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  1. #31
    Ultimate Member Ascended's Avatar
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    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.
    "We all know the truth: more connects us than separates us. But in times of crisis the wise build bridges, while the foolish build barriers. We must find a way to look after one another, as if we were one single tribe."

    ~ Black Panther.

  2. #32
    Ultimate Member j9ac9k's Avatar
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    For me, I followed Kyle's title for several years despite hating what they did to Hal in "ET." It was serviceable for awhile and his journey was somewhat interesting, but the problem I found with Kyle's title after awhile is the same problem I've had with Hal's title(s) - writers not finding a good balance between earth and space. With Kyle the imbalance was the opposite of Hal - Kyle was so firmly rooted on earth and the title was about his life and relationships. They had done away with so much of the GL mythos that after awhile, I found that I could be reading about any generic hero - this one just happened to be named Green Lantern. I bailed at that point and nothing they've tried with Kyle since then has appealed to me enough to bring me back.

    It's been said before and it's been proven true many times - the problem is not the character, it just takes the right writer to come along and see how to write an awesome story around them. Kyle's went from solo GL, the torch-bearer to relighting the fire, to being Ion and White Lantern, went beyond the Source Wall and came back. Now what? I hope someone can figure it out and that even DC gives a damn.
    Last edited by j9ac9k; 09-18-2019 at 06:13 AM.

  3. #33
    Moderator Frontier's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by j9ac9k View Post
    For me, I followed Kyle's title for several years despite hating what they did to Hal in "ET." It was serviceable for awhile and his journey was somewhat interesting, but the problem I found with Kyle's title after awhile is the same problem I've had with Hal's title(s) - writers not finding a good balance between earth and space. With Kyle the imbalance was the opposite of Hal - Kyle was so firmly rooted on earth and the title was about his life and relationships. They had done away with so much of the GL mythos that after awhile, I found that I could be reading about any generic hero - this one just happened to be named Green Lantern. I bailed at that point and nothing they've tried with Kyle since then has appealed to me enough to bring me back.

    It's been said before and it's been proven true many times - the problem is not the character, it just takes the right writer to come along and see how to write an awesome story around them. Kyle's went from solo GL, the torch-bearer to relighting the fire, to being Ion and White Lantern, went beyond the Source Wall and came back. Now what? I hope someone can figure it out and that even DC gives a damn.
    I think that's always been one of the bigger issues with the franchise.

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