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Final Crisis: Requiem … MM & Hal?

Final Crisis Requiem

I read “Final Crisis: Requiem” and one thing is really bothering me. There are three pages where Hal Jordan and Oliver Queen grieve together over Martian Manhunter’s body. Hal talks about the rage he’s feeling and the revenge he wants to inflict because of his friend’s death. What bothers me is that I don’t believe historically there has been a really strong connection between Hal Jordan and Martian Manhunter.

If you look at their respective JLA appearances, they don’t actually overlap much. Both were founding members of the League, however, Martian Manhunter left the League with issue 71. Of those 71 issues, Martian Manhunter only appeared in 43 of them. After that, every run of the JLA that featured Martian Manhunter as a member, Hal was not a member at the same time. If you add up Martian Manhunter’s time in the Detroit League, the JLI, Justice League Task Force, and the JLA (Grant Morrison’s series), that’s something like 230 issues that he didn’t appear with Hal Jordan.

Justice League of America

I just feel that the writer is shoehorning Hal Jordan into the grieving, whereas there are many other characters that Martian Manhunter appeared with more frequently that would have made more sense. I think I know why they are using Hal Jordan.. to prepare for “Blackest Night” where numerous dead superheroes are supposed to come back. That is probably where we’ll see Martian Manhunter next, so it makes sense from a plotting point of view to use Hal Jordan. I just feel as a fan of Martian Manhunter, it could have been other folks. Maybe there were some nice character moments between Martian Manhunter and Hal at some point in history, I just don’t happen to remember them. There are many other characters they’ve shown time and time again to have a close bond with Martian Manhunter. For example, characters that have starred in the JLA with Martian Manhunter more frequently and have been shown to have a bond with him include: Batman, Vixen, Gypsy, Superman, and Wonder Woman. Believe it or not, even Kyle Rayner have appeared with Martian Manhunter more often than Hal Jordan. While Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman did feature prominently in this story, the big emotional scene was given to Hal and Ollie. I just didn’t work for me.

Okay, rant over. “Final Crisis: Requiem” was a decent read, its just this one point really stood out to me. I admit part of my rant probably comes from the fact that I’m still bitter they brought Hal back to life.

Oh yeah, it’s also worth mentioning that Aquaman had a really strong bond with Martian Manhunter and appeared more frequently with Martian Manhunter than Hal. However, Aquaman is current dead. Interestingly enough, apparently death wasn’t enough to stop Aquaman from coming to the funeral. Check out the Aquaman Shrine for details on this.

4 thoughts on “Final Crisis: Requiem … MM & Hal?

  1. I loved that “Requiem” storyline, but you raise a good point. I’ve never paid enough attention to Hal Jordan to know what his relationships with other JLA members are like, but you obviously know the history. Judging from Ollie’s furious reaction to MM’s death in “Final Crisis,” I thought it was interesting that he was the one talking Hal down from the ledge.

  2. Keep in mind they starred in the original JLA for many years together. Though those stories didn’t focus on characterization, we can reasonably assume they were pretty good friends and comrades.

    And if you read JLA Year One, you see some of that done in a modern context.

    But it’s true we see a stronger reaction because it will be a plot point. Whereas Hal nor any of the other originals ever reacted strongly to Barry Allen’s death, simply because they planned no follow up on it.

    Oh, and it won’t be Blackest Night where they follow this up; Hal is going to split off his own team of Leaguers to track down J’onn’s killers early next year, in a new book called Justice League, by James Robinson.

  3. Heybit – Thanks for posting. You make some valid points. Also, I realized after posting this that it was actually James Robinson’s Justice League (rather than Blackest Night).

    Here is a thought that was recently brought to my attention (and only barely related):
    ** Sue Dibny was attacked by Dr Light = The JLA gave him a lobotomy
    ** Martian Manhunter was murdered = A new JLA team will be formed to be more proactive
    ** Aquaman’s young son was straight-up murdered by Black Manta = Ummm… nothing. Make all the jokes about Aquaman you want, but that guy killed his kid. That should have brought done the thunder from the JLA.

    Shag

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