Green Lantern Vol.3 #48

 

Ron Marz, Bill Willingham, Romeo Tanghal

Emerald Twilight Part 1: The Past

The famous story that sent away Hal Jordan and the rest of the Green Lantern Corps for a new status quo. And most importantly, the first appearance of Kyle Rayner

The issue starts with Hal on his knees mourning the loss of Coast City, which was destroyed as a result of the events going on in the Superman title at the time. Hal uses his ring to create a massive construct of Coast City. His first action is to find closure in his father, hoping he would hear him tell Hal how he is proud of him; something Hal never heard as a child. We then see Hal go through the town, talking with his old girlfriend and going to his old family home. As soon as the construct of Hal’s father is about to tell him he is proud, he fades away due to lack of power in Hal’s ring.

This pushes Hal further off the edge and we see the guardians send a projection to tell Hal to come to Oa for disciplinary action as he has violated the guardians rules, using the ring for personal gain. Hal fights back but the guardians are not listening and commanding him to surrender his ring and return to Oa immediately. 

Hal, desiring more power, destroys the construct and heads to Oa to destroy the corps.

We then go to a young couple on the beach, mistaking Hal flying off for a shooting star. This is the first time we see Kyle Rayner and his girlfriend Alex DeWitt.

This story is very controversial, even to this day. Some love it for what it did to Hal and some hate it for what it did to Hal, which is to be expected with such a big change in direction for a established character. My personal opinion on the matter (which I will talk about in every post) is favoring the story. Without trying to sound like a genocidal maniac, I love how Coast City got nuked and how it pushed Hal into madness. 

The issue sets up Kyle as someone who wants more from life and run away from his responsibilities. A great start for a character, that reminds me a lot of Peter Parker, and I can’t wait to see how he changes over time.