Did Batman ever give Hal Jordan any credit for reigniting the Sun during Final Night? I know Batman was sort of down on Hal after he tried to erase the universe, so he could rebuild it how he wanted it.
I also remember a JSA story where some villain the Jim Corrigan Spectre dealt wth lead a revolt of all these souls the Spectre had condemned, and Hal was struggling to get them back under control. He ultimately did so by ignoring Reverend Cramer's advice to show compassion and free the souls from damnation, and instead chose to condemn them all over again. At the end, Jay Garrick and Alan Scott visit Gotham to discuss it with Batman, and they tell him Hal's still finding his way, and that he deserved a second chance. because this was a Batman written in the last 20 years, odds were good he'd be a dismissive ass to that suggestion, and lo and behold he was, claiming Hal already had a second chance, whatever that means*.
So clearly, Batman was not a big fan of Hal's over the last 15-20 years. Of course, they've made up since then, depending on who's writing the scene**. Still, even if Batman had legit reasons to be down on Hal back in the day, he can't deny that Hal Jordan saved the freaking planet by sorta dying to reignite the Sun. Hal did that. I think a "Thank you, Hal", would be in order. I would think Alfred would have taught him at least that much.
* Does he mean because Hal came back to life after he appeared to die in Zero Hour, and most people - say Thomas and Martha Wayne - don't get that chance, so screw Hal?
** So Geoff Johns has Hal tell Barry Allen that he and Bruce were friends, but James Robinson has Hal tell Oliver Queen he didn't like Bruce?
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It's actually kind of funny when you consider how much death is relatively meaningless to most heroes, except for the few key deaths that never change.
The old joke about Jason Todd, Bucky and Uncle Ben notwithstanding (all of who have come back in some form in the last 5 years), there really does seem to be some line in "history" about 15-20 years before the current time period where death seemed to lose some meaning in the realities of comic books.
So Thomas and Martha Wayne never really come back but a sizable percentage of the significant people who Bruce has met since the age of 16 who have died have actually come back.
The same would apply to a lot of people from the comic universes. Yet at the same time, no one ever really addresses this.
Occasionally we get something small, like Siryn not really believing her dad is dead because the X-men never really die, or the latest gravestone for Phoenix, stating that she will rise again.
We get plenty of comments about how we shouldn't believe someone is dead unless we see the body, and often not even then. But no one ever talks about the giant elephant in the room, that death seems to be a revolving door for a sizable percentage of the population (and you've got to figure there are some people "off camera" so to speak who are also dying and rising occasionally).
Not really sure what the point of the rant is, but it just seems like there's a story in there somewhere. :)
seangreyson: I hadn't considered it, but you're probably right about there being people we never see who are dying and returning.
I would think that with so many people coming back, it would make the deaths that haven't been undone sting that much more (sort of a "Why hasn't that person I cared about come back like all the others?"), but at the same time, I'm surprised we don't see more characters take Siryn's approach, and just dismiss the deaths.
Frankly, I'm sticking with Geoff Johns' interpretation of Hal and Bats, and ignoring the James Robinson one. Robinson's Cry For Justice, has been hilarious...but I am not sure that was the effect he was actually going for.
Yeah, Hal saved the earth, but Batman is one of those "and what have you done for me LATELY" sort of people.
sallyp: Do you notice how people with the "What have you done for me lately" attitude only apply it to positive things?
Why can't Batman be all like "Sure, you tried to end the universe, but that was yesterday. You haven't done anything bad today, so we're cool."
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