Carol Ferris
39 years ago - Carol Ferris is born the daughter of Carl Ferris, the founder of Ferris Aircraft, a major American aeronautics company.
33 years ago - 6-year-old Carol witnesses the death of Hal Jordan's father.
26 years ago - 13-year-old Carol meets Hal Jordan again when he returns to Ferris Air for his flight training.
22 years ago - 17-year-old Carol gets her pilot's licence.
21 years ago - 18-year-old Carol goes to college.
19 years ago - 20-year-old Carol begins working at Ferris Air, building her own branch dedicated to advanced aeronautics systems testing. Hal Jordan also becomes a new test pilot. She attempts to remain professional but they soon find themselves in a doomed on-again-off-again relationship.
18 years ago - 21-year-old Carol is on-site when Hal Jordan has his accident. She has to deal with the repercussions of having a pilot dissapear while he is having his first mission out in space.
17 years ago - 22-year-old Carol's department takes over all aeronautic testing at Ferris Air, making her Hal Jordan's direct boss.
15 years ago - 24-year-old Carol is bonded to the Star Sapphire symbiote, a crystalline entity that feeds on Oan energy by exploiting emotions that overpower willpower, seeking hosts that have emotional connections with Green Lanterns. The entity had been stored on Abin Sur's craft after affecting his wife. Her seperate identity & memories vanish when Hal Jordan manages to remove the symbiote and take it to Oa.
11 years ago - 28-year-old Carol takes over as the CEO of Ferris Air when her father retires.
9 years ago - 30-year-old Carol & Hal Jordan finally end their relationship. The Star Sapphire crystal breaks free from Oa and forcefully bonds with her, overwhelming her so severely that when the connection is severed, the neurological damage leaves her in a wheelchair.
7 years ago - 32-year-old Carol is unable to protect herself from a weakened symbiote who takes her over again to attack Hal Jordan & Arisia Raab. Having the symbiote removed leaves her in a coma.
5 years ago - 34-year-old Carol is awakened by the energy the symbiote is drawing from Hal Jordan's attack on Oa, and they try to stop him. Hal's attack finally destroys the symbiote, although it manages to spawn an offspring. Carol begins her recovery.
4 years ago - 35-year-old Carol begins work on the new facilites for Ferris Air. She hires John Stewart to head up the design team, who proves a loyal friend while she undergoes her long healing process.
3 years ago - 36-year-old Carol is able to walk using crutches.
1 year ago - 38-year-old Carol's relationship with John Stewart is complicated when his power ring is repowered & he becomes the new Green Lantern of Earth.
now - 39-year-old Carol chooses to go with John Stewart to explore Oa and larger galaxy.
If you read the modern Green Lantern comics Carol is currently a member of one of the many Lantern Corps. Our argument has long been that we'd rather not just make everyone in the Green Lantern mythology a ring-wearing member of one Lantern Corp or another because it robs the Green Lantern Corp and Green Lantern himself of their uniqueness, but it also steals from the other characters as well. They all have their own history which should be at the forefront of their characterization, not a clever bit of backstory.
In Carol's case, This means focusing on what made her unique among the love interests of classic Silver Age Superheroes. She's undergone some very specific events in her time both as Hal's girlfriend and as his enemy, and if we dig into it a little bit it gives us a pretty unique insight into just how comics treat their female supporting characters.
In Carol's case, This means focusing on what made her unique among the love interests of classic Silver Age Superheroes. She's undergone some very specific events in her time both as Hal's girlfriend and as his enemy, and if we dig into it a little bit it gives us a pretty unique insight into just how comics treat their female supporting characters.
Carol Ferris's Comic HistoryCarol debuted in 1959 in Showcase #22, the same issue where Hal Jordan first appeared. Superheros of a certain era all came with a ready-built (brunette) love interest, that was just how comic books worked back them.
Carol and Hal's relationship was actually a little bit more dynamic than a lot of the Silver Age comic heroes. Women had pretty poor representation in comics in the fifties; characters like Lois Lane might have been spunky individualists but the stories they occupied made it clear that they really needed to just learn their place, stop being so difficult, and marry the hero. For whatever reason Carol actually seemed to be a bit of an exception. Her attempts to have a professional relationship weren't necessarily painted as unreasonable. They story wanted us to root for Hal to win over this girl, but it didn't really cast her as being difficult for resisting. |
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The Tragedy of Star SapphireCarol's first appearance as Star Sapphire happened in 1962, in Green Lantern #16. While it might seem like a pretty big deal for one of these ready-built brunette love interests to have a turn as the hero's enemy, this was right in the middle of an era in comics remembered for being completely insane. Superman #159, entitled 'Lois Lane, Supermaid of Earth' came out only a few months later. It wasn't really that odd to give Carol powers, but the brainwashing is perhaps what really makes this stand out. It creates a cycle where Carol is regularly stripped of her agency. This is noteworthy because it gives us a window into the way these characters were often treated back then. It's not a good look.
These comics were written for kids, obviously. The relationships these heroes had with their girlfriends were basically meant to provide a framework for the idea American family, and somehow it was considered just fine for the heroes to be continually gaslighting their love interests. The whole concept of a secret identity is a play on a fairly basic child's power fantasy, but in practice you wound up with a LOT of female characters being treated pretty horribly. Very often female villains, like Poison Ivy or Faora, were motivated entirely by their hatred of men, and given the way these stories treat women it's actually hard to blame them. |
Our Carol StoryAs the main love interest of Hal Jordan, a character who eventually turns evil and then dies, we had a little wiggle-room in what we do with Carol moving forward. We're not using the Star Sapphire Lantern Corp so obviously her story won't swing in that direction.
What we found ourselves focusing on was just how damaging being Star Sapphire was, and how comics so rarely allow characters (women in particular) any opportunity to really heal from their trauma. The rare gift we found here was time. After she's finally freed from the Star Sapphire symbiote, Carol can focus on getting better. She spend some time in a wheelchair in the comic, and we thought that showing that, even showing her healing to the point where she can walk with crutches, will give us a way to depict her returning to herself and overcoming her trauma. This is something we really don't get enough of in these stories. It's a shame, because if you care about the characters, then seeing them recover both their physical and mental health matters as well. |
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Carol's Star Sapphire CostumeWhile Carol's role in the story is as a supporting character to Hal, her Star Sapphire identity also happens to be a major villain in the world of Green Lantern. This lead to our decision to create a new Star Sapphire once Carol is freed from the symbiote. It becomes necessary then to try to differentiate between the two, which is a little tricky as almost any time you see Star Sapphire in the comic it's either Carol, or it's a blue-skinned alien.
The solution, we decided, was to make sure that Carol's time as Star Sapphire is entirely in her classic costume. Any later depictions of the character that either give her a more armored look or deliberately expose WAY too much skin are her successor. We'll try to figure out what to do with THAT mess when we get to her. For now, we just prefer to imagine that whenever Carol was brainwashed, this was the costume she wore. |
Carol's FutureWhile our story creates space for Carol to heal from her physical and psychological trauma, it also does one more thing; it creates a new relationship with John Stewart. I don't actually think she needs to have a new romance in her life in order for her to undergo healing, but I do happen to think that she deserves a support system. She's spent so much of her life with Hal, and our version of Hal really is ultimately a selfish person. You get the sense that she could use a friend, and there is something about that friend being John that just seems to work; especially during a period when he no longer has his power ring.
Of course, this is going to get pretty complicated when he becomes Green Lantern again. Her previous relationship with Hal obviously wasn't helped by him being a superhero. Then again, John is a very different person that Hal. He'd be more capable of being there for her than Hal was, because he's not a narcissist. Ultimately, when John returns to Oa it can actually give her a chance to finally go out and see this strange planet that has been a part of her life for so long. Whatever is next for her, it needs to be something far bigger than she's seen before. |
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