Though Hal Jordan has seen many powerful forms in his time as Green Lantern, his brief adoption of a Red Lantern ring brought out his most terrifying abilities yet. With Hal’s willpower and the Red Light of Rage, the Lantern’s hybrid form made him deadlier than ever.
The Green Lantern Corps draws its power from a fraction of the Emotional Spectrum, an enigmatic force composed of seven different lights. Each light draws its power from a particular emotion, except for Green which makes it the most stable light in the collection. The furthest extremes, like the light used by the Red Lantern Corps, are much harder to master and those who come under its influence generally lose themselves to anger. The Corps’ leader Atrocitus has spent eons focusing his rage, making him one of the few beings in the universe capable of bringing out the Red Light’s true power.
At least, he was until Hal Jordan was briefly inducted into the Red Lantern Corps in Green Lantern #38 by Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis. Jordan had traveled to the Red Lanterns’ home base Ysmault to save his former mentor Sinestro from being ripped apart by the bloodthirsty Corps. However, Sinestro betrays Green Lantern by killing a former colleague of Jordan’s, sending the hero into a rage and making him a target for a Red Lantern Power Ring. The ring turns Jordan into a hybrid Lantern, though his Red side is clearly winning out. However, even though Hal’s mind begins to return to a primal state, he retains his immense willpower. While the other Lanterns don’t have the capability to form constructs, Jordan’s past as one of the greatest Green Lanterns allows him to use his Red rings just as easily as he wielded his Green one.
It can’t be stressed enough how powerful Hal Jordan is in this moment. The Green Lantern light he usually wields is mighty, but the Red Lantern energy is far more damaging. In lieu of constructs, Red Lanterns constantly spew a highly corrosive bile that can eat through anything, even energy fields. But Jordan took the best from the Green and Red camps and accidentally found the most deadly combo in the Emotional Spectrum.
The Green Lanterns’ light is capable of many things and, in extreme cases, can be used to kill people when authorized, but there is no such limitation with their rivals in the Emotional Spectrum. The Red Lantern Corps kill without mercy but, due to blinding rage, they aren’t the most effective ring-slingers. Hal Jordan, on the other hand, is an endless reservoir of will, even when he’s literally seeing red. As a hybrid Lantern, Jordan can harness the destructive powers of a Red Lantern’s energy and shape it just as well as he would using the Green Light he’s so familiar with. Thankfully, Hal Jordan’s time as a Red Lantern/Green Lantern amalgamation was brief, because the hero was close to being the deadliest threat in the entire DC Universe.
