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Opinions on White Lantern Kyle?
I'm in shock TPTB actually did something big to Kyle Rayner and claim it will be around for awhile if not the rest of the character's days. I'm not a big fan of the visions from the future with Kyle becoming Space Jesus. I'm even less a fan of what Kyle's White Lantern will be like in terms of how it's much different than the other White Lanterns we've seen. So that this doesn't turn into one big rant I'm going to break things down. I'm hoping to hear [or rather read] other's opinions on the matter, most notably the fans of Rayner who've been here since the 90's supporting everybody's favorite artist. Getting to it...
1.) The powers - So far any time a Lantern gets a power upgrade it's about as vague as it can be. When Kyle became Ion the first time he had several powers and abilities as well as some drawbacks. The second Ion we were told was originally a mix of the GL and Starheart energies and didn't do much more than the average GL, then it was retconned into the space whale willpower entity and given to Sodam Yat who didn't really do anything new with the powers either. Since the White Lantern concept was introduced there have been several things to note, for instance Sinestro being cut in half only to heal from the injury seconds later. Now it seems like a White Lantern is basically an Indigo Lantern without the need for another Lantern to tap into the different energies of the emotional spectrum. What's the point of having multi-colored constructs instead of just more powerful [and sometimes permanent] white energy constructs? Am I supposed to believe he's going to throw violet Care Bear constructs at one enemy, a blue preacher to instill hope in another, yellow constructs to frighten enemies, etc...? Long story short, what should have been a decent change in powers was scrapped for multi-colored constructs. LAME!
2.) The status - If Kyle was going to be separated from the GLC in the long run, why was Geoff adamant about Kyle NOT becoming a Blue Lantern? It made me even more pissed when he DID become a Blue Lantern, especially considering how much more sense it made than say... another stint as Ion would have. I'm really baffled now since his future supposedly has him becoming Space Jesus. Did Geoff forget that the Blue Lanterns were the more faith based Lanterns? It would've made as much sense for Kyle to become a Blue full time and become a blue Space Jesus later on. Since the powers seem to change on a whim depending on where the story goes, there's no reason to think Kyle couldn't have done more with the blue energies than the other BL's. Seeing the crap-fest in the making that is this new WL Kyle, I'd have much rather seen him as a Blue Lantern after War of the GL's instead of dragging out the New Guardians concept and having Kyle master all the different rings and energies.
3.) The title - I'm talking about Kyle being the White Lantern now and still starring in a book called "GREEN Lantern: New Guardians." Makes no sense at all if he's supposedly never becoming a regular GL again. What's the matter DC, does White Lantern sound like it could be seen as racist or something if it were the name of the title? Again, if anything, Blue Lantern had a much better ring to it.
4.) The future - Kyle becoming the Lantern equivalent of Jesus Christ is too much and probably the last straw in terms of what I'm willing to accept for my favorite GL character. I'd be fine with him growing his hair a little longer [actually liked that Tyler was making it longer in the art of GL:NG], and while I'm fine with stubble once in awhile.... making his hair that much longer and throwing in the Jesus 'stache and goatee is insulting when shown ACTING like Jesus as well. Maybe subconsciously this is Geoff's way to try and draw Ron Marz back to writing Kyle, by making him more like the Silver Surfer at Marvel Marz also wrote sometime before coming to DC to create Kyle. IDK. To change a character so drastically with every big event/storyline only to say this last gimmick will stick and lead to the character becoming God-like in terms of powers AND appearance... its just bullshit. Geoff expanded a lot of the GLU and made a lot of elements better, but sadly he ruined just as much.
5.) The costume - You knew I was gonna bring his up sooner or later LOL! While I've been saying for years Kyle's most recent GL costume was too plain, the new WL suit isn't much better and bits and pieces of it are more confusing that the character's somewhat iconic crab-mask. I still don't know what to make of the wrist guards, half the time the little pieces on his triceps are missing, the seam lines in the shoulders don't match up most of the time, and as hard as it was to get a classic GL badge off center [sometimes making it a little smaller] it's gotta be even harder for artists to do the WL badge justice off to the side. I understand with the New52 there are more complex costume designs, at least in terms of color breaks and seam lines, but sometimes less is more. A centered WL symbol would've been fine and a lot of other stuff could've still been done in regards to the rest of the costume looking more like a Kyle costume. In this instance I think a Jim Lee redesigned suit would've been an improvement over what we got stuck with.
Okay, so before this gets any longer, what's your opinions on this stuff? Just all of it in general, or you could break it down like I've done. To say the least I'm not impressed. I don't have any interest in reading a White Lantern with multi-colored constructs instead of any number of the WL powers we've seen prior to this title's new direction. I fully supported Kyle becoming something other than the average GL, but to me this is piss poor execution/direction with a lot of wasted potential. DC has finally turned me off of the one character I've supported non-stop since the 3rd grade. I was okay with Winick's preaching after Marz left. I survived the below average Ben Raab run. It didn't offend me when Hal returned and Kyle was stripped of a solo title and thrown in with the rest of the GLC. It didn't bother me for too long after Kyle became Ion again only to have his story retconned in record time to make way for Geoff's Sinestro Corps War. However, enough is enough. When Kyle is worth reading again I'll support anything he's in. But this White Lantern Rayner in New Guardians isn't doing it for me. If he goes green again I'm sure I'll be inclined to read it, but for now I'm out.
~KL~
1.) The powers - So far any time a Lantern gets a power upgrade it's about as vague as it can be. When Kyle became Ion the first time he had several powers and abilities as well as some drawbacks. The second Ion we were told was originally a mix of the GL and Starheart energies and didn't do much more than the average GL, then it was retconned into the space whale willpower entity and given to Sodam Yat who didn't really do anything new with the powers either. Since the White Lantern concept was introduced there have been several things to note, for instance Sinestro being cut in half only to heal from the injury seconds later. Now it seems like a White Lantern is basically an Indigo Lantern without the need for another Lantern to tap into the different energies of the emotional spectrum. What's the point of having multi-colored constructs instead of just more powerful [and sometimes permanent] white energy constructs? Am I supposed to believe he's going to throw violet Care Bear constructs at one enemy, a blue preacher to instill hope in another, yellow constructs to frighten enemies, etc...? Long story short, what should have been a decent change in powers was scrapped for multi-colored constructs. LAME!
2.) The status - If Kyle was going to be separated from the GLC in the long run, why was Geoff adamant about Kyle NOT becoming a Blue Lantern? It made me even more pissed when he DID become a Blue Lantern, especially considering how much more sense it made than say... another stint as Ion would have. I'm really baffled now since his future supposedly has him becoming Space Jesus. Did Geoff forget that the Blue Lanterns were the more faith based Lanterns? It would've made as much sense for Kyle to become a Blue full time and become a blue Space Jesus later on. Since the powers seem to change on a whim depending on where the story goes, there's no reason to think Kyle couldn't have done more with the blue energies than the other BL's. Seeing the crap-fest in the making that is this new WL Kyle, I'd have much rather seen him as a Blue Lantern after War of the GL's instead of dragging out the New Guardians concept and having Kyle master all the different rings and energies.
3.) The title - I'm talking about Kyle being the White Lantern now and still starring in a book called "GREEN Lantern: New Guardians." Makes no sense at all if he's supposedly never becoming a regular GL again. What's the matter DC, does White Lantern sound like it could be seen as racist or something if it were the name of the title? Again, if anything, Blue Lantern had a much better ring to it.
4.) The future - Kyle becoming the Lantern equivalent of Jesus Christ is too much and probably the last straw in terms of what I'm willing to accept for my favorite GL character. I'd be fine with him growing his hair a little longer [actually liked that Tyler was making it longer in the art of GL:NG], and while I'm fine with stubble once in awhile.... making his hair that much longer and throwing in the Jesus 'stache and goatee is insulting when shown ACTING like Jesus as well. Maybe subconsciously this is Geoff's way to try and draw Ron Marz back to writing Kyle, by making him more like the Silver Surfer at Marvel Marz also wrote sometime before coming to DC to create Kyle. IDK. To change a character so drastically with every big event/storyline only to say this last gimmick will stick and lead to the character becoming God-like in terms of powers AND appearance... its just bullshit. Geoff expanded a lot of the GLU and made a lot of elements better, but sadly he ruined just as much.
5.) The costume - You knew I was gonna bring his up sooner or later LOL! While I've been saying for years Kyle's most recent GL costume was too plain, the new WL suit isn't much better and bits and pieces of it are more confusing that the character's somewhat iconic crab-mask. I still don't know what to make of the wrist guards, half the time the little pieces on his triceps are missing, the seam lines in the shoulders don't match up most of the time, and as hard as it was to get a classic GL badge off center [sometimes making it a little smaller] it's gotta be even harder for artists to do the WL badge justice off to the side. I understand with the New52 there are more complex costume designs, at least in terms of color breaks and seam lines, but sometimes less is more. A centered WL symbol would've been fine and a lot of other stuff could've still been done in regards to the rest of the costume looking more like a Kyle costume. In this instance I think a Jim Lee redesigned suit would've been an improvement over what we got stuck with.
Okay, so before this gets any longer, what's your opinions on this stuff? Just all of it in general, or you could break it down like I've done. To say the least I'm not impressed. I don't have any interest in reading a White Lantern with multi-colored constructs instead of any number of the WL powers we've seen prior to this title's new direction. I fully supported Kyle becoming something other than the average GL, but to me this is piss poor execution/direction with a lot of wasted potential. DC has finally turned me off of the one character I've supported non-stop since the 3rd grade. I was okay with Winick's preaching after Marz left. I survived the below average Ben Raab run. It didn't offend me when Hal returned and Kyle was stripped of a solo title and thrown in with the rest of the GLC. It didn't bother me for too long after Kyle became Ion again only to have his story retconned in record time to make way for Geoff's Sinestro Corps War. However, enough is enough. When Kyle is worth reading again I'll support anything he's in. But this White Lantern Rayner in New Guardians isn't doing it for me. If he goes green again I'm sure I'll be inclined to read it, but for now I'm out.
~KL~
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