One comment to my previous GL post rightly pointed out that Hal murdered several Green Lanterns and all but one of the Guardians, so why don't they just clap him in irons whenever he's rejuvenated? (They could say, "well, we're back from the dead too, so let's call it even," but that wouldn't exactly be a fair trade because Kyle brought them back. Still, Kyle only brought them back as toddlers, and apparently changed the gender of some, so I don't know how happy they'd be with him either.) At Wizard World Chicago, the point was made that "Batman's almost the villain" of Rebirth. That suggests to me that Batman doesn't trust Hal anymore either.
Anyway, I should have addressed that in the earlier post and didn't, so shame on me. My blind spot probably comes from two sources. First, I thought "Emerald Twilight" could be justified by the destruction of Coast City and Hal's past rebellions against the Guardians, but that doesn't mean I thought it was in character for him. "ET" was such a jarring event that I have since chalked it up to temporary insanity. Second, "ET" was an abrupt editorial decision on DC's part, so in a sense Hal also gets the "Nuremberg defense" of just "following orders" from Kevin Dooley and Ron Marz. Still, I don't like being less than complete.
And all I meant by Hal-Spectre "working smoothly" was that it wasn't creating any major disruptions. Hal was running around stirring up trouble as Parallax, but as the Spectre he was in the background, available for deus ex machina work as needed. A lot of fans didn't like Hal as the Spectre. I thought the Spectre series was enjoyable enough, but I didn't want that to be Hal's final resting place (so to speak). Nevertheless, the status quo had adapted to include Hal-Spectre such that some kind of disruption -- as shown in "Redemption Lost" -- was necessary to shake it up and require the kind of fix that Rebirth apparently will bring. Sorry for being unclear, and thanks for helping keep me honest.
3 comments:
I'm of the opinion that the Guardians at the very least *knew* about the impending events of Emerald Twilight, though I think they had more to do with it than just sitting around...
Previous attacks on the Guardians were met with far less of a strategy and often a line or two how the Guardians knew it was coming and *know* everything. Of course that bit them in the rear during the Crisis, but I think that was explained as them not wanting to believe what they knew to be true more than them not knowing about it.
But seeing the path that the Guardians took post ET, I don't think it's unfair to say that they knew this was coming and embraced it. I don't see it as Hal killing them, but rather them pouring their Energy into the Battery to take the first steps towards their next evolution.
Not to mention that they really exacerbated the situation and while they did not kill/hurt those GLs sent after Hal, they did what they always do, put GLs in mortal danger to protect themselves. Same thing they did in Emerald Dawn and countless other times.
THEN, they brought out Sinestro. Was there any logic in that, except to put Hal in a position where his rage was a tad bit more justified? To me, it was a move to piss Hal off, plain and simple.
SPOILER FOR REBIRTH, as revealed in DC Direct's solicitations for the Rebirth Figures:
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If my theory pans out, I expect them to acquit Hal because they were especting it and it was necessary for their evolution (if you check out the solicitations for the Rebirth Figures from DC Direct in November, the ones for Ganthet and Guardian refers to Hal's return elevating them to higher levels of power or something to that effect).
I can accept the fact that the alien super-brains plan things out a thousand moves ahead of time, but that does not absolve Jordan's actions. The Gaurdians would have had to take advatage of the destrution of Coast City to intentionaly drive Jordan mad. Perhaps, so they and the corps could temporarily vanish for whatever reason. That would explain Sinestro's appearance (Very odd as Neil pointed out, of course ET was very stupid as Chris pointed out). Some of the other Lanterns would have had to be in on it, the ones he killed specifically. It still would not quite redeem him, but it is something to work with.
That does NOT mean the Guardians had a hand in the destrution of Coast City. That would make them a pack of Hitlers.
The biggest thing is that Hal became The Spectre, an agent, if you will, of God. To me, it was *this* development which cemented Hal being guilty of the events in ET, though again, I don't think he was the *only* guilty party there...
Prior to Day of Judgment, I think DC could have pulled a "it was a clone/doppleganger/etc." to reverse ET, but once Hal becomes an Agent of God and is given a divine mandate, especially one of Redemption, to do so would mean that God was wrong about Hal too...unless God felt punishing Hal for a clone's fault was necessary. Not only that, why would a Hal clone even be eligible to be the Spectre?
So I'm with you that Hal was guilty of the events in ET. But I don't think he was the *only* guilty party.
And to clarify, no, the Guardians definately were not responsible for Coast City. And, in fact, except for the ressurection of Sinestro, I think the Guardian's sin was mainly the fact that they didn't act when they should have.
At most though, they prodded things along to get Hal from point A to point B, realizing that if they didn't appear to Hal to tell him he was wrong in issue #48, and they didn't send the Corps after him, and they didn't ressurrect Sinestro, Hal wouldn't have become Parallax, and wouldn't have restarted the sun. Which wouldn't have allowed Kyle to become Ion, which wouldn't have accounted for their rebirth in GL #150 and so on...
A real mindblowing approach to the Guardians, which might be *too* big to handle would be to have them answer directly for sitting by with all their power. They could have stopped Hal, they chould have prevented the destruction of Coast City, they could have played a bigger role in stopping the Anti-Monitor, they could have taken on Darkseid, etc. But they chose to use their agents instead, with mixed results.
To me, they are less "Guardians of the Universe" and more "Managers of the Universe."
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