This is getting old.

Dear David,

I believe I aptly explained why I feel that Rucka has merely copied the Indigos with his rationalization, and that Diana was clearly placed in Violet due to the combination of her prominence and her gender and not because of any suitability in her modern age character. (Aside to the spectators, supposed pre-Crisis know-it-alls should RTFP and RTFC before piping up--DC's made a conscious effort to remove Aphrodite's influence as of the reboot, and it was quite successful.) As such, I figured you should understand just why I find the situation unacceptable.

Then I read your statement regarding love:

I think you could have as easily made the argument that Superman loves all creation and is willing to fight for it, and thus could have easily been a Sapphire. But perhaps Johns has a story reason for wanting Supes to remain undead a bit longer... or (more likely) no one ever thought Superman could rock the pink outfit. And at the same time, I try to see the positives here, in that we're talking about Love, dammit, and I actually LIKE the idea of super-heroes filled with love for humanity, love for the world, as the M.O. for doing what they do. In a world of vengeance-driven characters like Batman, I WANT someone to say "love must triumph," so I admit -- I can't get too outraged at the continuity/treatment/event/momentary-lapse-that-won't-affect-her-solo-title-four-months-from-now.

Before I get into the sweeping problem here, let me note that not wanting to put Superman in a pink costume but being willing to change Wonder Woman--who has the same hair/eye/skin color and costume color scheme--to a pink costume is homophobic and sexist and therefore wrong. So it's not a good excuse for using Diana rather than Clark for this particular twist.

But that's not where we get screwed up. You seem to find the idea that Love is what saved Wonder Woman from Death to be unequivocably positive, but even without the promblematic setup of the Star Sapphires Love is quite a loaded word, and there is definitely a gender disparity here. For male characters, Love is a positive addition to an already heroic character. It makes a powerful character more powerful. It adds to their supporting cast and gives them inspiration to achieve greater heights. They tend to be the hero first and the brother/father/husband/son/lover afterwards.

Female characters more often than not from conception have their LIVES revolve around Love and relationships. They are mothers, daughters, sisters, wives, lovers (even as bad guys, they are often potential lovers) to male characters first of all. They live, sleep, and breathe love and romance. Most of them are introduced as love interests and many that begin as heroes in their own right find themselves quickly paired off with the writer's and fan's favorite guys. Precious few gain and keep satellite male love interests that enhance their stories. Most female characters are used to enhance a male character's story, to teach them the power of love and the ways of the heart.

And outside the superhero genre? Men get to be reluctant romantic leads and learn to open their hearts, but they are also action and adventure and dramatic leads as well.

Women are overwhelmingly romantic leads and workers of love with hearts that yearn to be open. They are sometimes dramatic leads, but that's usually folded in with romance. They are RARELY solo action and adventure leads who explore their problems with wit and courage. Even when they get action and adventure roles, they tend to be romantic and emotional in nature, or learning the value of love for family, for men, or for strangers.

See, it may be an amazing and special thing for you to read a male hero learning to open up himself to love and it making him stronger. And it may be fun for you in the same way to read a woman tap into love to draw strength. That's because to you, it's not the same old theme to every story about you. You get a variety of themes about human nature.

We get love conquers all. In the large and the small, in the personal and the global. Love conquers all. All the time.

That's why for many of us the amazing and beautiful thing is watching a woman be independent and confident and hopeful without attaching herself as a helper to a man. The special thing is watching a woman reach wholeness by opening herself to other emotions--emotions like righteous anger (that we're often urged to repress) and enduring hope that aren't the theme behind every story we've ever read

And for a lot of women, there is nothing special in watching a woman tap into a reservoir of love so that she can draw strength from that because that's what 99.9% of female characters do when they're strong anyway. And though a lot of women still greatly enjoy it, it's as common as dirt and they can find it anywhere. And everyone enjoys variety. Even those of us who adore apples like to eat a pear once in a while and don't like when that pear we were in the mood for suddenly turns out to be another apple.

To clarify, I'm going to have to discuss spoilers for Green Lantern Corps #42-43 here.

Now, I have said in the past that I absolutely adore Miri, and I have blogged in the past that I was surprised at how well the Kyle and Soranik relationship worked out. Soranik is a very clinical, willful woman. She's never allowed herself to be in love because she's specifically been afraid of being hurt. And she has a superstitious streak (she insisted back in her first appearance her ring was cursed because Sinestro went bad and Katma died), so she must have been afraid of Kyle's fucking amazing bad streak. Not only that, she's from Korugar where Green Lanterns are despised and Kyle is The Green Lantern, the Torchbearer, the reason we all HAVE Green Lanterns right now. It's a beautiful blend of complementary personalities. He's artistic and neurotic. She's logical and hot-tempered. He's from a chaotic and diverse world and she's from a very well-ordered world that hasn't had freedom long enough to be accustomed to it. (We can infer the difference in natural states from how Sinestro reacted to Earth in the Secret Origin storyline, suggesting that Korugar was never so wild even before he took over.)

So opening herself up to love was a multifold experience. She was overcoming a number of fears and exposing herself to a completely different culture and mindset. It worked beautifully, and wonderfully. It wasn't innovative, but it was well-crafted.

Then Blackest Night started. And Kyle and Soranik's relationship was tested by Black Lantern Jade. It came out ahead. Then Kyle sacrificed his life, blowing up in the middle of telling Soranik he loved her.

It was heartbreakingly beautiful.

It was clearly not the end.

Kyle's sweetheart, after all, is a neurosurgeon, and the best medical professional on Oa. so one of the expected solutions is that she would be able to work through her panic, desperation, and grief to revive him from the dead. That she would, through her skill be able to save her love.

There are times when you expect a plot to continue in the obvious direction along a well-worn path, only to have the writer pull the rug out from under you. Before you know it you see the tips of your shoes cross the backdrop of a beautiful summer sky, but it doesn't hurt. You landed on soft grass and you can feel the warm sunlight on your face, so you laugh because you got surprised and you loved it and it was part of this wonderful game!

Kyle's death was one of those times.

Kyle's resurrection was not.

The plot had been marching down an obvious direction (though there were still many forks available that weren't cliched) but it was not a well-worn or unwelcome path. It was an unusual path because the Doctor with the material skills and logical mind was a female character and the one who'd sacrificed himself for love was a male character. This may not be as unusual as it used to be, but it was still a riveting departure from the typical setup and the romantic fairy tales of our youth. Tomasi pulled Miri--thus far the best of the Star Sapphires so I credit him with creating her--into the mix. Soranik finds herself without the skill to save Kyle, and is unable to balance her emotions in the center of the battle. Miri creates a link between the two lovers and uses Soranik's love to resurrect Kyle.

An inspiring example that love conquers even death, no? I'm sure Tomasi thought as much. He was thematically incorrect, though. Since it was Miri swooping in as a Deus Ex Machina, this was solely Love conquering death while Will sat on the sidelines. But if Soranik had done so using her measured skill with or without the quasimystical help of Miri, it would have been an example of will mixing with love to conquer death, and a better echo of the overall theme of Blackest Night--that these forces cannot prevail alone. You neglect in your argument that "Love Must Triumph" is most certainly not the only thematic alternative to vengeance-obsessed protagonists. I enjoy reading about people who achieve their goals through strength and intelligence and just plain never giving up. I enjoy watching a protagonist who wishes to preserve the thing they care for above all else, but I also like a protagonist who has a strong sense of what is fair and just and acts in order to correct injustice and balance. I like heroes like Green Lanterns, who apply their skill and their wits and their courage to make sense of the universe. Love's a wonderful experience, but it is not the prime motivating factor for everyone who does something altruistic or even just good, and stories where love alone doesn't get the job done can be incredibly uplifting.

More importantly, the sour taste I found in my mouth came from this: A woman's love can conquer anything is a theme that reverberates across fiction. You can find it anywhere if you want to look for it. But here Tomasi had a storyline that was different and exciting, and he threw it away for the sort of cliched climax that can be found in a 13-year-old's Mary Sue fanfic.

(I will give him that the potential fallout from this impromptu battlefield marriage is juicy as all hell, so I'll continue reading, but the resurrection sorely disappointed me. Also, Miri is a fairy godmother, but she's also fairly awesome--the first genuinely positive example of a Star Sapphire so far. This is a misstep that hasn't soured me on his using her.)

But I'll even give you that Miri's solution could have been quite ingenius if Kyle had been the one standing helplessly at Soranik's side (this wouldn't have sent Guy into a rage, but they could have placed it afterwards--like she got hit while reviving him), and Miri had linked hearts to bring her back to life. Why is it so different? Because a man's love in stories tends to be expressed by the physical deeds he does for it, and doesn't need to manifest as a mystical quality.

Female heroes don't often get to express love through feats of strength or skill. Love wells up from the bottom of their soul and springs forth as inspiration or magic, and puts things right on a spiritual level. (And at DC, love wells up from the bottom of a crystal cocoon and springs forth in a neat little pink package that shows lots of cleavage!) It would have been a hell of a thing to see Soranik Natu save her lover through her skill, and then be saved by the pure power of his love because that would be her love-driven skills and his pure emotion rather than the usual trope of emphasizing the woman's pure emotions and the man's skills.

Love stories may be an undiscovered country for men, but this is far from a new frontier for women. It's always been our playground. It's where we're assumed to have our greatest power, and it's the place we're relegated to in story and song.

Love is the kitchen of genre fiction.

So to a lot of us? Yes, this is a negative.

And the fact that in DC, love is overwhelmingly personal (Wally and Linda, Kyle and Soranik, Miri and her late husband are all examples of when the power of love has manifested supernaturally, and it has ALWAYS been personal), sexual and seems to be exclusively the domain of women--to the point that even a character like Diana who is established as downright virginal and much better suits another established realm is STILL rationalized into that domain (with the description of the other established realm, which went to a male character... which had a history that even suited the established description of what makes a Star Sapphire)--is an incredible negative.

I will say this much... I do want a love story. But not the one we've been getting. I want the undiscovered country.

I want something starring a male Star Sapphire.

Seriously Spoilery Green Lantern Corps #42 Reaction

I did get the comics shipment with Green Lantern Corps #42 today. And I actually got it in time to review with a spoiler warning.

Whoa.

My interest in this crossover is completely renewed, and all of my earlier worries about Kyle being sidelined for the Hal, Carol and Sinestro show have disappeared.

That's right. I am a Kyle-fan, and I say that this was AWESOME.

Seriously, if you're going to do that, THAT is how you do that.

It's really hard to kill off a character I adore and fill me with unbelievable joy as you do this, but they managed just that. I may just be unfazed because of the nature of the crossover, being that the dead are rising from the grave and there is almost certainly going to be resurrections at the end, or maybe because Kyle is on the cover of an upcoming issue (though that could be a red herring, or a figurative image). Plus I'm thrilled because they use this as the final page of an issue in the middle of a huge crossover, so anything can happen next issue be it horrific (Kyle as a Black Lantern, or something worse), miraculous (weird effect of that energy mix or stuffing one of the color critters inside him--Ion and Parallax are both accounted for, but I imagine the blue one would suit Kyle), or heroic (you can't tell me Soranik doesn't know something along the lines of CPR).

I might also be desensitized. They have been fucking with us since the RUMOR of Hal Jordan coming back came out, and they know just the threat of killing Kyle always sends the fanbase into a complete frenzy. It doesn't offer the mainstream press of killing off Captain America, but this is a good way to catch the community's attention. Still, this doesn't feel like a stunt. It was unexpected, but suitable. A stunt gets hyped to death beforehand, and ends up not being very emotionally effective after all the press. A stunt is something your roll your eyes at and yawn about. A stunt tends to be a disruption in the narrative. This? This was a surprise, because they hadn't breathed a word of it, but still a natural step in the story.

It suits the character. This is the way that Kyle Rayner is supposed to die. Trying to save the Central Power Battery and all the lanterns on Oa, in an explosion of green, destroying a large number of enemies, with a splash page of his fallen body lying in the snow (or ash?) at the end. To boot, his death itself is a refrigerator death and is going to throw the other two main characters into a cycle of angst.

It suits the franchise. This was thematically perfect. The Torchbearer, the guy who kept everything going after Emerald Twilight and relit the fucking battery and brought Hal back, dies in the middle of the Blackest Night--the prophesied end of the Green Lantern Corps? It had to occur during this. And like when he was the target at the start of the Sinestro Corps War, it underscores his in-story prominence. Hell, it cements his role in the whole mythos as the King piece on the Guardians' chessboard. This is twice now where Kyle getting checked (once again, death is not necessarily a checkmate when the name of the show is Zombies... in... SPAAAACE) marks going over the edge on Oa. This means morale is toast, and the hero you follow in the plot is the one who has to keep things together and get the King out of check.

(It occurs to me that this analogy puts Hal in the Queen position, because he can move as far as he likes in any direction without penalty. It also occurs to me that there's innuendo in there somewhere, but I'm too wired to pinpoint exactly where.)

And even though half of the teamup I've been wanting since the buildup to this crossover started is at the moment dead, I'm more convinced than ever I'm going to see it.

I had my doubts when I heard Tomasi was leaving editing to take over as a writer, but damned if he hasn't made this the best book of the franchise. This is seriously impressive, I would think I'd be turning red with rage but instead I'm rambling happily on my blog about how suitable it all is and how it relates to chess. And I'm dying for the next freaking installment because this Green Lantern Corps plotline is just kicking the asses of both the Green Lantern and Blackest Night mainbook plotlines.

Why Soranik Natu Should Survive Dating Kyle

Back when they first introduced Soranik Natu, I was one of the crowd of people begging them not to make her into Kyle's girlfriend. It was right around the time Jade got killed and The Curse was in full height.

Now that they've actually done it, though, I'm finding myself pretty happy with the couple. This took a bit. I was adamantly opposed to this as of the end of Recharge, she was already a hundred times more fun than anyone they'd set Kyle up with and I worried I'd be upset about them killing this one. After the Star Sapphire storyline I was more open to it, but still cautious because we all know what happens to anyone who gets near Kyle's bed. It grew a bit on me when the two approached each other in the aftermath, mainly because Soranik said she'd never been open to love and it looked like it would be a decent story for her. Most female characters are really developed on the side of love and family, and so get neglected with storylines that aren't about relationships. Soranik up until then had been a career-centric character, we'd never seen a boyfriend or a family member. She was established as a hero to be reckoned with already, so this was genuine character growth on her part. Plus, I wasn't expecting it to last.

Now that they've revealed Sinestro is her father, I'm completely in love with this idea. I really do believe it makes her less likely to be casually killed off. Sure, being Alan's daughter didn't save Jade but on this end the father is already so filled with fear and angst and misery that he's a bad guy on a massive cosmic scale. They don't really need to give Sinestro anything else to be freaked out about, Johns is setting him up quite well with the tragic past. Soranik's death would be an even more unnecessary character death than usual on that point.

Of course, Kyle already has enough death and misery in his past and that's never stopped anyone from offing a relative for him.

Still, I think her place in the relationship arc between Kyle and Sinestro is a potentially safe one. She hates her father, but from the position of a person who cherishes life in all forms. As it is Kyle now has a very tense reason to keep Sinestro alive (beyond his usual moral objections), and Sinestro has yet another reason to hate and target Kyle, but new consequences for it. If Soranik were to die and they were to blame each other, that dynamic would be fundamentally less interesting and both characters would lose a dimension of angst.

Beyond being comfortable with Soranik's chances of survival, I have to say she is the first girlfriend of Kyle's that I've actually liked. Part of that is how she was established before she got involved with him. Donna and Jade were both well-established heroes from teambooks before Kyle was even created, but neither were properly rooted anywhere.

Donna had been bounced around from Teen Titans to various identities and power sets and even personality changes when she was pulled into Green Lantern and depowered. She fulfilled a joint girlfriend/mentor role where she was wise, experienced in heroics, and more emotionally mature than Kyle, but she was still insecure and jealous of other women. She also didn't properly belong in Green Lantern so she walked out on him in as soon as someone wanted to pull her. (The "lost all memory of why she loved him" explanation was brilliant, though. I wish he'd whine about that more.) She's considerably more likable as the Ex-Girlfriend who is still friendly but will never likely be involved with him again.

Jade was arguably a Green Lantern character, but not Kyle's sort of Green Lantern. She was one of those Infinity Inc characters that DC didn't know what to do with, so she never really got a proper fit outside of Green Lantern. I don't think she got a proper fit insider of Green Lantern. It always came off as a rather clumsy attempt to mash the Golden Age mystic legacy with the current space-opera version. Don't get me wrong, I like the explanation that the Starheart is the same sort of energy (it may even be a Parallax-style entity), and it comes from outer space so Jenny and Alan are connected, and friendly, but not really a part of the GLC. But the relationship between Kyle and Jade just seemed like an arranged marriage to join the earthbound and spacefaring Green Lantern families together. Every time they got together, I cringed. It seemed inorganic. As a result, I suspect I hated Jade more than she deserved. She just didn't fit the parts of the franchise that appealed to me. She ended up filling the same role as Donna, only a little less competent, a lot less openly jealous and a lot more insecure.

Careerwise, both women were said to be photographers but never seen holding a camera. Both women were professional heroes, but both were depowered. The one that was repowered during the relationship (Jade), was normally shown to be simply not as a good a hero as Kyle was. Not a bad hero, just not as good as Kyle. And since she had the same power set and more experience, one could only conclude that she was either inherently inferior or just wasn't putting in the necessary effort. (I suspect its the latter.) Ultimately, the career didn't matter because their primary role in the book was "love interest" from the moment of introduction, and their primary occupation was "girlfriend/nursemaid."

Soranik is different. She is pretty firmly established as a space-faring Green Lantern character. If Green Lantern Corps were to end next month, it is possible that she would surface as a member of the Global Guardians or a contestant on a reality TV show, but as of the start of this relationship she doesn't have a history of being traded from office to office as writers try to figure out what to do with her. (Neither does Kyle, even though he switches books a lot. He's still in the same franchise.) She's in the franchise that she belongs in, and no other editor or writer will have a claim.

In-story-wise, she fits Kyle's world better than the other two. People argue that in Marz's run Kyle was an earthbound character, but I read that run too. He spends the second storyline lost in space. Every other storyline, he goes to outer space. He spends one-shots in space. In Morrison's JLA, where he most shined as a character, he was on a team based on the moon and a large number of the threats he was called in for were space-based. He has always been a space Green Lantern, even when he was living in New York. He's where he's best suited to be right now, in outer space turning the beauty and weirdness of the universe into something relatable. Yes, Kyle has a very down-to-earth temperament, but that's part of why he and Guy suit the wider universe best. They bring Earth to Oa for us, and their interactions and insights during adventures highlight the humanity in all of these strange alien characters.

Jade was never a good fit for outer space (this may have something to do with her mother being a plant-based villainess), and one of the few good things Winick did was have her realize that and go home. One of the really unsettling things about Jade's death was that it happened in outer space rather than on Earth. That just wasn't her arena, and the fact that she died out there just underscored it. Come to think of it, that may be why I so despise Jade as the primary female Lantern in the DCU. Because she's ultimately an earthly character, and the things I love about Green Lantern aren't even in orbit. She inadvertently sends the message that girls don't really belong there because the only female character obviously doesn't belong in outer space. Katma Tui, Arisia, Brik, Boodika, Soranik Natu, Iolande, even Carol Ferris (she has the same hook Hal does, an Earth pilot who gets hired by aliens) are all preferable because they suit the setting better. I wish I could explain just what it was, maybe its just that all of Jade's legacy ties are earthbound Infinity Inc and JSA matters, or maybe it was that no writer ever took her out to space on her own (she only ever seemed to go when Kyle went), or that she just didn't do well against space-based baddies, but Jade just didn't work in space.

Donna does considerably better in outer space, but she's still a freaking Amazon. I don't care how many times they send the Titans to outer space, or how desperately they tie the Olympians to the Source. It's like Wonder Woman in outer space. It's pretty cool if you write it right, and she can handle it, but ultimately she's just visiting. She's not at home there either.

Soranik is a space alien and a space-faring Green Lantern, and the daughter of a well-established space-alien villain. In temperament she bears a striking resemblance to Bones McCoy. She definitely suits outer space.

Careerwise, Soranik is already established as a Doctor first and everything else second. In speculative fiction, medicine seems to be a safe female niche but that doesn't erase the respectability and importance of Natu's position. She's instantly valuable in every adventure for her professional skill set. She will never be relegated to the background position of "supportive girlfriend" simply because she's dating Kyle. Her job is too damned useful. If she's there and just standing around while he takes charge of the situation, a male character who was not dating Kyle would be there and simply standing around waiting for someone to get hurt so he could be useful. If she breaks up with Kyle so that he can go to his old girlfriend, she'll still be useful to the team because she can do things like deliver a baby in the middle of a battlefield. If in the brainstorming session a writer suggests killing off Soranik, someone can argue that they don't want to kill off the character with all the healing skill and then have to introduce another doctor. (I haven't the slightest idea what happens in brainstorming sessions, but you have to admit that argument couldn't be used to save Jade or Katma.) Hell, if it does get public that they're dating, and Kyle selects Soranik for an important mission there's a very obvious reason for it besides they're sleeping together -- because he wants someone around who can jumpstart his heart more than just figuratively. Just in case, y'know. She's never going to just be the girlfriend, and that's because of something that was set up from her very first appearance over two years before she started dating Kyle Rayner. Something that makes her character unique among Green Lanterns, and valuable beyond just her emotional impact.

Personality-wise, she's a pleasant break from the pattern. Jade and Donna both seemed to have same sunny, friendly attitude. Jade got passive-aggressive and Donna would start snapping at people when under stress. They fought when actually threatened, but tended to be conciliatory otherwise. They would only pull out the arrogance when someone was being a jackass and needed to be put in their place. They were sweet girls with highly developed social skills. They were both more emotionally mature than Kyle, and mentored him in both heroism and love.

Soranik has a short fuse and a surgeon's ego. She's insecure about a lot of things but hides it behind a very harsh demeanor. Her default attitude is arrogance, even though she fights less with the other Lanterns (Guy, Isamot, Iolande) now she still carries a cold arrogance when dealing with them. She softens when treating patients or talking to Kyle. She's confrontational even when there's no threat of violence. She's not a friendly person by nature, and social skill isn't really a priority for her. She's never sweet, even with Kyle. She's never, ever passive about anything.

In emotional maturity, I'd put her maybe at the same level as Kyle, probably a bit behind the curve in some aspects, but a bit ahead of him in others. She strikes me as physically older, and definitely more scholarly which offsets his greater experience in love and heroism. She helps him with a major emotional problem right after they get together, but the way she approaches the problem (his drawings of dead lanterns) is unusual. She's caring but keeps a clinical distance the other women wouldn't have been able to pull off. Jade and Donna's heart to hearts with Kyle always struck me as having a strange half-patronizing/half-pleading tone to them, where the girlfriend would protest that she cares for and loves Kyle but to listen to her because she knows better. Soranik doesn't plead that she loves Kyle, she tells him she cares about him as a way of shifting the debate away from her position as a medical expert who can just dole out orders to that of a friend who wants to understand him but might not necessarily know better. She actually acknowledges that the drawings themselves are a positive step in working through his traumas, which is something I can't see his previous girlfriends having done. (I've no doubt I'll be corrected if I'm wrong in this area.) In the end she offers a solution as a suggestion rather than a prescription, which is a pretty impressive feat for a Doctor.

Kyle's got a very friendly, approachable attitude. As Green Lanterns go he's pretty short on arrogance. He can be sweet, and passive aggressive. He was very much like his last two girlfriends, except he wasn't as mature as they were. Soranik has a completely different personality. She and Kyle share a common set of values, so the differences complement each other rather than clash.

Some of those common values come from just fitting the same part of the DCU. From the first time Kyle fought Parallax, he was tied to the betterment universe above all other things, above self, above family, above even his own species. Jade was always a personal-level hero, who would show up and do her duty during the giant crossover but ultimately be focused on her own loved ones. That's not bad, it's just earthly. Soranik Natu has the same calling Kyle does, for the universe above your own comfort, your own ambitions, your own planet. After the universe itself, Soranik and Kyle share a dedication to the sanctity of life, to the Green Lantern Corps (the people, not the rules or the bosses of the Green Lantern Corps), and to stopping the spread of fear across the universe.

Even before that awesome scene in Green Lantern Corps #41 (though it was nice to see dating Kyle didn't make her suddenly suck), she was considerably better than any girl Rayner's ever dated. Her career cushions her from falling into the "just a girlfriend" trap, her personality makes the relationship more interesting than the previous ones, and her connection to the franchise's major bad guy adds a layer of protection against being casually tossed into a refrigerator. So I have to say I'm pretty happy with what I've seen so far, despite worrying a bit about Kyle's Curse.

Blackest Night

Note: Please bear in mind when I read these thoughts that I am still two installments (Blackest Night #4 and Green Lantern #47) behind in Blackest Night so if the situation has changed that dramatically, you don't need to spoil it in the comments.

I hate to admit this, but as a Kyle fan Blackest Night has me worried.

Rebirth didn't really worry me because it started with his narration, and he was the first Lantern seen in the miniseries. It turned out to be a pretty damned good portrayal of Kyle, even though it sadly signalled the end of him narrating every appearance he makes. I still miss Kyle's narration a bit. I'm convinced he's still completely neurotic underneath the Model Lantern exterior. Some of the interaction with Guy (He was shocked to actually be respected by Captain Comet and only shows this when talking to Guy; He's overthinking what he saw in the Star Sapphire and only lets Guy know this) supports this, and if you reread Kyle as written by Ron Marz or Grant Morrison without looking at the narration you can see the behavior is the same.

The Sinestro Corps War didn't worry me at all because it started with him getting kidnapped and possessed by Parallax. This was not only living what was arguably his worst fear (after years of being cautioned not to let power go to his head and go bad like Hal, the exact same thing that happens to Hal happens to him), but it was the beginning of a story that was definitely going to end with him freed in some way and returned back to a regular Green Lantern and not some silly creature with near omniscience who can't really do anything effective. I gave Ion a shot, but he's preferrable this way. And since then Tomasi's written of the best Kyle stuff I've seen in a long time.

Blackest Night worries me. I don't think for a second they'll kill Kyle off or even turn him a different color. Hell, I'd lay down money that if every other Green Lantern turns color once during this crossover, Kyle will remain green unless the entire multicolor company turns white at once--in which case he'll go green-white-back to green at the end. I wouldn't be very surprised (but I would be greatly amused) if there was a point where he was actually the Very Last Green Lantern again, after everyone else (including Hal, because there's a good chance he's turning yellow before this thing ends just to give Indigo-1 a headache) has ended up involuntarily switching colors due to all the chaos being thrown around here.

But I'm worried I'm not going to get what I like best out of a Green Lantern crossover here. I'm looking at the storylines in Green Lantern Corps and Blackest Night/Green Lantern, and I see two storylines that aren't going to merge before the climax. The other two? Both Kyle and Hal were set on a collision course from the get-go, because part of the plot was one had to find the other. This one? Hal's gone questing while Kyle defends Oa against the Ex-Girlfriend from Hell (and the other forces of Death and Destruction, but really she's pretty imposing here). Hal's teaming up with other emotionally scarred Silver Age alumni like Carol Ferris and Sinestro in adventure therapy. The climax there is Hal and company getting enough understanding to work together. One that's done, returning to Oa and teaming up with Kyle and Guy will be a formality and part of the resolution. In the other two crossovers, saving one of those two was the climax and everything after that (after Hal's return in Rebirth and Kyle's rescue in SCW) was the formality and part of the resolution.

Really, what I like best about Geoff Johns' Green Lantern crossovers is the Hal and Kyle teamup. We very rarely see these two fight side-by-side apart because that's something saved for special occasions. And it's not the same if its just them in a big battle scene with everyone involved. It's not the same quality of interaction we had in the first two installments of this huge megastory Johns has been writing. As awesome as it is to have Carol back as a major character (and holding her own against Sinestro, and being the wisecracker in the questing party), I'll be a bit disappointed if the mainbook's storyline doesn't merge with Oa's at least in time to get a moment between my two favorites.

Friday Night Fights

For Bahlactus, Kyle Rayner and Barda Free in an art museum.

Countdown #27

I suppose this one counts as spoilers so here's a spamming image.



Anyway, to answer anyone who is about to ask (or has assumed by putting my name in the title of their post that I actually give a shit about this particular character) what I think of this after my recent ranting -- Sweet!!! I had Weeks 26-29 in the Donna Troy pool!

In all seriousness (and in all seriousness I really don't care much for that character) this all happened right after a fight (though she didn't do shit in it), there was no tantalizing flash of cleavage as she went down, and its been proven time and time again that no fridge can hold that woman. (Really, Kyle's reaction shouldn't be "No!" but "I know she'll be back next week, but I'm still very pissed off by the intention!") I can understand some of her fans being pissed (really, she didn't do shit in that fight, and you can tell this was to get Kyle good and pissed), but this doesn't strike me as really bad. A storyline where Donna dies and then comes back to life may as well be a storyline about Superman getting a cat out of a tree. You can do it well and interesting, and get some empathy going with the characters, but you really can't inject a lot of shock and suspense into it.

I'd say it has the positive of classifying that love triangle talk as the creators trying to mislead us, at least. Except for the sarcastic dialogue when Kyle first joined the group (Jason said "he's dreamy" about Kyle when talking to Donna, like he was teasing her over Kyle or possibly a bit jealous) that had me thinking maybe Jason carried a torch, I wasn't seeing the romantic tension. Donna and Jason tolerated each other, Kyle and Donna were friendly (but not friendly in that way), and Kyle and Jason were at each other's throats. That proves nothing, because Kyle and Jason are the sort of people who would be at each other's throats over the aisle seat in a movie theater. Really, with Kyle showing off like an ass (I swear, it seemed like they were writing Hal -- post-Parallax euphoria, perhaps?) and Jason was being his usual bright and cheerful self at the beginning its no wonder they started off badly and went to worse from there.

It is nice to see Jason being a proper asshole again. He was getting too comfortably cranky with the others.

Green Lantern #24 Spoilers

Dear Geoff Johns,

Its time to talk. You have a serious problem. You need help with your dialogue.

Okay, maybe your word processor deleted a few lines in that Kyle-Hal scene. (And in that exchange between Parallax and John, because John's line about staying black came out of nowhere.) But there's not excuse for Kyle's words on the last panel. I know what you intended, it didn't work.

Also, work on your timing. Just because we all know to expect several issues of action that amounts to twiddling your thumbs and then an issue where everything happens at once (well, everything happens one panel after another, but he always packs more in the issue right before the resolution than in the past year of the series, and things seem to move too fast).

Bad stuff out of the way, I liked this issue. I'd be lying if I said I didn't want Kyle free without any help, but I think the way it unfolds works nicely.

I can't express how happy I am you had Hal point out that he had help from the fucking Spectre. I was beginning to think you retconned that out, and it would be annoying. Now, I'm going to go ahead and assume Kyle's stronger since Hal needed an entity of Biblical power, the embodied wrath of God, to get him loose and Kyle just needed a pep talk.

I'm also a little annoyed that Guy was so quick with those construct shorts, but we can't have everything we hope for. I'm going to lose money on the lack of a scar, but we have two months for aftermath stories and there's a chance that Reis missed it.

Thank you for turning Kyle back to a regular Green Lantern, and thank whoever designed that new costume. (except the mask -- what is it about Kyle and masks?) I hope it has a zipper. It looks like the top is a zip-up jacket and I think it would be cool to have him standing around with the coat part unzipped and a Green Lantern T-shirt.

I look forward to the next installment.

Oh, and in case you were wondering...

I'll admit it. There was a point in Tales of the Sinestro Corps: Parallax where I thought I felt my heart grow two sizes after I turned the page. (Don't worry, it shrunk again when I started reading reviews of the Green Arrow and Black Canary Wedding Special. I may have lost a size.)

Strangely, it left me with an ending where I'd predicted the "how" of it (Kalinara can attest to that one), but not the why of it. Usually I can guess the whys of a plot but the hows are what I read to find out.

I liked the art. Kyle's face and hair worked well, but I thought he was overmuscled. I like when he's drawn short and slender, with compact muscles so that the bad guy towers over him. Kyle's one of those characters I like to see outmatched in every possible way from the outset, even physically. It makes when he wins more impressive. Still, this was taking place inside Kyle's mind so works.

The stubble was interesting. I think Adriana Melo (the penciller here) and Patrick Gleason may be the only two artists I've seen bother to draw stubble on Kyles face.

This issue drives home how emotionally reserved Kyle can be, especially for such an expressive artist. He has his tantrums, yes, but the entire issue is set in his head under the worst stress imaginable and he's thinking very calmly about his problem for most of it.

Anyway, I'll wait on the "I told ya so" dance over this crossover until we see how things play outside of Kyle's head because I'm sure some of you are still convinced things will not turn out with Kyle on top even after this.

In the meantime there was a reference to some issues in this book that bug me (yes, its the role of women in this franchise and I should've known it would take a Marz-written book to shake them to the surface for me), and I'm trying to put together my thoughts on mothers and Green Lantern in respect to this issue. I might get a post out of either if I get the energy.

Also there's a point with Ganthet from Rebirth I have to reread because I think it'll come up again. (ETA: This point.)

December Solicits

From Newsarama:

GREEN LANTERN #26
Written by Geoff Johns
Art by Mike McKone & Andy Lanning
Cover by Ivan Reis & Oclair Albert
Setting the stage for the Green Lanterns' role in FINAL CRISIS comes Part 1 of "The Alpha Lanterns," a new story arc written by Geoff Johns with art by Mike McKone (TEEN TITANS)! Who are the Alpha-Lanterns? What bizarre cosmic surgery have they undergone? And how will they affect the future of the Green Lantern Corps?
In the aftermath of the Sinestro Corps War, the Green Lanterns are undergoing an unprecedented reconstruction and reinvention, and the controversial Alpha-Lantern project is in full effect.
Meanwhile, with Sinestro's true machinations for his war revealed to Earth's prime Green Lanterns, Hal Jordan and John Stewart, debate rages across Oa as lines are drawn and crossed, new bonds are formed, and old ones broken.
On sale December 26 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US

GREEN LANTERN CORPS #19
Written by Peter J. Tomasi
Art and cover by Patrick Gleason & Prentis Rollins
The pieces of the Sinestro Corps War are still falling as Guy is finally reunited with his lost love, Ice! And as Kyle Rayner tries to start his new life as a Green Lantern, Sinestro rings continue to empower new and deadlier forces in space.
On sale December 12 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US

GREEN LANTERN/SINESTRO CORP SECRET FILES #1
Written by Geoff Johns & Sterling Gates
Art by Ivan Reis, Ethan Van Sciver, J.G. Jones, Patrick Gleason and Joe Prado
Cover by Reis & Oclair Albert
For the first time ever, the secrets of the Book of Oa and the Book of Parallax are revealed in short stories looking at the past, present and future of the Corps! This 64-page Special features new tales of both the Green Lantern and Sinestro Corps!
In store December 19 • 64 pg, FC, $4.99 US

First: Ice! Yay!

Second, Kyle in space. This should be interesting because of the Parallax storyline. Being stationed on Oa means the paranoia focused on Hal before will either be lessened enough to let someone who's been Parallax be on Oa, or its just going to be an all-around worse situation for Kyle since he has to work in the heart of the Corps.

Third, check out the three covers. Same theme for all of them, not sure what that's getting at. Also, note the middle right (well, your left as you view the cover) of GLC and the Secret Files. Ice is important enough to be in the Corps picture. Katma's on the Secret Files, so we should get at least a Katma flashback part if not a little story and profile for her. (No, I don't see it as a sign of imminent resurrection. That's the Silver Age Corps on that cover. Still, if the writers like her enough they might bring her back later.)

Outside of that, Kyle's going to a gender swapped world and the Red Son world with Donna and Jason. Tangent characters are in Justice League of America, Wonder Woman's in The Atom, Alan Scott adn Jade are in JSA: Classified, Blue Beetle's going to space, Drew Johnson's on Supergirl, McKeever's starting his Birds of Prey run, and Cyclone is in an enviable position.

Interestingly enough, I rarely see this from Guy-fans.

I adore Kyle Rayner and think he's the best all-around Lantern, I think John Stewart is made of awesome and needs more exposure, but there's nothing that sours your pro-Kyle or pro-John post for me more than trashing Hal Jordan.

It doesn't need to be done. He's a vastly amusing character with a history behind him that a lot of us like, and the whole franchise is set up so that they can all be used at once.

And by the way, those Hal-fans you hate who love to trash the "rival" characters, your favorites? You sound just like them when they do it, and I'm fucking sick of it.

What is this? 12 fucking years and this fandom hasn't changed a bit? Did this happen in the 70s when John showed up? The 60s when they did that alternate timeline story with Guy?

"You know, that Hal Jordan character is so much better than the old rich-boy lazy Alan Scott they had in the 40s, I'm glad he got replaced. What were those idiots thinking in the 40s?"
"You're kidding, right? Hal's a fucking moron and a Lensmen ripoff. They're only using him because Broome can't tell a good mystery, he has to bring outer space in it!"
"Oh, that does it! I'm getting out my stationary and starting a "Bring back Alan!" letter campaign!"

Fucking fans. I hate you all.

Countdown #33

Kyle Rayner is now on the list of characters Adam Beechen shouldn't write. I mean, maybe it was the artist but that first sequence was a bit too sleazy for me. Since when does Kyle come on to his old girlfriends, anyway? There should be a lot more awkwardness there.

The second sequence was better when Simone wrote it in Atom #15. The layout and the art in Atom was much better too.

Nice cover, at least.

Picked up Atom #15

We got a five-page Countdown interlude that doesn't really serve to resolve a complete story in the four-part storyarc where Ryan was involved in what is shaping up to be the year-long Search for Ray Palmer storyline. Its like Ryan got on a bus with Donna and Jason, they took a detour from the normal route and missed Ryan's normal stop so he had to get off at the stop two blocks down from where he needed to be and track back. At the same stop, Kyle gets on and the bus resumes its route.

Judging from this and the preceding issues, I think they tossed a little paper to Gail Simone that said "We'll be doing a Search for Ray Palmer series in Countdown. It would be stupid not to have Ryan Choi involved at all, but we're not planning on having him past September because we plotted the specials without thinking of him. Can you fit a four-part storyarc in while we wait for Kyle Rayner to get freed up?"

Then, of course, they didn't actually wait for Kyle Rayner to get freed up.

I had two questions as of the first page: (1) How long ago did they plan this out? (2) How far behind is Green Lantern right now?

I know the second answer is at least three issues and one week, and that's not me being a continuity cop here. I just think this is a weird anomaly given DC's continuity contortions to make sure all its books have been on the same page since Identity Crisis. The only explanation is that Green Lantern was delayed further than it was meant to, and Johns had Sinestro Corps planned out leading into the pre-plotted Countdown storyline before the delays that corresponded with Infinite Crisis.

They're not fooling anyone.

Unless we're dealing with some sort of time travel plot. And that is a time-honored time-travel plot gimmick, though the editorial box telling us to watch for the Green Lantern issue in three months is a fun addition.

But that's okay, because I saw at least five good things from that first page alone: (1) It doesn't spoil anything from Green Lantern because with this plot we can easily take alternate universes, imposters, returning from the dead, and time travel into account because at least two of those are involved from the outset. (2) Ryan knows him even in a new costume and even though he admits doesn't know American superheroes very well. (3) The look on Donna's face implies she's pleased to see him so this is not a repeat of her Rann-Thanagar War mischaracterization. (4) Finally! A good costume! (5) Mike Norton got the hair right.

Clumsy as the planning is and miserable as it must be for people who aren't following it, I'm enjoying this storyline. One of my favorite characters is present and so far he comes off fairly well, Donna Troy comes off well (and that's a rare treat), there's a few jokes dropped, no unhealthy background symbolism, and its the sort of plot I read comic books for. I mean, alternate universe road trip? I can't resist that.

Hypothetically Speaking

You're watching a television show and it has a "To be continued..." ending. When showing the scenes to advertise the next part the announcer says:

Ben Cassidy is the greatest drag racer in all of Kunda County, but even he couldn't make it through Dead Man's Run without crashing. What chance does his cousin Will have now that he's been forced to make that run?

Now, being a rational, thinking human being with brain -- what do you think that means?

It usually means Will is going to get through Dead Man's Run in one piece, and get a slap on the back from cousin Ben. Sure, there's a slim chance that the plot will be that Ben shows up and pulls Will out of the burning wreckage. I figure in that case the advertisement would focus a bit more on Ben at the end, but there's a slim chance. More often than not, Will is going to come through in the end here. The trick is to make the predictable outcome exciting to watch unfold.

See, the reason they position Ben as "the greatest drag race in all of Kunda County" is to highlight the difficulty of Will's adventure here. If "the greatest drag racer in Kunda County" made Dead Man's run and ended up having to be pulled from a flaming wreckage, then man Will's in trouble isn't he? It'll be something to see if he makes it.

I suppose they could have the announcer say:

Local Schmuck Ben Cassidy crunched his car in Dead Man's Run. Can Will the much better racer survive the challenge?

But then what's the fucking point of watching?

Okay...

Since I've been ranting about reactions to Amazons Attack, I may as well link one that made me laugh: Ragtime's Things I learned from Amazons Attack.

On #7: I would like to point out that through DC's shifting timeline Donna would be in the earliest part of the ADD generation (I really think we should just toss out the letter thing and do generations by most-commonly diagnosed childhood ailment anymore), and she was looking for Diana when Jason Todd showed up in a sidepanel. The next thing we all knew, she was hopping universes in Countdown.

So yeah, she got distracted and forgot about the war.

I wonder if the same thing'll happen to Kyle. The first Countdown Presents: The Search for Ray Palmer one-shot is due out this month, and the Sinestro Corps War crossover is not finished until December.

Can anyone else picture it? Kylelax raises his arm to throw an energy burst at a downed Hal, when just beyond his victim he sees an old girlfriend (and two other guys) appear out of nowhere.

"Hey Kyle! I found this guy who's taking us to alternate universes! We're looking for Professor Palmer! Wanna come?"

"Sure!" Kyle simply walks over to them, leaving a very confused giant yellow fearbug (from outer spaaace) where he was first standing. "Can we stop for coffee on the way?"

"Okay! He was just telling us about a universe where the guy who started up Starbucks is the Emperor of North America when I thought of you, actually..."

"Really? Do they still have the coffee bars there?"

"On every street corner," the Monitor assures him.

They disappear. Parallax is temporarily disabled because it just can't understand how it lost hold of that host. The other human host had had a normal attention span.

Unfortunately everyone else is also stunned by this turn of events for a combat round or two, so no advantage comes of it.

Its a good thing I'm not writing Sinestro Corps, isn't it?

Kyle has strange hobbies.

We all know Kyle Rayner as the Lord of the Fridge, Collector of Angst and Bringer of Death to Supporting Cast Members. Certainly the young lady in black (or dude on the skis if you so prefer) seems to follow Kyle like a lost puppy. I mean, she's picked up not only every woman the boy takes to bed with him but much of the Silver Age Green Lantern Corps during Kyle's early years. (Seriously, read the first 50 issues of Marz's run on Green Lantern. It was supposed to be all Hal's fault, but really it was everyone Kyle came into contact with who got folded, spindled, and mutilated.) Thing is, there's another trend that popped up toward the end of Winick's run and has stuck with the guy since.

Start with Green Lantern #150 where (along with the battery) he brings the formerly deceased Guardians back to life as children (with little girls too!).

Then look at the Obsidian Age storyline in JLA (JLA #66-76) after that, where he agrees to offer up his heart so that the souls of the rest of the League can be safely housed there for a few thousand years and then be brought back to life.

Then he goes to outer space, and encounters the resurrected and possibly undead Kilowog. Kilowog had been brought back to life by Boodika and several other ex-lanterns in the Last Will and Testament of Hal Jordan (I have no fucking clue what is up with this storyline since Green Lantern 10-13 because this is the storyline where Kilowog came back and where Oa was reconstructed so it can't be totally retconned out, but Boodika can't have been there and she was a major antagonist.) So Kilowog gets collected by the keepers of his people's afterlife because he's from one of those planets where they frown on this sort of thing. Which leads to the bright spot of Raab's run (Green Lantern #169 I believe, but I didn't like Raab's run so I've only read this one a few times) when Kyle literally follows a friend to Hell and physically pulls him back to the land of the living. We can count that.

And then, of course, there's the famous Rebirth storyline where Kyle retrieved the body of Hal Jordan from the sun so that Hal could be brought to life in a storyline involving Ganthet and the Spectre. Since Kyle was pretty damned active in bringing this about, I'd like to count that as well.

Then there's the end of the Ion maxiseries where Kyle brings his mother to life until she tells him that's a bad idea. This one probably only fell through because (unlike everyone else he's seen resurrected) she's a religious civilian woman and not a superhero who has actually spoken to various deities from a number of different cultures. Kind of a different view on the afterlife there. Still, despite being a tap back, this counts.

So, there we have it. Kyle Rayner has either actually performed or facilitated the resurrection of a dead person (or persons) on five different occasions. These aren't deaths that are just retconned away as never having happened. These are people who were in-continuity dead, and the plot was that he went out of his way and brought them back to life.

And, if you take into account that there were 5 dead Leaguers (not counting Kyle) in that JLA story, and the dead Guardians numbered 15, 31, or 35 (Kalinara and I are still arguing this one), that's actually quite a lot of people.

Under 5 different writers come to think of it.

I have no impressive conclusion to this train of thought. Its just one of those things that keeps popping up. Only while I'm absolutely certain they've done the dead girlfriend/relative thing consciously (so that Kyle can angst that he's cursed and be reluctant to grow close to anyone) I don't think they've realized yet that they created a character who raises the dead as a hobby (or that the two trends are intrinsically connected characterization-wise). There would be more in-jokes about it at convention panels I imagine.

Four Important Things All DC Fans Should Know

Since I'm already shooting my mouth off and possibly causing hurt feelings in my comments, let's go over some things here on the mainpage:

1) There is no pro-Hal conspiracy to kill/ruin Kyle Rayner. Kyle becoming Parallax just makes fucking sense from a narrative standpoint since that would be his (and the rest of the DCU's) greatest freaking fear since Kyle first found out what happened to Hal. This story had to happen, and it may as well happen now. If you are worried about how the writer feels about Kyle, reread Rebirth.

Since I've also seen this one theorized, Kyle Rayner is being moved to the Countdown books not to ruin Kyle, but to sucker his rabid fans into buying Countdown. (Seriously, check out today's solicits. See who is prominently featured on the cover of every Countdown tie-in they appear in? Kyle and Donna. Kyle and Donna. Kyle and Donna. They know why people would want to read this stuff, and its not the creative team or the storyline.) Its working for me, and I know its working on some of the rest of you too. If anything, this proves Kyle is safe because they need a character who can draw 40K readers into their crappy crossovers.

(Also, they finally gave him a good costume. Things are looking up!)

2) There was no plot to kill all of JLI and ruin everything Keith Giffen created. (If there was, why is Ice back?) That is why they joke about that at conventions. They are making fun of fans who think that.

3) There is no conspiracy to kill off Young Justice characters. Superboy's copyright was complicated. Bart wasn't selling (possibly because so many of his fans were boycotting DC over other matters, but I'm just guessing based on who I've seen complaining about what online). Secret and Arrowette were removed in the original series. Empress has a fucking stupid civilian name and will never be prominent again because her creator couldn't resist a stupid pun. Lil' Lobo was one of those jokes that was funny for one panel but got overused. (Like a lot of the jokes in Young Justice. I swear, that series was like the Saturday Night Live of superhero comics).

That team is down to two, but they'd be mad to get rid of Tim and I'm just not lucky enough to see Cassie die.

That series wasn't all it was cracked up to be anyway, take it from someone who was the age range of those heroes when they were created. It was good for a laugh, but in the end I remember preferring the big guns in the JLA or the grumpy old men in JSA than the heroes that were supposed to have been my generation's.

4) They actually do hate Kirby fans. Starlin was overjoyed to get to kill off the New Gods. Bastards.

(Or, y'know, that sort of joking around at a convention could be just them fucking with our conspiracy theories again like they consciously did leading up to Identity Crisis, GL: Rebirth, Infinite Crisis...etc...)

November DC

Its that time of the month again! (Shut up Sims, I don't mean that time of the month.) Newsarama has the November pre-solicits up. The full ones should be around by 5 PM on Monday, but it looks like all of the Green Lantern stuff made the early ones.

GREEN LANTERN #25
Written by Geoff Johns
Art and cover by Ivan Reis & Oclair Albert
Variant cover by Gary Frank
This is it! The most talked-about storyline of the summer, “The Sinestro Corps War,” concludes in this double-sized anniversary issue! Why does Sinestro believe he has won? How will Hal Jordan stop his greatest enemy? What is the truth behind the prophecy of “The Blackest Night”? Where will the end results of this battle take the Green Lantern Corps? What is the bizarre fate of the Anti-Monitor? Why has Earth been assigned so many Green Lanterns? Learn all the secrets! Witness all the battles! Prepare yourself for the startling ending of the greatest epic in the history of Green Lantern!
Retailers please note: This issue will feature two covers that may be ordered separately. For every 10 copies of the Standard Edition (featuring a cover by Ivan Reis & Oclair Albert, retailers may order one Variant Edition (featuring a cover by Gary Frank). See the Previews Order Form for more information.
On sale November 28 • 64 pg, FC, $4.99 US

"Why has Earth been assigned so many Green Lanterns?" There needs to be an explanation for that? Haven't they seen what Earth in the DCU is like? I'd stick a few extras there too! Hell the Guardians could save a lot of time by just basing the Corps on Earth, because if a universal threat isn't from there its headed there anyway.

GREEN LANTERN CORPS #18
Written by Peter J. Tomasi
Art and cover by Pat Gleason & Prentis Rollins
“The Sinestro Corps War” epilogue! The fires still burn, the dead are many, and the Green Lantern Corps rises from the ashes to rebuild and continue their mission to protect the universe as the Guardians’ recent decision in the midst of the Sinestro Corps War reverberates within the ranks and alters the Corps forever!
On sale November 28 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US

Oa is seriously still on fire in November? This started in June and they still haven't managed to douse it. They need a Green Lantern Fire Brigade because this is hardly the first time in the last 25 years that place has been set ablaze.

TALES OF THE SINESTRO CORPS PRESENTS: ION #1
Written by Ron Marz
Art by Michael Lacomb
Cover by Ivan Reis
Ion is the chosen one of the Green Lantern Corps, whose coming was foretold as a prophecy in the Book of Oa. But now that Kyle Rayner has been possessed by Parallax, can he ever bear the mantle of Ion again? Or will it pass to a completely new bearer? This all-important Sinestro Corps tie-in reveals the answers, and sets the stage for Green Lantern — and Kyle Rayner — for years to come!
On sale November 7 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US

That bug is still inside Kyle by this point? Damn, I was betting on the Parallax special being when it gets moved. DC, that's another dollar you've lost me.

Funny how every other special has been about an active bad guy as the title character, but this one is the second one about Kyle and instead of Tales of the Sinestro Corps: Parallax #2 or Green Lantern Special: Ion we have Tales of the Sinestro Corps: Ion. It makes me wonder if Sinestro's going to try to place Ion inside one of his lackeys to make a second Parallax-level ally. I mean, everything we've seen has suggested that Kyle was in the driver's seat while Ion was boosting the engine. Sinestro himself said Ion wasn't a possessing force like Parallax, but a support entity. There's no reason to think that a bad guy hosting the whale would be anything other than a bad guy. Sinestro would be stupid not to try this.

Most importantly though, who the fuck is Michael Lacomb and can he get the hair right?

Now that I've recovered from actually attending the convention...

I thought I'd point out something I witnessed (I'll quote the Newsarama writeup, though) since I've had a few commenters on this blog worried about this:

- Will Kyle Rayner die?

Didio asked the panel: Should Kyle die?

Van Sciver: "Absolutely not"
Starlin: "I missed the question because I was talking" (to a woman in a Power Girl costume), but then he added, "yes."
Calafiore - Yes
Wayne - No
Jones- No
Levitz - No

Didio said "Stop right there."

Aureliani, who would have been next after Levitz, said - "What, you don't ask the cartoonists?" To which Didio said, "He's the boss."

There. The freaking Publisher telling the Editor-in-Chief he didn't want Kyle Rayner dead. If that Green Lantern was ever on the fabled kill-list, he's not anymore.

(Not to mention the Green Lantern artist sounded absolutely horrified at the thought of killing that character.)

Beyond that Didio said that Green Lantern #26 would lead directly in Kyle joining Countdown at the Friday panel.

Now will you guys please stop angsting about Kyle's fate and let me enjoy the current storyline?

Why does this piss me off so much?

I've been reading through the 1500 blog posts I missed over the weekend, and I just found the umpteenth post whining about Kyle.

I don't know why this pisses me off so much. Maybe because its a story idea that I like, and I'd been hoping for earlier in Johns run. Its a story I've been wanting to see, because this is Kyle's biggest fear. This is the one of those things that has haunted since the beginning of his career, the idea that he might end up like Hal did. Its something the character needs to go through, and to be honest I don't like the Uber-Kyle a lot of fans are attached to. Ion works temporarily, but really I prefer the character with his ring.

I also prefer the character as the lesser powered person in a situation. The best Kyle stories are Kyle as the underdog. Kyle started out facing fully-Parallaxed Hal. He had to face him his first week with absolutely no help. He came up with this unbelievably crazy idea of destroying the planet both characters were standing on, and Parallax is so thrown he lets Kyle through the mass purging of the entire Green Lantern mythos.

A little while later, Ganthet tries to fire him, and Parallax shows up again, scares off Ganthet, beats the shit out of the JLA, beat the shit out of Kyle and takes his ring. Kyle pops back up, powerless, armed by only a lead pipe and knocks Parallax over the head. There's some talking between Hal, Kyle and Ganthet. Hal decides that beating up Kyle is like the Hulk wearing cleats to step on a kitten and the situation defuses. (This one actually works really well with the fearbug retcon, because you can interpret it was Hal coming back to control for a short time.)

In JLA he had to overcome his awe and nervousness save the universe multiple times. Morrison's DC One Million crossover forced Kyle to hold together an exploding sun. He needed a pep talk from batman first.

In Rebirth, he's at death's doorstep and he keeps moving forward because he has to.

I like Kyle.

No, I love Kyle. He's one of my absolute favorite characters in the DC stable.

But I thought Ion was killing him. Both times. My Kyle is the toughest guy in the universe, but not nearly the most powerful. My Kyle is loaded with self-doubt, hesitation, and fear. My Kyle is often outgunned, outmatched, and overpowered by the energy.

My Kyle pushes past that to triumph anyway.

I am enjoying the hell out of this story, because Sinestro Corps was the beginning of a story about My Kyle. He was out of his element, he was alone, he was outnumbered, he was overpowered, and he was at the end of his rope. He faltered, just enough, to get into real trouble from there.

This happened in the first issue. This always happens to Kyle. The best stories are when he gets through that and wins in the end.

I can understand being pissed when this crossover is over and done with, if Kyle is a passive little victim who needs to be saved completely by Hal. But seriously, we're in the opening shots here and right now it fits the pattern of a really good Kyle Rayner story perfectly.

I don't see how these so-called devoted Kyle fans aren't seeing that. That's why I did the writer poll, because while Johns is a very intense writer, this isn't a pattern that only he uses. Marz and Morrison wrote this pattern. They set up the Kyle fears, falters, then comes back to win pattern. Kelly continued it. Honestly, the only writer who had his hands on the character for a significant amount of time but didn't do that was Judd Winick, and I believe that's why I despise his run so much. That wasn't My Kyle. I figured the people who hated the crossover must've joined during his run.

Johns, though he doesn't use him often, writes Kyle the way I know and love him. Its Johns style, so its melodramatic and the pacing's off. the jokes change from writer to writer, sure. but personality-wise and story-role-wise this is My Kyle. This is the Green Lantern I started with. This is the Green Lantern who brought me into Green Lantern. This story fits the pattern, and it promises to put an end to the Ion nonsense.

I'm really enjoying this story, and I'd love to be able to enjoy it without people shitting on it for particularly stupid complaints. That's why I'm so irritated with them. I've not been going through Kyle-withdrawal for the past two months. I've been going through Kyle withdrawal for a full year, dammit, and I've finally gotten this character back after all that time and I want to enjoy it dammit.

Now, someone's about to come here and say I'm trying to censor Kyle complaints or tell you to stop complaining about Kyle. No, I'm not. You are perfectly free to think that Kyle has been ruined and this is all some juvenile Hal-fan revenge for Emerald Twilight.

I, however, am perfectly free to say you're a fucking idiot who obviously has never read a Kyle Rayner story in your life (Winick's run doesn't count, that wasn't Kyle. Though, as Kalinara pointed out once, it was sadly the most in-character Winick's ever written a DC property), or that you are whiny, panicky, annoying, and shitting on a perfectly good storyline and a writer that I happen to like.

And I will, whether you're normally an idiot or just a panicky Kyle fan who is otherwise sensible but is too damned spooked over Bart's death to see things my way. Because I have an extra-stressful real life right now, I've been relaxing by reading and discussing this storyline because I'm really enjoying this storyline, and complaints along the lines of "They're going to KILL Kyle" are really fucking annoying me more than they normally would.

It would be one thing if the complaint was over art or pacing (Johns-pacing is really freaking weird) or dialogue or mood, but this gloom and doom shit isn't cutting it as a justifiable concern.

I will also use this blog to alienate and deride anyone who shits on my good mood whenever I feel the need to, because that's what an internet blog is for anyway.

October Solicits

The full solicits aren't up until Monday, but they have some early DC ones up.

This probably spoils the end of the current GL crossover, but check out the cover to Countdown for a look at Kyle's new look. The design is nice, and I like it. Very close to traditional, but still Kyle and the hair has a bit of length that does away with the crewcut that scared me from that sketch last month. (Yes, that crewcut annoyed me more than anything in Green Lantern: Sinestro Corps.) Can't wait for an artist I really like to draw it.

Also, Kalinara has notes on the JLA cover and which Lantern is on it. I'll be doing my I Told You So dance in the meantime.

Oh, and if anyone would like to see an entertaining and rage-inducing conversation on race as Hal-only fans react to the JLA cover and cry because now their favorite's only dominating one book, check out the discussion thread on Newsarama. There's vague whining, then it gets cooking around Page 4 or 5 when someone mentions reverse discrimination.

The Newsarama forum debates the issue of racism with all of the class and dignity we've come to expect from a superhero fan-site message board.

Hal-fans take this opportunity to express the opinion John is a character with no personality other than being black while John-fans point out he has a rich and detailed history that stupid people like to ignore because they don't know enough about Green Lantern, but Hal-fans still insist that he's being thrown in for race. Someone who can't count thinks that half of the team is black now, someone says a third and members of the silent majority sensibly realize that they don't know how many people are on the finalized roster yet. There's the "editorially mandated diversity so it will suck" vs. "McDuffie loves John so its no surprise" argument, the theoretically intelligent point that there's more to diversity than adding a black character is used to support an extremely stupid argument, the required Didio-trashing and a "Did you know Kyle's Hispanic?" "WTF? Seriously?" tangent thrown in for variety.

Somewhere along the way someone points out that DC spoiled the ending to Sinestro Corps, but the "JLA is Kyle's book, dammit!" fans don't show up until Page 8.

Also on page 8, a reader loses his faith in the writer's word and someone finally brings up that there might be two Lanterns on the team or that Hal might have very good in-story reasons for dropping out.

On Page 9 there is a valiant effort at stopping the fight through logic.

My absolute favorite is the this post:

There are people of color in this country. They deserve super-heroes. You are a big doodee head.

See, being a Green Lantern fan is not all the Hal vs. Kyle war. Sometimes we fight about John too.