Hal Jordan (Absolute Universe)

Darkseid created the Absolute Universe to be a world where heroes were the underdogs, and lacked the advantages of their Earth 0 counterparts.^[1] Therefore, Hal Jordan was not a fearless pilot chosen to wield the most powerful weapon in the galaxy. Instead he was an average man who was cursed with uncontrollable destructive powers by an enigmatic alien.^[2]

Hal lived in Evergreen, Nevada; the same small town he was born in. Evergreen had almost no local economy and was essentially just a waypoint on the road to California. One day he was having lunch with his old friends John Stewart and Jo Mullein, who had recently moved back home from Coast City after her divorce. Suddenly a translucent green dome dropped around the town. A biker riding at full speed down the road smashed headlong into the dome and was instantly killed, his body splattering into blood and gore and his bike exploding. Hal ran over to help the guy but found he could not get through the dome, and John could not get a signal when he tried to call for an ambulance. They saw some more bikers approaching on the other side of the dome, but the men simply turned around when they got close, seemingly not noticing the force field or their dead friend. Jo looked up to the top of the dome and saw a starship in the shape of a giant green lantern hovering far up in the air with a huge four-armed alien floating in the centre of it.^[2]

The alien beamed down to the surface and the entire town turned out to see what was happening. He announced that he was Abin Sur and that he existed at the "Green Level of Light", ordering the people of Evergreen to "be without fear". Sheriff Guy Gardner approached Abin Sur and said that he was the authority in Evergreen. Abin Sur summoned green energy in his hand and levelled it at Guy, saying that judgement would commence. Guy and his deputies Ron and Rita interpreted this as a threat and drew their weapons, while Abin Sur calmly told Guy that he did not exist in the "Spectrum of Light" and once again instructed him to be without fear. Jo was able to convince Guy not to escalate and the sheriffs stood down. Guy asked Abin Sur to tell them what he wanted, but Abin Sur obliterated Guy with a blast, declaring that he had been judged.

Guy's deputies opened fire on Abin Sur but he blocked their bullets with a force field, decapitated Rita with his bare hands and cut Ron's hand off. John and Jo rushed to stop the bleeding from he stump and save Ron's life; but Hal ran up, grabbed Rita's gun and pointed it at Abin Sur. Abin Sur showed no fear of this and told Hal that his judgment was in progress, even addressing Hal by name. John got in between them and told Hal to lower the gun, saying that Abin Sur would just kill him too if he tried to shoot him; and Hal reluctantly did so. Abin Sur told John to be without fear, also addressing him by name, and then flew back up to the Lantern. John asked Hal to give him the gun but Hal held onto it. That night; John, Hal and Jo met up again. John said that they needed to remove Abin Sur from the equation and that he knew how to do it, pulling out a gold ring.^[3]

The next morning, John revealed to them that the ring was an earring which the biker had been wearing when he crashed into the dome, meaning it had somehow passed through, and that he had been able to throw it outside the dome again. John also realised that it was unlikely the ring was actual gold and so wanted to determine if anything which appeared to be gold would also work. He got Jo and Hal to join him, asking Hal to bring along any cheap toy he had which was gold coloured. Hal brought him a gold plastic statuette which John discovered he could push through the dome. He then tried his grandmother's actual gold engagement ring, which not only went through the dome but violently disrupted the field and actually left a hole in it for a few seconds. Jo wondered if there were enough gold objects in town to allow them to open a hole large enough for someone to leave and John said it was possible, but that he didn't think that was the lesson they were supposed to be learning. Before he could say anything else Abin Sur flew down and told John he had been judged, then obliterated him with an energy blast. John was not afraid and accepted his death with a calm smile.

Enraged, local diner owner Todd Rice tried to shoot Abin Sur with a shotgun, but he simply blocked the bullets and flew away. Hal said that John had been wrong to approach their situation as a philosophical puzzle, and it would not end unless somebody took it upon themselves to end it. He returned home and painted all the bullets in Rita's gun gold.^[4]

Black Hand

Five days after it had first appeared, the lantern crashed down onto Evergreen, levelling multiple blocks and killing an untold number of people. Hal claims this was his fault as he wanted to be a hero and Abin Sur had given him a weapon. This "weapon" was the Black Hand, which transformed Hal's left hand into a source of destruction and darkness that he could not control and needed all his concentration just to hold back.^[2]

Terrified by what had happened, Hal started walking away from Evergreen on the interstate highway. Whenever he closed his eyes he saw a vision of a ring of swirling light in the darkness and heard a voice telling him to "be without fear" just as Abin Sur had, which only sacred him more. Along the way he was stopped by a cop who asked him what he was doing out there alone, and then asked if he was hiding anything when he noticed that he was holding his left hand in his jacket pocket. Hal didn't answer and just started crying, so the cop pulled his gun and yelled at Hal to show him his hands. Hal tried to explain what had happened but the cop just kept yelling at him to take his hand out of his pocket or he would shoot. Hal clenched his eyes shut and pulled out his hand which obliterated the cop, leaving a small crater in the road and his badge. He kept walking along the road, whispering that he was sorry.

Eventually Hal reached a diner called "Mae & Moe's" and asked for water. The staff and patrons were immediately suspicious and hostile towards him, as outsiders rarely stopped there and he had no vehicle. As he was drinking, an emergency news broadcast came on the TV, reporting the crash in Evergreen, and then was just as quickly pulled off the air. Hal started talking to himself about Abin Sur and the people in the diner asked him if he had been in Evergreen. He started to break down and said it was all his fault. An aggressive patron called Earl started yelling at him and asked what Hal was hiding in his pocket. Hal tried to leave but Earl grabbed his arm and pulled his hand out. Tendrils of darkness whipped out of the Hand, lifted Earl off the ground and destroyed him, leaving only his necklace. Hal struggled to pull the Hand's power back and tried to explain that it responded to danger, but one of the diner owners shot him and darkness exploded out of the Hand, killing everyone. Hal was horrified and hoped that the gunshot would kill him and end his nightmare, but another tendril extended from the Hand and instantly healed the wound. Hal realised to his despair that the Hand would not allow him to die. Suddenly Jo Mullein, blazing with green light, entered and asked what had happened.^[2]

Hal warned Jo not to get close because the Hand destroyed anything that it saw as a threat and he couldn't control it. Jo asked Hal what he had done with Rita's gun, and it flowed out of his hand. Hal warned Jo that the hand was hungry and wanted to subsume the light. Jo nervously asked him to put the gun down but he ignored her. Hal said that the darkness was very old, and should be weak and forgotten, but something fed it and allowed it to survive so now there was a small piece of it everything. Hal told Jo that he was fighting it and trying not to listen, but it kept telling him he was right. He opened his eyes to reveal they had turned black.^[3]

Against Hal's wishes, the Black Hand pointed Rita's gun at Jo and fired a concentrated stream of darkness at her, trying to consume the light. Jo instinctively created a force field bubble around herself to hold it off and rose up into the air. Hal couldn't stop the shadows and yelled at Jo to just let it take the light, but she summoned up a construct of a fist that punched him out of the diner and far into the desert beyond. Jo flew out to where Hal had landed and warned him to get himself under control or she would do it for him. The hand reached out to her even as Hal tried to pull it back, and he asked her how she was able to control her power.^[4]

Powers and Abilities

Powers

Black Hand: Hal Jordan was bestowed with the powers of the Black Hand. His left hand became a source of destructive dark energy.^[2]
- Darkness Manipulation: The Hand produces tendrils of darkness which can lift a large man into the air.^[2] Hal can also fire blasts of darkness from the gun merged with the hand.^[4]
- Disintegration: The Hand can obliterate people, leaving no trace. It destroyed an entire diner full of people in moments.^[2]
- Healing: The Hand automatically heals Hal's wounds if he is gravely injured, but it is unknown if he can do this for others.^[2]
- Matter Absorption: The Hand was able to absorb a gun into itself and produce it again at Hal's command.^[3]
- Superhuman Durability^[4]

Abilities

Business Management^[2]

Weaknesses

Power Instability: Hal has no control over the Black Hand, and it requires all his concentration just to hold it back from destroying everyone around him.^[2]

Notes

Hal Jordan was created by John Broome and Gil Kane, first appearing in Showcase #22. However, the Absolute Universe version of Hal Jordan first appeared in Absolute Green Lantern #1 by Al Ewing and Jahnoy Lindsay.

Hal Jordan (Absolute Universe)

Contents

History