10 Problems No One Wants To Admit About Green Lantern

10. Hal Jordan Is The Least Interesting Lantern

Hal Jordan is, in many ways, the quintessential superhero. He kickstarted the most interesting aspects of the Green Lantern mythos all the way back in his first appearance in 1959's Showcase #22, and fits the definition of an establishment superhero. He's a former pilot, a middle-aged white man, and the very picture of authority, policing on a planetary scale.

It's worth noting too that Jordan has featured in some tremendous storylines over the years. When Dennis O'Neil and Neal Adams opted to dive into Nixon's America with Green Lantern/Green Arrow, they chose Hal to juxtapose with Oliver Queen, who embodied the firebrand politics of the New Left. Jordan was criticised from start to finish, but ultimately left the series a changed man. He'd had his head in the stars for so long, but it took his Earth-based partner to force him to reappraise his role as an establishment figure, and one ambivalent to Earth's own issues at that.

Factor in the likes of DC: The New Frontier (a departure from Hal's typical characterisation anyway) and much of Geoff Johns' run too, and it stands to reason that Jordan is DC's most storied Lantern. But he's not the publisher's only one.

A few decades, a death and a surprise resurrection later, and Jordan is once again DC's main GL. However, this has often come at the expense of his comrades, with Hal once again an unremarkable, establishment character.

Grant Morrison and Liam Sharp are doing great things in The Green Lantern, but Hal has, for so many years now, cut a very uninspiring figure on and off the page. Compared to his fellow Lanterns, he just seems to contribute little of value.