Hal Pictures Green Lantern Butt's FOREVER!: Does Tora Trust Hal?

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Saturday, September 20, 2008

Does Tora Trust Hal?

Good Grief, this title sounds like those idiotic ones over at the DC Message Boards, where the various posters are trying to start a fight. Nevertheless, I stand by the question. I'm not trying to start a fight, I'm trying to figure out how Tora managed to get to Oa.

First off, I DON'T think that she trusts Hal. Tora is just back from the dead, and to the best of her knowledge, she died just as Hal turned into Parallax...so regardless of how he is NOW, she has no reason to trust or even like him. She'd been a witness to his brutal fight with Guy, when he took away Guy's Green Lantern Ring. She'd been a witness to Hal's increasingly odd behavior. The last time that she ever saw Guy, before her own death, was when he and a few of the other members of the League, went scooting off to Oa for a showdown. That's when Hal managed to spank everybody, and sent Guy back home minus an eye and in another coma. Not to mention his murder of Kilowog, of whom she was quite fond.

So here's Tora, come back to life, and in the meantime things have changed considerably. Hal's a good guy again of course, but she would have to be TOLD that, by Bea, or by some of the others. She's also learned of the deaths of practically the entire old Justice League, including Ted, Dmitri, Scott and Barda, Max, Maxima,and Booster. Well...Booster wasn't actually dead, but she didn't know that as her delighted response to him in Blue Beetle #25 demonstrates.

So, Tora has had to digest a LOT of information rather quickly, and it must be difficult to throw our your past perceptions in the face of new facts...especially when you weren't even there to experience the new status quo. So how DID she manage to get to Oa to visit Guy? She claims to have hitched a ride with one Symon Terrynce, who hails from Sector 2515. He's a blossoming telepath apparently, according to the Secret Files. Although he's not right next door to Sector 2814, he's in the general vicinity. Still...Tora wouldn't have any way of knowing that.

I think that she went to John Stewart. She knows him vaguely, enough to know that he's a Green Lantern, although I don't think that their paths crossed very frequently before. She was dead, and he was on the Mosaic. She could have gone to the Justice League headquarters and asked Hal of course, but in light of their past relationship, I don't think that would have happened. I'm pretty sure that she did ask Bea for some assistance, and Bea could have pointed her in the right direction, and I'm also sure that Diana would have helped out too. I can see both Bea and Diana telling her to ask Hal for help, and I can also see where she'd be reluctant to take that help.

I can also see Hal being too self-centered to understand her reluctance. John has a bit more on the ball. I wonder if any of this is going to be addressed, or if I'm just blowing smoke, and all of this is after all, merely conjecture. Since Symon Terrynce is a budding telepath/telekinetic, I suppose that it is just possible, that he read her mind, showed up and provided taxi service for her, to Oa. However, I think that is stretching things pretty thin.

Or, it could all be a plot by the Star Sapphires, I suppose. I know that they show up in the next issue, which has me both intrigued and terrified. Tora just got back from a very prolongued dirt nap, and I really don't want anything to happen to her. ( I still think that she and Bea would be great in Birds of Prey).

So Hal has a problem. He still is in the process of regaining the trust of the Guardians and his fellow Green Lanterns, not to mention his colleagues on Earth. Now he has to regain the trust of former dead Godessess as well. Thats a tall order, even for Hal.


At 6:16 PM, Blogger Sea-of-Green said...

I'm holding out for the Star Sapphire explanation. It makes the most sense, especially in the context of Tora ALL OF A SUDDEN wanting to see Guy much earlier than planned -- a rather abrupt 180 from her earlier hesitant behavior.

Of course, if she HAS been tapped by the Star Sapphires, that suck for both her AND Guy. But it does make the most sense.

At 11:36 PM, Blogger Duskdog said...

Here's hoping Tora just missed Guy that much! (Logically, she might -- she's never lived alone before really, and suddenly she's totally alone. No Bea, no Guy, no team, no nothing.)

I've wondered if Tora might not have a low opinion of Hal based on what she saw of their fight and of course knowing Guy's side of things in general (even knowing how hard Guy was to get along with back then), but I never considered how the timing of her death might play into it. You might be right. Remember too that Tora was actually afraid that Guy was dead for a moment after his fight with Hal, so that should tell us something about how savage the fight seemed to her (even if it wasn't actually as bad as she thought it was).

That, and I just plain prefer the idea of her going to John to ask for a ride. I've been giving it some thought ever since you brought it up the other day, and I think John and Tora would get along famously.

At 8:46 AM, Blogger SallyP said...

I'm a little nervous about her being tapped by the Star Sapphires, because that would make Guy sad...and that's never a good thing. Give the poor guy a break for a change!

But yeah, I think that Hal would be pretty far down on her list of people that she'd want to hang out with. On the other hand, I can see her liking John. I can see John liking Tora, because quite frankly how can ANYONE not like Tora?

I also want to see her say hi to Kilowog. THey always seemed to get along nicely. She's also not going to have much of a clue as to who Kyle is.

At 1:09 PM, Blogger Duskdog said...

I'm a little bit weirded out by the motivations of the Star Sapphires, anyway. How exactly is this process supposed to go?

1. Take over Tora
2. Have her marry Guy
3. ...Profit?

Seriously, what do they want? What do they hope to gain by having her marry him? Do they want Tora to control him? Make him do the dishes and clean the gutters? Tie him up and spank him? (He'd probably enjoy that too much.)

Carol as Star Sapphire was pretty much batty insane, but I don't think such an over-the-top approach would work for a more easygoing person like Tora. Maybe she's a smarter and sneakier Star Sapphire than Carol was.

At 5:58 AM, Blogger SallyP said...

The whole Star Sapphire concept was a little weird, I always thought. Part of the conflict (and therefore drama) with Carol, was that she was originally a reluctant villainess, she wanted to both dominate and BE dominated. Then she went nutso for a while, and then, who the heck knows WHAT was going on.

I actually think that Tora is a little more secure in her own right than Carol has ever been, so I'm not so sure that she can be taken over by the Star Sapphire quite so easily. She doesn't have the internal conflict. On the other hand, according to Geoff Johns, lately the Sapphire crystal is a lot more powerful than it ever was in the old days, so what the heck do I know.

At 11:41 AM, Blogger notintheface said...

Tora probably watches TV or reads newspapers (or surfs the net). Wouldn't seeing or hearing about Hal saving the day during the Sinestro Corps War go a long way toward relieving her trust issues with Hal? Not to mention countless other Hal good deeds since he got free from the Space Bug?

At 7:03 AM, Blogger SallyP said...

I'm sure that Tora has been told, or read about Hal being a good guy now. But she still doesn't have the experience of having seen his redemption. All she really has to go on, is her memories of him, and they can't be too flattering.

How would you feel about a guy who beat your boyfriend practically to death not once but twice, and then stole his ring not once but twice and put him in a ooma...but not to worry, because he's all nice now?


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