We’ve all had one of those moments in our lives where we just want to snap and go on a rampage. Something has angered us so much that we’d love to deal out some of the pain we’ve felt back to the world. Hal Jordan of the Green Lantern Corps has just had that moment. Only he isn’t going to take a breath and calm down. He’s truly snapped beyond repair. Witness the fall of a hero as I recount the events of “Green Lantern” #49…..
Hal used his stolen energy to propel himself through outer space. His ultimate destination was the planet Oa, home of the Green Lantern Corps central battery! As he approached, the Guardians sent Green Lantern after Green Lantern to attempt to stop him. But Hal wasn’t regarded as the best for nothing. One after another, they would fall like bowling pins, and Hal would add to his growing power by taking the fallen hero’s ring! A Green Lantern’s ring was powered by the wearer’s will after all, and right now, Hal’s will was at the strongest it had ever been! (Damn! Somebody needs to tell Hal that if all he wanted was bling, all he needed to do was stop at any rapper’s mansion and he’d have more rings than he could ever need! Flavor Flav!)
The Lanterns would all try to reason with him while they gave the fight their all, but their pleas would always fall upon deaf ears and Hal would continue onward after he defeated them. He would be the Guardians’ puppet no longer. He would take all of the power that they had and bring back all that he had lost. Meanwhile on Oa, the Guardians looked down upon all of the cosmos. In particular, they watched as their once greatest champion advanced upon them with hate-filled eyes. They commented that even he was no threat. They were unconcerned. One of their number however, Ganthet, remained unconvinced. The next to fall was a close friend of Hal’s in the Corps. It seemed as though no-one meant anything more to him now than another obstacle to overcome in his mission! (And I though Guardians were ancient and therefore intelligent beings! You don’t mess with an angry human! We’ll nearly kill each other on Black Fridays! And that’s just over the newest video game console!)
Next, he was blindsided by a newer and somewhat unorthodox Green Lantern by the name of Jack T. Chance. Jack followed up his sneak attack by pulling out a large gun and aiming at the once-hero! But, within mere moments, Jack also floated, beaten and ringless, in the cold emptiness of space! (Wow! Even Lobo didn’t stand a chance! Wait. What? Jack T. Chance? You mean DC ripped off their own character? Weird. That’s like Marvel having more than one Spider-Man. Lol! They did what and how many times?!) More and more heroes of the Corps fell as Hal Jordan gained more and more power! That is until he was struck from behind by the warrior woman, Boodikka! Hal had inducted her into the mighty Green Lantern Corps himself. Boodikka did her best. Failure wasn’t an option for her. She even stated that her ring was as one with her as her own hand. That’s why Hal created a blade construct and lopped it off before he took her ring as well!
The Guardians were growing uneasy. Anyone could tell that fear was creeping into their proud yet arrogant demeanor. They were confident that their failsafe plan would save them. Ganthet once again spoke out against this plan, but even in the end, even he had to admit that there was no other way. (Those poor little Smurfs. First the constant threat of Gargamel trying to eat them all of the time, and now this!) The next to stand in Hal’s way was the mighty Kilowog, a close friend of his and a trainer for the Corps. He would definitely be no pushover. Hal and Kilowog had their words but instead of surrender, Hal chose to fight. The two titans clashed with furious power and experienced accuracy. But in the end, even a legendary fighter like Kilowog stood no chance. He fell like all of the rest.
Hal Jordan approached the enormous Central Batterey upon Oa at last. The Guardians materialized in energy form, pleading that he surrender himself. Hal laughed maniacally. He’d come too far to be stopped now. It was all or nothing. The Guardians said that he had given them no choice then. That’s when a cloaked figure emerged from green energy of the Central Batterey itself. Hal looked on in utter shock as the being pulled back his hood. Sinestro, the “fallen one” of the Green Lantern Corps stood revealed and ready to defend the cosmos that he had so often threatened himself!
To be concluded…..
Dedicated to my daughter, Jade Leigh Miller, who’s turning 21 and to my son, James Christian Miller, who will be turning 20. I love you both.
There I was, close to certain death. As I lie in my bed, my life flashed before my eyes. Yes. This was the end of your loyal Symbifan. No more posts. No more articles. The end. Well, perhaps I’m exaggerating just a bit. I had the flu. Don’t laugh! You know how sickness is for a man! Anyway, I’m back now, after way too long of a absence, to bring you part one in a three part series describing the events that occurred in “Green Lantern” #’s 48-50. That’s right! The fall of a hero, and the birth of a villain. The beginning of Parallax! (Forgetting that yellow travesty that was created years later to replace this amazing storyline.) So, without further ado, I bring you “Emerald Twilight”…..
Hal Jordan sat in the crater that was once his hometown. There was nothing but rubble surrounding him. The wind blew dust over him as the Earth’s Green Lantern sat in complete misery. Coast City had been utterly annihilated by the evil Cyborg Superman and his minion, Mongul. Now he sat alone, grieving the loss of the place that had meant so much to him. (So depressing. Here. I’ll perform a backflip for your amusement. That’ll cheer you all up. Did you like it? Damn right you did!) Hal looked down at the source of his amazing power, his ring. It could create literally anything the wearer could imagine. All it took was willpower. And still he could do nothing to stop this tragedy. That’s when he began to concentrate.
An emerald beam of light erupted from his ring and blanketed the area around him. Slowly, from out of the green mist, a figure walked towards him. Even completely composed of energy, Hal recognized him immediately. It was his father. The Green Lantern started the conversation slowly, but he soon began speaking of the past. How, no matter what he did in life, his father had never been proud of him. Never offered him an ounce of respect. His dad replied that he had been right to do so. Look at this devastation. Even as a superhero, Hal had failed to save his entire city! (That’s cold! It’s the verbal wounds that parents cause that can really cut deep. I know from experience. That sentence wasn’t funny in the slightest. Imagine that I wrote it while wearing pink, footy jammies and a raw turkey on my head. Better? Good.) There was now silence between the two. That’s when Hal’s father suddenly broke the silence. He had to leave. He had a plane to catch. The Green Lantern begged him not to go. But the energy being disappeared anyway. Moments later, a green energy jet flew overhead. But something was wrong and the plane suddenly exploded! Hal had just relived his father’s death.
Hal drops to his knees, his head lowered. That’s when a calming, gentle hand touches his shoulder. Turning, he sees his mother’s compassionate face. He stands and asks her how she dealt with her husband’s terrible death. She replies that after the initial shock wore off, only memories remained. And that’s what he should do about Coast City, remember the good things. As she faded away, a look of rage crosses the Green Lantern’s face as he roars that memories aren’t good enough! (Uh-oh. Me thinks that Hal’s suddenly become one nugget short of a twenty piece.) He unleashes the full power of his ring! Using all of his nearly-limitless willpower, he recreates the entire city down to the smallest detail! Even the people reappear! And Hal Jordan floats over all of it. And truly he feels like God! While he looks down upon his creation, a small and familiar voice greets him from below. He descends to see his high-school sweetheart!
Jennifer smiles and tells the superhero just how much different he looks since she last saw him. She asks where he’s going. Somewhat surprised by the question, he answers that he supposes he’ll visit his parents’ home. She asks to walk with him. As they stroll down the sidewalk, Hal suddenly reveals to her just how much she meant to him. That he could never have gotten through his father’s death without her and how he should never have let her go. That’s when the realization hits him. Jennifer is dead. He asks if she was in fact in Coast City when it happened. She replies that her death was quick and painless. She then kisses him gently and says goodbye with a wave. (Yeah. Hal’s definitely gone cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs. Why’s he purposely torturing himself? I know why he’s so depressed. It’s because Dr. Strange and Mr. Fantastic beat him to his hairstyle.)
After her image has gone, Hal walks through the door to his childhood home. He at once spies the image of his father. But this time, he has nothing but kind words to say. In fact, he seemed about to say that he was proud of his son. Something Hal had always wanted to hear his dad say. But that’s when the image began to dissipate. In fact, the whole green construct of Coast City slowly disappeared! The Green Lantern once again stood in the crater that was once a happy, thriving city. Hal howled in anger as the illusion faded. It wasn’t fair! But just as he uttered those words, the green image of a Guardian spoke from over his shoulder. Hal’s ring’s power was spent. And not only would the alien being not recharge it, Hal was to return to the planet Oa for disciplinary action! He had broken the cardinal rule. He had used his power for personal gain. (Man, good thing I never got one of those rings. I’d be soooooo naughty with it. The Guardians would be appalled at my imagination.) Hal was to surrender his Green Lantern ring immediately!
Something inside Hal Jordan snapped at that moment. He smashed the energy construct of the Guardian, absorbing the power into his ring! He then growls that he’ll go to Oa all right, but they won’t like him when he gets there! Using his stolen energy and with a crazed look upon his face, the Earth’s Green Lantern blasts off to the stars! And woe to anyone who would dare stand in his way!
Now you’re reading that title and either screaming I am wrong – because Sinister even hinted as much in X-Men #23, when Sinister had told Cyclops: “… but I care enough to wish you and your brothers to be protected from this illness.”
Fabian wrote that fateful issue in X-Men #23 where Sinister is speaking to Scott Summers (Cyclops) and mentions “brothers” – as in plural. The world was ablaze with speculation as to who the “Third Summers Brother” was… most people seemed to speculate that the intended one was none other than everyone’s favorite Cajun mutant – Gambit. Which could make sense, with the red eyes (like Cyclops) projects energy (like Havok). But not what Fabian had in mind. Quoting Fabian –
“The character [X-Treme] WAS created to be the 3rd brother, but once I left the x-books, the following writers/editors chose to ignore the sub-plot(which is their call to make). the good news is that no writer/editor contradicted the storyline plans I had, so maybe someday I could still pick it up.” – Fabian
Fabian even added:
“I threw the ‘brothers’ line into Sinister’s dialogue mostly for fun and to make him come across like the smart-ass that he was. Editor Bob Harras liked that, since he always liked mysteries he would never let us resolve, so I started to give it some more thought. I knew we were going to be introducing a slate of new characters in all the Annuals we were publishing that year, so I tied the two ideas together.” – Fabian
However, when asked about the “Third Summers Brother” Fabian had this to say:
“I became a bit thrown off when the comic book media of the time, like Wizard, dubbed it ‘the Third Summers brother,’ and it took on a life of its own. I had always thought of it as simply ‘the Third Brother,’ because I knew that, technically, if the DNA was coming from Kate, he wasn’t really a ‘Summers,’ brother. But it didn’t matter, it became ‘The Third Summers Brother’ in the minds of everyone. And without the chance to actually tell the story, it was impossible to wrangle that horse back in the barn. Never in print did anyone say ‘third brother.’ Sinister said brothers, so it could be one, two, or 52.” – Fabian
As the years went by, most characters continued to evolve; however, Adam was forgotten – except for people who seemed to be stuck on his appearance and how he looked. The thing is he never got to continue appearing, so yeah – he got locked into that 90’s look he had – and everyone seemed to be focus on “oh, he’s so extreme – he burns blood!” And I feel like none of those people read X-Men #39 which was a very touching tale and showed how Adam used his powers very differently (it also showed a very compassionate side to him). But I even talked about the minor changes I’d make to Adam’s costume to make him fit in modern comics.
As we know, in 2006 – Ed Brubaker did the X-Men: Deadly Genesis which told of a story of a team of mutants that existed – and went after Cyclops and the team (when they’d been attacked on Krakoa – before Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Storm, etc., appeared in Uncanny X-Men #94/Giant Size X-Men #1) – this team considered of a specific mutant named Gabriel Summers, better known as Vulcan. His team had been killed on Krakoa trying to rescue Scott and the others. When the next round of X-Men we all know and love ejected Krakoa into space, Gabriel had been imprisoned (unknowingly) and somehow kept alive (he – somehow? some reason? Suddenly absorbed all the powers of his teammates – including a mutant named Darwin who could adapt to any danger). Professor Xavier so ashamed of the loss – wiped everyone’s memory of all of the members from Gabriel’s team.
Now let’s pause there for a moment. Xavier was so ashamed he wiped the memory of everyone who ever knew Gabriel (Vulcan), Petra, Sway, and Darwin (all the members of Gabriel’s team who “perished” trying to save the original X-Men from Krakoa).
Hold up.
So – I have a question. Why wouldn’t he have wiped everyone’s memory of John Proudstar who would die on the very next mission (after successfully rescuing the X-Men)?
OK – that’s not the point – let’s focus again.
House of M happens, “No More Mutants” – a ton of mutant energy (listen people, this is comics!) goes into the air – hits Vulcan and awakens him. And the entire story of “The Third Summers” story is resolved, as far as Marvel is concerned.
Now, Gabriel we learn shares a number of similar “planned origins” as Adam (despite what we see when Katherine is abducted, it’s retold later in the retcon to make Gabriel’s origin fit that she was actually pregnant when abducted by the Shi’ar). Overall, I just saw Gabriel as a super powerful mutant you couldn’t beat, so I never truly cared for the character, but the Emperor Vulcan and the Kingbreaker Shi’ar related stories were actually good reads. So I will give credit where credit is due, for those stories.
But fast forward to 2021 – the day I never thought would happen, finally came to be.
I loved what Fabian had to say –
“The real oddity of this situation was the nature of the book itself, new stories set in canon from the time of the original continuity, and the fact I was being allowed, encouraged even, to finally write the story of Adam-X. My story is exactly what I had planned to do in 1995. Beginning, middle, and end, it’s all the same. Because I had originally planned for a four-issue limited series that would have meant 88 pages of content. The two X-Men Legends issues are 50 pages of content, so I had to cut some scenes and trim some of the ‘slow down’ moments originally planned. That quickened the pace of the story, but muted a little of the downtime I had wanted between the brothers. My editors Mark Basso and Lauren Amaro were integral in helping me piece that together in a way that worked best. So, maybe it’s a bit less quiet in parts, but I hope its pace and scope offset that in an exciting way. As for the current fourth brother [Vulcan] in continuity, it has zero impact on my story for Adam’s story in X-Men Legends, since Adam’s story is being told at the time it was originally planned to be told, which precedes any character awareness of Vulcan.” – Fabian
This is a lot of needless backstory – just to get to where I was going to go – talking about X-Men Legends #1 and 2. I am not sure what gods finally smiled down – but it was finally announced that Fabian would finally be able to tell Adam’s story in a new series entitled X-Men Legends with the first two issues focusing on Adam’s origin.
The issue takes place in the past and opens with Eric The Red, who we’ve seen pestering Adam (namely back in Captain Marvel featuring Genis Vell) commanding the Crystal Claws to attack (in Alaska – and if you know your X-Men history – you know the grandparents of Scott and Alex live here) – at the same time, Cyclops and Havok find themselves attacked as well – so this isn’t a coincidence. Scott and Alex learn that their grandparents have been taken and a note has been left that says “Deliver the Forsaken One” (something Eric the Red called Adam in the Captain Marvel issues).
The issue cuts over to Adam at a farmhouse just having a zen moment when a young boy encounters him. But it’s not just the kid who is there – Cable also shows up and says that they need Adam’s “help” and explains the situation. We do see some backstory where Adam was genetically made in a test tube – where there’s other tubes that are (presumably destroyed in the ensuing fires and explosions) marked “Eve.” (Fun Note: In the recent Secret Wars, Fabian wrote the X-Men portion – and Adam became known as Burner – and similar tubes were seen where there was an “Eve”, “Seth” and “Able”).
Adam’s angry – and thought that he was done with Eric the Red (he believed he perished in the explosion in the aforementioned Captain Marvel issues). Adam eventually finds himself attacked by Raza and Hepzibah of the Starjammers before Cyclops and Havok show up and try to end things peacefully. Adam uses his power in yet another unique fashion and bolts – but can’t get ahead of Corsair who – after saying that Adam is the brother of Cyclops and Havok – shoots Adam in the head.
In the following issue, Corsair does correct himself and explain that technically Adam was their half-brother – and is surprised when Adam stands up again. Corsair explains that Adam was a part of the former emperor’s D’Ken’s eugenics program. Merging Shi’ar DNA with that of other specifies in search of way to advance the deteriorating evolution of the Shi’ar race and that D’Ken had used Katherine Summers (his wife and the mother of Scott and Alex) cell samples, mixing it with his own, creating Adam. Corsair mentions that the bounty on Adam was from Eric the Red and that gave Adam a plan. Our heroes take Adam “prisoner” and meet Eric the Red on the Moon. Once Eric the Red and the Crystal Claws reveal themselves to pay for the bounty, Adam “breaks out” of his shackles an tags each of the Crystal Claws and Eric the Red before the others can react – and then triggers his power to render Eric the Red and the Crystal Claws unconscious.
And it seems that Corsair is about to betray Adam when he calls upon the Shi’ar Imperial Guard…
But Adam has an idea – and the others all agree to it. They use Oracle powered further by Mentor to erase the memory of how Adam was genetically related to D’Ken, and technically, perhaps the true heir to the throne (especially if you asked Eric the Red and the Crystal Claws, who had wanted to put Adam on the throne).
Adam then returns to the farmland that we see him at in the first issue, and he speaks with the boy about the boy’s father who has trouble standing – so Adam decides to hang out and be a helping hand.
MY THOUGHTS
As an avid Adam-X fan, X-Men Legends #1 and #2 gave me what I needed. It finally reveals and confirms Adam’s true origin. It gave me the Shi’ar whom I have always loved, it gave me the Starjammers (who could have easily been the X-Men’s Guardians of the Galaxy for the FOX movies). It gave me a wonderful, amazing story. Gave me great art and inks. Gave me everything I needed wrapped up nicely. This was an incredible story – perhaps, I am the sole person, aside from Fabian who has waited the longest for this day to finally come. I want to thank Fabian, Brett and Adelso who were always so supportive of my Twitter account focused on Adam. (Remember when I started this talking about being obsessed? Listen, I wasn’t kidding!) I’d made movies, shared images – all of which they kindly shared, retweeted, liked, and gave more exposure to my account – but also Adam-X.
My heart is very happy.
You might say… X-Tremely happy.
When asked if Fabian read or what he thought of Vulcan, Fabian was very clear –
“As for anything in regards to Vulcan – Never read it. Don’t think I ever will. That tells you all you need to know about how I feel about that. Sometimes, the lack of respect that can be shown by subsequent editorial and creative decision-makers resonates with some things more than others.” – Fabian
Looks like Fabian just drew blood and whispered “Burn.”
The Unspoken Decade: 90's Comic Book Blog Extraordinaire 