Foolish Heroism

[mrosa]

Although I hate Parallax, I've always had a soft spot for Final Night. I think it's one of the best crossovers DC ever had, which pitted Earth's heroes against a Sun-Eater bent on eating our sun. In the end, it was Hal Jordan, fresh from the Zero Hour debacle, who saved the day, by sacrificing himself. Say whatever you want about the idea to darken him, I think his sacrifice is one of the finest in all of comics. In fact, I found most of issue #4 deeply moving.

The issue starts with Kyle Rayner returning from space, after having tried to persuade Hal to help them. He wasn't sure he could ever face his superhero friends and teleported Kyle back to Earth, without an answer. This means our heroes have to come up with an alternative plan. They're going to send a space ship into the Sun-Eater armed with a device they think can kill it. They just need someone to pilot it. Of course Superman volunteers immediately:



(ah, Lex is so perfectly captured here)

He just has to get something done, and then he'll leave:



But someone else is in the spaceship:



Aww! This is when I start to get all teary-eyed. I just love Ferro's foolish but well-meaning heroism. Sacrificing himself in Superman's place because he's too important! Talk about being an inspiration. Ferro had also previously met the Legion of Super-Heroes and Spark had loaned him her flight ring. It always moves me to read the promise he made to her.

But things don't work out according to plan:



(At this point I'm already crying)

But as you know, rings have a history in the DCU, so:



Hal's words here always get me!

He sends Ferro back to Earth, recites his oath one last time and kills the Sun-Eater, and Earth is saved:

Comments

[deepspaceartist]

To be honest, I don't think this moment loses to much when read with the 'Hal was infected by a fear bug' retcon in mind. While, as it was written at the time, it reflected that Hal was still someone who tried to do the right thing even though the events of Coast City made his definition of 'the right thing' go severely out of whack. In the post GL:Rebirth version it's Hal unconciously overcoming the influence of a posessive force, that was able to re-write his morals and goals without him noticing, and performing an action that the fear-bug would never allow him to do if it had any say in it.

It's different, to be sure. But I don't think it's any less heroic.

[mrosa]

I would't know; I never paid too much attention to Hal after he died. I think this scene works in whatever context; it's just basic superheroics: selfless sacrifice. It's why I love superheroes!

[mrosa]

Oh, I get it.

When I said I 'hated Parallax,' I wasn't talking about the fear bug retcon. That doesn't bother me because I never read it. I meant I just disliked the idea of turning Hal into Parallax back in the early '90s. I think that could have been avoided, but at least it led to this lovely finale.

[deepspaceartist]

I wasn't commenting in your opinion of Parallax. To each their own and whatnot. It was just a general comment on how retcons don't neccesarily diminish or ruin the stories they alter.

My first comic book ever starred Kyle Rayner as GL (and Silver Surfer), with Parallax Hal as one of the villains. My only real opinion on Hal turing evil is that it lead to the creation of my favourite comic book superhero.

[mrosa]

Yeah, Kyle is my Green Lantern :-)

[darkknightjrk]

Yeah--I remember thinking that the retcon was stupid when it was first done, but I'll be damned if Johns didn't make it work and use it to do a lot more interesting stories to go along with it.

[shadowpsykie]

.... excus me i'm... i'll just.... *WEEPINGFOREVER!*

[qalchemist]

I always liked this, because it was a call-back to a really, really old LSH issue that I had where Ferro-Lad carried a bomb into the midst of a Sun-Eater, sacrificing his life.

[mrosa]

And it was a joy when I discovered that years later. FN was one of the first books to get me into DC, so it was all pretty new and wondrous to me.

[icon_uk]

Isn't Captain Marvel as invulnerable as Superman is? And unlike Superman, the lack of sun wouldn't affect his powers in any way.

[espanolbot]

He's just as strong, though not as invulnerable... I think.

[icon_uk]

He and Superman have fought each other as equals too many times for me to think that there's THAT much difference between them in terms of power or durability. Superman's powers are biological, Cap gets his from a pantheon of deities.

[espanolbot]

He's able to go up against Superman due to Superman's weakness against magic more than an actual test of nondamageyness.

[q99]

The magic thing mostly just makes up for the lack of Heat Vision and such other secondary powers.

In terms of taking damage, CM is really impressive in general, since his body is sorta-kinda a magic construct. In one JLA story (Syndicate Rules), he got hit with a tesseract bomb and temporarily turned inside out, then reverted. He commented that he didn't think even the other high-power sorts there fighting it could survive a hit like that.


That said, part of the reason Superman can handle the sun is because it charges and amps him. Without that, I don't think even his level toughness could handle it very long.

[bruinsfan]

Yeah, Superman's been able to survive the 300-400 million ° heat and impact of multi-megaton nukes at ground zero on more than one occasion. That may be more a matter of his energy-absorbing abilities kicking into overdrive and sucking up all the incoming heat/radiation/force than just physical toughness, but I think that's way more than the Marvels, J'onn J'onzz, or any of the other non-Kryptonian heavyweights could withstand (without benefit of a power ring protecting them, anyway).

Of course he's also been shown to feel pain and even get knocked out by forces considerably less destructive, so his pain threshold is way, WAY below what it takes to actually injure him.

[espanolbot]

I get why the whole Fear Bug thing was introduced buy Geoff Johns (to remove any blame for his misdeeds as Parallax), but I can't help but think that Hal worked better as a fallen and then redemptive hero then he did prior or even now in the comics.

[icon_uk]

Agreed

[mrosa]

I also think his redemption completed a nice arc.

[superfangirl1]

Motto +1

[silverzeo]

Will it ever be address that Hal, mad being with Paralaxx, manage to do some good with that power? Turning the sun back on?

[pyrotwilight]

Supposedly the answer is that Hal overcame Parallax without even realizing it at the time, I believe Geoff Johns addressed it at some point in an interview at least.

[aeolos_sakya]

It was mentioned in Rebirth. According to it, Hal managed to take a bit of control during his sacrifice.

[q99]

I really like this Hal. Can we have this Hal back?

[eyz]

Say what you want, I loved FINAL NIGHT as well! :/
Personally one of these underrated events that were actually going into a good and interesting direction.

[glprime]

This is Ferro Lad to ground control, I'm stepping through the door...