#if it helps picture the speaker as old Guy Gardner telling stories at his bar

[incorrect-green-lantern-quotes]

Kid heroes are so common these days that it seems like you can't take more than a few steps without tripping over one. Feels like every other week some teenager is finding alien technology in a junkyard or inheriting supernatural weapons from their great-granddad, then immediately going out to fight bad guys. It usually turns out for the best 'cause us capes look out for each other.

But it wasn't always this way. There was a time when putting on a mask to save the day was an adult's game. The rules were different then. You stuck to your own territory, kept your identity a secret from even your loved ones, and you never involved kids.

'Course that all changed over time. Sometimes one of your rogues would decide to try their luck in another town, and you'd follow 'cuz they were your responsibility. And if the city they hit next had a local hero, the smart thing to do was to work with the guy who's familiar with the territory. That's how the first superhero team-ups happened, or so I've been told.

I don't remember who the first sidekick was. Some say it was Robin, others will tell ya it was Speedy. Doesn't really matter, that first batch of them all sprang up around the same time. It was probably bound to happen, s'not like metahuman genes or lab accidents wait until you're eighteen to spring powers on ya.

Still, we weren't about to let the rugrats run wild on their own. Especially if they had powers that were new to them. So fellas like the Flash and Aquaman who had kids with the same powers as them began to train them. I think it was supposed to be like an apprentice thing, but most of the time the heroes acted like they were parents, not just teachers. And back in those days, you didn't tell someone else how to raise their kid.

Unless you were crazy ol' Hal Jordan.

Now, being a Green Lantern, Hal was already different from most heroes. His apartment might've been in Coast City, but he was the lawman for the entirety of Sector 2814. All of Earth was just a part of his beat. So where other heroes might hesitate to take charge on someone else's territory, Hal would always barge right in. That's just the kind of guy he was.

And once he became friends with other heroes like Green Arrow or the Flash, Hal was the cool uncle to the kids. Probably because he always treated them like they were heroes in their own right, not just tagalongs of their mentors. Like this one time, Kid Flash got his speed stolen somehow, so Hal just gave him a power ring and made him a deputy GL for the day!

Those kids, they grew up of course. Went from being the sidekicks to having sidekicks of their own, some of 'em. I reckon that they would've done things differently anyway, having been on the other side themselves once upon a time. But I also know that a lot of the heroes from the Titans generation appreciated the independence and trust that Hal showed them despite not being their mentor, and they followed in his footsteps.