#idk i think a lot of geoff johns ideas are literally just so different and new he was better off creating an original product

[roobylavender]

If I may ask, what exactly is the issue with the Emotional Spectrum? I'm kind of mixed on the execution, but given the elements of the Green Lantern mythos, it seems like a logical extension.

i don’t think the logical extension of there being an emotional spectrum is what bothers me per se (well. with the star sapphires as a notable exception) i am just not really keen on the idea of there being multiple corps in existence bc it undermines why the existence of even one was so ill-advised and prone to abuses in power. modern green lantern lore in general is very unfocused to me like sure there are some cool ideas wrt space adventures and warring factions and different rings lining up with different life experiences but in the end what i read green lantern comics for was the critical political element and commentary and i don’t see that reflected to quite the same effect in the way johns reworks the mythos

[bigskydreaming]

I really hate that Kyle’s heyday in the comics happened in the 90s and early 00s when fandom was structured much differently than it is today. Or even than how it was structured back in the days of livejournal, around the mid 2000s or so. He had a ton of fans back when he was the solo Green Lantern and the focus of that franchise and its stories, but so much of comic book fandom wasn’t centralized the way it is now, like....it was hard to ever really find or connect with those other fans. 

And by the time internet fandoms shifted to become more what they are today, Geoff Johns had taken over the GL franchise and brought back Hal, and Kyle got increasingly shuffled off to the sidelines....so most GL fans in comic book fandom are centralized around the franchise-as-centered-around-Hal, and reflect the focuses and dynamics the books have had ever since GL: Rebirth (the original one, not the universe wide Rebirth reboot).

Idk, just bummed that it feels like we missed the window for getting a Kyle Rayner fandom that like...actually focuses on the version of Kyle Rayner I grew up with and prefer. I know I joke about hating Hal and how he’s the worst, like all the time, but tbh, its just 90% bitterness lol. I mean I doubt Hal would ever have been a fave, but if for instance he was the exact same character written the exact same way, just central to a different franchise from the one Kyle’s in....I doubt I’d think twice about him. But as much as I love the GL franchise as a whole, and the concept, and hell, even a lot of the lore Johns added to it in certain aspects of the emotional spectrum concept and GL history....like, I deliberately stay away from modern GL fandom as a whole, because I find the dynamics to be so obnoxiously infantilizing of Kyle and it buuuuuuuuugs.

Like....its the whole Hal Jordan Space Dad concept I really can’t stand? I know its not universal, but its pervasive enough in the comics and in what I’ve seen of fandom that like....ugh. I know that Hal’s the fave of modern GL writers and creators. I know they want to spotlight him and his place in the franchise and have him command the majority of their respect. I just hate that they can’t seem to find any way to do that without throwing Kyle’s entire history under the bus, because whether they like it or not....Kyle’s entire history, not just his character arc, but his character PREMISE, the thing that made Kyle Rayner distinct among all other Green Lanterns, unique in the history of the franchise....the thing that’s so intrinsically central to his character that if you take it away, you literally remove everything that’s unique and distinct about his character and his stories.....is that for most of his history, Kyle Rayner was the ONLY Green Lantern. 

The last Green Lantern. Specifically created to tell the story of a character who is the only one left to carry on the legacy of a corps that once held thousands. Regardless of whether or not you blame Hal Jordan or Parallax-posssessed-Hal-Jordan for the demise of the Green Lantern Corps, the simple fact is Kyle’s entire purpose as a character was to be the guy who was thrust totally unprepared into a role and job that were MEANT to have thousands of people sharing the weight of. He was created specifically to tell the story of what happens with a guy who knows nothing of the weight and history and significance of the role he’s been stuck with....when he has no one left to tell him about all that history and to show him what to do, teach him how to do all the things that thousands of Green Lanterns for thousands of years have had thousands of predecessors to help them learn.

And like yeah, to a certain degree, its inevitable that a guy with that central premise is going to get sidelined or at least diminished in focus if you decide then later to reignite the idea of the franchise holding thousands rather than just him. I get that. Its not really about undervaluing Kyle as just an inevitable consequence of wanting the franchise to return to being about this huge intergalactic community of members. 

But the Hal Jordan Space Dad trope, where the second Hal came back he was re-elevated to the reputation of ‘greatest GL in history’ that all other Green Lanterns (including Kyle) look up to and measure themselves against and learn from and follow his example.....that’s the part that wasn’t necessary, and that’s the part that bugs the craaaaaap out of me. Because again....Kyle’s ENTIRE character is he’s the guy who figured out how to save the whole damn universe, do the work of an entire corps that once held thousands, bring back the Guardians and make it possible for the Corps to be restarted at all....BY HIMSELF. Because there WAS nobody to teach him, nobody to learn from. He was the one and only completely independent Green Lantern, self-reliant by necessity, with no one but he himself responsible for his victories and triumphs and no one to help shoulder the blame for any failures.

And so yeah, when you bring Hal Jordan back front and center and decide that because he’s Hal Jordan, the Greatest Green Lantern to Ever Live, that means that all others, including Kyle, must ultimately defer to his greater wisdom and experience and respect how much they have to learn from him and how much he can teach them.....with Kyle then being written in both comics and fics as though he’s this rough around the edges rookie who needs Hal Jordan Space Dad to come along and help him out of scrapes and teach him valuable life lessons so that one day Kyle can grow up to be the Greatest Green Lantern to Ever Live too maybe....like...umm....its just like....has everyone just completely freaking forgotten about the twenty years worth of stories where Kyle became a fully competent and capable adult hero who routinely saved galaxies all by his own damn self without  someone to hold his hand and show him how its done?

Sigh.

(And yes, it really doesn’t help that as much as DC and most of the GL writers like to forget, Kyle is Latino and if you’re going to make the GL franchise one of the tentpoles of your push to make your universe of characters more inclusive, and create several new GLs who are Middle Eastern like Simon and Latina like Jessica and this new Teen Lantern who’s a character of color and NK Jemisin is now writing a GL story introducing a new black GL and all of that is great and I’m totally here for it....I’m just saying. If it was so important to you that you make the GL franchise specifically a focus of your intent to make more characters of color prominent in one of your most iconic franchises.......maaaaaaaaaaaaaaybe its worth reflecting on how it looks that you guys decided that generic white pilot dude Hal Jordan just HAD to be reinstated as front and center and the example all other GLs try and live up to.....including John Stewart, a black man who has been the face of the GL franchise in animated adaptations for about twenty years....and Kyle Rayner, a Latino character who solo headlined your entire GL franchise for twenty years in the comics, doing by himself and without guidance or back up all the things Hal’s now attributed with just by virtue of his reputation as ‘greatest GL to ever live.’)

Anyway, like I said, don’t mind me, I’m just bitter and yup I said it, its true, why lie?