Comments on The Weekly Crisis - Comic Book Review Blog: Green Lantern Corps - No Fear or No Intelligence?

What irritates me even more about this is that Kyl...

2009-11-20T11:21:27.183-04:00

What irritates me even more about this is that Kyle was renown for his creativity with using the ring, from back when. Comnig up with a less-suicidal plan isn't exactly space rocket science here.

On the other hand, maybe he can come back and collect all those black rings near him...

I read it differently. Kyle grabbed the alpha batt...

2009-11-17T21:54:40.786-04:00

I read it differently. Kyle grabbed the alpha battery to protect it until it exploded. Not just to cause it to explode near the BLs. And the explosion ripped through the dome he created to grab as many BLs as he could. I assumed that the blast destroyed his personal shield as well.

Concentrated light also disrupts the rings. That is what caused the BLs to get totally disintegrated as opposed to Kyle's less graphic death.

There were many ways Kyle could have the same resu...

2009-11-17T19:26:55.459-04:00

There were many ways Kyle could have the same result (containing the big explosion) without getting himself killed, but what I just don't see happening is every BL getting obliterated to cosmic dust whyle Kyle only has some minor tears on his custume.
Did he put up a shield to keep himself from being turn to nothing? Maybe. But I just can't believe he thought about saving himself via a proctective shiled, creating the dome, blasting the BL to get them near him and NOT think of a way to do all that without him being at ground zero. I mean he could just fly at mega speeds at the last second to at least get a change to live.
BL were after the lantern not him!

Daryll: I was pretty angry at the Alpha Lantern ac...

2009-11-17T17:51:06.657-04:00

Daryll: I was pretty angry at the Alpha Lantern actions too, but I think that's a sign of good writing. It really did feel like something it would do given the situation, but you are still screaming at the comic "NO YOU IDIOT, DON'T DO THAT!"

Eric, I understand that but Sinestro Corps War was...

2009-11-17T17:09:45.933-04:00

Eric, I understand that but Sinestro Corps War was not that far back (two years at most) with the same situation you brought up. This should have been caught.

It is a cool moment but our intelligence in remembering how the rings functioned in past crisis situations sap the emotion out of it....

I was more pissed at the Alpha Lantern screwing up Kyle's idea than I was sad / shocked at Kyle's death....

And really this dissection of heroes' actions in books should be a monthly column. It is always fascinating to intelligently discuss how powers work / possible mistakes in the prose.

Daryll - No, that's just a side effect of putting ...

2009-11-17T16:42:49.071-04:00

Daryll - No, that's just a side effect of putting more books than is necessary, by a wide margin. This goes triple for Marvel. Marvel and DC put out too many books with too few editors and, I'm guessing, not enough lead time between creation and release to allow for the correction of mistakes.

Again I state Primewax and Eric, inconsistent DC e...

2009-11-17T16:35:21.428-04:00

Again I state Primewax and Eric, inconsistent DC editorial..lol someone should have caught this...

But then again this is where wrestling and comics are alike. They shun the "smart" fans and just want to produce 'ooohs' & 'ahhhs' from the less enlightened....

@Matt- Good point about the Vice plan, I had forgo...

2009-11-17T16:23:42.366-04:00

@Matt- Good point about the Vice plan, I had forgotten that Kyle came up with that plan. And he seemed pretty calm when Soranik had her fist in Jade's mouth. Ok, I'll go with dumb then. I guess it was almost the opposite of a deus ex machina then. Lol

Ryan - The rings create hard light constructs base...

2009-11-17T16:20:12.155-04:00

Ryan - The rings create hard light constructs based on the user's imagination and have a limited ability to cross dimensional boundaries, which as far as I know, is limited to storing an individual's power battery in a tiny pocket dimension and crossover between the matter/anti-matter boundary of their respective Earths.

Steven - Green Lanterns have similar stuff before....

2009-11-17T16:15:04.219-04:00

Steven - Green Lanterns have similar stuff before. In Sinestro Corps War, they contained a massive explosion caused by the destruction of War World and the Sinestro Corps power batter. No reason why Kyle, and the GLC, couldn't have done the same thing here.

Wow, it's great to see so many comments! Let's see...

2009-11-17T16:14:53.171-04:00

Wow, it's great to see so many comments! Let's see how many I can answer.

@XIX: Good point about the grenade bit, and it would have worked in that context, except that Kyle had a while to think about his actions, instead of just jumping on top of a grenade.

@Nathan Aaron: Hard to say really. I wouldn't like them to bring him back so soon, honestly, but I can see it happening.

@Brandon: I understand, in an event filled with so much death, it's easy for this one to get lost. Tomasi wrote the great Requiem issue for Manhunter, so I would for him to do more stuff like that.

@Anonymous: The funny thing is that the "giant hand" bit has been parodied in the past few years. In an issue of Green Lantern, when he met up with Batman. Bats said "what's your strategy?"and Hal replied "I'm going to make a giant hand and punch him"

@azuredragon: If I understand it correctly, the Rings do have limitations, but they are based on the person wielding them. They don't always have to be magical deus ex machina.

@Primewax: I'm not sure I can buy into the "the BL were screwing up with my mind", because Kyle was acting pretty logically up until that point. He was calmly talking to Soranik, and he came up with the plan to release Vice (which you would have to be pretty quick on your feet, and thinking logically, to come up with).

Kyle could use his ring to create a shield to hold...

2009-11-17T15:47:07.792-04:00

Kyle could use his ring to create a shield to hold in the Black Lanterns. But he couldn't create a shield to block an exploding power battery, which is basically a more powerful version of a ring and a conduit to the very energy the rings use.

Why would he be able to use green energy to block a massive amount of green energy?

So while I don't feel the death will last, Kyle wasn't acting stupidly. Some people apparently don't think logically when looking for stupid stuff in comic book plots.

Ryan, In a way that's why I kind of hate DC editor...

2009-11-17T15:45:50.189-04:00

Ryan, In a way that's why I kind of hate DC editorial more than Marvel. It seems they more than any other company 'forget' the limitations and abilities placed on their heroes from writer to writer. DC Editorial seemingly has more screw ups on that score than other companies. ESPECIALLY during big events like Final Crisis and Blackest Night. From issue to issue, it seems power levels and charactization vary wildly across the board.

I both agree and disagree with Matt. On one hand, ...

2009-11-17T15:43:52.855-04:00

I both agree and disagree with Matt. On one hand, Kyle did act like a moron but, on the other hand, characters in superhero comics rarely act in way similar to how a real person would so it's just business as usual.

Kirk - Actually, John using a sniper rifle makes sense. He wouldn't be able to accurately hit, or even just hit, long distance targets without augmenting his eyesight and if you are making a scope might as well make the gun. Especially since John is an ex-soldier and is probably more comfortable with guns than magic wishing rings.

See, that's why I just don't dig Green Lantern. Th...

2009-11-17T15:40:40.941-04:00

See, that's why I just don't dig Green Lantern. The power just seems...unconsidered at times, and it's scope is so large I don't get how it can be entertaining. Don't get me wrong, I hear Johns has smashed this one out of the park, consistently, but overall the entire pitch for Green Lantern just snuffs my enthusiasm before I see a page. What can't the rings do? (aAnd let the Green fanboys answer, 'cos I really don't know.)

The way I look at it is that the rings can do most...

2009-11-17T14:26:22.178-04:00

The way I look at it is that the rings can do most anything, but they are still governed by people and people are universally accepted as being dumb. John Stewert makes a freaking sniper rifle every time to fire magic bullets that he could simply fire from his goddamn ring. He even looks through a scope instead of just firing. It's retarded, but a trope of the Green Lanterns and their rings.

Anonymous, what i'm saying is that conceivably the...

2009-11-17T14:21:25.476-04:00

Anonymous, what i'm saying is that conceivably there's NO limits to what the rings can do.

In nearly every fight, there's going to be a question of...why didn't they do this? or why didn't they do that?

It's silly to worry over one or another

Perfect point. How many times have we seen Lantern...

2009-11-17T14:05:30.196-04:00

Perfect point. How many times have we seen Lanterns shoot a bomb into the upper atmosphere with their ring?

But I think Primewax hit it on the head, the Black Lanterns emotional mind games FINALLY got to kill someone as Kyle wasn't thinking straight and acted...

About damn time...

Azuredragon, using the ring isn't a Deus Ex Machin...

2009-11-17T12:27:19.412-04:00

Azuredragon, using the ring isn't a Deus Ex Machina, if Kyle had suddenly remember his ring had bomb transporting capabilities then it would be a Deus Ex Machina, because it'd be a bullshit solution that comes out of nowhere with no prior establishment in the story.

But the whole point of the lanterns is that their rings create physical constructs from pure will, it's been established from day one and using it like that wouldn't meet any of the Deus Ex Machina criteria.

I think the emotion 'stupid' powers the polka dot ...

2009-11-17T11:54:26.745-04:00

I think the emotion 'stupid' powers the polka dot rings doesn't it?

C'mon now, yes it was stupid, but in the midst of ...

2009-11-17T11:42:54.421-04:00

C'mon now, yes it was stupid, but in the midst of battle you do what you think is best. Kyle had just confronted the undead love of his life, and was coming to terms with his feelings for Soranik Natu. He wasn't exactly in the best state of mind you know. Not to mention friends being attacked and killed left and right, with the fate of the Corps hanging in the balance. So yes, stupid move, but not unreasonable.

This is reallya stupid complaint. The problem wit...

2009-11-17T11:40:11.313-04:00

This is reallya stupid complaint. The problem with the GL rings is that they are Deus Ex Machina devices....so the only way to put the lanterns in trouble is to either: Create even more ridiculous bad guys or other guys with rings OR make them forget about potential uses of their rings. (alternatively they could have limitations built in, but they've gotten rid of those).

I mean, even the first one doesnt work always because theres no reason why they can't deus ex machina out of everything. It's the fundamental problem with the whole superhero concept for GL....you just got to be willing to accept it.

Green Lanterns , ironically , aren't the brightest...

2009-11-17T11:23:19.196-04:00

Green Lanterns , ironically , aren't the brightest bulbs in the shed. For people who are supposed to be fearless , they do seem to panic a lot or start blubbering when faced with something they haven't seen before. As for Hal? He's fearless to the point of being stupid , as written by Johns. Flying planes without his ring? Stupid. I was actually glad when he got himself captured and tortured for months by enemy soldiers. Hell , even Sinestro called him on it! When even the bad guy knows what an idiot you're being...

But on the topic of this article , you're absolutely right. It flies completely in the face of logic that Kyle would need to physically be holding the power battery. What? A giant freaking hand holding it up as high as possible wouldn't work for some reason?

I've read GL for about 30 years and I found myself...

2009-11-17T10:06:16.975-04:00

I've read GL for about 30 years and I found myself saying "That's it?" at the end of this issue. It felt so uneventful to me. It almost seemed like it was a set-up and he wasnt really dead and we'll see him flying around next issue.

Perhaps it was the writing or the constant stream of GL deaths in the recent issues but I felt more emotionally involved when Bzzt or Sodam died than Kyle which is just not right at all.

If Kyle is actually dead he could have used a better send off than a three pager like this. Maybe we'll get a requiem issue down the road.

Does anyone REALLY think Kyle will stay dead for l...

2009-11-17T10:04:41.183-04:00

Does anyone REALLY think Kyle will stay dead for long. Everyone's making guesses that many of these dead Black Lanterns will return in full form by the end of Blackest Night anyway; I really doubt this is the end for Kyle. If anything, it's just a story twist to give Guy a reason to go crazy on everyone, and get a Red Lantern ring. I could be wrong, but I'm betting he'll be back...