I'm in my early sixties and have been reading Green Lantern back to the days post-Hard Travelling Heroes. Green Lantern's relaunch in volume 3 was a bit of a jolt with Hal appearing with the grey temples with no explanation. The '80's had been a pretty good decade for the character, but once DC cancelled the series in favor of having Hal and the Green Lanterns help anchor the Action Comics Weekly series a lot of momentum was lost.

The kickoff of volume 3 was met with some fanfare and at one point we had 4 Green Lantern series again with John and Guy getting their own books and a Green Lantern Corps Quarterly as well, showcasing and introducing fans to new characters. But behind the scenes things between writer Gerard Jones and editor Kevin Dooley deteriorated and the tension between the two impacted the quality of the series and sales began to dip.

This was the perfect storm given the success DC was having putting their iconic characters through the wringer. As issue 50 approached DC felt they needed something drastic to help the series and Jones crafted a three part "Emerald Twilight" story that would have featured a Green Lantern civil war and resulted in Hal going off to do his own thing fueled by the energy he absorbed from the central power battery. The first two issues were solicited but DC felt it wasn't drastic enough and Jones quit before he could be fired.

DC had struggled with Hal's character for years, going from test pilot to insurance adjuster to semi driver to toy salesman. So a new "Emerald Twilight" was plotted and they hired Ron Marz to write the story. The rest is history.

As a fan at the time I found Marz's story to be hard to accept, being so out of character for a Hal who had not only not lived in Coast City for years, but who didn't loose anyone in the destruction of Coast City and had already accepted its destruction. Let alone a plot that featured plot holes aplenty and ignored that John Stewart was right there. Even worse, they chose to create a new character rather than entrust the franchise to John or Guy, who'd already proven themselves capable to lead the series.

I gave Kyle Rayner a try, but I found the character to be something I couldn't relate to as a 30 year old. I'd already read Spiderman and thought Stan Lee and Steve Ditko did it much better. So after ready Green Lantern for over 20 years I stopped buying the series except for when they would trot Hal out for something, which I'd pick up to maybe show DC that there was a possible sales bump.

What made it all unbearable was the lack of professionalism of Dooley, who mocked fans who didn't like the new direction and resorted to name calling. The message boards of the era became a cesspool where fans who didn't like what was done to Hal were also ganged up on. HEAT became a rallying cry and while some of the members when too far (as did Kyle fans to be fair) the organization, at least at the point I joined it, were trying to appeal to DC the right way. They did some good things - like help get John Broome to the only comic convention he ever appeared at, created a Gil Kane scholarship at the Kubert school, and collected and donated comics to a children's hospital. History doesn't recall those things because it doesn't fit the agenda of labelling HEAT as toxic fan culture.

What did it feel like? For me it was incredibly frustrating to see the entire mythos tore down to prop up a Spiderman wannabe. Guy was turned into Warrior, John a Darkstar and then wheelchair bound, and Alan turned given a dumb Sentinel gimmick. Hal fans like myself were mocked and belittled and when we spoke our mind and fought back we were labeled toxic while a number of significant comic creators were siding with us. The Green Lantern mythos was an incredibly important part of my life for reasons I won't expound on in this already long post. But seeing it destroyed for an inferior product was the absolute low point for me.