I'm ticked...

[deganawida]

At one point, my absolute favorite comic was Green Lantern. Though I preferred (and still do) Batman as a hero, after the introduction of Kyle Rayner I found it easier to get into GL. Now, I loved the Ron Marz run on Green Lantern. Then, Judd Winnick took over, and I watched things go downhill for Kyle. Previous bits of Kyle's established history were thrown out the window in favor of Winnick's convoluted nonsensical plots involving Kyle's dad being a former Mexican, former American spy, and former double agent working in the IRA of all places for the American government. For those of you not in the know, Kyle's father was always something of a mystery, though Kyle met his uncle in the "Return to Desolation" story arc, and in a Giant issue speaks of his paternal grandfather (also named Rayner), who was a famous adventurer. Further, Winnick turned Kyle into a god, redesigned his entire personality, ignored previously established characters in favor of new ones (with no mention ever of the other characters), and turned the comic into a political statement. After Winnick left, an event for which I thanked God, I hoped that the series would turn around. Unfortunately, the stories were bland and utterly forgettable. Kyle had fled into space at the end of the Winick run, and the new writer had him trying to reform the Corps, although he convienently ignored the GLs that Kyle trained in "The New Corps" miniseries. The best GL stories were now being found in JLA (especially the Atlantis saga, forgot the name of that one though).

 

However, all this isn't what has ticked me off. Since we had the baby, I haven't been able to keep up with my comics, so tonight I went to DC's site to see what was up in the DCU. What do I find? Green Lantern: Rebirth, a miniseries designed to bring Hal Jordan back as the premier Green Lantern. ***@!!2! Why can't people let Jordan stay dead? I will probably never read another Green Lantern again, as this is the kind of crap that put me off on the X-Men, and is a sorry excuse for writing.

 

Anyone else feel the same?

[Leferd]

And here I thought this was another rant against George Lucas.

 

BUT....here's my 2 coppers:

 

The Kyle Rayner character early on in the Marz run was pretty decent. I had fumed over the whole way DC just screwed over the Hal Jordan character and disliked Rayner because of it, but the stories were compelling enough and really enjoyed Daryl Bank's art. I quit when he left.

 

Although I'm not sure just how they can bring back Jordan and the Corps, the concept of the GL Corps is a fascinating one. And Jordan was a great superhero type character. Especially after the Emerald Dawn series. It's unfortunate that Kyle will now take a back seat, but what DC did to the fans back in '94 was horrible and it just seems right that Hal Jordan is back in that uniform with a Corps around.

 

Just a casual fan's perspective.

[deganawida]

And here I thought this was another rant against George Lucas.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

D'oh! Didn't even think about GL also referring to Lucas.

 

As to your other comments, Leferd, I was a casual reader before Kyle came along. Since the mid-90s, though, I've read many of Hal's pre-Emerald Twilight adventures. I feel that what happened to Hal in Emerald Twilight was a natural progression of events beginning two years before the destruction of Coast City. Hal had become harder-edged, more violent, less friendly, and had crossed the line a couple of times. He was already in a downward spiral before Marz ever got alhold of the comic, and thus it doesn't surprise me that he eventually took a "the ends justifies the means" stance to the troubles of the world. Further, the destruction of Coast City should have had a very real effect on him, and his desire to "rebuild" it with the ring was excellent (bad idea for him, but very effective story-telling). I don't know if Marz had any hand in the decision to destroy Coast City at the end of the Return of Superman saga, but regardless he had to show consequences for it.

 

Oh, yeah, Darryl Banks was a fantastic artist. I loved how he gave Kyle's creations such personality and life. With the exception of Ron Lim and Pelletier, I don't think anyone has ever given the ring that much personality.

[Darque]

Anyone else feel the same?

 

Umm.... yes and no.

 

Yes, I dislike it when someone takes an established storyline and screws it up without regards to previously created stories, themes and concepts.

 

Nope, I really have no really clue about most of what you said.

[Darque]

And here I thought this was another rant against George Lucas.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

Yup, pulled me in to like a mouse to cheese

[Diogo Ribeiro]

While I was never a big fan of Green Lantern, I managed to ocasionally keep up with some of its developments, although the only "recent" events of Green Lantern I have ever followed more or less closely was the storyarc involving Hal Jordan becoming Parallax. I have to say I didn't liked the change. It felt too sudden, a bit out of character. It's true that Coast City's destruction would likely bring up that kind of feelings in Hal, but I wasn't expecting such a sudden twist in the personality of the greatest Green Lantern evar.

 

When the GL duties went over to Kyle Rayner, I couldn't help but think it was a mistake. An angsty or insecure teen, as Kyle seemed to be then, being given tremendous power isn't the kind of story I like. After Zero Hour, I watched Kyle battle it out with Hal, in what was probably one of the worst fights I've ever seen. Christ, Hal took out most of the GL Corps when he decided to go into Oa to absorb the Oan Central Battery, and he lost against Kyle because Kyle, after giving the GL ring to Hal, and without the aid of any external power source whatsoever, dumped an encapsulated GL corpse over Hal, pinning him to the ground, and took his ring... did the writer at the time could have come up with anything any more childish? Hal would never drop his guard like that. Even if he had been pinned down by Kyle, the ring is moved by willpower - Hal just stood there looking at Kyle taking his ring. Good show.

 

After that and after Hal's apparent death, I stopped caring about Green Lantern. After reading what deganawida wrote, I know I'm making a good choice.

 

 

::pictures Darque tryin' to make sense of it all :D::

[Dakoth]

Hence a large problem with all comics contunuity. DC has always had a problem with it. Ever here about the crisis on infinate earths? That is how they explained it away the first time. What you have to remember is most of the characters today(especially DC's) are very old so the companies thought they needed to shake things up a new Batman after Bane broke Buce Waynes back, the death of Superman, Aquaman losing a hand, and after everyone of them the fan outcry was so much that guess what the story lines were reversed. They need to quit screwing with things, between crap like that and all the fancy covers they were putting out in the 90's I said screw that and quit collecting.

[Diogo Ribeiro]

Yeah, Crisis was a continuity fix. Kinda like Marvel's Heroes Reborn, IIRC.

[deganawida]

Heroes Reborn was a unique event. Marvel sold the rights to FF, Cap, Hulk, Iron Man, and Avengers to Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld. They had full creative rights for a year, at which time Marvel would get the comics back. The ending of the Onslaught storyline was changed to get rid of the heroes, and Heroes Reborn was instigated to bring them back. Really ticked me off, 'cause it happened in the middle of the Waid/Wagner run of Cap, which was the best run Cap had seen in 40 years.

 

Crisis was great, IMO. Zero Hour was pretty good, but shouldn't have been necessary. The DC hero shake-ups were a mixed bag; I felt that Knightfall was particularly good, as it illustrated why Batman was important, and why Bruce Wayne was even more important. The Death of Superman sucked, though.

[Diogo Ribeiro]

Rob Liefeld and creative in the same sentence is oxymoronic

[Dakoth]

I never said they were bad, I said the fan out cry was so that DC was obligated to bring them back. It was a marketing ploy as Marvel was beating them into the dirt at the time. Crisis was good but as usual in the comic industry DC didn't force the story writers to stick to it so they were able to bring back people who died and what not. My pick for best cross comic series are Infinity war from marvel, and War of the gods from DC. Those might not be the exact names but it gives you the idea.

 

P.S. I agree with you about Lieffeld. His were the weakest of the image comics INO.

[Diogo Ribeiro]

Personally I liked the Infinity Gauntlet (the first one in the trilogy) much more than the others, although the Kang/Doctor Doom sequences in the Infinity War were very interesting.

[Dakoth]

If thats the one where Thanos finally reunites the infinity gems thats the one I am talking about. Sorry I can not be more precise it has been a very long time almost 10 years since I quit collecting.

[Diogo Ribeiro]

That's fine. There's pretty of comics I've read in the past that I can't remember either

 

As for which one it was... the first was the Infinity Gauntlet, and it featured a recently-ressurected Thanos with the Infinity Gems and Gauntlet. Adam Warlock and the Marvel heroes gathered to try and stop the titan from conquering the universe.

 

The second was the Infinity War, and it featured Warlock, Thanos and the rest of the Marvel heroes fighting against Adam's evil side, Magus (who thankfully no longer had that atrocious '80's haircut), and his army of evil replicas (out of which the famous 6-armed Spiderman replica survived).

 

The third, and that I know of, final part was the Infinity Crusade, which featured the usual suspects, this time fighting against Warlock's good side, the Goddess. I must say this was my least favorite of them all, though.

 

I think you're talking about the first, where he is ressurected by Death and given the task to slay half of the universe's population. He then sets forth to get all the Infinity Gems once he's ressurected.

[Dakoth]

Yes thats the one The Infinity Gauntlet.

[Oerwinde]

Speaking of writers coming in and screwing up storylines. 3 words: Spider-Man, Clone Saga.

[Child of Flame]

So, anyone excited about the new X-Men movie? Hopefully they'll have The Beast and Phoenix this time around.

 

 

 

<runs from fanboys>

[Oerwinde]

So, anyone excited about the new X-Men movie?  Hopefully they'll have The Beast and Phoenix this time around. 

 

 

 

<runs from fanboys>

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I'm kinda hoping they get Joss Whedon to do it now that Bryan Singer betrayed his X-Men. Pheonix is a sure thing, and I'm really hoping for Beast and an Iced up Iceman.

[Dakoth]

Yeah with the way X2 ended the pheonix is a sure thing. I kinda hope to see Mr. Sinister and Apocollips, along with more X Men.