The H.E.A.T. is on: At The Pulse, Lee Barnett examines the return of Hal Jordan as Green Lantern, and who, exactly, determines the destiny of corporate-owned characters:

"In the appearances in recent years of Green Lantern outside comics, one had Guy Gardner as his alter ego, in an abysmal movie that is only saved from utter helplessness by saying that the recent Thunderbirds movie was worse. And, of course, the Justice League cartoon uses John Stewart as their Green Lantern. So there’s no reason for DC to bring back Hal Jordan ... other than that the ‘fans’ want him back. It’s worth remembering at this moment that the word fan is an abbreviation of ‘fanatic’. A group of fans of 'Hal Jordan as Green Lantern' have maintained a campaign, ever since his replacement made his debut, to get rid of the new guy and get Jordan back in the costume that they love.

"It's also worth remembering that Hal Jordan doesn't actually exist. But that's a huge advantage in one way, since because he's a fictional creation and his adventures have been published for so long, his fans appear to have feelings of ownership in the character that doesn't seem to exist in any other field of entertainment.

"I guess in some way it's an understandable sentiment. After all, some of these fans have been reading the adventures of Jordan as Green Lantern far longer than any individual creator had actually worked on them. Unless you're talking about creator-owned characters, it's likely that with any company owned character, there will be fans that have read the character long before the creator came on board."