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| "The Spectre Corps" from The Spectre vol.4 #16 (DC, 2002) by J.M. DeMatteis, Norm Breyfogle, Jim Royal and Joe Rubinstein |
Making Hal Jordan the new Spectre may have been a case of destroying one character to redeem another, but it did make sense in the context of the clusterfrak thay made of this particular Green Lantern to make way for a younger model. Parallax wasn't a good idea, but it did make Hal a sort of "spirit of vengeance", which plugged him into the Spectre persona (for 27 issues of his own book, plus the Legends of the DC Universe arc where the idea premiered, and on until his resurrection in Blackest Night/Brightest Day), but it's not like this was a plan from the start.
I actually didn't mind the idea of Hal as the Spectre. I wouldn't have picked it, but they had to do something, and somehow made it work. Sort of.
ReplyDeleteLoved these aliens and spirits, own some of the art! Norm just had a stroke, sending thoughts and prayers, buddy.
ReplyDeleteThey did a spooky good job of making it seem like Blackest Night was planned from the beginning of Green Lantern's Mythos-- which would have meant that everything in between was somehow sort of ok....but then it feel back apart with Brightest Day because where do you go from a White Lantern Power Battery and a Life Entity and really going the extra mile in making sure Death means completely less than nothing forever? Brightest Day essentially forced them to reboot the DCU into the New 52, but then the New 52 ported over all the popular Blackest Night characters, which meant from the beginning it was more like a Crisis on Infinite Earths shuffle-fuck-fest than, like, a real story.
ReplyDeleteSpectre with Hal Jordan is an odd choice, but it does a lot to show that the Spectre really has an actual Boss and that the Phantom Stranger is also important and the Spectre isn't just the Punisher on Mega Super Roids. Which he never was supposed to be, but it's easy for authors to abuse his phenomenal cosmic powers and accidentally write him into that role of Trashing Everything On God's Green Earth To Hell And Death too much.
I want to see more Redemption Arcs featuring the Spectre.
You know what I want to see? Batman as the Spectre, Wonder Woman as the Spectre, and Superman as the Spectre.
And I want Superboy, Nightwing, and Kyle Rayner to be the Young Justice League, after the First Justice League's spirits Move On, helped by the Spectre.
I think that would be fantastic.
I don't think they will ever do it, but they need to do it.