The Four Color Media Monitor

This panel comes from Green Lantern #81 vol. 3, shortly after the Final Night crossover in 1996 where Hal Jordan was briefly resurrected, and proceeded to sacrifice his life again to save the planet earth from a giant creature called the Sun-Eater, kind of like a variation on Marvel's Galactus (of course, Ron Marz was the writer assigned to the Silver Surfer during 1991-95, so we can guess where he got the idea then). It was one of a few attempts to placate GL fans angry over their demonization of Hal in Emerald Twilight. But alas, there's a little problem: if the writers/editors stuck by the premise that Hal went insane and slaughtered hundreds upon thousands of GL Corps members in Twilight, how can he be considered a hero worthy of honor by a monument in that context?

Exactly. And that's why, in the end, GL fans were not impressed, and in the long term, they rejected this appeasement tactic.

And it's insulting to the intellect that Batman was made to say he couldn't understand anything and was willing to forgive Hal in the context of Twilight and what he was forced to do there. While it wasn't and never will be Hal's fault for the illogic of Twilight - something that can only be attributed to Ron Marz and Kevin Dooley - that they didn't exonerate him of the mess or retcon it away at the time is the very reason why this weak story falls flat on its face.

Labels: bad editors, dc comics, dreadful writers, Green Lantern