Replacements for the sake of replacements, whether driven by world view or just wanting the name on their shiny new character as cheap promotion, isn’t something new. DC’s uneven history with minority characters caused them to make a big change in the 1990s, replacing heroes like Green Arrow and Firestorm with new minority versions. It’s something I’ve discussed all the way back in 2015. These new versions didn’t take because the originals already had too strong a fanbase.
Oddly, this included replacing the white Hal Jordon with the mostly-white (his father was Mexican and his mother Irish) Kyle Rayner, though he is still pretty light skinned and was raised by his divorced Irish mother. While he is my favorite Green Lantern conceptually the fridging of his girlfriend Alex, literally where the “women in refrigerators” trope got its name, discouraged me from giving him a chance. Firestorm I heard good things about but Jason Rusch and the revolving door of helpers wasn’t Ronnie Raymond and Professor Stein. Kyle had something even worse keeping him from being accepted than poor Alex though.
It meant evilizing and ruining Hal Jordan.
I grew up on Superfriends and reruns of the Filmation DC shows, so Hal is the Green Lantern I grew up with, as did many others. Having him turn evil just to replace him and wipe out the entire Green Lantern Corps was a mistake that DC took years to fix, though it actually did so by lessening Kyle’s role in the comic. The following video by Owen Likes Comics goes over the history of Hal’s turn to evil and why the decision was made. I have some thoughts on the end result and aftermath.
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