Green Lantern Would Not Say That

"We're done for."

Huh?

On page 4 of the new writer's first issue of Green Lantern, the title character utters the sentence "We're done for." I would have had to sit down if I wasn't already seated. I  turned the page of the comic book in disbelief to see if what I had just read was a gag or hallucination. But it wasn't. The point, of course, is that Hal Jordan would NEVER say those words.

I've been spoiled. For years now my favorite current DC comic month in and month out has been Green Lantern as written by Geoff Johns. He added so much substance and texture to the Lantern mythos without damaging anything that had come before. Even his send-off issue last month was spectacular, a wonderful confluence of so many of the concepts that he had introduced (although the number of pages in that issue devoted to testimonials to Mr. Johns was a bit over the top). My expectations for the new writer were admittedly high, but I never expected to read anything like "We're done for" in the very first non-Johns story.

To have a fearless, never-say-die character say something antithetical to his very being just four pages into the new writer's run? Really?


UPDATE
I'll show you the two-part tweet that writer Robert Venditti sent in response to what I've written above, but you'll have to decide for yourself whether the gentleman addresses the concern that I voiced:

1. Robert Venditti ‏@robertvenditti

   @hayfamzone Hal isn't a hero because he doesn't know fear. He's a hero because he perseveres in spite of it.

   
   
2. Robert Venditti ‏@robertvenditti

   @hayfamzone It's what he does after he thinks he's "done for" that counts.