Emerald Twilight

Infobox comics story arc
title= Emerald Twilight


caption= Cover to "Green Lantern" (vol. 3) #50 (March 1994). Hal Jordan becomes Parallax. Art by Darryl Banks.
date= January - March 1994
publisher= DC Comics
titles= "Green Lantern" vol. 3, #48-50
notable=y
main_char_team= Hal Jordan, Parallax, Guardians of the Universe
writers= Ron Marz
artists=
pencillers= Bill Willingham (#48), Fred Haynes (#49), Darryl Banks (#50)
inkers= Romeo Tanghal (#48-50), Robert Campanella (#48), Dennis Cramer (#49)
letterers= Albert DeGuzman
colorists= Steve Mattsson
editors= Kevin Dooley
TPB=Green Lantern: Emerald Twilight / New Dawn
ISBN=156389999X
cat=Green Lantern
sortkey=PAGENAME" Emerald Twilight " is a 1994 comic book story told in "Green Lantern" (vol. 3) #48-50, written by Ron Marz, and published by DC Comics. It caused great consternation among comic fandom, as it transformed the well-established silver age super-hero Hal Jordan into the super villain Parallax. Due to this transformation and the editor of the book overruling the writer, many readers were outraged. The story introduced a new Green Lantern, Kyle Rayner, who gained a significant fan following in his own right.

"Emerald Twilight" was collected as an affordable newsprint format trade paperback collection in 1994 reprinting the entire three-issue story arc in one volume as "Green Lantern: Emerald Twilight" (ISBN 1-56389-164-6), with cover art by Tony Harris. It was later collected again in 2003 as the "Green Lantern: Emerald Twilight/New Dawn " TPB (ISBN 156389999X), reprinting "Green Lantern" (vol. 3) #48-50 and also #51-55, the early stories of Rayner becoming the new Green Lantern with new cover art by Alan Davis and Mark Farmer.

ynopsis

In "Green Lantern" #46, as part of the "Reign of the Supermen" storyline, the extraterrestrial villain Mongul teamed up with a Cyborg Superman that had been passing himself off as the real Superman. They used a series of bombs to destroy Coast City (Hal Jordan's home) with the intention of using the destroyed area as one of four way-stations for a giant engine that would ultimately transform Earth into the massive spaceship Warworld. Hal was not able to save his hometown. In issue #47, he teamed up with Green Arrow for a completely different mission, and at the end of the issue, his thoughts once again turn to Coast City.

Issue #48 began with Hal in the center of what used to be Coast City, clutching the remains of a doll - the only physical evidence of the seven million people who once lived there. In a moment of pure anguish, Hal uses his power ring to re-create Coast City, down to the people who had previously died, including his father. When his ring’s energy ran out, one of the Guardians of the Universe contacted him via a holographic projection to tell him he was in violation of one of the principal rules of the Green Lantern Corps, which forbids Lanterns from using their rings for personal gain. Enraged, Hal siphoned off the energy from the projection and made his way to the Guardians’ planet Oa, with the intent of bleeding off all the energy from the Main Power Battery in order to permanently re-create Coast City. Issue #49 saw him going up against various members of the Green Lantern Corps, each of whom fell against Hal, until he got to Oa.

Issue #50 saw Hal battle the renegade former Green Lantern Sinestro on Oa, who had been previously imprisoned in the Main Battery, but released by the Guardians to stop Jordan. Jordan killed Sinestro, as well as his fellow Green Lantern Kilowog. The Guardians, having realized that their cause was lost, had given all their remaining energy to the Guardian named Ganthet, who became the sole Guardian after this energy transference resulted in the death of the rest of them. Hal took all the energy in the Central Power Battery, and when he emerged from it, he had a new costume and took the name Parallax.

Aftermath

After he received a vision of Oa's destruction, Guy Gardner, along with Wonder Woman, Alan Scott, and Arisia, would go to what was left of Oa, where he would try to challenge Hal, but he was defeated, and was stripped of his yellow power ring. This happens in the "Emerald Fallout" arc in issues 18-21 of "Guy Gardner: Warrior".

Ganthet went to Earth and found an illustrator named Kyle Rayner (who had been briefly introduced at the end of issue #48 when he saw Hal fly off and mistook his green flight streak for a shooting star) and gave him the last remaining power ring, thus making Kyle the last Green Lantern. As Parallax, Hal Jordan became a recurring villain in the DC universe. The character played a central role during the "Zero Hour" storyline, and in displaying a final act of heroism, he sacrificed his life to reignite the Sun at the conclusion of ‘’The Final Night’’ storyline. Redeemed in the eyes of many of his fellow heroes, he received a hero's funeral. Not fit either for heaven or hell, Jordan’s soul was destined for purgatory, until he became the newest host for the spirit of God’s vengeance known as The Spectre, at the end of the "Day of Judgment" limited series. The only hero to remain critical of Jordan after his demise was Batman, an attitude he would maintain until after Jordan's resurrection.

This storyline was retconned in "". Hal Jordan's murderous actions were the result of being under the dual influences of Sinestro and a fear-inducing entity Parallax.

Behind the Scenes

Originally "Emerald Twilight" was scripted by Gerard Jones and according to "Previews" Vol. III #8 (Aug 1993) and the November 1993 "Comics Scoreboard", was to involve two sets of the extraterrestrial altruists known as the Guardians and Hal Jordan, a member of their intergalactic police force, the Green Lanterns, having to choose which set was real. DC Editorial reportedly thought that this story was not interesting enough to draw new readers. Then-publisher Paul Levitz, along with senior group editors Mike Carlin, Dennis O'Neil, and Archie Goodwin, as well as GL editor Kevin Dooley, plotted the "Emerald Twilight" story, which was eventually given to Ron Marz to write, that eventually saw print. [ [http://www.glcorps.org/gl48-50.html Green-Lantern # 48-50 - What Might Have Been!] Retrieved on 21 September 2008.] Gerard Jones put up both his plot outline and the portions of the script that had been written but DC forced the removal of Jones' detailed script, leaving only the plotline.

ee also

*

References

External links

* [http://www.fanzing.com/mag/fanzing39/iview.shtml Shedding Some Lantern's Light: An Interview with Gerard Jones]