Green Lantern's Most EMBARRASSING Job?
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- čas přidán 16. 07. 2024
- While Green Lantern Hal Jordan may be known as a test pilot to most he has held many jobs. DC Comics has gone through periods of not knowing what to do with the silver age Emerald Gladiator. One such period was in 70s when Hal Jordan found himself as a travelling toy salesman. Just how did selling toys mesh with his space adventures and battles with villains like Sinestro and Star Sapphire? Has that time period been revisited? Just how good a salesman was he? Find out as we explore this piece of comic book history here on Casually Comics!
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Which Superhero do you think has the best civilian job?
Batman. Nothing beats being a billionaire.
I'd say Wonder Woman, since she always tries to make the most of whatever she's doing, whether it be her archaeology work or that time she worked at a fast-food place. She's just humble and looks for the bright side in everything.
Does being king of the sea for Aquaman count has a job ?
@@bobisapanda2655 I mean people are constantly trying to kill and usurp him, so I'm not sure if it's really that great.
Zatanna, of course! Being a famous stage magician must be so much fun.
A toy designed to make people laugh, but instead makes them violent? Sounds like a Joker caper...
Exactly what I thought. I’m glad joker doesn’t use magic. Or isn’t a super genius. Well at least in the sense that dr Doon is..
Or the Trickster. Then, again, Joker and Trickster are basically the same character. Being they were done by the same guy.
Or a Toyman scheme that he would pull on Superman.
Obviously Ollie didn't appreciate Hal working for a company called Merlin, so that was that.
Actually, now I want to see it retconned that Merlyn was Hal's boss all along, which led to Hal being awkwardly caught between him and Ollie.
I need this
I remember having a comic when Hal mentioned his toy sales job. Even at seven or eight years old I thought it was so bizarre to go from test pilot to traveling salesman. But I had always pictured traveling salesman as someone going door to door trying to sell vacuum cleaners or something.
I remember Olivia Reynolds turning up in a Green Lantern comic in the 1990ies, but I don't remember the details... maybe we're thinking about the same issue?
@@gorgophontes Actually, the more I think about it, the more certain I am that the story I saw was not from the 70s, but my early teens in the 80s when, in a flashback, Hal just happened to be in town on business and saw Guy Gardner after he found out the ring almost chose him instead. An old man's memory and a ton of bronze age comics makes for wonky recollections.
The fact that Hal is an amazing superhero, as some would say, "The Greatest Green Lantern", but has a...frankly absymal social life is something that was leant into a bit more. The cost of being Green Lantern was Hal Jordan himself. It always seems to be approached from the opposite angle - Hal has nothing in his life outside of his ring slinging but I can't remember too much of it happening in reverse.
Hal basically has a Peter Parker social life
@@darnis6497 Hal made a deal with the devil to save Coast City and in exchange Carol Ferris and everyone else forgot who Hal was?
Actually, I think Hal may have made that deal, and it would have been better than "One More Day". Not good, just better than complete garbage.
("One More Day" was the reason why I quit reading Marvel.)
The toy thing COULD work for a Green Lantern. If he's not too creative, he could have used the toys as inspiration for the things he creates making fights feel more whimsical. Forcing villains to grapple with teddy bears or being trapped in cages made out of blocks could make him a symbol of childhood fighting nightmares from space.
" If he's not too creative,"
So... Hal Jordan?
You know Hal’s deranged faces and general instability in this eras unintentionally take a more sinister/foreboding tone when you remember his Parallax phase.
Again I’m sure it wasn’t meant as foreshadowing but when you view it in retrospective it really makes it feel like the potential for evil Hal was always there.
I kinda like the idea of a Green lantern having a creative job like toy designer. Like reminds me of Kyle Rayner in Superman the animated series, where he was a cartoonist. Since the green lantern power is to create whatever the user wills, it'd be nice to have more diverse offense someone wouldn't expect or think of coming from a creative type.
Kyle was a toy designer in the comics, too.
He earned his living that way before his career as a comic artist finally took off. He did in fact design playsets and figures for a legally different G.I.Joe series
Ok, now it makes sense: "I want to be remembered for the planes I flew ... not for selling teddy bears."
Alan: "Explain, ma'am."
Hal: "GIVE ME BACK MY BABY!!"
I think Hal should have ended up as the night shift manager in a coffee shop, preferably in the middle of nowhere.
Maybe not with Hal, but I think a green lantern being a toy salesman/toy designer could really work, the constructs could all be rockets, ships and toy cars in real life size.
TBF, they kinda already have that with Kyle. Though, if it was a toy designer instead, you could get a lantern that is like a fusion of John/Alan and Kyle, where the outside has a toyetic look, but it is actually an engineered construct inside.
EDIT: After readin gother comments, never mind, Kyle had been a toy designers himself too, I had forgotten about that, so it is literally Kyle.
I think the oddest thing about Olivia Reynolds is that someone remembered her in 1997 during the second run of amalgam comics, but she got fused with Obadiah Stane to become Olivia Stane.
Plastic Monger?
My favorite Amalgam character appeared in just one panel of the Spider-Boy comic. It was an amalgam of Matter-Eater Lad and Paste-Pot Pete, known as "Paste-Eater Pete".
This sounds like something they'd do with Booster Gold, not Hal Jordan. Hell, you could probably bring this kind of goofiness back if you made Kyle Rayner do it. He's already a starving artist, so it would make sense for him to pick up whatever job he can to make ends meet.
I wonder if this wouldn't have worked better with Guy. The focus on children really fits Guy's pre-crisis personality.
@@Tiggeralt I don't think it would work with Guy because he's too good with kids. There would be less of a struggle. With Hal and Kyle it's outside their comfort zones so you can get more humor out of it.
I think Kyle went full time Lantern shortly after the 1st Power of Ion story. Jon and Guy have been fullt8me Lanterns basically since they've returned as Lanterns. Suppose Vas or Cruz could do such full time if they weren't so already over qualified. There are a lot of characters doing jobs they are vastly over qualified for.
There was a pretty smart callback to this era in the early 90s GL run. Hal had been re-established as premier GL on earth after, what, a twenty years of writers jerking him around. That's when Olivia showed up again selling Green Lantern action figures that would all say various things (per that one panel shown in the video). So the Sinestro figure would scream about imposing order, and the G'Nort action figure would say goofy G'Nort-like things. But the Hal action figure ... ? They couldn't figure out what to make it say, beyond bland heroic stuff like "don't worry citizens I shall save you with my power ring". And it basically spoke to the dilemma that writers had been having: what voice and what tone do you give to Hal to make him seem like a real person?
I say that's clever writing.
At the end of the issue, by the way, Hal saves an alien space craft that has inadvertently caused an interplanetary incident on earth, so Hal helps them get back to space, and when they thank him, he responds with "just doing my job, pal". And Olivia, who overheard, realizes that's the right tone to give Hal: decent guy just trying to help people.
And yeah, I get the discomfort with talking about the Gerard Jones era because of Gerard Jones. But he was one of the few writers who had a good feel for Hal. He also gave us John Stewart and "Mosaic", another essential element in the GL mythos.
Separating the art from the artist is always difficult, but in the comics industry, characters are owned by the company and the various creative teams are just doing for-hire work. So I think we have a little more latitude to consider the artist as distinct from the art: in particular, just because a given writer contributed a given element to a character, doesn't taint the character or that element. If they contributed good elements to the whole, use them. If they wrote good stories, reference them.
I would have liked to see hal jordon trying to sell green lantern toys. That would justify the carrer and be great.
It could also be funny if hal sold other heroes toys too. maybe that green lantern toys don't sell as well as superman or batman toys.
The letter writer who lambasted the editorial staff for not assigning a permanent writer to the series was on-point. When you have a series where the writing duties keep flipping around to different authors, you get some horrendous results, and manic characters where "manic" was not the intent.
19:31 Actually I can think of an even more recent reference, in green lantern season two, issue #4 by Grant Morison from 2020, there is an entire issue focused on this era and resolving the U-mind dangling story tread (they also get the fact that Bolivia and hal never actually dated right)
I'm glad someone realized they never dated lol
I despised that issue. Between the way the aliens spoke and their designs I did not what to make of it. Much less when it was brought back by the end of the series.
The letter was by Alan Brennert, one of the most insightful comic writers of all time. He wrote few stories but each is a classic
Nobody's got a higher ratio of good stories to bad than Brennert; dude was batting damn near a thousand. I was lucky enough to be getting my comics from the convenience store in that brief window when he was just there, writing Batman-related stories.
Hilar reminds me somewhat of Proto-Clown from THE TICK. He was also an indestructible toy clown, and the toy makers thought bigger would be funnier, so he was huge. But he was built wrong and hated to be laughed at. He went on a rampage, battling the Tick, initially knocking the hero unconscious.
So if the thing can't be destroyed because it's made of eternal metal. How did they make the thing in the first place if they can't cut it or bend it.
Maybe was a Adamantium thing - you work it while still hot
I would love some retrospectives about the hard traveling heroes era 😍
Not gonna lie, the Hilar issue is my most reread GL issue despite being a huge Hal Jordan fan and him having many high points. I just love referencing how Hal was taken out by an advanced space toy.
Also can you do a retrospective on Green Lantern #100 during the trucker Hal era aka the issue that introduced Hal Jr Jordan, a legacy hero and GL's cousin? Or just a retrospective on the other Hal Jordan in the DC universe in general?
I really liked issue 70 the Hilar-toy was a cool concept
I started collecting GL with the triumphant return of Olivia Reynolds--during that period we don't speak of anymore... 😮
Hal, Hal, Hal ... What are we going to do with you?
I'm still a little green when it comes to GL lore (pun intended). I never knew, nor ever could have foreseen, Hal Jordan, toy salesman. Keep the floor around Hal clear of all roller skates, toy cars, and the like. Don't leave him anything to slip on!
I can see Hal using his whacky space adventures as inspiration for toy design.
That letter writer went on to become a pretty good comic writer himself.
Hal wasn't the only Green Lantern to earn his living while working in the field of toys.
Kyle Rayner in fact worked as a Toy designer before his career as a comic artist finally took off. He designed action figures and play-sets for a legally different G.I.Joe series
There's a more recent reference to this period in the recent Grant Morrison run of Green Lantern. I like that Hal took on these jobs that most people would associate as dull and brought his own enthusiasm to them. It really made him more of a regular guy as opposed to being a super scientist or billionaire, which is a great contrast from being a scifi hero. This works to emphasize that not only is being a great responsibility, but that Hal enjoys it because it is such a fantastical opportunity compared to his normal life. It also really shows how dumb it was to make him so disconnected with the working class in hard traveling heroes. Like not only is he familiar with the flawed systems in place on earth, but he knows that there are other alternatives on other planets and how it is, especially in America, is the only way. (I'm so glad you also hate hard traveling heroes, I constantly see it praised and I always thought that it sucked and it's tackling of taboo subjects of the time is the only reason it's praised)
How do you not have a "Hot Mess Hal" playlist on your homepage at this point?
12:07 If Hal had had a bar of soap in his pocket he could have slipped out of this situation.
You know its a shame Hilar-Toy never returned! Like he was a one-time cover villain/anti-villain, it would be neat if he popped up someday as this indestructible toy trying to find Hal Jordan again for something. I feel like with modern comics they would make the idea of a super stretchy and unbreakable toy that gets easily distracted by wanting to make people laugh into an interesting cameo thing.
He's not bad he's just drawn that way
LOL. Love this video. Thank you for pointing out this "lost" and odd ball period of the GL run.
You know what's funny that a Reynolds was actually the worst thing ever to happen to Hal Jordan!
Not Sasha sending me into giggles at "they remember him for the planes he flew" hal would be mad 😂😂😂
IMO, comics can be pretty miserable when the writers have no idea what to do with the character. The industry functions best when it only produces a series when it has a story to tell. The other stuff is just inane filler ... which, admittedly, at times can provide unintentional amusements.
Hal was immediately attracted to the door to door retail toy biz when he heard the jingle for Lite Brite , Makin things with , whatta sight makin things with Lite Brite ~~~
I know at one time Tony Stark paid a stipend to members of the Avengers, So if they don't have the time for a regular job they don't wind up homeless. You would think Bruce Wayne would set up something similar for League members.
I think I read a fanfic set during that Brave and the Bold issue. They encountered space pollen that made them-- ah, never mind what it made them do.
Sasha,
This specific story got referenced again in the Grant Morrison´s run. In Season Two , Issue #4.
I was expecting you to bring it up. Not because you have to know everything about everything...I´m beyond amazed of how much knowledge do you have of comics in general but because I know you did read the Grant Morrison´s run. I´m sure you just forgot.
In fact, I was about to say that I knew that Hal was a traveling toy salesman precisely because of the Morrison´s run.
Please, do a video about that run.
PS
I never understood why the Guardians didn´t pay the GLs. It can be understandable for characters like Kilowog since he doesn´t move beyond Oa (and even there he does travel around and he should be able to pay for services and stuff). But for GL´s that have their own lives in their planets they need to have money.
Maybe the guardians don’t understand the concept of 💰. How old are the guardians again? I don’t know if they are able to understand Hal’s situation or any other GL’s situations considering how they often act pretty… separate from morality to ordinary things.
Roger Rabbit vibes-
“My whole purpose in life is to make people laugh!”
Hal made a rocket in his pocket a real rocket with the Thing... I mean Green ring do your thing technique, nice and 9:21 that business man is smiling she must been *spitting* her game all night with him, what a hard worker
Yep hard traveling heroes green arrow yells at Hal for half the book then Ollie does something stupid that we are supposed to believe is totally sane then yells at Hal again and Hal bows his head and tells Ollie he is right and apologizes
Did Hal ever end up selling (or more likely donating) toys to some alien kids on a planet he visited as a GL? Because I would kind of like to read that. It’s where my mind would go if it was my job to try to tie those treads together.
God. Damn. They missed a great chance to steal the Toyman from Flash's rogue's gallery! THAT could have made sense.
I love Gil Kane. Vinnie was a death to art.
Hillar may feel at home on the Island of Misfit Toys. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer should have guest starred.
I remember a JLA story where the villain managed to trap Hal's hand in Yellow clay.. It was the first time I heard that Hal was selling tous.
Alan Scott calling Hal "Ma'am" like that hits a little different now.
I'm stuck on Hilaritoy. I kind of want them to bring part of the concept back. Create a toy made to make people laugh, but also causes them to turn violent. Have it just be a toy, though. No mind of its own, or psychic powers or anything. Then, have a supervillain find it. Specifically someone like the Joker, the Trickster, or Toyman. Have them get a hold of it, and use it in their crimes, or just for the chaos.
Hal being an insurance guy plays a pivotal role in the backstory of Arrowette, one of the core members at the start of Young Justice. After her dad died from eating bad shellfish (this wasn't some evil scheme or anything, just really bad luck), Hal was there to give Arrowette's mom the cheque from the man's life insurance, which allowed said mom to put her daughter through a rigorous training regime to turn her daughter into a superheroine and live vicariously through her child just like how her mom in turn (Arrowette's grandmother) wanted to through her. A real story of generational trauma.
I remember the truck driving years in the Green Lantern/Green Arrow run in the 70's early 80's.
18:04 lmao that editors response may as well be, "Yeah I know dipshit! Thanks for stating the obvious!"
Hard Traveling Heroes: perhaps the comic Sasha has talked about the most without ever doing a video on.
Sasha, how much did you enjoy the first issue of Hard-Traveling Heroes not only Hal getting cans hurled at him by various civilians who hated him, followed by Green Arrow telling him he also wanted to throw cans at him? In your opinion, was it an issue highlight, or did Hal and Ollie’s flying couch of conversations take precedence?
TUNK
If I am honest, I liked that he had that job, with it he can travel a lot so that gives a help when he goes out being GL, so people don't ask "where's Hal?" even though no one did.
There're also the things that he can help people with the job... Althouth that seems like a stretch, more like make people happy. Which could help him on him getting a sudden tiny moment grow to his will.
There's another thing(as seen in the beginning of the last paragraph) but I forgot. Please tell me if I am imaging things, I probably don't know what is it I like from him having that job instead of someone else and I am trying to think too hard and too hollow.
P.D.: Sorry for the long comment, it wasn't my intention for it being so big, hahaha.
I love your Hal Jordan videos! LOVE THEM
I'm surprised there wasn't a story about some toys he's selling turning evil, and then him having to figure out how to stop the toys without destroying them since they're still merchandice that would cost a lot to replace. Am I the only one who sees it as an obvious storyline for this?
I was never a fan of Hal Jordan as a Toy salesman or trucker. He will always will be a pilot to me. However, I did find those stories mildly interesting.
I think that Hilar should've been named "Hilari" (with an "i" at the end), so that instead of Hilar-Toy, it would be Hilari-Toy, as a play on "Hilarity". I mean, I think it was supposed to be a play on "hilarity" but it's not that clear.
Part time hard travelling toy salesman. Passion time space cop
I just want a story with still Joker obsessed Harley getting her puddin HILAR for a gift …Keep Up The Outstanding Work Sasha 🖖🏾
Great video again, thank you!
10:56 - "...to a BUTT COVER!" 😂😭🤣
...those random throw-ins just kill me 😹👻
loving the hal jordan content please keep it up!
Is the letter writer, Alan Brennart, the same guy who become a novelist, television and comc-book writer?
Came here to say that. They're both from NJ so I'd say so. He would go on to write WW a few years later.
Oooo, I'm early! Love the content, and I appreciate what you do! Without you, I wouldn't know nearly as much about so many characters as I do now!
I enjoy your Hal videos so much, it makes me want to see you do something with Hal meeting Alan Scott. In some ways they're very different personalities, but there's some similarities too.
If they gave me a Green Lantern's ring, I would take a few hours to find an asteroid made of platinum big enough to make sure I would be able to dedicate myself to my Green Lantern'd duties, but I would also have enough money to pay the bills, and you know, gaming PC and so I would never have to bother my ex to co-sign a lease on anything. IDK, that's what I would do. Is it against the rules or something?
loving the hal jordan videos sasha! i think u would like green lantern willworld if you haven't read it yet! the art is incredible, and the story is great too
Morrison's entire run is a send to this era. It ties together their feelings on heroism & capitalism in a fascinating way
Why didn't they do with the obvious villain! Toyman! Heck, Hal could have been tracking him, heck Olivia Reynolds could have been a patsy, Thinking he's a legit toymaker.
Hal Jordan as a toy salesman could of lead too some interesting cross over. Villains like Toy Man, The Joker or even or more with whatever was going on with the Hilari stuff I guess. But it doesn't feel like it'd fit his MO as a cosmic hero and other then giving him a bit of a door too be nice too and interact with kids.
Like I'm 2 minutes in and I just have to say, being a green lantern and a traveling toy salesman would play well together. Think of all the new markets he could open by selling earth toys to other worlds!
Just making things up as they went along is what happened to Lost.
This channel is hilarious
Lovin the green theme
Hal thinking Olivia was his girlfriend after a pseudo rivalry and one date seems on point.
Gl is a character cobbled together. The weirdness is just a part of the charm.
Found it pretty funny and had to share that googling Ghyra I got a yacht association as my first suggestion.
Issue 70 was my first issue,followed by 74&75 which I love for the Gil Kane and Murphy Anderson artwork ,story aside and Sinestro really became an intense character much later on Johns/Tomasi run!👍⚡️
I will admit it: I liked the hard traveling heroes stories.
oh i love that funny voice lol!
I'm a Marvel guy but I love learning about DC through your channel.
A toy designed to make people laugh but actually incites them to commit violence?
So a tickle me Elmo?
Did Superman's editors not let Toyman fight Hal or did GL writers just think that would've been too obvious for this era?
May we always remember Hal for the toys that he sold.
Superheroes being used to sell toys? It'll never happen...
Olivia showed up in Grant Morrison’s Green Lantern run in the last decade.
I know I've read - and have a copy somewhere - Phantom of the Space Opera. I would sum it up with one word. Tired. I thought it was issue seventy five though. So maybe I read that one as well. And maybe have a copy somewhere. If so, I think I thought it was also very tired. I do have issue eighty nine I know, which is quite a good story. I've got eighty eight as well, which just reprints an early Hal story and an Alan scott one. Those two are not bad.
Him being a toy salesman might work, but largely I think if it was a job he got because he couldn't get anything else. And he really hated. I think the best job he ever had was in the 90's when he was running Air Jordan, a one man light aircraft passenger service.
Could the Alan Brennert who wrote that last letter be the same Alan Brennert who went onto a writing career, and has done a fair bit of Dc work? Among other things.
I'll remember Hal for the rockets in his pockets
I still don't see the point of why he again changed his job from a toy salesman to a truck driver
Awesome thanks
Forever Salty. The Sasha story. Coming soon to a book store near you. Lol
I think the first issue does a decent job justifying it. His work as Green Lantern is stressful so he just wants to spend the rest of his time doing something nice by bringing toys to kids and I can appreciate that it's a unique job. But I get why not much was done with it.
Hilar-Toy looked to me to be a very skinny Adam Strange, costume and all.
Do you have a video about Hal’s relationship with Arisia? I NEED to see it, if so.
Saying Hal Jordan is a Phycho in that letter. Must have played into the story when Hal becomes Paralax. I mean, it is wishful thinking. As it makes so much sense. During that time when the letter was written. Hal was dealing with so many personal issues. That him later becoming this BBEG threat decades later as Paralax. It all makes sense.
Once Paralax was driven out of Hal. He got his act together and ends up being the best Green Lantern in the Universe. (Deep down. We all know Sinestro would be proud. Even if he would never admit it. Well, without some snide remark.)
A drinking and driving reference in the letters page? Did someone predict Emerald Dawn?