I was planning a big(ish) update for today but I think i'll hold off as I'm a bit sad right now. Before I go into it I'm going to have to take a leaf out of Linkara's book and tell you some "Comic History You Don't Care About But Need To Know In Order To Understand This".

Back in the early/mid ninties, DC felt the Green Lantern "Hal Jordan" was to plain a character for fans to really relate to. Thus they decided to write a story that would remove Hal, the Green Lantern Corps and allow them to create a new Green Lantern. Additionally, without the Green Lantern Corps to back him up, this new guy would be the one and only Lantern in existance and thus would have to learn everything the hard way and through trial and error. Enter Kyle Rayner.

However DC's plan to remove both Hal and the Corps resorted in the destruction of Hal's home town Costal City and the death of around 7 million people. When Hal sat in the ruins of his home and everyone he ever loved and cared about (with the exception of his on-again/off-again love interest and one of his brothers elsewhere and thus still alive), Hal snapped. He attempted to use his ring to comfort himself, only for the Guarians to step in, slap him on the wrist and telling him off for using the ring for personal gain. Hal, enraged by their decision, turned on them and subsiquently killed everyone bar Ganthet, the only Guardian who chose to take a name and generally showed he wasn't part of the flock like the other Guardians.

To put it another way, think of Kyle as being like Raiden from Metal Gear Solid 2 - the writers wanting to take the series in a new direction, so they kill off the main protagonist and introduce a new guy so the plot can focuse around him. Surprise surprise fans were OUTRAGED by this decision and when Kyle was introduced a large number of the fanbase were turned against him simply because of the means they took to introduce him.

Growing up as a Marvel fan, I only really knew about the Trinity - Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. I was first introduced to a number of DC's heroes, including Green Lantern, when I picked up the 96/97 crossover "Marvel vs DC/DC vs Marvel". Though Kyle battled and lost against the Silver Surfer, the character's power left an imprint on me and I slowly looked at reading Green Lantern. In the mid 2000's Green Lantern was picking up a lot of praise after writing a story about homosexuality. Kyle had been given a new job and assigned a young asisstant Terry. When Kyle proposed to his girlfriend (who, fact fans, was the daughter of Golden Age Green Lantern Alan Scott. Like many of Kyle's love interests she's dead), he turned him down but they stayed together (or something. That part of the story was never collected in trades so I've never read it. One trade litterly ends say an issue or two before that comic, and the next picks up say an issue or two after...). When Kyle told Terry, the young boy was heart broken and Kyle twigged Terry had a crush on him. Kyle let him down gently but the two became good friends, and Kyle later went on to become a confide. When Terry had difficulty talking to his parents about his sexulaity, Kyle was able to be there for him.

Ultimatly Terry met and began dating a young man only for the two fo them to be chased by three thugs after a date. Terry is cornered and beaten to near death and as soon as Kyle hears this, he is PISSED. It's said the Green Lantern ring is the most powerful weapon in the DC universe. It's fuled by the Will of the wearer and how strong his/her imagination is. By day Kyle is an artist and it's been stated his imagination surpasses Hal's, Guy's and John's (the three other earth based GL's. Alan's ring is different to theirs). Anyway, one of the thugs is caught by the police and Kyle chose to pay him a visit. He then procedes to torture him in order to find out where his friends are. The next page then shows the other two trying to escape, only for Kyle to appear. As he procedes to vent his rage against him, he taunts them, saying things like:
"What's wrong? Are you finding it difficult to fight me because I'm not a 16 year old boy who's about half your size?"
and
"I'll turn my back to you so you can hit me from behind, as i know that's how you like to fight"
(it's been a while so the quotes will be a bit off).

Towards the end of the issue, Kyle realises he's no better than them. As mentioned, the thugs outclassed Terry in age, size and strength and Kyle outclasses them because he's wearing a Green Lantern ring. That scene alone made it stick in my mind as one of my favourite storylines. I later tracked down to trade, "Brother's Keeper" and while the following storylines didn't quite have a scene to match it, were still good.

Kyle was also DC's answer to Peter Parker, even if they wouldn't admit to it. Two of his three key girlfriends (Alex and Jen) died because of him. He was a freelance artist and it wasn't until the job that lead to him meeting Terry that he got a decent paycheck on a frequent basis. I've never been a big fan of Batman and it's only recently that I've developed an interest in and respect for Superman. Kyle was the best example of a Marvel style hero (one who deals with real life problems) in the DC universe, and acted pretty much as the doorway for a Marvel fan like me to get interested in DC.

Hal was ultimatly revived in 2004/2005 by Geoff John's "Green Lantern Rebirth". John had previously regained his power ring when Kyle left earth due to the events of Brother's Keeper, Guy also regained one during the storyline and the Green Lantern Corps were quickly reborn at the start of the fourth volume of Green Lantern. Kyle was bumped down to the bottom of the pecking order, and labelled as "Green Lantern 2814.4" (2814 is the space sector Earth resides in, and there is two Lanterns (originally just one) for each of the 3200 sectors) and not really given a comic to star in until after 2007's excellent "Sinestro Corps Wars", where he (along with Guy) became one of the key characters in "Green Lantern Corps" (prior to SCW it focused on a large number of GLs). The two became like brothers and I developed a slight interest in Guy because of this.

At the start of Blackest Night I just knew Kyle was likely to die. Many fans had theorised he'd become a Blue Lantern, as he'd shown to be the most hopeful of the four Earth based Lanterns. However most shot this down as just a fan theory and/or an idea that seemed good on paper but wouldn't really last. Towards the end of every month, fans get to see previews for comics that would get released in three months time. To put it another way, by the end of November I'll know what books will be available in February. Back in September's previews, the cover for Green Lantern Corps #43 showed Guy as a Red Lantern. This not only spoilt a major plot point that we wouldn't see for three months but also helped a Kyle fan like myself start to wonder if he'd make it out alive. To make matters worse, some comments I read for a review of GLC #42 said someone was indeed going to die (but not who). Three guesses who popped to mind first :p. I resisted temptation to look at Wikipedia as I didn't want to spoil it.

Sadly though, my suspicians were true, though he didn't die the way I was expecting. I thought a Black Lantern would succeed in ripping out his heart and using it to fuel the resurection of Nekron (another thing spoilt thanks to previews!). Instead Kyle released a HUGE explosition of Green Light that vaporised all the Black Lanterns in the area (for now any way). Linkara has said he doesn't mind if a character dies so long as it's the greatest thing they've ever done and I think it's hard not to agree this is the greatest thing Kyle has ever done. However, for fans like myself, well, yeah. Of course there's a possibility he'll be revived. Maybe the Ion (the living embodyment of Will) or perhaps the Blue/Hope Entity will bond with him and revive Kyle. Guess we'll have to wait and see.

For those who don't know, Kyle is my default icon on Live Journal, the only charatcer I have two icons for and my avatar on Steam and my blog. So yeah, I'm a big fan of him :p