It’s safe to say that Hal Jordan, at least in the world of HBO’s Lanterns, isn’t especially well-liked. In Rushville, Nebraska, at least, he’s virulently hated, which explains why his funeral in Episode 6 was so sparsely attended. But there was one intriguing attendee: Carol Ferris, his on-again-off-again love interest, played here by Amie MacKenzie. For comics fans, the name means a lot, since Carol isn’t just Hal’s old flame – she’s potentially one of his greatest adversaries.
As of now, there’s no way of knowing whether Lanterns would have Carol follow the same path as her comics counterpart; her inclusion was likely just a deep cut for fans. However, there’s always a chance, so here’s a brief primer on the character just in case.
Carol Is Hal Jordan’s Lois Lane (Sort Of)
Initial versions of the Hal/Carol relationship were roughly equivalent to Superman’s/Clark Kent’s relationship with Lois Lane. They were colleagues at Ferris Aircraft, Hal’s employer when he was a pilot, and when Carl Ferris, Carol’s father, stepped down, Carol became his boss. Hal kept his identity as the Green Lantern a secret, and workplace policies kept them largely platonic, but there was an obvious connection between the two.
Different comic runs have messed around with the details, like Carol herself being an ace pilot, but the broad strokes have remained relatively consistent – a long-time friendship, obvious romantic chemistry, various personal and professional roadblocks in the way to prevent the relationship from being a goer.
Star Sapphire
Famously, Carol became one of Hal’s greatest adversaries when she was forced into becoming Star Sapphire (she’s also currently a superhero and a member of Justice League Unlimited). This requires a bit of a lore dump. The Guardians of the Universe, who are in charge of the Green Lantern Corps and are responsible for the creation of the Manhunters, had an all-female counterpart race called the Zamarons who hated the Guardians.
Out of sheer pettiness, the Zamarons, recognising Carol’s love for Hal, decided to use that against the Guardians by kidnapping and brainwashing her, infusing her with the power of a gem called the Star Sapphire – think the usual Green Lantern stuff, only purple – and turning her against Hal. This kick-started a cycle that persisted for ages. She would be a villain, Hal would defeat her, and then in one convoluted way or another, she’d lose her memories of all the evil stuff so that she and Hal could start dating again.
The Escalation
The worst – read: most evil – version of Star Sapphire has a connection to John Stewart, which would make it the most likely angle for the HBO show to take if it decided to pursue it. Here, she was possessed by an alien called the Predator – no, not that one – and fully taken over, leading to the death of Katma Tui, the ex-Green Lantern wife of John Stewart.
Hal refused to let John take revenge on Carol for the murder of his wife, causing a major rift between them. Given that a rift between the two characters has been a major part of the show, you’d think this would be an avenue HBO would be interested in exploring, but then again the whole thing might be complicated by the fact that Hal is now dead. Still, worth thinking about.
The Inevitable Face Turn
In more recent times, beginning with Geoff Johns’s 2000s-era run, Star Sapphire was reimagined as a hero, with the Zamarons having their own love-themed peacekeeping force working pretty much the same way as the Lanterns. She’s still a hero now.
However, a moral pivot didn’t make things any easier for Hal and Carol romantically. As both a villain and a hero, Carol was never able to consistently move on, despite multiple attempts, sometimes with recognisable characters. Carol has never been able to get over Hal for long enough to move on with anyone else.
This seems to have been mimicked to some extent in Lanterns. Stewart is vaguely familiar with Carol as Hal’s ex, so they have clearly dated. However, there’s no indication that she has had powers of any kind, whether hero or villain, or at the very least John doesn’t know about it if she was. He seems to consider her a very normal ex-partner, and on balance, that’s probably the direction that Lanterns will choose to take to keep the show more grounded. However, if Star Sapphire does turn up in the DCU, at least now we’ll see it coming.
RELATED:
