image source: DC Database

This is a map of Coast City, a fictional city in the DC Universe. In our reading of the novelization of The Death And Life Of Superman, a novelization of the story arc where Superman died and got better, we’ve reached the part where Coast City was destroyed by Mongul, working with (or for, according to the chapter) the Cyborg Hank Henshaw, at the time masquerading as one of two potential resurrections of Kal-El (Spoiler: neither were), and one of four potential replacement Supermen in the “Reign Of The Supermen” story arc. The goal was to create one of the engines that would turn Earth into a new Warworld. In Mongul’s case it was to get revenge on Superman for costing him the old one. We’ll get to Hank’s motivation in due time.

Now Coast City is important for one major reason: it was the home base of Hal Jordan, the Green Lantern of sector 2814 as the galaxy is cataloged by the Guardians Of Oa. (They’re the little blue guys responsible for forming the Green Lantern Corp in the first place.) This event had a huge impact on the character, which it should have. The problem is the biggest event of his life, the destruction of his home city and the deaths of people he knew both casually and closely, were all destroyed with it (with a few exceptions) and he wasn’t there for it. This is a big deal not only from the character’s perspective but as a written work as well. For the latter, which I’ll be focusing on here, this was a huge mistake.

[UPDATE: 10/14/2018] Some quick research tells me that Hal actually did show up to fight Mongul in the comic version of Reign Of The Supermen, at least according to one source. If that is indeed the case then having him only show up at that point, after Coast City is wiped out in a different book was still a bad move in the comics and his lack of acknowledgement in the Death And Life Of Superman novelization I was reviewing at the time was still a mistake, so the points in this commentary still stand.

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