I watched that Tiger King documentary recently, and it's full of middle aged people who got married at ages like 14 and 17 and shit. The reason I bring this up is because I think there's a generational gap between how people view the maturity of teenagers. Back in the days when you had to grow up quick because life was harder or your parents were shell shocked WW2 veterans and shit, a high schooler could conceivably be prepared to enter the adult world and get married by 19. That perception carried over into pop culture which is why it's full of teenagers who act like they're in their early 20's. It also shows that writers had a different perception of sexual maturity, they look at a 15 year old girl and think she's good to go since that's when they became sexually active. It's bled into the next generation's perception of sex as well, we still carry that torch that supposes we should've all gotten laid on prom night, and so we covet the image of young love as the penultimate achievement.
My point is, Hal wasn't creepy by the standards of when this comic was written, or at the very least, no one thought it was.
