Showing posts with label dale eaglesham. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dale eaglesham. Show all posts

Sunday, March 27, 2022

Sunday Splash Page #211

 
"Yellow and Green Make War," in Green Lantern (vol. 3) #144, by Judd Winick (writer), Dale Eaglesham (penciler), Rodney Ramos (inker), Moose Baumann (colorist), Chris Eliopoulos (letterer)

What few Green Lantern comics I own are all from Kyle Rayner's stretch as the sole ring-bearer. The only one I bought at the time it came out was the final issue, for reasons I can no longer recall. That ends with him decapitating Major Force and sending his head floating into the void. Then Kyle decides to go into space.

Pretty sure the next time he pops up is Green Lantern: Rebirth, where he managed to not get snuffed by Geoff (goddamnit, I spelled it "Geoof" on the first try again) Johns, against all expectations.

The others are from the stretch when Kyle tapped into all the power Hal left behind when he reignited the Sun during Final Night, becoming rather godlike in the process. Kyle manages to not try and reboot the entire universe, but does gradually extend his abilities. On a grand scale, he travels to an alien world he visited previously, still torn apart by conflict, and simply makes violence impossible. Oh, people can try, but any attempt, from using a laser tank to a rock is thwarted by him. The idea seemingly being that, with killing or harming all their adversaries off the table, the sides will have to learn to co-exist.

On smaller scales, he reignites his then-girlfriend Jade's inherent powers, so she no longer has to rely on a power ring. He also tracks down his father, who was apparently an intelligence agent who wanted out of the life, and is so skilled, he covered his tracks beyond the ability of anyone Kyle knows to track him down.

Kyle ultimately chooses to recreate the Central Power Battery, which somehow creates a bunch of new Guardians. So we get a whole new batch of little blue morons. That was after Superman gave him the old, "we can't do too much for humanity or we stifle their potential," speech, and Kyle debating whether to stop Hal Jordan from going down his dark path. So he was going to mess with time, just a little. 

Kyle's presented as still inexperienced in some ways. Still only touching the surface of what he can do with these powers. But also wise enough to know when to ask questions. Ask Hal if he wants Kyle to change the past (unsurprisingly, Hal has an active role in this story.) Ask Alan Scott for his perspective on having this much power inside. And when he renounces it, wise enough to make some changes to his ring to address certain problems he's had in the past, like the ring getting taken away from him, or running out of power entirely.

It's an OK storyline, although he creates a new costume that's kind of hideous. Way too much white, almost no green. When he goes back to just being a Green Lantern, he creates the costume I remember seeing described as looking like a sneaker. I can see what they mean, but I like it all right. That may be because it was the one he wore during Joe Kelly's Obsidian Age storyline, which I was rather fond of.

Friday, July 24, 2020

Random Back Issues #38 - Green Lantern #145

I don't know what Sallyp's up to these days, but this page of Kyle Rayner in his underwear, fighting a crazy person in an endless void, is for her. Not quite sure why Kyle wanted to fight this guy wearing only tighty-whities, but it has been well established elsewhere in the comics blogosphere that Kyle is not the dumbest Earth Green Lantern only because Hal Jordan exists.

What we've got here is a big fight issue between Kyle and this Nero guy. Kyle's been unconsciously drawing from all the Green Lantern energy Hal left in the Sun when he reignited during Final Night, and apparently so has Nero, who has yellow power ring energy going like Sinestro. Except maybe it's internalized? I don't know. They're fighting out in space to see who gets the godlike power all to himself.
It seems to pretty much be a stalemate, as they're fighting each other while their energy constructs wage war all around them. Nero tries to get a jump on Kyle, but can't quite escape. Then a bunch of Qwardians show up and interfere. They claim they're here to kill Nero, who they gave this power in the first place, but Kyle figures out they really want to be killed by the weapon they created. I really had no idea the Qwardians were so into death. I suppose it explains them helping the Anti-Monitor in Crisis on the Infinite Earths, though. Well, that and both of them being "Anti-Matter Universe 4 Life".

I was going to type it as "lyfe", and then felt physically dirty for doing so. I'm typing this right after I typed that Murder Princess post on Monday, meaning 4 a.m., so who the hell knows where my mind is at this point.

The Qwardians die as they want, and one manages to stick some doohickey on Nero's back, so that he'll be teleported to safety if he doesn't win. We never actually see if that happens or not, but Kyle also doesn't really try to kill Nero. Given how powerful he ends up being, I don't think the attempt to hide Nero would work anyway.
Kyle catches up again, they fight some more, Nero seems to have the edge, Kyle really reaches out and grabs the power, then decides they should settle things man-to-man, leading to underwear fighting up there. That really seems like more of a Hal move, personally. Kyle wins and then finds two doors. One leads to the Sun, and all that power. The other leads back to the alley where Kyle first got his ring. Hal, as the Spectre, is giving him a choice. Kyle thinks it's because Hal feels he did a bad job and shouldn't have all that power. Hal insists he just wants Kyle to know there are options, something no one told him.

I'm pretty sure people told Hal killing all the other Lanterns and stealing their power was a bad idea. Probably those very same Lanterns, while he was killing them. But OK, sure Hal, keep playing the victim. Next you'll be telling me a giant yellow fear bug made you do it.

Kyle chooses Door Number Sun, takes the power, and the codename Ion. I thought for a minute his new costume is the one people describe as looking like a sneaker, but I think that's actually the costume he takes after he surrenders most of the power back into the Central Battery 5 issues from now.

[5th longbox, 20th comic. Green Lantern (vol. 2) #145, by Judd Winick (writer), Dale Eaglesham (penciler), Rodney Ramos (inker), Moose Baumann (colorist), Chris Eliopoulos (letterer)]