A genuinely good hero gets crushed by responsibility and slowly goes insane

[u/Outrageous_Gene_7652]

Hal Jordan (Green Lantern): Civilian life in shambles, overworked superhero life, spiralling mental health for years and unable to cope with the fact that he was'nt able to save his city because he was on another mission, Hal loses his mind, literally trying to bring back the dead, killing the entire corp and later literally erasing space and time to rewrite the universe

Zero (To Be Hero X): Being the first hero of the world and being worshipped for being so since he was 10, Zero achieved Godhood as a 15 year old but ultimately the pressure got to him and he went mad at 17 and nearly caused the end of humanity.

[u/Phrophetsam]

I always thought Hal's civilian life is just too undercooked that the Comics should have just bypassed it entirely. Hal is a hero entirely unlike any other on the League considering his actual occupation is being a GL.

[u/Outrageous_Gene_7652 → u/Phrophetsam]

Whenever we were shown Hal's civilian life, it was always shown to be a complete disaster due to his work as GL. He used to have a six figure job, a nice gf, a bff, a good relationship with his brother.

Then it slowly all fell apart due to his work to the point he only had his superhero life, the dedication towards which made him very respected in-universe, Superman and Batman both admit they used to think he was the best of them, but left him with nothing to ever fall back on as he slowly mentally degrades over time.

[u/BoredDao → u/Outrageous_Gene_7652]

If there’s any hero I see never coming back to normal life it’s Hal, not because he doesn’t care about it but because he’s so dedicated to the job that I totally see an alternative future comic of Hal just doing a 5-6 decades shift and collapsing after a single day of rest

[u/Outrageous_Gene_7652 → u/BoredDao]

That is why I really don't get when people make fun of him for being unemployed/doing odd jobs or being homeless so often, the dude is away for months and months saving the universe from falling apart how tf is he supposed to maintain a stable life?

[u/NatashOverWorld → u/Outrageous_Gene_7652]

You'd think the gnomes would set him up that a nice house and modest banking account, they'd probably have less Lanterns fall that way.

[u/Outrageous_Gene_7652 → u/NatashOverWorld]

The gnomes literally caused him to crash out and go completely insane.

Instead of comforting him or leaving him alone when he was having a schizophrenic breakdown triggerred by all the accumulated trauma and grief of his entire life combined with the loss of his city, they literally said by grieving, he was breaking his GL oath and will be punished. Reminder, that he was'nt able to save his city because of these gnomes in the first place.

I would lose it too.

[u/NatashOverWorld → u/Outrageous_Gene_7652]

Oh the gnomes are flat out evil despite their lawful claims.

But you'd think they would put a smart Lantern to study stressors to willpower and mental health, and act on I'm. Like a million years ago.

[u/Begone-My-Thong → u/NatashOverWorld]

Well the one that started the Blue Lantern Corp is pretty chill iirc

[u/NatashOverWorld → u/Begone-My-Thong]

Ganthets just there to fix all the fuckups the rest do. He's their token empathic person.