Every now and then Heroes are
consumed by either a malevolent force, or the darkness within themselves. We
see it every time DC creates a parallel world where Superman goes nuts, when
Marvel’s Jean Grey, Cyclops and a few others were consumed by the power of the
Phoenix Force, or when various demonic beings consume a hero’s soul. It happens
more often than you’d think. But we’ll get more into that in a few minutes.
First we’ll talk about Kyle Rayner, the messiah of the Green Lantern Corps. Let’s
get to it.
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| Lantern over the heart, nice touch. |
Kyle Rayner started life as a
gifted but poorly funded graphic artist in LA. He was raised by his single
mother, his father having abandoned them shortly after Kyle was conceived. It
was later revealed his father was CIA Agent, so the whole leaving thing might
not make him a complete jerk. Things in Kyle’s life were hard, but manageable until
that fateful day.
Hal Jordan had suffered many
defeats in his past, but none surpassed the destruction of his home town, Coast
City at the hands of the insane tyrant, Mongul. Thousands died and Hal blamed
himself for every single life that was lost that day. Hal’s grief stricken made
it easy for Parallax, the Fear Entity that had been locked away within the GL Central
Power Battery and that had infected Hal some time before, to seize control.
Driven insane by his grief and Parallax’s influence, Hal went on a killing
spree. His own ring was destroyed, but he collected several more as he killed
his brethren. Apparently the Guardian’s never made a contingency for if a “worthy”
Lantern lost it. Poor planning on their part, not going to lie. Hal made it to
Oa, and massacred the Guardian’s as well, all except Ganthet, who managed to
escape. The last Guardian made it to Earth, gravely wounded. Kyle stumbled
across the dying Ganthet. Hal, now going by Parallax, set up residence on Oa
and started a career as one of the most evil and destructive beings of the
DC-Universe.
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| Kyle holds the record for most GL costume redesigns |
Ganthet, knowing the need for a
Green Lantern, used his energies to reconstruct Hal’s ring and gave it to Kyle.
Early versions had Ganthet scowling, stating “You’ll have to do,” while recent
retcons have him smiling and saying “It would seem I chose well.” It was stated
that Kyle was chosen not because he was fearless, like Hal and previous
Lanterns, but because he could feel his fears and overcome them. Kyle, while
psyched to be chosen to be the last Green Lantern, took his responsibility
lightly. His girlfriend, Alexandra DeWitt, did her best to change that. She encouraged
him to make his own GL costume, so he wouldn’t be mistaken for Hal Jordan. She
helped him train with his power ring and basic hand to hand combat so he’d be
able to face his foes. And she was always encouraging him to be more. Unfortunately,
as Kyle was just gaining confidence in his new role, she was brutally murdered
by the supervillain Major Force and had her remains stuffed into a refrigerator.
This actually started the trope, or at least gave the name to the trope, of a
female character being killed, injured, or depowered in order to further a male
characters story arch. There is a website dedicated to this, Women in Refrigerators
that keeps an extensive list. It’s a little disheartening. Enough digression.
Kyle tracked down Major Force, beat
him within an inch of his life, and spent some time torturing the supervillain
before being stopped by the LAPD’s Special Crimes Unit. (SCU handles all the
supervillain related crimes.) Personally, I’d have found a way to kill the
immortal supervillain. Tall order? Yes, but I find I can be very creative.
Kyle, obviously shaken by his girlfriend’s grim end, vowed to take his role as
the Green Lantern more seriously, and moved to New York as a means of getting a
fresh start. He joined the Justice League, forming close friendships with the
Flash (Wally West), as well as several surviving former GL’s like Alan Scott,
Guy Gardner, and John Stewart (all of which take the title up again). Kyle has
also helped rebuild the Lantern Corps, revived Hal Jordan (he recovered enough
of his own mind to willingly sacrifice himself to reignite the sun) after it
was discovered that Parallax was to blame for his crimes, and even became the
vessel for both the Green Energy Entity Ion and later the Yellow Energy Entity
Parallax as well. Unlike Hal, he was able to more or less contain Parallax’s
evil. While unfortunately Kyle will probably always be synonymous with brutal violence
against female characters, he’ll always be one of the best Green Lanterns.
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| I wonder if he also get's heckled for the whole mask thing? |
Kyle has the standard GL power set;
Hard Light Projection, Force Field Generation, Flight, and Translating any
language. His ring also has additional safety measures. It was formed from the
remains of Hal Jordan’s original ring and some new elements. Ganthet designed
this new ring to only be used by Kyle, the chose Lantern, Hal, whose essence was
still imprinted on the Ring, or by someone closely related to them by blood.
Parents, children, grandchildren and so on. The vivid imagination of an artist
also gives Kyle a unique advantage, as his constructs are closely related to
his craft. When Kyle is around you could bet money that you’ll see bright green
versions of various anime and cartoon characters flying around. How humiliating
would it be to be the supervillain punched out by Bugs Bunny or Mickey Mouse?
Kyle has also been shown to have a unique affinity to the various Rings and the
emotional spectrum, so much so he was eventually chosen to be the White
Lantern. But I’ll get to that another time.
Despite being the Green Lantern’s
chosen one, Kyle has been used once in other media. Yeah, one time. And even
then they coopted elements of Hal Jordan to mix into him, much like what they
did when adding bits of Barry Allen into their Wally West. Not so great a fate
for the guy created to save the GL franchise.
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| Kyle using all Seven Ring types. I'm gonna do it, Power UNLIMITED POWER! |
Kyle appeared in Superman: The Animated Series, in the
episode “In Brightest Day.” In it
newspaper commercial artist Kyle Rayner is chosen by Abin Sur to be the new
Green Lantern after being assaulted by Sinestro. Kyle and Superman teamed up to
beat Sinestro, and Kyle was later welcomed into the GL Corps. After this he was
largely a cameo or namedropped character. He’s mentioned in the Justice League episode “Hearts and Minds”
where after being beaten by the mad Tyrant Despero, John Stewart needed to be
retrained by former mentor and lover Katma Tui. She makes a crack that John is
worse than that “Rayner kid” he sent to her. He’s present at Superman’s funeral
in the first episode of the “Here After” two parter. His only significant episode
was “The Return” where the Amazo Android supposedly destroyed Oa. He’s one of
the few remaining Lanterns and joins John Stewart to try and get vengeance for
the fallen GL’s and the Guardians.
I’d like to think that if Green Lantern: The Animated Series had
been able to continue he’d have been introduced, most likely tied to the
Blackest Night Storyline. But, alas, it will never be.
Much like Alan Scott, I don’t
really know enough about Kyle to make heads or tails of him. He comes across as
a good man, bearing the heavy weight of being the Green Lantern’s chosen one.
Again, it’s a shame that in certain circles he’ll probably always be tied to
the Woman in the Fridge trope, and thus not well liked. It’s worse than what
Hank Pym did to Janet, but at least Hank actually committed the atrocious act
he is connected to. I am willing to bet the more I look into Kyle, the more I’ll
enjoy the character. And that’s all I can say about that. He’s the honest,
heroic, Herculean, hero, Green Lantern Kyle Rayner. Next up, the newest Green
Lantern, Simon Baz.
http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Kyle_Rayner_%28New_Earth%29
http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/greenlantern/images/f/f0/277511-86640-kyle-rayner_super.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20090621053433
http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Kyle_Rayner_%28DCAU%29
http://powerlisting.wikia.com/wiki/File:Kyle_Rayner_All_Seven_Rings.png
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