this dead alien and a ring that I have no idea how to use or what it’s for.
If that’s not weird enough, all of a sudden I’m being transported to a planet called Oa, which I soon find out, is the center of the universe. Turns out, the universe is governed by these little blue men (who look like Smurfs and Yoda had a bunch of babies) called The Guardians. The Guardians have been around since the beginning of time and monitor the galaxy and ensure stability throughout the cosmos. They are INCREDIBLY powerful.They created the Green Lantern Corps to be their “patrolmen†or protectors and enforcers of space. One lantern for each of the 3600 sectors of known space. The Lanterns are bestowed with a ring of power, which can do ANYTHING the bearer can will it to do. The rings are fueled by the massive Central Power Battery located on Oa. Each bearer has their own mini battery with which they can charge their rings, once every 24 hours.
The Central Power Battery feeds power to each bearer’s mini-battery. The only limitation on the rings is that they are vulnerable to anything that falls within the color spectrum of that which we know as the color yellow. This is supposedly due to an impurity within the Central Battery that acts as a fail safe to control Lanterns from going rogue (like Sinestro). Turns out this isn’t exactly true but more on that later.
So anyway, the Guardians tell me that I am now the Green Lantern of Sector 2814.
Pretty cool right?
Right!
Sort of.
I’ve been to every corner of the universe and have met some great friends along the way. My best friend is Oliver Queen, AKA Green Arrow. After I’d been at this GL thing for a while I started to butt heads with the Guardians. I mean these little blue shits just sit on Oa and never venture out into the real worlds. They just seclude themselves there and make decisions for all of us but never go out of their way to understand people or emotions. It’s all black and white to them. Kind of like George W. here on Earth. So one time, Ollie and I convinced the Guardians to have one of theirs come to Earth with us and just travel around the world in order to better understand humanity.We were some hard-travelin-heroes, so to speak. It was a huge success. Of course that Guardian eventually went crazy and tried to build a mosaic world by abducting entire civilizations from different world and putting them together but that’s beside the point. Point is, Ollie and I have been best friends ever since.
Other great friends I’ve met along the way include Tomar Re, who was my first friend in the Corps. Tomar died during the whole Crisis thing a few years back.Kilowog, who was my drill instructor but is now a big, ugly, teddy bear that you don’t EVER want to fuck with.Guy Gardner, who was actually also chosen by Abin Sur’s ring as “technically†worthy. I was just closer. He’s still pissed about that. He can be an ass. We butt heads constantly but in a good scrap, there's no one I'd rather have on my side. Most recently Guy has been made the 1st new member of the Green Lantern Corps Honor Guard.John Stewart was chosen by the Guardians to be my alternate in case I ever can’t perform my duties. Poor John, the guy’s lost his wife, Katma Tui, been blamed for blowing up a planet, and been crippled from the waste down, all for the Corps.I fixed the crippled part for him. Recently, after Kyle's been busy out in space, John has filled the Green Lantern role on the JLA roster. And of course all my good friends in the Justice League. Flash (Barry and Wally), Kal, and Bruce (though he and I are still a little shaky).My newest friend in the Corps is Kyle Rayner. I don’t know him real well yet but I can tell we’re gonna be great friends. What can I say about Kyle?
Here’s what happened.
About 10 years ago, real dickhead named Mongul along with the Cyborg Superman destroyed my hometown of Coast City, CA. My family, friends, my whole life-gone! I went to the Guardians to ask them to use their power to change things back to the way they were. They refused. I guess I went a little nuts. I went to Oa to confront them and they sent the Corps out to stop me. I killed them all. Each one I killed I took their ring. By the time I reached Oa I was insane with power.I killed the Guardians and destroyed the Central Power Battery by absorbing all of its power into myself. I became a villain. I became a God. I assumed the name Parallax.The last thing the Guardians did before they died was to channel all of their power to save just one of them, Ganthet. Ganthet then went to Earth and gave the last ring, constructed from shards of the broken Central Power Battery to the one who was MOST worthy. An artist named Kyle Rayner.Meanwhile, with my new god-like power, I tried to reset time. This is better known as the Zero Hour Event. It took every known superhero to stop me and I killed many. I flicked Superman like a booger (sorry again about that, Kal). Afterwards, I went into hiding at the edge of the universe. A few years later, an alien force came to Earth and was draining all of the energy from the Sun. Earth was dying and its heroes were helpless to stop it. That’s when Kyle sought my out and found me and begged me to come back and help. After some soul searching I went back. I used all of my vast power and sacrificed myself to re-ignite the sun. I died.My soul, unclean as it was, went to purgatory.
Until that is, I was presented with an opportunity by (I thought) God to atone for my sins. I was called upon to incorporate my soul with God’s spirit of vengeance, The Spectre.Jim Corrigan was for years the soul inside the Spectre. When he ascended, I was called upon to take up the mantle. This was NOT a fun job. Don’t really like to talk about it.
So, I went nuts, killed the Corps, the Guardians, the Power Battery, achieved god-like powers, tried to reset time, killed more heroes, sacrificed myself to save Earth, went to purgatory, became the god’s spirit of vengeance, all because I lost my city.
Or so we thought.
This is where Kyle comes in.
Kyle discovered that Parallax wasn’t me. It never was. Parallax is an actual sentient being imprisoned in the Power Battery back when the Guardians came to be and purposefully forgotten throughout time. Parallax is a being of living fear. Parallax, it turns out, IS the yellow impurity in the Battery.Sinestro, a rogue Lantern, was once trapped inside the Battery and made contact with it. He gave Parallax back its sentience. He manipulated Parallax and used Parallax to corrupt me and lure me to the Battery.
See, after Coast City was destroyed, my psyche was in a vulnerable state. For the first time, I was afraid. It was at this time that Parallax influenced me through my ring. It led me back to Oa and when I destroyed the Central Battery, I inadvertently freed both Sinestro and Parallax. Parallax grafted completely to it’s new host, me.
After I relit the Sun, my infected soul was separated from my body, which was lying in the center of the Sun, preserved by the residual power of the Battery. Kyle retrieved my body from the Sun and brought it back to Earth.Also, it turns out, that the Spectre knew all this to be true which is the reason he grafted himself onto my soul. He thought that his power combined with my willpower could destroy Parallax. He was not only wrong, but in fact Parallax began to corrupt even the Spectre’s power.
The Spectre and Parallax waged a war inside me and eventually they began to separate from me. Free of their control, my soul began to ascend to heaven while Parallax began to burrow into the Spectre. In a last ditch effort, the Spectre sends a blast at me, redirecting my soul back to my body. And here I am. All thanks to Kyle.
All this bullshit about who’s a better Green Lantern, Kyle or me. I hate it! Kyle, within 2 days of getting his ring, had his girlfriend chopped up and stuffed into a fridge. He talked me into saving the Earth, brought back the Guardians, rebuilt and relit the Central Battery, reformed the Corps, and not only brought me back to life but cleared my name in the eyes of my peers. Well, except Batman, but fuck him. Not to mention the fact that Kyle now, after his girlfriend (and Alan Scott's daughter), Jade, died she gave to him the power of the Starheart. Kyle is known now as Ion and weild the combined power of the Stearheart and the direct power of the Central Battery. He no longer needs a ring. The power is within him. His greater purpose in the universe is still unfolding. Anyway, Kyle is, to me, the greatest hero I know and I know ‘em all!So now I’m back. I’m a Green Lantern again, the Corps is back, the Guardians are back. It’s just like old times and it feels great! It’s been way too long.
