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Imagine if your hometown, family, and friends disappeared in a crater of destruction. This happened to Hal Jordan, known for having the mightiest will of all the Green Lanterns in the corps. However, his will was broken when he lost everything. Worst of all, he took his grief and faced it in the wrong direction. In an effort to relive all that he had lost, he had to take drastic measures. At the end of this story arc, titled Emerald Twilight, Hal Jordan became Parallax after destroying the Central Battery on Oa. Quite the turn of events, am I right?
Issue 48 of Green Lantern (series 3) shows how Hal Jordan had his life destroyed, both literally and metaphorically. He is knelt down in a crater that used to be his home. Using his ring, he is able to temporarily restore the town mentally, including his father and old girlfriend. When the ring runs out of power, one of the guardians appears as a virtual image to tell Jordan that he is had broken the rules by using the ring for selfish purposes. Rather than give in, Jordan somehow takes the power from the guardian’s projection and uses it to travel to Oa so that he could get more power.
Knowing that he is coming, other Green Lanterns try to stand in his way. The first are Ke’Haan and Laira. Hal Jordan manages to beat them and takes their power rings. He continues to defeat Tomar-Tu, Jack T Chance, and even Kilowog. Once he arrives at Oa, he announces that he is there for the Central Battery. To his surprise, the villain Sinestro emerges from the Central Battery. Apparently, he had been imprisoned within the device.
Things get even more interesting in issue 50. This when we see Hal Jordan vs Sinestro, his longtime enemy and equal match. Sinestro even suggests that Jordan discards the extra power rings that he stole from the other Green Lanterns in order to make their encounter a fair fight. Astonishingly, Jordan agrees. Long story short, Sinestro gets his neck broken. Since the guardians were counting on Sinestro to deal with the issue, they are visibly disappointed. Just for good measure, Jordan crosses the line by zap-frying Kilowog, killing him in a blaze of green that only left a pile of bones behind.
Hal Jordan enters the Central Battery. After it explodes, he leaves as the character known as Parallax. He also smashes his ring and leaves. A guardian repairs the ring and delivers it to Kyle Rayner, a less than adequate substitute, but he gets the ring nonetheless and continues the Green Lantern series as our new hero. If you don’t remember Kyle Rayner, his girlfriend Alex was stuffed inside a refrigerator.
Although Hal Jordan becomes Parallax in Green Lantern issue 50, I would recommend that you get (Affiliate Link) issue 49 instead. Here we see him fight all of his colleagues and steal their power rings, which is pretty awesome.