Green Lantern #48

Synopsis

Coast city has been vaporized, not nothing more than a rather large hole or charred sand. Hal is there, grieving, thinking about why his city was destroyed and thinking of all his life has been and how all of it is tied into this city….now a simple hole.
 

He uses his ring to recreate coast city and speaks with his dad and mom and even his very first girlfriend. Alas the people were not truly reborn but simple manifestations of his battered Psyche. Just as his father is about to tell him what he has always wanted to hear, his ring runs out of power.

A guardian appears before him demanding he hand over his ring and prepare to be transported back to Oa where he will go on trial for using his ring for personal gain. Grief stricken Hal has other ideas and refuses to wield the ring, he absorbs the power of the

guardians projection and decides he will have the power he needs so he can set things right.

Meanwhile Kyle Rayner and his girlfriend Alex Dewitt enjoy a moonlight romp on the beach, they both see a green star ascending to the heavens, at Alex’s behest Kyle makes a with on the star. 
End of Issue

The Good
Beautiful human Hal! A very rare thing indeed. Ron Marz exposes all of Hal’s shortcomings and insecurities. As Hal stares at the hole that was once his city different aspects of his psyche are peeled back. His Dad issues erupt, he was never given the encouragement he wanted or needed, most guys can relate to that but what makes it a golden moment is that Hal was so much like his father……his dad didn’t approve because he never though much of himself to begin with….Hal’s brothers with their own personalities were more easily accepted by his dad because they were so divergently different from him. When he saw himself

in Hal……it took him clearly to a dark self loathing place. And as Hal’s subconscious and memories take over his dad walks off to his plane and a re enactment of his father death takes place.

Next we see Hal’s mom, she is just as Hal remembers her, she tells him to take the good memories and move on, Hal wants none of it, he wants to atone, he wants more power so he right the wrongs of his past.

Then we meet his first girlfriend Jennifer, she reveals a whole mess of things deep seated in Hal’s Psyche. She was the one to make him a man in more ways than one. She met him two years after his dad died and still grief stricken he was a far cry from what readers have become accustomed to. It was Jennifer who nurtured him back to normally and made him realize he wanted to be a pilot, its even alluded she was his first sexual partner. And what did Hal do? When he was back to normal he broke up with her and started a whole mess of relationships that never got too serious. Its clear his unresolved issues with his dad may have caused his “womanizing” just like his dad he developed a “self loathing” personality. Somewhere inside he doesn’t think he’s worthy of Love. All you need to do is look at his string of conquest……even all the retcons of Geoff Johns still didn’t make Hal a normal well adjusted man, he supposedly loves carol but he’s too busy

shagging everyone else to wake up and smell the “soul mate”. At the end of it all Hal is still that little boy his father never quite loved, he is heroic and jumps into the fray because he doesn’t think much of himself, so no matter the outcome he’s always ready to dive first and think afterwards.

All this added death to Hal and made his journey to Oa something to both look forward to and dread…after all he was about to fix things……but was he fixing things for the people of his city? Or to make himself feel better about what had actually happened? Think about it……..

The Bad
Honestly the more I examine it the more I’m pretty damn satisfied with it. Sure casuals wont get IT, sure Hal fan boys will hate it but it was still a good read, just look beyond the surface.

Action Junkies may be put off by the slow paced story

The Ugly
4.5/5 stars