Quote Originally Posted by SiegePerilous02 View Post
That's kind of a problem with a "hero's journey" type narrative. The logical conclusion of the story is for it to, well, have an end to the journey. Frodo Baggins is one of the most iconic examples, and that one has a finite ending. DC and Marvel are not designed to ever end, for better or worse, so I can see why it would be difficult for DC to come up with something else for Kyle once his original character arc reached its inevitable end. Not impossible, almost nothing is impossible and we can't see the future, but it's perhaps not surprising the state he's in now.
Totally agreed. As great as the classic hero's journey is, it's not a great narrative to launch your character off of, because the nature of the hero's journey is finite.

With Kyle, I think if they had transitioned out of the hero's journey into a stable Everyman narrative, he'd have been fine. Which is what I meant when I said "Peter Parker the hell out of it." Parker and Kyle are very different people, and there's actually not a ton of overlap between their personality traits. But Parker is the best Everyman comics have ever produced, and Kyle was arguably the best Everyman DC had in their roster during the Marz era.

You could Peter Parker it up, but the competition has actual Peter Parker that people could spend their money on. I'm not sure if a Peter Parker is something the DCU even needs when Marvel has already done it so well. And to be honest (and very biased) that's why Kyle doesn't appeal to me personally, I'd rather just read the real deal.
I do think there might be a limit to how many Everyman characters a reader is willing to follow, but I don't see this as a serious hurdle for Kyle. He was very successful for a long time as an Everyman archetype after all. And Kyle's version of Everyman is quite different from Parker's.