No, John Stewart should be.

I can see both arguments with this...

Hal Jordan should be the GL because he was the first human Green Lantern (you know what I mean) and it, therefore should progress in a linear fashion so that the comic timeline is intact. We've already seen Hal Jordan being practically forgotten in the DCAU, with Kyle Rayner being given the spot in Superman: TAS and John Stewart in the Justice League cartoon... Jordan had one small cameo and to be honest, I thought he deserved better.

John Stewart, on the other hand, should be the GL because he is a popular character and a lot of people know him from the JL cartoon (some erroneously believing him to be the first GL) plus he's the easiest shoe-in for the token black character that is lacking (and some would argue much needed) in superhero movies.

While I agree with the merits of both arguments, and like both characters for different reasons... I personally believe that the integrity of the timeline is more important than having a black character for the sake of it... but I think that Stewart should be in the movie at some point and have a "strong cameo scene" and maybe bring him into other GL movies as a GL, but I think that Hal should be the primary on this... and Guy Gardner should just be forgotten completely.

I have no problem with that, although I would like to see John Stewart.

No one else but Hal should get that spot.

Yes, yes he should, he's the first(Not counting Alan of course), and like him or not, he deserves to have the spot..that and I personally don't get why people want John, he's cool in the animated JL but in comics..he's kinda boring.

@sethysquare: Im sorry but what do you mean "all the Justice cartoon appearance of Hal Jordan has been around to build up his presence in the mainstream audience's mind." ? Like literally i dont understand the phrasing.

I honestly doubt non-comic fans really watch the DCOA movies when compared to comic fans. Contrastly, I think more people recognized Green Lantern by John Stewart from JLU. A Justice League movie should definitely feature and make the point that Hal Jordan was the first Human, and the greatest, but I think Stewart will get a better response, considering the GL film flop with Ryan "Chest shot" Reynolds. It really depends on who would be more likely to see the film, comic fans who want the entire history represented, or the more casual watcher who would vaguely remember and refer to Green Lantern as "that black guy with the ring" from a childhood show. Id be happy with the first Lanterns making an appearence i some sort.

Plus theyd be adding a non-white superhero, which is good moksha.

@TheThe said:

No, John Stewart should be.

No it will always be Hal Jordan I like John Stewart but when it come to the dam big screen it will always be Hal.

For me, it's John Stewart or Kyle Rayner. I dont read/watch Hal Jordan no more, too much "twinky" and boring to me. He's like the Scott Summers of Green Lantern Corps. Geoff Johns wants obviously to marry Hal Jordan, so his writing is about PIS after PIS. It's annoying. I dont, but really dont like Hal Jordan at all.

@HammerTron said:

Only Hal Jordan.

Otherwise I won't waste my time.

I completely fucking agree!

Your reasoning makes total sense and should definitely be the Green Lantern in the movie.

Also everything big in the GL-verse and the other GLs are all connected and come from Hal Jordan.

You can't do John without explaining Hal, You can't do Guy without Hal, and You can't do Kyle without Hal. Only Alan can be done without him.

@sethysquare said:

@TheThe: Uh... Kyle Rayner is the twinky one. Do you even read GL?

I read GL. Of course only The New Guardians with Kyle and the others lanterns + The Green Lanterns Corps with Guy "Ginger" Gardner and John Stewart. Kyle is not "twinky" to me. He's a little sensitive but apart from that is an handsome and well-educated one. Physically, he's got Gambit charming style. Anyway, to each is opinion. I've read pretty much everything about the corp, but i gave up on Hal Jordan stories, i just dont like him at all. Everything seems so fake about him, it's just wrong that he is the so-called "greatest lantern of all time". Anyway, hating on Hal or lovin Stewart & Rayner aint the subject of the thread.

@sethysquare said:

@HalJordan888: Exactly. Unless WB wants to change all the supporting characters, like Carol, Sinestro, Abin Sur and etc, they would most 100% go with Hal. Currently, none of the other earth GL even have good supporting characters other than the other lanterns from GLC.

Exactly and with the New 52, Sinestro is even more popular now than ever so using him would be a great move with Hal. If they reboot the GL movie-verse or continue on.

Hal Jordan should be the GL in the Justice League movie.

No question. No doubt.

@TheThe said:

No, John Stewart should be.

@TheThe said:

No, John Stewart should be.

@CODYSF said:

@TheThe said:

No, John Stewart should be.

No it will always be Hal Jordan I like John Stewart but when it come to the dam big screen it will always be Hal.

No, it'll always be John.

@sethysquare said:

He is just way too cool to not include him in the Justice League movie.

John Stewart's cooler.

I'd love to see John Stewart on the big screen and he might be a popular choice as well as adding diversity to the League but when it comes down to it, I still feel that Hal, my favourite Lantern (waits for barrage of abuse from everyone else) deserves to be recognised as the founding GL of the League.

Hal will absolutely be in any eventual JL movie. There is no question about it. He's already got a movie, a carton and he's the most well known of all lanterns. That doesn't mean he desreves to be in a JL movie, because he is also just about the blandest leading character in existence. Kyle is probably the Lantern that should be in a movie, but alas he never will.

@AtPhantom: I've always felt that Guy is the blandest Lantern. I was never able to be interested in the character and the Vuldarian powers thing was a poor move IMO. My favourite Lantern always fluctuated between John Stewart due to the cartoon, Kyle Rayner due to reading a few JLA graphic novels and then after the prelude to and Blackest Night itself, Hal Jordan became my favourite. I never understood what was so special about Guy.

@Lvenger: I don't really like Guy, but I can understand the appeal of him as someone who just leaped out of an 80's cowboy cop movie and was given the ultimate weapon in the universe. The fact that he gravitates towards butt monkey in non serious situations but is an asskicker when push comes to shove adds to his charm.

Hal though? He should be a cowboy cop somewhat akin to Guy, but throughout Johns' run his only two personality traits have been 'no fear' and 'I'm afraid of relationships' and frankly that got old about ten issues in.

@AtPhantom: If it wasn't for Johns' run, I'd never have been interested in Hal. Admittedly those two things you've mentioned are the quintessential themes for Johns' run but Johns has done a great deal to enhance the Green Lantern universe via the introduction of more Lantern Corps, revamping GL villains like Sinestro and Black Hand along with successfully demonstrating Hal's successful redemption for the most part. He comes off annoying and douchy sometimes but for the most part Johns' writing keeps the story engaging and entertaining. It's one of the few titles Johns writes intelligently with the detail he used to write all his comics. Justice League's first arc was too simplistic so hopefully the second one will be more character driven.

@Lvenger said:

@AtPhantom: If it wasn't for Johns' run, I'd never have been interested in Hal. Admittedly those two things you've mentioned are the quintessential themes for Johns' run but Johns has done a great deal to enhance the Green Lantern universe via the introduction of more Lantern Corps, revamping GL villains like Sinestro and Black Hand along with successfully demonstrating Hal's successful redemption for the most part. He comes off annoying and douchy sometimes but for the most part Johns' writing keeps the story engaging and entertaining. It's one of the few titles Johns writes intelligently with the detail he used to write all his comics. Justice League's first arc was too simplistic so hopefully the second one will be more character driven.

See, I have a problem with just about everything you said.

The only things I would actually give Johns is that he revamped villains and that his writing is engaging and entertaining. The main problem is it's not Hal that's engaging and entertaining, its everyone around him. It annoys me to no end because I actually like Hal, and I think you could actually do some very interesting things with him, but Johns has consistently refused to actually explore Hal's character beyond the two points I've mentioned earlier and actually make him interesting. Not only that, but he has actually dumbed him down, because he hasn't, as you said, demonstrated Hal's successful redemption. No, instead he just swept the whole thing under the rug, and is quite insistent on never actually mentioning it. Any other character would have major issues about either killing, or being used to kill untold billions of lives across the multiverse, but Hal just acts like nothing really happened and keeps doing stuff like he only got the ring yesterday.

You see where I'm going with this? Any other good writer would jump at the chance to explore the consequences of Hal's actions, what it was like to sit by helpless and watch as your body slaughtered universes. Or was he helpless? Did he secretly want it? Did Parallax twist his own desires? Did it make him feel good doing it. Did he recognize his friends thus possessed? All excellent points that merrit exploring, but once again Johns is actually purposelly keeping Hal as bland as possible for some reason.

This is ultimately the problem with all of Johns' run. It's all flash. It's all awesome moments, and awesome villains and awesome pacing, and no substance whatsoever (An increasing problem with Johns' writing). And, you know, that's pretty much what you want to inject life in a franchise, and it was fine for about 20 issues or so. But after Sinestro corps war it quickly got amazingly stale and Hal got even blander than usual. It didn't help that every Lantern corps introduced after the Reds was boring and completely without any actual purpose or interesting features to them (Larfleeze excepted, but Larfleeze, is, let's face it, a joke). It also didn't help that the Lanterns have lost any other villain that isn't another Lantern. So while you say it enhanced the GL universe, I say it limited it considerably. Now the greatest peace keeping force in the universe has nothing else to fight but dopplegangers or themselves. And that, too, gets stale (I kinda hoped when Bedard took over GLC that he would break that mold and actually show us the universe beyond the rainbow, as he had done with REBELS, LEGION and RT war, but nope, that went nowhere fast).

It's, again, annoying, because Johns really is a good writer. I know he can write better than this. We've seen him write awesome comics. This isn't one of them. This is a comic designed solely to attract new readers, and give nothing to the old (Huh, like Johns' carrier of late, come to think of it).

PS: Black Hand is kinda awesome and creepy looking and a bit scary, but he's still lame because he's still just a one trick pony with no actual likeable qulaities to him.

@sethysquare said:

Hal Jordan is the "first" GL and the best. Hal is way cooler. John is honestly the most boring GL ever. Other than Killing Mogo and other GLs theres nothing much to do with him. Sure in the animated series he was pretty cool with all the romance with Hawkgirl and VIxen. But in the comics for the past ten years, he has been written as the worst human GL. He got no supporting character, he is boring and nobody knows much about his back story.

Hal is both boring and overrated.

@HolySerpent said:

Johm Stewart. The JL need diversity

This.

I don't like Hal, but I don't see DC using anyone else.

I sometimes feel like I'm the only one who loves Hal on here. So I agree with the sentiment of the OP. Hal does deserve his place on the line up of the movie Justice League. And if the rumours are true it will be him. Though Ryan Reynolds might be back which I'm not pleased about.

Then, your GL movie will flop as expected.