#personally I blame Dan DiDio more than Geoff Johns for bringing Hal back and sidelining Kyle

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As much as I love Hal and Guy and John, sometimes I wonder what Green Lantern comics would've looked like if they never came back to their old roles. Like if instead of Geoff Johns's epic saga that begins with Hal's return, Kyle was allowed by editorial to succeed at restarting the Green Lantern Corps and became the leader of a new generation of GLs?

I think that would've been the natural progression of Kyle's character. For years he was called the last of the Green Lanterns and he carried that weight like Atlas holding up the sky. He tried so many times to rebuild the Corps that he'd only ever heard about from others, and so many times failed because he trusted the wrong people.

But what if instead, Kyle's faith in others was rewarded? What if his search for worthy ringbearers led him to the unlikeliest of candidates? A car thief suspected of terrorism, and a hermit too terrified to leave her apartment? The Guardians of old would have looked at Simon Baz and Jessica Cruz and found them utterly unfit to wear the ring. Many of the Justice League probably would too.

But Kyle Rayner was chosen by sheer, desperate chance in a dirty alleyway. He remembers the toll that unyielding demand for perfection took on his predecessors, how it broke Hal Jordan in the end. He remembers how he was just given the ring with no explanation or training or support and how that cost Alex her life. So Kyle chooses to help.

He helps Simon track down the real culprit behind the bomb. He helps Jessica find the men who murdered her friends. He teaches them that there is no shame or disgrace in fear, so long as they overcome it. And for once, Kyle Rayner's trust and optimism wins out.

The Green Lantern Corps is reborn. There may be only three of them now, but it's more than Kyle ever had before. He takes his partners (for all that he taught them everything they know, he considers them his equals) to the Watchtower. He introduces them to the Justice League, and then breaks the news that the two new Lanterns will replace him when he ventures out to the stars to continue recruiting.

But before Kyle leaves, there is one last thing to do. He brings Simon and Jessica to the Warriors bar in New York to meet their elders. John, Guy, and Alan already know of the new recruits, having heard through the grapevine (Oracle puts out very fast newsletters), but it's another thing entirely to see with their own eyes the small spark that Kyle had carried alone finally growing into a fierce blaze.

And unseen by all of them, Hal Jordan watches as the family he nearly destroyed begins to rise from the ashes. The Spectre feels a little more at peace because he knows that Kyle Rayner is not the last of the old Green Lanterns. Instead, he is the first of the new.