Source: community.comicbookresources.com
9. War Over
Hal Jordan isn't exactly the most nuanced character in most stories. But New Frontier is not most stories.
Hal is arguably the main character of the piece, and it shows from his first scenes. A pilot in the Korean War known for his pacifism (he'll draw enemy planes into his allies’ sights, but would never shoot at them himself), Hal suffers a traumatic event when he's forced to shoot a young Korean soldier who doesn't know that the war ended two hours previously.
It's easily one of the best scenes in the book, as you can feel Hal's desperation to end the situation non-violently. And the end of the scene, in which Hal is found lying beside the man he killed repeating "War Over" in Korean,over and over again (the very words he was trying to remember during the struggle), is powerful and heartbreaking.
Hal's natural arc through the book, of overcoming his trauma and becoming a real hero as the Green Lantern, is incredibly well-realized. If someone asked me for the best Hal Jordan story I'd ever read, I'd hand them New Frontier in a heartbeat.
