As such, it makes sense that his homeworld would get a lot of his attention, considering most of his adventures took place there, both solo and as a member of the Justice League. Hal's bosses, the Guardians of the Universe, felt that he was paying too much attention to his home. After all, Earth already had plenty of costumed champions to watch over it, and Hal had a big "sector" of space to patrol. As such, in Green Lantern #151 (April 1982), the Guardians exiled Hal from Earth for a year. But now that year is coming to a close. Hal Jordan's exile is about to end. How did his long-awaited return to Earth go? Let's find out as, for my 900th blog entry (yay), we look at Green Lantern #172!
The cover is pretty neat. A Dave Gibbons piece, it depicts Hal speaking with the Guardians of the Universe. It does look like he's trying not to grovel. A nice detail I like is the other members of the Green Lantern Corps looking on with a variety of expressions from concern to outrage.
"Judgment Day!"
Writer: Len Wein
Penciler: Dave Gibbons
Inker: Dave Gibbons
Colorist: Anthony Tollin
Editor: Len Wein
Executive Editor: Dick Giordano
The story begins with Hal Jordan flying through a meteor storm.
Hal is feeling pretty good. Over the past year, as I said earlier, he's been on a sort of enforced exile from his home of Earth on orders of the Guardians of the Universe. Being a maverick space cop carries consequences, I guess. Hal then realizes that the meteor storm is heading for an inhabited world. At first, he tries to ignore it. After all, the atmosphere of that world will burn up most of those meteors before they hit the surface. But...there's the change that at least one of those rocks could hit the surface...and it could get someone hurt.
Hal flies ahead of the meteor storm, and uses his ring to create a construct of a hand and pool cue. The cue hits one of the rocks in the right place, and...
"Fast Eddie" Felson would be proud. With that taken care of, Hal heads to Oa. Located in the center of the universe, Oa is the homeworld of Hal's bosses: The Guardians of the Universe. Upon arrival, our man is greeted by some of his friends and fellow Corpsmen: Arisia, Katma Tui, Tomar-Re, Arkkis Chummuck, and Salakk.
I love Salakk just sulking there in the background. They wish Hal luck on his petition to return home. Well, except for Salakk, but Arkkis tells him to shut up, as no one cares what Salakk thinks. The Guardians are ready to hear him out. He pleads with them to let him come home. He misses his family and friends, and he's served nobly as a member of the Green Lantern Corps. He can serve his assigned sector from Earth just as well as anywhere else, after all. He misses his family, his girlfriend Carol, and his friends both in his civilian life and in the Justice League.
The Guardians ask him one question in response: Would he be willing to give up his commission in the Green Lantern Corps?
Yeah. Hal said he may have had once, but now...he'd be proud to be a GL. He just wants to be around his friends once in a while. The Guardians may have given up their humanity to become immortal, but Hal has no desire to do the same. After a long time of pondering, the Guardians agree to let Hal go back home.
An overjoyed Hal flies back to the big blue marble-like world known as Earth. He decides to pay a surprise visit to his girl Carol Ferris...only to find her seemingly being close with another man.
Hal handles it well...by streaking into the sky and screaming Carol's name. Way to protect your secret identity there, buddy. The brokenhearted test pilot needs to hit something, and luckily, his ring alerts him to a bank robbery in progress.
Yeah, with a name like "Spyke Nayle", it's only a matter of time before he becomes a full-on supervillain. Maybe he'd become a carpentry-themed one? I mean, there will be a villainous team in the DC Universe that he'd be perfect for. Hal is easily able to rescue the hostages. Nayle gets stupid and challenges Hal to a fistfight. The pilot is all too eager to show off his slugging skills.
The punching therapy helps, but Hal's still feeling a bit sore. That night, he's packing his things, but Carol comes by to visit. Hal confronts her about her seemingly new blond beau, but it turns out that she was just congratulating him. The man's name is Clay Kendall, a new hire at Ferris Air. He's gotten himself a nice shiny new research grant.
DC making Hal look stupid is nothing new. The story ends with Carol telling Hal she loves him and giving him a big hug, welcoming him home at last. There is a second story, but I can't review it because I do not have it. It was not collected in the trade I got most of these scans from.
This comic...was alright. It wasn't bad, but I feel like that not a lot happened in this comics. Hal just basically comes home to Earth and stops a bank robbery. That's really about it. It was funny seeing Hal mistakenly assume Carol would have moved on. I also got a chuckle out of the robber's name. Spyke Nayle. Heh heh. And also, that whole bit with Carol and Hal could have been avoided if he just asked her what was up when he saw her with Clay.
Also, I don't get why the Guardians asked Hal if he was willing to give up his membership in the GL Corps. I thought that their issue with Hal was that he concentrated too much. Although to be fair, it does seem that Earth needs Hal's attention because all sorts of things tend to go down there.
The thing I noticed with Dave Gibbons' art here is that it's taken on a bit of a cartoony quality which I rather like. I will admit, I do have one critique. I do think it's a bit of a nitpick, but it's something I wanted to mention. It's in the eyes. I don't know why, but some of the eyes look a bit lifeless at times to me.
If you want to read this yourself, I recommend tracking down the 2012 trade paperback Green Lantern: Sector 2814 Vol. 1. Thanks for reading this blog entry! If you liked it, show it off! Take care of yourself, and each other. Stay safe, stay healthy, stay at home, and wash your hands often. Join me next time as Wonder Woman undergoes her sixth trial...
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