To that end, I have created a quick and simple poll. I decided on limiting the writers to just Grant Morrison, Geoff Johns, Judd Winick, and Ron Marz because all four of them wrote a fairly distinctive version of Kyle and put him in distinctive types of stories. (Plus, if I offered every writer who handled him for just one issue, it would get tedious. I picked the three writers who had him longest and the writer of the miniseries in question.)
Anyway, choose which writer of the four listed wrote the best Kyle Rayner, and whether or not you liked Kyle's part in Sinestro Corps.
(Poll Results)
I want to vote for G-Mo, but with a caveat.
ReplyDeleteI liked SC the first time I read it, and liked it exponentially less the more I thought about it.
My first reaction was "That was a little Johns-y, but pretty solid overall, until that dumbass last page" and now it's a little more "It was a little Johns-y and the story seems like it makes a few leaps that I don't like."
So I voted for the latter. I'm still pretty interested in the story, just not as excited as I am for other books.
I voted Grant Morrison & liking Sinestro Corps. They show different sides of Kyle, but both are pretty nicely done and I can believe both of them.
ReplyDeleteMorrison gave Kyle such huge, beautiful moments throughout his series, like capturing Solaris The Tyrant Sun in a giant safe, or his willpower triumphing over Mageddons' in the grand finale. Excellent, awe-inspiring, god-like stuff, especially when Kyle was the rookie of the team.
Conversely, I like Sinestro Corps because it shows the human, vulnerable side of Kyle. It's sad, and a little heartbreaking, but I have faith in Johns that he'll do right by the characters. Um...hopefully.
Also, on the shallow side, the art in Sinestro Corps is very pretty. This contributed to my enjoyment immensely.
I voted for Geoff Johns and liking Sinestro Corps. While I am a huge Morrison fan I honestly wonder if he would have bothered with Kyle at all if he had been given the option of using Hal during his run on JLA. Whereas Johns managed to in Re-Birth, craft a Kyle who I felt was very much in character but at the same time showed that he had become equal to the legacy he got saddled with.
ReplyDeleteAs for Sinestro Corps, I loved every minute of it. It's a brilliant idea and it was brilliantly executed. I'm not bothered by what's been done to Kyle because, this is the beginning of the story. Having the Torchbearer corrupted ups the danger to eleven. Now I'll be very interested to see how he manages to defeat Parallax.
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I'm sorry. Maybe I'm confused. You keep saying three writers and I see four listed. There is something I'm missing, I think...
ReplyDeleteWhich writer wrote the best dumbass whiner? So hard to decide...
ReplyDeleteI have to go with Geoff Johns on this one, although I've also enjoyed Ron Marz's take on Kyle. Unfortunately, I just haven't gotten to Grant Morrison yet, so I can't jude. And I hate Judd Winick with a white-hot passion.
ReplyDeleteI'm not TOO worried about Kyle.
Morrison, but Marz is second. Winick gets an incomplete, because I stopped reading Green Lantern after a few issues of him.
ReplyDeleteHow much has Johns really done with Kyle? There's Rebirth (as a supporting character), GLC: Recharge (as a co-lead with a co-writer), Infinite Crisis (where he'd be lost in the shuffle, like everyone else), and the Sinestro Corps Special? Am I missing anything? Does Johns have a Rayner-body of work at this point that's really deeper than, say, Joe Kelly or Mark Waid, or is he getting a pass because he's writing Green Lantern? (Not that I'm arguing his place on the poll; as the current writer of Green Lantern, that's reason enough.)
I voted Grant Morrison, mainly for Kyle's interaction with the Sandman in the Dreaming.
ReplyDeleteMark -- Johns gets in the poll because he's writing the storyline I'm asking about and I'm thinking of writing styles here. He's only used him in Rebirth, Recharge, and Sinestro Corps, which are actually all pretty Kyle-heavy.
ReplyDeleteCullen -- Yeah, originally I left Morrison off because I figured he'd sweep but the first thing Kalinara said was "You forgot Morrison" and I just went screw it and redid the poll. (And he's winning, big surprise.) But I figured my theory on writing styles would hold.
Sleestak -- Marz wrote the best dumbass, Winick wrote the stupidest whining.
I voted for Morrison. But, I've gotta sqay that's pretty much the only Kyle I've read as I kinda checked otu of GL after the whole Emerald Twilight nonsense. Nothing against Kyle though, and I really liked him in JLA.
ReplyDeleteI also like SC, it actually give Kyle a good arc and I hope he makes it through this as a more distinctive hero.
Believe it or not, I actually preferred Joe Kelly's version of Kyle in JLA.
ReplyDeleteHe seemed to get how "in-over-his-head" Kyle was.
I went with Grant Morrison.
ReplyDeleteI stopped reading the current GL series a while ago ("the least necessary relaunch of a character in recent memory", as a friend of mine put it; I agreed: nice art, completely generic stories), so I skipped Sinestro Corps. So I voted that I didn't like it, when in fact I had no opinion.
I do think turning Kyle into Parallax is - at best - a cynical attempt to maintain a trademark. Certainly it in no way resembles interesting storytelling.
Of course, one should always take the opinion of someone who hasn't actually read the book (me) with a grain (or bucket) of salt.
ReplyDeleteI can't decide. I intensely dislike Ron Marz' writing. But his characterization wasn't bad. His Kyle was mostly likable. Until it became Kyle does something stupid because the plot needs him to.
ReplyDeleteWinick's run wasn't that great either, though. Nor Raab's.
I like Kyle. I just wish he was in more stories I liked. And I like Sinestro Corps for the most part.
Devon, I agree that Kelly wrote a very nice Kyle, particularly in the Obsidian Age run. Kyle was characterised quite wonderfully there as a very human, very freaked out sort of guy who nevertheless performed some amazing feats.
ReplyDeleteWell my vote may be skwered since I don't have the Sinestro Corps Special yet. For the record, I voted Grant Morrison and that I loved SC (because, I don't see anyway I won't love it).
ReplyDeleteI really don't have a whole lot to go on for Geoff. Really, only Rebirth without reading SC. I like the Kyle he wrote, but Grant wrote a highly capable, very human character in Kyle.
I really don't remember him whining a lot in JLA and Grant took every chance he had to show how capable Kyle was (from Dream telling him he would succeed Hal and Diana telling him his stunt with Solaris was recorded as a feat).
And yet, some of my favorite Kyle moments were of him being human (needing to take a time out with Conner in a diner during "Rock of Ages" for some coffee, fighting on during "World War III" even though his ring was on the fritz, his comment to Wally about how there's five minutes of talking between monumental battles) during the course of the series.
Second, might be Dave Gibbons, edging out Geoff. Again, I thought Gibbons wrote a very human Kyle, during the Recharage mini-series.
Low on the list are Judd Winnick (who tried too hard to make Kyle "hip") and Ron Marz (who, in my opinion, wrote Kyle as too whiny, needy, and annoying).
Since this is the internet so ofcourse Morrison would win...therefore I voted for Marz...poor guy.
ReplyDeleteAnd I liked Kelly's Kyle more than Morrison's anyway as far as the JLA is concerned.
Also, while I liked SC...eh...I HATED the last page-reveal. Rather than going "oh shit!" I just went..."Really? That's it?"
The Anti-Freaking-Monitor and you say 'That's it?' Would you prefer there was a giant Dan Didio there with Sinestro kissing HIS feet? I thought it was awesome.
ReplyDeleteAs much as I recognize the Anti-Monitor's historic importance, I cannot say I care to ever read another comic featuring him again. The Anti-Monitor is just plain boring. He's a generically evil plot device, nothing more.
ReplyDeleteI should note that while I didn't care for Kyle's role in becoming Parallax, I was quite impressed with GL:SC. Johns did an excellent job building a sense of impending dread.
The image of dozens of lantern rings flying past was perhaps my favorite part. It's the antithesis of Johns's usually on-panel maimings, and so much more powerful for it. Sinestro Corps was clearly written for the Oh S@%! moments, and saving that armored mummy on the last patch, it succeeded perfectly.
See...the thing is...I never regarded the Anti-Monitor as THAT big a deal. Moreso now with 52 freaking monitors against one of him.
ReplyDeleteI dunno...I was perfectly happy with the rest of the setup and payoff...the Anti-Monitor just didn't work for me. Maybe it's the fact that I hate seeing Sinestro serving anyone really (I want HIM to be the ultimate villain!)
Anyway...cool one-shot...but the ending just didn't work for me.
I can see your point about wanting Sinestro to be THE bad guy, but I think the Anti-Monitor is being short-changed. One can argue that the Anti-Monitor is the biggest villain in the history of the DCU. He literally killed infinity different universes (Yeah, I know that doesn't make sense, but if there were infinite universes, and in the end there was only one, technically I guess infinity died).
ReplyDeleteDarkseid would shit his pants over the Anti-Monitor. The next most accomplished villain might be Parralax, who wiped out entire time lines. And now they're joined with Sinestro, Cyborg-Superman, and Superboy (fine, Cyborg Supes and Sinestro haven't really established the resumes of the other villains, but they're both certifiable BADASS). I loved that reveal at the end. Five of the most powerful villains of the DCU, along with 7200 scary ass aliens.
I just loved everything about the Sinestro Corps.