It has been 30 years since DC Comics set out to give Hal Jordan the redemption arc that he needed. This came after the 1993 “Reign of the Supermen” storyline, which saw Mongul and Cyborg Superman destroy Jordan’s former home of Coast City and kill all seven million people living there. The Green Lantern wanted to use his powers to recreate Coast City, but the Guardians summoned him to Oa to discipline him for using his ring for personal reasons. Hal lost his temper, absorbed all the energy from one specific Guardian’s projection, attacked Oa, defeated several of the Green Lantern Corps, and became one of the most powerful villains in DC. It was here that Hal Jordan became Parallax.
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Green Lantern became Parallax in 1994, and it was in 1996 that he finally had a chance to seek atonement for all his sins. The story that allowed this started on September 4, 1996, with The Final Night #1 by Karl Kesel and Stuart Immonen.
“The Final Night” Brought a Villain the Heroes of DC Couldn’t Defeat
The Final Night #1 started a DC crossover storyline that would play out through several DC Comics titles. On top of the main series, there were also tie-in stories in Superman’s and Batman’s titles, The Power of Shazam, Supergirl, Green Arrow, Aquaman, Superboy, The Flash, Hitman, Legion of Super-Heroes, Robin, The Spectre, Takion, and Green Lantern. In fact, Green Lantern#81 by Ron Marz and Darryl Banks was the epilogue of the series. This was the issue that had the funeral for Hal Jordan.
To get to that point, DC started the storyline with the heroes of Earth realizing that something was headed toward the galaxy and that it would destroy all life there when it arrived. This was a Sun-Eater, a weapon created to destroy stars, guided by an inexplicable instinct. When it absorbs all the solar radiation, the dying star goes supernova, and all the planets it serves die. Before “Crisis on Infinite Earths,” the Controllers developed Sun-Eaters to destroy worlds they considered to be too evil. This changed post-Crisis.
In The Final Night #1, an alien crashed on Earth and told the heroes she encountered, which included Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes, that the Sun-Eater was coming. As the series progressed, the heroes realized they had no way of stopping the Sun-Eater, and there was no way to save the sun or Earth. In fact, the Sun-Eater actually did consume the sun, and the heroes and humans on Earth waited for the world to die. However, this series ended with the ultimate sacrifice. Hal Jordan, as Parallax, flew into the sun and used all his power to absorb the energy of the Sun-Eater, killing both the Sun-Eater and Hal, and this helped reignite the sun to save everyone. What started 30 years ago today ended with Hal Jordan’s redemption.
Hal Jordan’s Sacrifice Ended His Green Lantern Story in DC for Nine Years
The funeral that ended this storyline was intense. Kyle Rayner created a giant cathedral where Coast City used to be, and heroes from all over the world came to pay their respects to a man who was, at one time, the best hero of them all. Hal Jordan was the greatest Green Lantern in history, and this funeral allowed people to remember him as a hero and not the villain he became when Parallax took over his body. However, what happened next was completely unexpected. Hal Jordan didn’t return to DC Comics as the Green Lantern for nine years.
This is unusual in comics, as resurrections happen all the time, and when it comes to the main heroes, it is often a quick turnaround. However, DC Comics was trying something different in the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s. Barry Allen, the Silver Age Flash, died saving the world in “Crisis on Infinite Earths” in 1985, and he was dead until “Final Crisis” in 2008. Hal Jordan, the Silver Age Green Lantern, died saving the world in “The Final Night,” and he was gone until 2005. While Allen’s 23-year absence likely won’t be beaten for major heroes, Jordan’s nine-year absence as the Green Lantern was just as surprising.
The reason for this, though, is important to understand. DC wanted to cater to younger audiences, and it replaced Barry Allen with Wally West and Hal Jordan with Kyle Rayner. This gave two of the most important and oldest Silver Age heroes new, young faces to replace the older, more rigid heroes. It took a long time before DC was ready to bring back the old faces, which happened when Geoff Johns took over at the company.
Hal Jordan made his return in the 1999 miniseries Day of Judgment when he became the newest incarnation of the Spectre. However, Hal finally made his return to life in Green Lantern: Rebirth (2004). In this series, the actions that Hal took as Parallax were explained away as the work of an intergalactic parasite known as Parallax, and his story continued on from there. While this retcon was controversial, his sacrifice at the end of “The Final Night” showed he was always a hero in the end.
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