Top 5 Fridays: Why Kyle Rayner Is The Greatest Green Lantern

With a title like this it's time to just sit back and wait for the shit storm to fly through the interwebs.  You walk into a crowded comic book shop and yell this title, and it's the equivalent to shouting fire in a crowded theater.  Pretty much it's bad times ahead, but fuck it let's start a ruckus.  Kyle Rayner, since his inception has been a character that breaks ground, and has changed his powers and abilities more often than most of the DCU.  Now I know you Jordan fanboys out there will talk about Hal's changes too, Green Lantern, Parallax, Spectre, and home again overcoming death in the process, but that's nothing compared to my boy Kyle, and I'll tell you why in this week's Top 5 Fridays Kyle Rayner Edition where we name the many ways that Hal Jordan can suck it.  Okay I think that's enough pre-list abuse, let's get to it.




#5.  The Ability To Affect Yellow

When I was a young boy it seemed that the Green Lantern was a bit of a joke because of his inability to affect anything that was the color yellow, and let's be frank it was pretty silly.  But all that changed in Emerald Twilight/Emerald Dawn when Kyle Rayner was given the last power ring that didn't have the yellow impurity.  So like most things that are pre New 52 it's up to you what continuity you want to go with.  Either he's able to overcome fear, Parallax wasn't in the Central Power Battery causing the yellow impurity, or it was just a better ring.  It's really up to you, but the facts are right in your face here about Kyle being the first Green Lantern to tell yellow to suck it.  Let's move further down Kyle's history and see what he does next to prove his awesomeness.

#4.  Becoming A God/ Recharging The Central Power Battery

Oh man do I remember when Kyle Rayner became Ion, and was the most powerful being in the DCU.  It was so epic and awe inspiring that people began to worship Ion more than Superman, and you know there's a shit load of nut jobs making a religion out of Superman.  Kyle became the Ion, and had an unlimited amount of power, and could do anything with it, and when the story deemed that a character that powerful isn't interesting anymore, Kyle drained off his Ion power and recharged the Central Power Battery on Oa single handedly saving the entire Green Lantern Corps.  Well saving them in the matter of they could actually be a Corps again.  So pretty much Kyle did the exact opposite of what Hal Jordan did when he became Parallax.  Huh?  What's That?  You're right that would make Kyle pretty great.  Let's continue.


#3.  First Lantern Who Doesn't Choose Sides

Alright now we're jumping into the New 52 to a Kyle that for a brief shining moment was a Lantern no one has ever seen before, and I doubt we'll ever see again.  I guess we'll call this the hybrid Lantern, and for a few short pages Kyle was able to access all seven spectrums, and fight off the newly sinister Guardians of the Universe.  Do you know why this was such a badass moment other than the fact that it is?  It's also do to this taking place before the Third Army came about and pissed all GL fans off.  But that doesn't matter, and neither does the fact that this Hybrid Lantern's costume is ridiculous, the point is Kyle was able to be the first and only person to do this, and even pulled off the whole I'm wearing rings on most of my fingers and not looking creepy crazy like Hal did.  At this point you have to see a pattern of badassery right?  If not........


#2.  Oh Damn!  It's A White Lantern!

So after the whole Hybrid Lantern thing, it was clear that Kyle has the ability to wield the entire spectrum, and even if his body wasn't able to wield every ring at the same time for very long, we were left with his Green Lantern ring being changed forever due to the energies Kyle channeled.  So we go off on a story line where Kyle and Carol travel from place to place to learn how to tap into each emotional spectrum, and after the last is learned we have a brand new White Lantern, and we don't even need to fight zombies this time.  So yeah give me shit about how he's not a Green Lantern anymore, he's a GL and more now, and we don't even know the full extent of his powers yet, but I can't wait to find out.  Like I said at the beginning Kyle just keeps getting better and better.  So this seems like it should be #1 for reasons why he's so great, but no.  There's one more thing I can think of to piss off all the Jordan fans out there, and prove my point for Kyle being the greatest, and that reason is......


#1.  Kyle Get's The Girl

This seems to be the latest thing to piss off GL fans, well mostly Hal Jordan fans.  Me though, I'm all about Kyle getting the girl, she's a cosmic hottie, he's a cosmic hottie, it makes sense.  But for all of you people talking about Hal should be the one Carol has a relationship with, just think about this.  They did, he's a dick, and it's over now.  It's that simple.  So yes Kyle get's all the cool power ups, the cool costume changes, fixed the Corps after Hal destroyed it, and for all this, yes he gets the girl.  All in all a pretty great Green Lantern, and hero in general.  So move on with your life, see a counselor, do whatever you have to because Carol has moved on.

So this is the super fight provoking list this week, and just let me tell you when I started it I swear I wasn't trying to talk shit about Hal, I was trying to show the world my admiration for Kyle Rayner and his incredible transformation throughout the years.  But then the Hal bashing became too much fun so I continued.  You understand right?  If you can't give the people what they want, you might as well piss them off.  I hope you enjoyed the list, and if you do have problems with what I'm saying here, I'll be a Wizard World Philly wearing a Weird Science T shirt, and before you decide to not use your words just remember,  not in the face.  Have a great weekend and I'll see you in seven.