This story takes place just after Hal Jordan became the Spectre. Riddled with guilt over the actions he committed as Parallax, Jordan seeks to redeem himself. Now as God's personal vessel of wrath, the former hero gets that chance. However, Jordan's piled up even more grief as he heaps vengeance over a myriad of souls. To Jordan, it's okay to reap justice over evil doers but since the Spectre-side of him has a bit of a mean streak in him, some of the methods employed are a bit too violent. This puts Hal at unease and he feels like his own humanity may be slipping away with each punishment.
Thus, Jordan seeks out advice from God in the realm of Heaven. But he ends up meeting people from his past who have also transversed to the great beyond. Their words of wisdom seem to do little to ease Jordan's conscious and that's a very bad thing as a powerful psychic on earth named Caul has had a vision that he's not fond of. Thus, Caul is planning on destroying the Spectre before the spirit of God's vengeance gets to him first.
I remember seeing this issue in stores when it first hit shelves and thinking 'So Jordan's the Spectre now..." I was glad that DC hadn't given up on the former Green Lantern. But I didn't buy this issue and so I haven't been very familiar with Hal's time as the Spectre. Finally owning and reading it, this opening chapter helped to fill in some of those gaps and it was great seeing some long past heroes from DC's Silver Age.
But there's very little action in this issue and it moves at a snail's pace. Also, with the new character of Caul added to the mix, Jordan's trip down memory lane takes away from establishing the villain as anything more than a psychic seeking to prevent his own demise. Thus, Caul is a more sympathetic character as who can't relate to self-preservation? Maybe the next issue will give this mystery man a little more meat to make him more interesting and more villainous.
Worth Consuming
Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.
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