Issue 19- My Hero: Kyle Rayner

There has been many incarnations of Green lantern over the years. And I do mean many, From the first with Alan Scott to John Stewart and to even Guy Gardener we’ve seen many take up the mantle. That doesn’t even mention there's an entire Corp of GL’s that protect every sector of the universe.

But there’s one Green Lantern above all the others that I’m particular to. Someone who I feel should properly be named the greatest of them all. No, not Hal Jordan, who is honestly way over hyped, but Kyle Rayner. My favorite Lantern.

Except for Ch’p because that little guy’s freaking adorable! Too bad they ran him over with a truck.

But yes, here’s to my hero, Kyle Rayner!

(I was not going to post Ch’p being run over by a truck for my first pic! That becomes the icon, are you crazy?)

Ringing in a New GL

Kyle appeared after a series of events started by Superman dying. No, seriously. After Supes was killed as a media stunt in the 90’s, he came back just in time for Hal Jordan’s hometown to be vaporized by the bad guys. This in turn drove Hal a lil’ nutty.

Written by Ron Marz and drawn by Darryl Banks, Hal went up against the entire GL Corps and pretty much murdered them all, taking their rings and the power to become Paralax. This was later retconned because Geoff Johns preferred Hal but whatever. Hal was, and I’ll repeat this, a boring character before hand.

(He was more interesting as a fallen villain! Look at those crazy eyes!)

So with Jordan out of the way, Kyle Rayner would slip in, sweeping away most of the original cast for a fresh new face. Marz describes creating Kyle in the mindset of the every-man character, along the lines of Spider-Man. He wasn’t some fearless pilot, he was just a normal guy gifted with an incredibly powerful weapon, and you know what? He quickly embraced everything that it meant to be a true hero.

Passing of the Lantern

So who is Kyle Rayner? Well, he was just your everyday artist. Doing odd jobs in toy design and comics here and there before he was given the last ring by the last of the Guardians, Ganthet. The only one of the creators of the Green lantern Corps who actually had any personality.

Rayner took to being a hero rather well. Staying mostly in New York, he used his abilities in many new and imaginative ways as opposed to the classic punching glove that Jordan was known for. From anime inspired designs to mecha robots, the new Lantern gave a bit of flair and fun to the series.

With most of the past Lanterns retired or dead, it gave way to a new cast of characters to build throughout the series and even included a story i mentioned in a previous Comic Corner issue about gay teens with Terry Berg.

That doesn’t even mention the fact that when Hal gained all that power, he became a megalomaniacal cosmic villain. And then Rayner gained a similar set of power which caused him to become a being known as Ion. He ended up saving not only the world, but put Superman out of work.

(Supes is just jealous that he’s not getting the attention! Be careful there, you might go back to your silver age ways there Clark!)

And as Ion, Kyle has near unlimited powers, being on Earth and halfway across the galaxy saving it. So with all those abilities, what does he do? He gives them up to restart the GL Corp in earnest. That right there is a real hero, giving up all that power to save the Lanterns.

Origin of the Fridge

With as much as I like the character, I do unfortunately have to point out the fact that this is also the origin story for Gail Simone’s woman in the refrigerator trope.

Alex DeWitt was Rayner’s girlfriend at the time. A strong, positive photojournalist, Alex actively encouraged Kyle to use his powers for good. Until she was brutally murdered and stuffed in the fridge as the trope’s name implies.

(Yeah no cute comment here. This was just sad.)

But one should always point out a comic’s missteps if they want to encourage writers to get better and not make the same mistakes in the future.

However, here’s where we part ways again True Believer! Next time we’ll be looking at another Wait, What as we explore the world's first, and maybe only, truck driving superhero comic, US 1! Excelsior!