Throughout the history of the Green Lantern series Hal Jordan and Sinestro have been the polar opposites of good and evil. Hal Jordan, the American flyboy with a dark past and a redeeming future, versus Sinestro, the lawful dictator of Korugar and the master of Fear.
Once known to be Hal Jordan's trainer, Sinestro turned his back on the Green Lantern Corps. after his methods were put into question by his very own pupil, and soon-to-be rival. Still, who is the better Lantern? Sinestro with his mastery of Fear and immense tactical knowledge, or Hal Jordan and his sheer indomitable Will?
10 Sinestro: Knows More About The Power Rings Than Anyone Else
During the New 52 in his second stint as a Green Lantern, Sinestro used his willpower to easily and strategically fix and save a collapsing bridge. This was something that amazed Hal as his reckless style would very well have been unable to do so as efficiently. Sinestro's ring mastery is easily greater than any other Lantern in existence. Sinestro is even capable of duplicating a ring as well as creating a duplicate construct of himself that was so convincing during the Emerald Twilight Arc, that Hal thought he killed Sinestro.
9 Hal Jordan: Hal's Willpower Is Limitless
During the Wrath of The First Lantern Arc, Volthoom, the First Lantern, spoke with Hal and told him that his heart contained more willpower than the Central Power Battery that powered the whole Green Lantern Corps. In fact, in a conversation with Soranik Natu, Hal demonstrated his immense willpower, changing his arm into a construct.
However, his power was best shown in the War Of The Lanterns Arc, when Hal used his willpower to overwhelm and destroy Krona in a last moment of desperation. This was most impressive as Krona had controlled all of the incarnations of the emotional spectrum and is a Malthusian.
8 Sinestro: He Created His Own Corps. And Ruled With An Iron Fist
Sinestro not only reverse engineered the lantern power ring to create his own, he also managed to gather a sizable force in his Sinestro Corps. to rival the Green Lantern Corps. In the Sinestro Corps. War Arc, he even gathered a pantheon of the greatest enemies of the Green Lanterns including Cyborg-Superman and the Anti-Monitor as well as a living city Yellow Lantern called Ranx. When Sinestro lost the war, Mongul took over his corps and attempted to rule it. Unfortunately for him, Sinestro had Mongul's rings tear through Mongul and send a message to his corps.
7 Hal Jordan: Can Overcome Great Fear
While this is generally a prerequisite for the Green Lantern Corps. it is especially significant when it comes to Hal Jordan. However, the greatest thing he did was to overcome his fear and defeat Parallax in the end by saving the world.
Later on, he would use his ability to overcome great fear to help others that would be possessed by Parallax. When Kyle Rayner is possessed in the Sinestro Corps. War Arc, it is Hal who enters the host and helps Kyle burst free, helping turn the tide of the battle.
6 Sinestro: Completely Controlled Parallax
Parallax is best known as the incarnation of Fear itself. As a powerful parasitic entity, it can dominate its host and make them murder without mercy. When it possessed Hal, he killed the whole corps. When it possessed Kyle, he murdered others as well. These are lanterns with great courage and a decorated history of heroism that were easily turned into homicidal maniacs. However Sinestro is not only able to be the host of Parallax but control it. In his battle against Volthoom during the Wrath Of The First Lantern Arc, Sinestro masters the entity seamlessly, something that has never happened to a host before.
5 Hal Jordan: He Outflew Fully Charged Omega Beams
Few things are more devastating in the DC Universe than Darkseid's Omega Beams. If pure death could track an enemy with pinpoint precision, it would only be a shadow of what the Omega Beams are capable of. Quick, deadly, and accurate they are Darkseid's ultimate weapon.
In Hal Jordan And The Green Lantern Corps. #28 the New God Highfather is chased by fully charged Omega Beams and is being carried by the fastest New God: Lightray. Despite his efforts, Lightray is about to get hit only for Hal to appear in a fighter jet construct. Here Highfather is convinced that he is safest with Hal and teleports onto his jet, zooming away from the Omega Beams with Hal at the controls.
4 Sinestro: He Turned Hal Into Parallax
Sinestro planned many things in his descent to lawful evil, but most of all he focused his energy at ruining Hal Jordan's life to decimate the Green Lantern Corps. from the inside out. Hal was the shining knight of the Green Lantern Corps and when Sinestro managed to drain the energy in the Central Power Battery on Oa, Hal had to enter it himself to recharge it. Upon winning the battle after this act, the Guardians of the Universe banished Sinestro's spirit into the battery. Unfortunately, they did not realize that Sinestro guided the yellow impurity of Parallax into all the Green Lanterns... especially Hal. Suddenly anxious and capable of fear, the events of Emerald Twilight ended in Sinestro's broken neck which turned Hal into the infamous Parallax. A tactical masterstroke by Sinestro.
3 Hal Jordan: Hal Forged His Own Ring Using His Own Willpower
Hal Jordan's abilities as a Green Lantern have grown to be nearly limitless. He has used his powers to destroy a Guardian of the Universe, flown faster than a new god, and even come back from the dead using his great will. However, unlike anyone in the DC Universe, Hal was able to forge his own ring using his own willpower.
When he went to the Green Lantern 'heaven' known as Emerald Space, his ring followed him and actively found him... something no ring has ever done before. This amount of power that stretches beyond the limits of life and death make Hal nearly omniscient as a Green Lantern, and definitely a force to be reckoned with.
2 Sinestro: Pushed His Ring So Hard He Broke It... Twice
While Hal has made his own ring, he never had the ability to push it to the limit and break. The supposedly unbreakable Rings of Power have been the sole surviving thing for all Green Lanterns as they fly off and seek a new user upon the deaths of their old ones. However, Sinestro has managed to push his rings to do amazing and terrifying things, and in his second stint as a Green Lantern he had explained to Hal that he had untapped the deepest secrets of the ring causing them to overload and explode, amazing the daredevil pilot himself.
1 Hal Jordan: Killed Sinestro... And So Did A Few Others
Sinestro has been killed more often than most major villains in the DC Universe, and while he has managed to come back, it has happened more often than it should have. In Emerald Twilight, the Guardians of the Universe released Sinestro to protect them only for him to have his neck broken by Hal. Prior to that, Sinestro was also executed by a group of Green Lanterns as a sentence passed by the entire corps. While the Sinestro Hal killed was a very lifelike construct, the Sinestro that was mass executed by the whole corps. was not.