I haven’t eaten breakfast yet and I’m already supremely pissed off. SPOILER WARNING: Those of you that haven’t read the latest issue of Green Lantern, my suggestion is to enjoy today’s Registered Weapon, ignore this post and have a great Friday because I’m about to discuss why DC decided to anger a paying portion of it’s fanbase (assuming there is no resurrection, which in a story about the dead rising is entirely possible) and refuses to learn from its own mistakes.
Sucks.
At the end of GLC 42, Kyle Rayner apparently sacrifices his life to save OA or something. The details are fuzzy because my monthly shipment from the excellent Discount Comic Book Service will arrive the first week of December. The infuriating events are well recapped on various message boards though.
The Beginning…
The death of Kyle is the culmination of DC’s marginalization and disinterest in the character since the return of Hal Jordan (for the uniformed, check out the wiki history). The move reeks of spite and contempt for fans for preferring any Green Lantern over Hal Jordan and the Silver Age. Kyle has had target on his back for that reason for awhile. He’s the brightest light of an era that DC is hellbent on rewriting out of current continuity: the 90s (I could even argue the post-Crisis era too). One of the prevalent plot devices in that decade was the emergence of replacement/legacy heroes such as Jean Paul Valley, four Supermen, Wally West, Connor Hawke, Ben Reilly, Jack Knight, Artemis, young Tony Stark, The Ray and plenty of other minor heroes. Some of the heroes were editorially designed to be temporary, others were reinventions of characters not printed in decades. Despite being part of a stunt, whether or not the character WAS a stunt depended on the writer. While Emerald Twilight meets the criteria of an ultimate comics money grab with a legendary hero turning villain, killing his brothers-in-arms and destroying the decades old foundations of the intellectual property, the result was far from it.
Whether it be zeitgeist or luck, Ron Marz created a character that spoke directly to a teenage boy at the time. In the early 90s, comic creators were becoming rock stars in the industry. Flashy names like Jim Lee, Todd McFarlane, Rob “Button Your Fly” Liefeld, Erik Larsen were breaking away from Marvel and DC to create a hipper company (think like a teenage kid…Bloodstrike was cool). Classic comic moments were happening every Wednesday (or Thursday at my shop in Greenville, SC). Superman was dying. Batman was broken. Spider-man was the other Spider-Man. Wolverine was de-adamantiumed. Apocalypse ruled. And Green Lantern was insane. The magic was palpable. I looked forward to every single Thursday afternoon trip to the LCS. The resonant enthusiasm seeped into so many of us that we wanted to be comic creators when we grew up. The then hive-mind of kids spending wadded-up dollars on comics are now the same 30-year-olds writing an internet’s worth of web comics and repetitiously asking the same question at comic conventions: how do we break in?
Which is why Kyle is such a powerful character. Kyle Rayner is us. No, he’s not a comic creator. But he is a creator. An artist with a pop-culture influenced imagination. He struggles with women, holding down jobs and everyday issues like finding an apartment. And, yes, none of those characteristics is dynamic or unique. Except…Kyle made it. The big break literally landed right in his lap. Instead of becoming a comic creator, he became a superhero.
To be fair, the metaphor was not obvious to me when I collected Kyle’s GL run as kid. I started seeing the connection when Hal returned as I asked myself why I loved Kyle over other Green Lanterns. Guy was an engaging rogue that was willing to punch authority in the face and pay the consequences, which is the opposite of me. John carried too much guilt and Hal’s arrogance always left me cold. But Kyle isn’t a sum of what the other are not. As I tried to define him, the similarities emerged.
As the populist groundswell echoed throughout the internet, certain comic fans hyped Green Lantern Rebirth as a reparations for Emerald Twilight. I understand that sentiment because of their own disenfranchisement with the treatment of Hal, a character they connected with deeply. The controversial passing of the ring hindered Kyle for the start as he never caught on with much of the old guard. When Rebirth was a foregone conclusion, the dialogue between Green Lantern fans grew more toxic. Much like the American political scene, you were either for or against someone. If you loved Hal, you hated Kyle. And vice versa. I hated that period in GL comics because I felt there was room for both. Not to mention John Stewart, Guy Gardner, Mogo, G’Nort and an entire freakin’ corps of ringslingers. The divide still continues today.
Rebirth arrived, Hal returned and sales rose. The event was a mega hit which returned Green Lantern to the top of the charts. Hal fans used the success as vindication of that character’s superiority. I’d argue the success was a potent mixture of Hal’s return, Didio’s hype , Van Sciver’s gorgeous, innovative GL art but, mostly, John’s masterful storytelling. The comic was well-written, well-conceived and hit all the hot buttons for nerds. I loved every second of it. And Kyle was treated with respect as Hal returned. There’s a line somewhere in the series when Hal tells Kyle that the corps wouldn’t exist without him. He’s right.
…Of the End.
The first few years after Hal’s rebirth, DC still featured Kyle prominently. But the company rescinded his A-list status as he did not fit Didio’s “iconic status” of Green Lantern but he still appeared on a monthly basis. His role as Torchbearer was explored in the Ion maxi-series and he used his considerable influence in The Rann-Thanagar War series and during Infinite Crisis. Curiously, Kyle was omitted as a cast member from the Green Lantern Corps monthly until after the Sinestro Corps War, which was an odd decision. For points during the mid-2000s, Kyle lacked a monthly home. The character is arguably DC’s second most lucrative Green Lantern but I don’t know that for a fact. John Stewart’s high profile throughout the last decade may have changed that.
Still, the internal attitude towards Kyle was apparent. DC let the character drift further from the mainstream action to solidify Hal’s identity as Green Lantern again (I fear a similar pattern of events coming with Wally West after Barry’s recent rebirth). Since the Sinetro Corps War, Kyle has shared the spotlight in Green Lantern Corps with a crowded cast in stories serving a larger purpose of the GL corner of the DC Universe, which is not a criticism of Tomasi’s fantastic run at all. The reality, though, is that Kyle is not a priority to DC as they made that obviously clear this week:
Kyle is a Marvel Zombie
Removing the Emerald Twilight controversy from the equation, what does the current editorial direction of DC have against Kyle (maybe nothing but recent actions suggest otherwise)? My guess is that at his core, Kyle is closer to a Marvel hero than a DC god.
His origin is exactly like Peter Parker’s fateful day but instead of a radioactive spider, Kyle encountered a radioactive blue dude. Characters like Peter, Matt Murdock, Ben Grimm, the X-Men are normal people thrust into a miraculous life through no actions of their own. The universe pushed them down and they stood right back up. Super soldiers, homesick aliens, spoiled rich kids, petulant gods, pretentious scientists, fearless fighter pilots are amazing too. But watching the guy from your neighborhood succeed…well…there’s something uniquely special about that.
Like I said earlier, Kyle is THE comic book fan. He’s us. Not the grotesque, rotund Cheeseburger-breath, Newsarama-forum troll that lives in a basement. No, Kyle is like the rest of us: normal, simultaneously awkward and brilliant with relationships, he’s holding down a career, he’s trying not to dwell on but still remember lost loved ones, he’s having drinks with friends and, everyday, he’s moving through life with one eye cast towards the fantastic. Difference is…Kyle actually has the chance to wear the fantastic on his finger.
RIP Kyle Rayner.
You were our kind of dude and one hell of a Green Lantern. Here’s hoping you’re back next issue.
Kyle's best look.
Next week, I’ll try to do a Top 10 Greatest Kyle moments post.