I always wonder about that story.  The GL books were selling well enough to support 3 titles at that time...

Kyle in the JLA:

Issues 1-4 (Hyperclan):

Just some random things from this first arc:

They're still playing Kyle as an inexperienced Newbie...as evidenced in #2 when Wonder Woman says 'call me Diana, where in the same league' and Kyle says 'Yeah, right'... he does show some better confidence later, though, after the fight is won (even if they satellite gets destroyed)

In #4, he and Wally have the first of many fun teamup moments, where they rib each other while fighting... Wally seems hostile at first, but he gets a bit more funloving as it goes on. Also Porter pulls out a great mecha that Kyle uses to take out the Mecha-ish White Martian. Fun moment there where the Martian changes to yellow and Kyle scoffs at it.




Of course, as mentioned by rberman, Morrison refers to the ring as creating 'plasma' on two different occasions, which Morrison should know is wrong.. unless he was trying to change it?

Green Lantern #83
'Retribution part 1 of 3'
Marz/Banks/Tanghal

Rating 4.5/5

Plot: With Donna out of town, Kyle goes down to the docks to do some sketching, and ends up busting up some Russian arms dealers. The art mood has left him when after he gets home, so he goes to a dance club to unwind instead of buckling down to work. He ends up getting picked up by a woman who tries really hard to seduce him, and turns out to be a crazy alien obsessed with killing Green Lanterns.. after a short scrap, she flies off, Kyle having told her his ring doesn't have to be charged every 24 hours. She says 'I'll take what you need' and runs off. Kyle, thinking she'll go after the other Lanterns, goes to warn John Stewart (he decided Guy and Alan can take care of themselves). John tells Kyle she probably meant his power battery, and we indeed end with a shot of Fatality stealing said battery in Kyle's apartment. To be continued!



Analysis: This is the book when I really feel like the book took off and became it's own thing to me.. Kyle gets his own nemesis (and she's awesome), and Banks really goes crazy with the Ring stuff, and it is good. Even though Fatality is tied to the corps of the past, there's no mention of insecurity or Kyle feeling new, which is nice.

We get more of 'Kyle is a playa' here, as first he dances with some girl who doesn't even tell her his name, and he thinks, yeah, this is good, I'm committed... tehn when Fatality hits on him he's all 'willpower'.. it's actually pretty funny and refreshing to see a superhero having real emotions (like not feeling like working and having trouble being faithful).

My only complaint is that Fatality is a little too awesome.. if she's such a A+ GL assassin, why didn't John Stewart immediately recognize her from Kyle's description?



Ring Constructs: The opening fight against the Arms dealers, Kyle breaks out just about every weapon you can think of.. futuristic guns, a colt revolver, a flintlock, flamethrowers, Ah-nold specials (as he calls them), and even a pirate cannon to sink the ship the arms are on at the end. He has some great inner monologue about it, too.. how his weapons are just the ring, so he controls the power and force behind them, while the real things are far less controlled.. it was an excellent point. The details are great.. like a mace that has a head that looks like Kyle's Mask.. great stuff.

During the fight with Fatality, he uses a bird-shaped probe that reminds me of the old Silver Hawks cartoon, a few futuristic guns different from the ones before, and a alien head shaped shield (when he realizes Fatality is an alien).

In the background... the club is called 'Disco Tech' and it's a space theme, so there are aliens on the walls and rockets hanging from the ceiling... a great touch. The first girl Kyle dances with has (part of) a Nine Inch Nails t-shirt on.. which is not the first or the last time they are referenced (I assume either Banks or Tanghal are fans)... there's also a guy in the back ground with a Giants hat on, which was a nice touch, I though.

There's a Batman themed House ad in this one, must be one of the last asking for subs, I'd think. The letters are all raving about Kyle and Donna as a couple, and talking about marriage, which is WAY premature, IMO.

Also, for those taking notes, this is in fact Fatality's first appearance (though some collectors consider her shadow in the previous issue the first appearance).

Green Lantern #85
Retribution part 3: But Never Defeated
Marz/Banks/Jones/Tanghal/Austin


Plot: After crashing on a random planet chasing Fatality (who also crashed) Kyle is out of juice for the ring.. he fights a cool giant squid monster with the bones of its former victims, and does enough damage for it to give up and find easier prey. KYle finds the wreck of Fatality's ship, and lots of blood.

Despite her injuries, she gets the best of Kyle hand to hand, though Kyle makes a good showing. She announces she's going to beat Kyle to death with his battery and eat him, but then the squid monster comes back. Kyle begs Fatality to let him save them both so they can fight another day, but Fatality refuses, actually tossing the battery away. Kyle manages to escape while Fatality seems to get eaten (only her detached arm remains) as he heads home to a worried John Stewart and Donna Troy.

Analysis: UGh.. the down side of Daryl Banks is that he needs alot of fill ins... this one is credit to him and the fill in guys, but it's clear he did like 2 pages and the cover. Jones isn't terrible, but he's not great, either. The squid monster is pretty cool though.

While the story is totally predictable and the usual stretch for the combat (Kyle should have gotten killed pretty quickly), it does have some good character stuff. Kyle opines about the use of force and how he can't control it hand to hand, and considers how he should be better without the ring (not that that ever happens). He also shows his heroism when he actually tries to save Fatality just after she announces she wants to kill him and have him for lunch. Fatality, to no one's surprise, is of course not dead, but I think it is a while before she comes back.

Green Lantern/Flash: Faster Friends (part 1)
Flash/Green Lantern: Faster Friends (part 2)

Part 1 by:
Ron Marz and 87 different artists

Part 2 by
Waid/Augustyn/Semeiks




Plot:
Part 1:
Back in the 40s, Jay Garrick and Alan Scott's first team up (or so it's implied) was to help the government captured Alien X... they did it, and become best buds later. 60 years later, the alien is still here.. he intended to wait until us silly humans got bored probing him and got home, but apparently we've given him cancer and he's dying, and now he's pissed.

Jay and Alan get the call, and their wives figure out the big secret they've kept and call Kyle and Wally to help.
They head to where the alien's ship is hidden, and there's a fight. Alien X is bitter and wants revenge.. Kyle tries to make friends, but the Alien says 'maybe if you were around then, but not it's too late'.. he does something in his ship and it blows up.

part 2:
We find out Jay is dying, and hasn't told anyone.. some good drama there if you're a Flash fan. Turns out Alien X turned on a homing beacon so these giant space ants would come to Earth and devour everyone. (even though he appeared to blow up his ship).. the heroes everywhere are trying, but there's just too many (we get a nice montage of other Justice Leaguers fighting them). The GLs and Flashes go back to Antarctica to see if they can figure it out.. and there's the ship, operating portals where the alien bugs come through. Kyle and Wally jump through, and get their brains swapped.. Jay and Alan follow. After some very silver age character bits, everyone gets together and fights the alien queen, comes to an understanding with it, and we all live happily ever after.. oh, and the alien portal that sends them home give Jay some of Alan's magic youth-ness, so he's not dying anymore. Yay!

Notes:
I remembered this mini with great fondness... it was one of those 'Prestige' format ones that DC so loved in the late 90s (I admit I like'em too.. I have lots of them).. but, man, is it terrible in hindsight.

The 1st part has literally seven artists (5 pencillers and 2 inkers), and it's a mess. Only one (Jeff Johnson, who did a medicore fill in a few issues back) is a regular GL artist. The plot of an alien that was a huge secret and in Roswell for 60 years is REALLY dumb. Fine, in 1940 they capture him. Once Jay and Alan know about aliens, don't they fix that? Why does it have to be a 'shameful secret'. Why did the govenment WANT to keep him, when they know about Superman and Martian Manhunter and Starfire and the Dominators and 100 other aliens? Makes NO SENSE.

The main character riff is Wally doesn't respect Kyle because he didn't work for his role, which isn't unreasonable, and Kyle is demoted back to having no clue how to do anything... as if this was written 2 or 3 years ago (maybe it was?) They do the body switching thing to have them better understand each other, but honestly it doesn't really do much, they still snipe at each other after... there's far better character interactions between the two in the pages of Morrison's JLA.

The one redeeming factor here was Kyle using his art knowledge to help figure stuff out.. that was pretty fun, but it was at the expense of his handling the ring worse than on his first appearance.

One little minor thing that bugged me, Wally mentioned how his was a Titan, as part of his 'training'... Kyle was too!  (not that I don't want to forget that version of the team too, but still...)

This is a good example either of how I had poor taste when I was first into comics, or maybe just the Rose colored Nostalgia glasses.