I found this while looking for pictures to scan for some new profiles on my Flash site. It’s very interesting in light of where Hal Jordan has gone since:
![[The Flash and Green Lantern argue over trying to reverse death]](https://hyperborea.org/journal/wp-content/uploads/2004/08/hal-barry-life-and-death.png)
This is from Flash #276 (1979), right after the Flash’s wife, Iris, has been killed. Barry goes straight to the JLA satellite HQ and asks Superman, Wonder Woman, and Green Lantern to bring her back from the dead. Hal, being sane at the time, refuses. (The others don’t have the ability.)
The thing is, in the past decade or so, Hal Jordan has become DC’s poster boy for the phrase, “Absolute power corrupts absolutely.” He’s tried to recreate a major city and its inhabitants, destroyed a planet, destroyed the universe and attempted to build his own universe to replace it — and that’s just before he died. He’s now tied with the Spectre — a powerful supernatural being — and he’s brought at least one person (Green Arrow) back from the dead, and mindwiped the entire human race to forget the identity of the current Flash. He’s probably done even more questionable stuff in his own series or in JSA.
That’s what I call the “Ka Faraq Gatri” effect. Basically, the Ka Faraq Gatri effect sees characters change thier mind and kill people. I can’t think of a superhero who hasn’t done this at some point in thier lives.
Actually, it wasn’t so much the going nuts and killing people aspect as trying to bring them back. (Recreating Coast City with the ring, creating his own universe, etc.) All those fun things that we tend to lump under the label of “Playing God.”