Aging is something that superhero comics struggle to depict. Because of the ongoing nature of their stories most superheroes are depicted as constantly being roughly the same ages in the worlds of their narratives although in the real world they were introduced decades ago.

Usually, this goes unremarked on but occasionally an in-story reason for a given characters' longevity is given. One of the wildest examples of this was the reasoning used to explain why Hal Jordan, the Green Lantern, had been depicted with greying hair for years before appearing more youthful in comics published a decade later.

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GREEN LANTERN EMERALD TWILIGHT - Explore Hal's Depth

In the early '90s, Hal was usually drawn with patches of grey in the hair on the sides of his head. At the time, this seemed to be of little significance, merely a slight change in the character's design that reflected his age. The character was introduced back in 1959 and while given the nature of how time works in comics, he couldn't age normally, having him start to go gray was a visual acknowledgment of his status as a veteran hero. At the time, newer Green Lanterns including Guy Gardner and John Stewart were increasing in prominence, and Hal began to be portrayed as a senior hero from whom they could learn. He also served as a mentor to other heroes at the time including Wally West, who viewed Hal as something of an uncle given the close relationship he had shared with Wally's predecessor, Barry Allen.

During the famed 1994 Green Lantern storyline "Emerald Twilight" by Ron Marz, Bill Willingham, Fred Haynes, and Darryl Banks, during which Hal decimated the Green Lantern Corps before becoming Parallax, he was drawn with his older greying hair. It wasn't until a decade later, in Green Lantern: Rebirth by Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Sciver that Hal going grey was retconned into being a crucial indication of the early stages of his transformation.

During Rebirth, Kyle Rayner explains to Hal's friend Oliver Queen/Green Arrow that Parallax is not really an identity Hal fashioned for himself but a living entity, the sentient embodiment of fear, which had taken over him. Kyle and the Guardian Ganthet speculated that after it was awakened by Sinestro Parallax sought to use the connection between the Green Lantern Power Rings and the central Power Battery in which it was imprisoned to infect and corrupt a Green Lantern to help it escape. Eventually, it settled on Hal and his sudden premature greying was an early sign that he was being infected by fear. Following the destruction of Coast City, Hal became even more afraid, leading to his rampage and eventually his complete possession by Parallax. As Parallax, Hal continued to appear with the grey streaks until he sacrificed himself during The Final Night, after which he was partially reborn as the Spectre. During his time as the latter entity, Hal's hair was once again pure brown.

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Hal Jordan returns as Green Lantern

But as Kyle and Ganthet explained, the Spectre was only possessing Hal's soul. His body, which they recovered, still looked as it did when he was Parallax. But when his soul and Power Ring returned to his body, Hal was again filled with life and willpower and the grey streaks were replaced by brown hair again. Following Rebirth Hal returned to his status as the lead character of the Green Lantern franchise and was depicted with his more youthful, entirely brown-haired appearance.

Johns' reimagining of Parallax and Hal's '90s look is one of the more elaborate ways comics have reversed the effects of age on a superhero but it definitely paid off given the renaissance the Green Lantern franchise experienced following Rebirth.

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