ONCE UPON A GREEN LANTERN!
Michael The Unmasked Geek and The Irredeemable Shag find their joy as they honor the Torchbearer of the Green Lantern Corps, Kyle Rayner! In brightest day, in blackest night, they recharge their rings to share why Kyle shines so brightly, celebrate some memorable moments, and spotlight Green Lantern issues #58, #59, #72, #100, plus Green Lantern 80th Anniversary 100-Page Super Spectacular! Finally, in the spirit of the season, they cover two Kyle stories celebrating Christmas (Green Lantern #59) and Hanukkah (DCU Holiday Bash 1996)!
Have a question or comment? Looking for more great content?
- Leave comments on the FIRE & WATER PODCAST website: http://fireandwaterpodcast.com/podcast/ouag34/
- See Shag’s social media posts related to this episode:
This episode brought to you by InStockTrades: http://instocktrades.com
Follow Once Upon a Geek:
- Subscribe via Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/once-upon-a-geek/id1615296641
- Subscribe via other podcatchers: https://feeds.feedburner.com/onceuponageek
- Also available on Spotify, Amazon Music, and Audible
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/onceuponageek
- Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/onceuponageek.bsky.social
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/onceuponageekpodcast
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/onceuponageekpodcast/
This podcast is a proud member of the FIRE AND WATER PODCAST NETWORK:
- Visit the Fire & Water website: https://fireandwaterpodcast.com
- Like our Fire & Water Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/FWPodcastNetwork
- Follow Fire & Water on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/fwpodcasts.bsky.social
- Follow Fire & Water on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fireandwaterpodcast/
- Support The Fire & Water Podcast Network on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/fwpodcasts
Life is short. Focus on the positive. Find Your Joy.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
I WAS a Hal fan and I WAS a rotten SOB Not one around that but I TOTAlly blamed the editor. Did’nt care about kyle at all. They made hal A bad guy. Which was bad which will ALWAYS BE bad. The Green Lantren became worse thAN ANY GL bad guy.
THen I WORKED IN customer service for 22 years as such I APOLOGIZED to Kevin Dooley unresevedly
Great show. I have a GL sector? Wow, I had no idea, I guess I better start patrolling it with my Emerald lariat. I work in a museum, so lanterns aren’t an issue.
Is there a stipend? Mileage? At least a Fire & Water gas card?
I somewhat missed the Kyle era when i exiled myself from comics in the 90s due to economic and parental obligation reasons. When I came back, I felt that Kyle was fine, but I really wondered why DC would ignore the generational passages of their biggest names like Flash, Green Lantern and Green Arrow – all of whom had experience those passages before, and were now giving a new generation their own characters to own. Don’t get me wrong – I love Barry, Hal and Ollie – but comics is a business designed on youth market capture. Pandering to 40-70 year old readers may be an effective tactic, but it doesn’t bode well for the future, or for people who have become accustomed to Wally, Kyle and Connor.
Green Lantern was one of my favorite titles in the late 70s early 80s. I loved the idea of these space cops, patrolling the Galaxy and maintaining law & order. I followed the title up until its cancellation. I didn’t follow their adventures in Action Comics Weekly and was very dismayed to learn about what had happened when Green Lantern relaunched with “The Road Back” so I dropped it after the first year.
Anyhow, after The Reign of Supermen I picked the title back up just in time for Emerald Twilight. While I HATED what they did to Hal and the destruction of the Green Lantern Corps, I absolutely LOVED Kyle Rayner! His adventures were new and exciting. No 24 hour time limit, no weakness to yellow and a rookie heto using his boundless imagination to create weapons and defenses. Hal would manifest a boxing glove, Kyle would create a Wilde assault weapon to unload in a villains face! Plus he had a way with the ladies. C’mon! This guy dated Donna Troy and Jade!!!! Two of the hottest women in the DCU. I was a fan of Jade since her debut in Infinity Inc.! I was so happy to see her again on a regular basis. His friendship with Wally West was a lot of fun too. Ron Marz absolutely knocked it out of the park when he created Kyle.
Cool show as always, you guys really knocked it outta the solar system! But wait…I’m now the GL of Sector 674!? What happened to Kilowog? Did he get fired? If he did, I hope he doesn’t bear a griudge…that is 1 guy I REALLY don’t want any smoke with. And wait..if I have his spot, does that mean I’m in charge of training all the newbies too..? Dunno if I can handle this… Shag, talk to the Guardians for me..see if they would they would reassign me! Maybe Sector 222? Medphyll told me it’s pretty quiet over there & that happens to be my lucky number! Anyhow, thanks for the honor & another great show! Keep up the stellar work!!
Shag! Thanks again for having me on. It was a ton of fun.
Here is the link for the Kyle Power Battery 3d print file that I designed. I said the wrong site during the show.
https://www.printables.com/model/1436082-kyle-rayner-gl-power-battery
Impressive podcast most impressive. Ah Kyle . He was a good green lantern. Though yeah the artist on this book definitely gave him a great look. I have his action figure somewhere in my house. The costume was great. Not to 90s. It had no pouches. Are Oy vey guns.
It just looked cool. Well save the Sun Fire mask. Was a big X-Men fan or something ? Sorry it looks like an armor version of Sun Fires mask. Well as ya’ll say the crab mask. I just say he was planning to cosplay as Sub fire and just got the ring before he went to the convention.
So he made it metal and green. I liked the Rob Mars stories he was in. Though when Ron went to go write Mystic I followed. Still those were god issues. And then they made him half Hispanic and that was cool as well.
While he didn’t have the impact Wally did. Kyle was still pretty cool as the green lantern. Any way can’t wait for the next podcast.
I’ll echo the kudos for Darryl Banks being a great convention guest! I met him at DragonCon a few years ago, and got him to draw the inaugural sketch in a new sketchbook with a theme…my “No Fridging” sketchbook! He opened the book with an incredible sketch of Alex DeWitt standing by a brick wall with a “No Women in Fridges” poster taped to the wall. I’ll share a link to that sketch:
https://www.comicartfans.com/gallerypiece.asp?piece=1851288
A perfect, appropriate sketch to start out the book…since then, I’ve added quite a few sketches to the book. Sadly, there’s no shortage of subjects that fit the group’s theme (though admittedly, it’s developed into a more general “deceased female characters” theme than strictly following Gail Simone’s “fridging” definition of killing female characters to advance a male character’s narrative).
Such a great show! Thank you for this reminder why I’m a fan of Kyle. I really enjoyed him being the sole Green Lantern and all the places that took him in the DCU. This was a fun discussion to hear, and really took me back. Thanks, Michael and Shagg!
You know, I don’t know that I have ever read a solo issue of GL featuring Kyle. I know him mainly through the JLA and later GL Corps series. This is in contrast to the Wally West Flash and Conner Hawke GA titles that I collect. Maybe, with Wally, it has to do with his long apprenticeship as Kid Flash while Kyle was created to be the new GL. Of course, that more or less true for Conner too so no accounting for taste, I guess.
Then again, I didn’t read a whole lot of Hal’s solo title either. My favorite human Lanterns are Alan Scott and Jessica Cruz. More than anything, however, I like the stories that play with the idea of a huge, intergalactic space Corps (or even several Corps). Give me Kilowogg, Soranik Natu, Ch’p, Saint Walker, Dex-Starr, and all the rest along with all the Earth Lanterns. I don’t dislike any of the Earth Lanterns, though. Even Guy Gardner.
Happy holidays and merry Christmas, Shagg. Thanks for another fun episode!
Great episode, guys! Like you, I am a Kyle fan for life. He is truly the best Green Lantern.
I definitely think of Kyle as the Gen X GL, but definitely not the “slacker”. I mean, Hal Jordan is the slackeriest slacker to ever slack. Can’t keep a job – can’t keep a relationship – been to jail – heck, even Superman told him to get his crap together at one point. Plus, if Batman doesn’t like you, you’re sus. Also, no other GL has soap as an archenemy.
All that is to say that, like Wally, Kyle is the GL I grew up along side, so he’ll always be my favorite.
I will say that the current Green Lantern book by Jeremy Adam and Xermanico has made me more of a fan of Hal. Plus, coming soon, Kyle will be the main GL in that book, so the renaissance is coming!