The Many Loves of Hal Jordan--beta version

[greenygal]

This is something that buggery asked for a while ago, and I got interested in putting it together: a reference guide to Hal Jordan's romantic life, more or less in chronological order. It is presently as complete as I can make it...but that's not as complete as I would like. (In particular, my lack of v.3 issues is showing.) So if anyone cares to take a look and suggest any additions or corrections, I'd be very grateful. If not, well, enjoy. :)

Two sites that were enormously helpful in making this list were the Green Lantern Corps Web Page, from which all the linked entries come, and DarkMark's Comics Indexes, an exhaustive indexing of the Silver Age issues of Green Lantern and a number of other books. Highly recommended, both.

***

Carol Ferris--Originally Hal's boss at Ferris Aircraft, and his first love interest in the comic. Hal and Carol had a passionate but highly conflicted relationship that was on and off throughout their history, frequently running aground on pride, secret ID issues, their respective commitments to demanding jobs, and of course Carol's sometimes being the villainous Star Sapphire. After Hal's death, she got married.

Iona Vane--This one's kind of weird. And creepy. 58th century Earth needed a champion, so they reached back through time and grabbed Hal Jordan. But the process removed all his memories, so they implanted a false persona (called "Pol Manning") into his brain, and generously included a girlfriend, which part was played by Miss Vane. After this sequence had been repeated several times, Hal eventually discovered for himself what had been going on, and it turned out that Iona had fallen in love with him for real. Being in love with Carol Ferris, Hal couldn't reciprocate, so instead he erased Iona's memories of him. This would later drive her nearly insane (see link).

Eve Doremus--Casual civilian girlfriend after Hal left Ferris Aircraft and Carol the first time. Apparently nicer than she was portrayed in the BRAVE AND THE BOLD miniseries, but I don't really know anything but what's in the link.

Olivia Reynolds--During a brief period (about five issues) when Hal was working as a toy salesman after leaving Ferris, she was Hal's rival and love interest. Olivia has subconscious mental powers which are being used by an alien race to keep themselves alive. She returned years later in the v.3 series.

Kari Limbo--Guy Gardner's fiance (the link goes to an entry on him and includes a lot of extraneous stuff, but it's got a fair amount about Kari). During a period when Guy was believed dead, Kari and Hal fell in love and almost got married until it was revealed that Guy was actually alive, though comatose. This relationship is reported to be highly unconvincing.

Dorine Clay/Onu Murtu--An alien freedom fighter that Hal met and was attracted to early in his career; he encountered her again later at a point when he had been banned from Earth by the Guardians. Dorine declared her love for Hal in this period, but he didn't really return her feelings, and they separated when he went back to Earth and Carol Ferris.

Arisia--A 14-year-old alien GL who fell in love with Hal; when he told her that he didn't date teenagers (Arisia was a full GL, and how old she was by her own race's standards was unclear, but she generally acted like a kid) her ring responded to her subconscious desires by aging her mentally and physically. Hal immediately fell for her, and they were lovers for a number of issues before breaking up.

Power Girl--One of Hal's teammates in Justice League Europe. As far as I can tell, all that happened here was some kissing (apparently while Hal had lost his memories?) circa JLE #48-#50. Anyone who actually knows anything about this is invited to chime in.

Rose Hardin--Resident of Desolation, a town Ollie and Hal visited in their GL/GA days. She is widowed with a son. In v.3 she and Hal had a relationship.

Comments

[samy.livejournal.com]

Kari was unconvincing, yes. I have those issues.

[greenygal.livejournal.com]

That's what Caia said, and my single issue with the pair backs her up. I could just about believe the romance if I add in heavy doses of rebound on both sides, but married?! Riiight. Good to hear further confirmation. :)

[badficwriter.livejournal.com]

After Hal's death, she married and had kids.

Huh? I know she's shown married in Spectre v.4 but kids weren't mentioned! I want references.

The only other one I know of for the mill...

Spectre v.4 13
After Hal becomes the Spectre he stays mostly celibate, but apparently another cosmic entity noticed him being cosmic and recognized him as the current incarnation of her husband from millenia ago. No names are used, but she is called the Forever Woman now. She is tired of Eternity and Everything and wants to die in her husband's arms. So Spectre Hal takes her to a Garden where she eats an Apple and somehow they live as normal humans for a lifetime that lasts only an hour. Then she dies and becomes a star.

[greenygal.livejournal.com]

Huh? I know she's shown married in Spectre v.4 but kids weren't mentioned! I want references.

Noted and altered, because I was working off highly unreliable memory there--I was hoping someone would correct me if it was wrong. (Should have included a note to that effect, I know...) You don't happen to know the name of her husband, do you?

The only other one I know of for the mill...

Oh, Hal. Why am I not surprised in the slightest to hear that you managed to get some even as the Spectre...? Yeah, that'll go in, thanks!

[badficwriter.livejournal.com]

You don't happen to know the name of her husband, do you?

Legends of the DC Universe 33, by DeMatteis, he introduces himself as Gil Johns. Carol describes him as a nice man, the kind who stays home (TWISTing the knife in Hal's heart).

Hal got some more with Carol when, to make him happy, the Spectre part of him (even during this series, it's depicted doing things Hal doesn't know or approve of) made a dream universe that gave Hal amnesia and made him married to Carol but never GL or Spectre.

And I personally suspect that DeMatteis intended things between Hal and his niece's nanny, the cosmic archetype witch-lady Materna Minx. At first, she comes off as part Mary Poppins and part Miss Frizzle from the Magic Schoolbus. End of the series, though, she let her hair down once and she's pretty fine! (and her last name is MINX, come on)

Fortunately for my old world sensibilities, we never get there.

[illmantrim.livejournal.com]

cool list!

[greenygal.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[kerithwyn.livejournal.com]

Wow. Had no idea Hal was such a horndog.

'course, the 14-YEAR-OLD still freaks me out....

[greenygal.livejournal.com]

Wow. Had no idea Hal was such a horndog.

There's a bit in one of the v.3 issues where Wally is complaining about "Hal and his women" that makes me snicker really hard. I mean, when Wally takes notice... (He still shouldn't talk, mind you; I don't know that anyone's beaten his record.)

'course, the 14-YEAR-OLD still freaks me out....

I tried to be as objective and noninflammatory as I could in the above description, but yeah, actually, it freaks me out too. Yes, Arisia was mentally and emotionally an adult at the time, but she'd been that way for maybe, oh, half an hour when Hal let her jump him. Not only would the responsible thing have been to wait, but for me the speed of Hal's response raises uncomfortable questions about what kind of feelings he'd been harboring for the fourteen-year-old Arisia...

[miss-porcupine.livejournal.com]

The mental and physical aging of Arisia... so very, very technical. She wasn't what everyone might agree upon as an emotionally mature adult when she and Hal got their groove on. No matter what her biology was after she gave herself curves, she wasn't truly a grown-up. (Me? I love Hal, but that was at best cradle-robbing. At best.) Most definitely Hal's Humbert Humbert moment.

[greenygal.livejournal.com]

I have a lot of conflicting responses to this particular story, which I think took a horribly complicated issue and drastically (and most unwisely) simplified it. Was Arisia an adult? There was a clear change in her behavior and dialogue post-transformation, but does that imply genuine maturity? Can the ring's deux-ex-machina powers grant something like that, without the life experience that usually accompanies it? Does it make a difference, in terms of appropriateness, re: sexual relationships? What about the fact that Arisia is from a completely different species and culture (and is functioning as Hal's equal)--how does that play into the issue? And how does a person who's just undergone such a radical transformation deal with it, anyway?

None of which, of course, was actually in the bloody story; it was just, oh, Arisia's an adult now, and Hal accepts that she's an adult now (essentially on the basis of her having made one responsible decision), and so he won't have any problems whatsoever, not even irrational guilt feelings, with dating someone who was fourteen a day ago! (And might for all anyone knows revert tomorrow...in fact, given the 24-hour rule, why didn't she...?) I'm willing to cut Steve Englehart slack for the story he clearly intended to tell, in which Arisia was an adult, no questions--but even on that basis this was both frustrating (because there could, really, have been a great story in there) and disturbing in what it said about Hal.

[miss-porcupine.livejournal.com]

My basis of comparison: If Tom Hanks in 'Big' or Jennifer Garner in '13 Going on 30' had had sex with their respective partners -- who in at least one case *knew* that the aging only went so far... I would have seriously squicked.

Read from an adult's eye, there's a lot to make uncomfortable. If I had read this when I was fourteen, would I have thought differently? Absolutely.

Of course, Englehart had a whole lot of wacky going on around that time in the GL Corps book.

[buggery.livejournal.com]

Oh, man, this is SO COOL. ::bookmarks it for later research::

I encountered Arisia in the GL storyline that ran in Action Comics Weekly through the same issues as the (first) Nightwing-and-Arsenal storyline... and damn, you just confirmed that Hal getting involved with her was just as creepy as it seemed.

Interesting stuff on the others, too. I'm kinda agog that he'd get involved with Guy's girl but it makes a sick sort of sense.


On a mostly unrelated note... Thanks to smittywing's rec (http://www.livejournal.com/community/comics_genfic/1002.html), I read your "Heartlight" last night, and just adored it. Do you by chance have it posted to LJ, or am I going to have to bite the bullet and send you email feedback? (Email gives me hives, but I'm willing to be a little itchy in order to properly express my appreciation... if necessary.)

[greenygal.livejournal.com]

Oh, man, this is SO COOL. ::bookmarks it for later research::

There may be an updated version. Or maybe I should just edit this one, since there's really only one addition.

I encountered Arisia in the GL storyline that ran in Action Comics Weekly through the same issues as the (first) Nightwing-and-Arsenal storyline... and damn, you just confirmed that Hal getting involved with her was just as creepy as it seemed.

I own all those issues, and I'm sure I read the GL parts, but damned if I can remember anything about them at present...and yes, the business with Arisia was creepy.

I'm kinda agog that he'd get involved with Guy's girl but it makes a sick sort of sense.

It gets better: he hooks up with her two issues after Guy was supposed to have been killed. Two issues. Inasmuch as there was anything going on here but writer braindeath, it looks to me like Kari was dealing with her grief by using Hal as a replacement (she specifically says how much he reminds her of Guy). I dunno what was going on with Hal, though--well, maybe a momentary desire to have a girlfriend who didn't argue with him quite so much, Carol Ferris having dumped him earlier.

Guy was able to see all this in the dimension where he'd wound up, so the story goes, and yes, as it happens, that does contribute to his attitude...

On a mostly unrelated note... Thanks to smittywing's rec, I read your "Heartlight" last night, and just adored it.

*blushes* Gee, thanks! I'm quite fond of that one myself...

No, no LJ for that one--most of my stuff was written before I got on. Don't feel you have to give yourself hives, though, you've already been sweet enough to let me know you liked it...