Blackest Night and the Upcoming Flashpoint, along with the Green Lantern Movie and the Flash movie in the works has put these 2 DC characters back into the top tier local of the DCU. Both Hal and Barry are back and fighting for their place as DC Elite. A lot has happened in the last 20 of so years.
There is a big part of me that believes both Barry Allen and Hal Jordan should have stayed dead. Both of their counter parts were much more interesting to me as I was getting into comics. Hal was written pretty 2 dimensional in the late 80's - early 90's until Ron Marz took over the book. The Fall of Hal, turning him to a villain was genius and truly made me, as a DC fan, feel like the sky was falling in an event sort of way! Introducing Kyle and showing how the dismantled Corps and Guardians made me care so much about Green Lantern. I cared so much for Rayner, I have every GL issue since Ron Marz took over. Kyle kept the light burning and was a way for me to jump on board as a GL fan and learn as he learned. Wally West was the same. Carrying the legacy of his uncle, worrying that the other Heroes of the DCU looked at him different. Eventually both of these characters really came into their own and at one point Wally was leading a JLA book. When there was rumblings to bring back Hal, I thought… "WHY"? Kyle is my GL! He has good connections to Guy and to John Stewart. Why make it muddy?
I REALLY felt the same when I heard of bringing Barry back. We have a world of Flash characters and Barry's death was so important to the Flash line. Honestly Barry's death was the most important death to any DC character, including Superman. The whole Universe centered around his heroic sacrifice. Why undo that story? Why cheapen it? Wally was so well written, first by Mark Waid, then for a short time Morrison and Millar, then Geoff Johns. Why add more? Especially when "ONE" flash couldn't hold a book's sales? Wally is a fun character. Really he's everything I like Kyle with the inexperience and predassessor's shoes needing to be filled. Trying to get out of his mentor's shadow, but Wally was different. We saw him come of age, take over leadership. Leave the Teen Titans and join the JLA. He married, had children and was written as a 100 times deeper than Barry. He lead a small battalion of speedsters and really estabilished a connection to the past. (Jay Garrick and to the future (Bart Allen). Forgive the pun, but Wally was the lightining rod that speeders followed in the DCU.
DC, why turn back the clock… well he's my thought as to why.
The Green Lantern Corp is why. I didn't get it at first. I didn't like it. Hal was the Spectre, shouldn't that suffice to Hal fans? I'm glad it didn't. Geoff Johns took what Ron Mars started and kept the rich universe Kyle had and baked it into the Corps' world. That is why it works. DCU needed the cosmic connection. DC is the fantastical world of comic characters. Marvel has always bragged, (rightly so) That its world is steeped in realism. A world that under the "right" situation, these events "could" happen. DC is over the top, grander than life, cosmic crazy… and the absense of the Corp and their world of stories had been missing since Hal's fall. I think a few writers tried the bring the Corps back under Kyle, and it didn't work. That’s not who Kyle was. Hal is the Corp. He was written and created with the Corp in mind. Kyle was the opposite. But now, I feel as a fan of DC we have the best possible Green Lantern situation. Hal is back and is written better than he ever was since Denny O'neal and Neal Adams. Kyle is here and still feels like the newer kid on the block, but has earned the respect of all other gl's as the "Torch Bearer". John Stewart is around, appearing in JLA, and all the GL books. Guy is basically in his own book, still kind of a jerk, but respected. We have a Universe full of colored Lanterns and 2 mini series that focused on Green Lanterns role in the DCU. And I'm told we have a new GL book coming that will focus on one of the Spectrum colors. (Maybe all of them).
As for the Flash "Rebirth". I'm still waiting. DC still hasn't justified to me why we need Barry? (Other than an upcoming movie) Why return the silver aged Scarlet Speedster? Even in the "Flash Rebirth Series" I felt like I wasn't suppose to like Barry. Like he was a force of nature, not a man with flaws and cracks and interesting stories that need to be told. I've lost track of how many times Iris has died, and even though they are playing up the "Man out of time" aspect with the bowtie and not understanding the internet, I just don't find myself loving this book, the way I love Green Lantern.
Geoff John's looks like he's establishing the same format for Flash that he did with Green Lantern. Obviously, return the character in a "rebirth" book. Start a new series around that character, then have a major cross-over centered around them. "Sinestro War" cemented Hal's place in the DCU, will Flashpoint do the same for Barry? Maybe then, my opinion will evolve. I love the art on Flash, and the Rogues are so much fun. But justify his return… and it doesn't help that Grant Morrison wrote Barry's confusing return in "Final Crisis". I'd hate to guess what warped metaphor Grant was hinting at with the return of something fast and red… maybe his wife missed her period.
