The DC Universe is full of outrageous and brutally violent villains. The Joker would be our #1 pick. Joker and his perverse personality are well known. What if I told you that there is still another villain in existence that can match the Joker in his bizarre behavior, occasionally even going beyond bizarre and crazy?
Hector Hammond fits the bill; he is so preoccupied with Hal Jordan’s Green Lantern that their protagonist and antagonist relationships become muddled. Being a rival is one thing, but Hector was so preoccupied with Hal’s life that at times, it made the Joker seem insignificant in comparison. What led Hector to this stage in his life, then? Let us investigate.
Hector Hammond in the Green Lantern movie
Ryan Reynolds as the Green Lantern in the 2011 film adaptation of the comic book character. The film’s primary antagonist, Hector Hammond, was portrayed by Peter Sarsgaard. Hal Jordan, a test pilot for Ferris Aircraft, serves as the focal point of the narrative. He is designated as the Green Lantern after being picked by Abin Sur’s power ring. Hector Hammond is a mere scientist when he is first introduced in the movie. He is instructed by his father to come to a secret government facility and perform an autopsy on Abin Sur’s body, under the eye of Amanda Waller.
During the autopsy, a piece of Parallax that was in Abin Sur’s corpse enters Hector’s body, resulting in giving him psionic powers. Hector later finds out that he was only chosen for the work because of his father’s influence as a Senator and not because of his abilities. This angers Hector and he attempts to kill his father by sabotaging his helicopter using his new powers. Although Hal manages to save everyone, Hector does manage to kill his father later by burning him alive in a truly gruesome manner. Hammond tries to kill Amanda Waller as well, but Hal arrives in time and saves her.
Hammond manages to capture Carol, Hal’s love interest, but Hal manages to save her from Hector’s clutches too. Soon enough, Parallax arrives on earth and consumes Hector’s entire life force, thus effectively making him a part of Parallax, and Hector Hammond ceases to exist. But Parallax would probably have never come to Earth if it wasn’t a piece of him, which found home inside Hector, and gave him powers and made him insane.
Hector Hammond Origins
Hector Hammond first appeared in Green Lantern (vol. 2) #5, published in 1961. Gil Kane and John Broome created him. The comic issue begins with Green Lantern’s power ring being mysteriously pulled away from his hand, leading him to almost fall out of the sky. But why? So, we need to go back in time a little. Time skip to a party happening in Metropolis, where Hector Hammond is the center of attraction.
Hammond is shown to be a man of great intelligence and wealth. Carol is also present at the party and takes great interest in Hector. He then invites all the guests back to his house to continue the party. Carol rides in Hector’s car and continues to be smitten by the man. When everyone arrives at Hector’s place, nothing seems to be out of the ordinary, contrary to Hector’s statements of his house being revolutionary. Soon enough, once everyone is in the house, the house rises in the air like a hot air balloon, shocking all the guests.
Hector boasts how he was the one capable of doing this, having designed the house using a special metal of his discovery and using rockets to help it float. All the guests are immensely impressed and praise Hector. On the other end of the city, Hal is in conversation with his friend, Kalmaku, about his suspicions of Hector and how he is not who he seems to be. Hal devises a plan where he disguises Kalmaku as a Green Lantern, so he can fly around the city and stay in everyone’s sight, while the real Green Lantern investigates the disappearances of 4 scientists, who he believes have been kidnapped by Hector.
We can see Hector, now alone in his house after the party, looking at a picture of Carol and musing how he likes her and how he knows he’s a much better match for her than Green Lantern. He sees the fake Green Lantern flying around, and thinks that Hal will never find out his secrets, since he looks to be busy showing off. He decides to go visit the 4 scientists that he has under his hold. We then see the 4 scientists, who have been evolved by Hector using dubious methods, trying to make a device.
Soon, the scientists notice Green Lantern with their device and use it to bring him to them, and since the frequency of the fake Green Lantern’s body and the power ring are different, the ring gets pulled off his hand and falls somewhere on the island where the 4 scientists are held, but they manage to bring Kalmaku to the lab safely. They explain to him how the only person who can freely access the lab is Hector and they need Green Lantern’s help to run away, not knowing the person they’re talking to is not the real Green Lantern.
Outside the prison, Hector finds the power ring that had fallen off. Unaware of the personification, he believes he now has the real power ring. Somewhere else, Hal feels the vibrations of the other power ring and the residual energy from the device and decides to investigate. Hector arrives at the lab and discovers the 4 scientists and Green Lantern. He then turns Kalmaku into a monkey and boasts about having acquired the power ring. On the other hand, Hal has been trying to find where the energy he’s feeling is coming from.
He finally finds the location of the place where Hector and the others are. While Hector is boasting to Kalmaku and the scientists, he notices Kalmaku’s attention being diverted towards something outside. This is the very moment Hal decides to make his entrance and Hector is appalled, because he can’t figure where the two Green Lanterns came from. Nevertheless, he thinks he has an upper hand since he has the power ring.
The two engage in a confrontation, which the Green Lantern naturally dominates. Hector flies out of the lab and makes his way to the city, destroying a dam on his way to hinder Hal. He sets up a trap of machine guns to kill Green Lantern, but before he can fulfil his mission, his ring runs out of charge, thus allowing Green Lantern to defeat him. He is then sent to prison for his crimes, but surely this was not the end of Hector Hammond.
He does manage to escape prison and exposes himself to the same meteor radiation that he had used on the 4 scientists, which grows his brain to an enormous size and gives him psionic powers and immortality. But all of this comes at the cost of his sanity. His body can no longer move, as well as he loses the power to speak.
In the alternate Post-Crisis continuity following Infinite Crisis, Hector enters the story claiming to be Carol’s boyfriend, although they had only just gone on a business dinner and nothing more. While inspecting Abin Sur’s crashed aircraft, Hammond was exposed to the meteorite fragments in the reactor, which led his head to grow and he got telekinetic powers, and was able to figure out Green Lantern’s true identity. He was powerful enough to be able to stop Hal from using his ring and had to be stopped by Sinestro, who encased his head in an energy bubble, cutting off his air supply.
What makes Hector Hammond such a unique antagonist?
Hector’s powers come from being exposed to the radiation of the meteor that crashed on Earth. This gave him enhanced intellect and powerful psychic abilities. He was incredibly skilled at telekinesis. He could use telepathy and read the minds of others, animals included, even individuals who were stronger than him. He was able to project powerful mental blasts at his enemies and knock them unconscious. He was an exceptional clairvoyant and illusionist, creating hyper-realistic illusions and manipulating reality.
Positive thoughts are something Hammond craves and thrives on. He is so desperate for them that he attempts to tear them from other people’s minds and claim them for his own. On Christmas Eve, he sought to take all of Hal Jordan’s childhood holiday memories.
Hector Hammond may seem harmless at first, but is far from it. He craves chaos and his obsession with living Hal’s life is unprecedented. His insanity hardly knows any bounds, going to unthinkable lengths to achieve his ambitions of becoming a god. Even bound to a wheelchair and unable to speak, he creeps the bejeezus out of everyone.