Completely agree.

Kyle’s also proven that he’s humble enough to let go of the Ion power when he saw the opportunity to resurrect the Guardians. Over the years we see him maturing into a selfless and emphatic character, but also retains a blurry trait of ‘you-gotta-believe-it’ innocence.

Sodam may inherently be more powerful, but it’s Kyle who deserves better recognition among the GLC.

I just passed by a dude who says his name is Geoff, and wants to have a word with you…?

When it came to Lanterns, I was the same way. I didn’t care about Green Lantern either until I started reading about Kyle Rayner. And when Hal Jordan came back, I was excited for Kyle when he became Ion…because then it seemed like he was now something BEYOND a standard GL. And now after reading the Sinestro Corps War, I’m back to not caring about the Green Lanterns. So yeah…I’m with you.

Nope… Kilowog, lol.

Although Hal Jordan is the most famous Green Lantern, Guy Gardner is and always has been the most interesting. He’s never been boring no matter who was writing him. Hal has been a bit bland at times. Kyle has always been a nice enough kid, but will his “now generation” personality survive the test of time. John Stewart has gained a lot of ground in the last few years.

Just personal opinion.

I like Kyle and also didn’t start reading GL until after he took over, but Kyle really can’t cut the mustard as far as the GL hierarchy. Since will power is the key, that alone would move Hal, Guy, Kilowog and others, probably even John Stewart and Abin Sur over him. Other than when he was Ion the first time back before issue #150, he has always doubted himself and come up short on the will power front.

Hal has the legacy, the better origin. He was chosen for a reason because of who he was. Kyle was originally chosen at random (though Ganthet tried to back track on that later on), which is great for Spider-Man, who clearly Kyle was created to resemble, but a Green Lantern is supposed to be worthy first and foremost. And Kyle wasn’t even the first choice to be the “torch bearer,” that was Guy who turned down the ring.

Making Kyle an artist was clever, and it was interesting seeing all the different ring constructs, but that isn’t important. If your will doesn’t match your imagination, it’s pointless. A simple ring construct like Hal’s would still win out if his will was superior, and Hal’s will is stronger than Kyle’s.

Kyle was and remains an important part of the GL mythos, but I have never seen anything which makes a real case for him being the best GL.

The greatest Green Lantern is obviously Mogo the living planet.

My favorite will always be Guy, but I can’t argue that Kyle is the greatest. All the reasons you state are dead on, plus factor in the humility of being able to go from the only Green Lantern, then Ion (arguably the greatest power in the universe), and then finally back to the ranks of one among many Green Lanterns – that he was able to take that all in stride is amazing.

one word….

G’NORT!!!

Beau — I wouldn’t call Kyle’s personality dated. He’s a creative, occasionally neurotic and often irresponsible young man who is forced by circumstances to push his own wants aside and take on major responsibility. He starts out aimless and has to learn not only to find his own way but to help other people find theirs. That’s a classic archetype, not a character who only fits with Generation X.

Now his stories might be dated with slang and pop culture references, but so are 80s stories, and Silver Age stories and Golden Age stories. It just means that in a few years people reading Kyle as a space hero (and yes, I’d argue that he already has enough traction as a character that people will be reading Kyle stories in the next decade) will get to look at 90s collections and giggle at the 90s tropes.

Sinestro was the greatest long before any of those humans came along.

Sorry, but no.

I submit to a personal bias for Hal over Kyle but no; and it’s not Hal either.

Alan Scott.

Though I admit part of my issue with Kyle is that he’s always felt too much like a riff on Nova who was himself a cross between Green Lantern and Spider-Man. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the original Nova series, but Kyle just doesn’t hit my buttons. He’s a good character and I believe he’s become a permanent part of the DCU but not the greatest.

Having said that, I do think that in 10-15 years he may be back headlining the GL franchise as a new generation of creators take the torch. I just hope they treat Hal as well as the current Hal-centric team has treated Kyle. (Regardless of the stories he’s been in almost continuous publication since Hal came back.)

I’m not a huge fan of kyle (Guy all the way), but I’m much les a fan of this silver-age redux. When I began reading comics Hal had reed richards silver streak hair with wings and he was boring as hell. I have yet to read a story where Hal did anything but be boring (except new frontier, in a scene adapted from Gallipoli).

I think Jon would make the best green lantern, to be honest, but the company can never quite commit to him. Sure, Jon can be on the Justice League, but god forbid he actually stars in the book of the same name.

That all said, anyone is better than Hal. Live and let die.

Guy Gardner will one-punch this entry out of existence. He’ll stop there if you’re lucky!

I hate Guy Gardner, always have. His greatest moment was getting taken out with one punch by Batman.

No love for Jon Stewart here? OK, he’s bland and non-descript in the funny books, but he was an excellent, and well-rounded, character on the JL & JL Unlimited animated shows.

Hal’s still my favorite in the books, in part because he’s been synonymous with the GL Corps since the start of the Silver Age. So he’s got the history, but he’s also been the lead character in three of my favorite comic runs ever — the O’Neil/Adams GL/GA book in the 70s, Emerald Dawn in the 90′s, and the current series by Johns.

I’d stopped reading comics for about a decade right around the time Hal became Parallax and all that. So I saw Kyle as an interloper and a pretender to the throne. But having rediscovered him in the Sinestro Corps War, I’ve found that I really like him. I particularly like the story about his mother and the painting. But he’s still no Hal. Sorry.

Oh, and I also love good ol’ Kilowog: Man of a thousand talents!

Lisa,

Very good point on Kyle’s stories being dated and not so much him as a character. I went back and re-read some of his stories, not all, and you were right. I know that when I was writing Guy and Kyle teaming up against Major Force, I tried my best to show that Kyle had the heart of a real hero and the potential of one day being the best Lantern on Earth. I also wanted to show that he was eager and willing to learn from other Lanterns such as Guy, Hal, etc. I always felt that one of Kyle’s strongest points was his realist view on the big picture.

Thanks,

Beau

Kyle is my favorite also, but you can’t count out Guy or John. Then again there’s always Kilowog.

Kyle is in no way the greatest GL. With a little help maybe he could place in the top 5 of his sector – but that’s probably pushing it.
Kyle completely lucked into his ring by essentially being picked out of a hat by Ganthet. If it weren’t for the Parralax issue Kyle would never have become a GL. If Hal,Guy,and John all died Simultaneously and there were three rings shooting around earth looking for a worthy candidate, Kyle wouldn’t get a second scan.
As Far as Kyle having no mentorship – Kyle was created in a universe full of thousands of superheroes. When Jordan Started there were about a dozen and he became one of the founding members of the JLA.

I could see an argument for John – particularly for his work in JLA (and public perception in non-canon JLU) but not so much in the GL title.

Guy has a long way to go to make make up for the Joke he was in the 80s and 90s.

No, Hal Jordan embodies the corps the best, is the best leader, has had the best stories. Hal Jordan is,was, and always will be – The greatest Green Lantern.

John Stewart is the greatest Green Lantern. If they ever make trades of Mosaic you’ll all understand why.

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/25842

I tend to agree with Beau.

Hal’s been in a lot of comics, sure, but outside of the purty Gil Kane and Neal Adams artwork, the stories have been pretty consistently dull, and so has Hal’s personality. I haven’t actually read any stories with John in any type of starring role, so I can’t comment there. Kyle’s a nice enough kid, easy to relate to, likeable. But Guy Gardner … the man always steals the scene in any comic, he’s funny as hell even when he’s being obtuse (the more obtuse the funnier, honestly), and he’s a relentless force. He’s particularly enjoyable in his more nuanced veteran warrior persona of latter years.

The premise itself is flawed. What does it mean to be the “Greatest Green Lantern of All”? Accomplished the most heroic deeds? Most willpower? Most entertaining?

All the same, I’m a Guy Gardner fan. I remember picking up an issue of Green Lantern with Guy in it in the 90′s and was completely entertained. Have been a fan ever since. The character, despite the tendency of DC to ignore the character as much as possible, has managed to go through an actual growth as a character that the other Green Lantern’s haven’t really done. Maybe its because of the fact that over so many years nobody really cared what was done to the character, nobody was trying to force him as a character. He had a character progression as the overlooked alternate earth candidate who was equal to Hal, got injured, got replaced, overcame adversity, and became the Green Lantern we know and enjoy today. The character has suffered actual brain damage. Heck, even the beatdown by Batman has fueled the Green Lantern/Batman dichotomy. All of it because of Guy Gardner’s existence. Would Green Lantern be half as interesting today without him? No. And DC has barely used the character. Barely pushed him the way they push Hal and (in the 90′s, Kyle)

Yet, in the background during Kyle’s run, Guy Gardner was there mentoring Kyle, in a GL secret files it was revealed he turned down the last Green Lantern ring, that Ganthet then turned around and gave to Kyle. If Kyle is the greatest, then it stands to reason he wouldn’t have reached those heights without the influence of Guy Gardner.

Hal isn’t the greatest Green Lantern either. He’s the prototype, to be sure, but if he was so great, he wouldn’t have been turned into Parallax in the first place. The only Green Lantern to really survive the destruction of the Green Lantern Corps (as a character) was Guy Gardner. John survived as a crippled man, Hal was a villain. Kyle, again, given the ring Guy turned down for honorable reasons.

John is a nice enough guy, but what’s he done? Has he fought an eclipsod superman? Has he the dominating presence required to subjugate the worst villains of the universe to his will (as Guy did during the original crisis)? John blowed up a planet real good. And was landlord of the Mosaic planet. And also something about racism in the 70′s. I like John, but he’s no Guy Gardner.

In conclusion, the greatest green lantern of all time was Bzzd

Hal. Alan second. Here’s why!

In the Corps, which was basically the Texas Rangers of Space (the lawmen, not the baseball team), GL’s stood alone to protect their sectors.

Along comes the Man Without Fear (and no, Daredevil don’t rate in my opinion).

Hal learned to be a GL on his own, with only minimal interaction with the Guardians. And even when he did have interaction, he was usually saving entire planets or openly questioning the Guardians.

Hal had the qualities of leadership that had him proclaimed, but the corpsmen themselves, that he was the greatest. Here’s why…

Hal stopped Krona…you know, the Mad Rogue Guardian that created the multiverse to begin with.

Hal crossed into the land of the dead and led the GL’s of the past on a tear that defeated argueably the single greatest DC villian ever created…Nekron. This, after Hal rallied the entire living Corps to oppose him in the land of the living.

Hal took down the single greatest Rogue Lantern there ever was…Sinestro, repeatedly.

Hal was the first GL to enter and use the power of the Central Power Battery, not Kyle, as so/too many johnny come latelies think.

Hal is about as boring as a supernova in your back pocket. His personal sense of honor has led him down paths that ensured his own loss more than once. In this day of navel gazin’ hair-shirt wearin’ angst-ridden sodden lumps of characters that have moral quibbles about crossin’ the street, Hal’s strength of character shines out like a …Beacon. And as someone that has seen first hand how life can slap down someone that lives by their own sense of honor and personal code (family member, not me, lol), i know how that kind of damage can wear on a person. Its not boring, it strikes to the heart of people. Those that think it boring are the ones that are paralyzed in life by the “nuances” and “shades of gray”. Those people will never be great because they never risk anything real without the promise of success. Hal’s qualities are mythic in nature. Kyle’s are pop culture soup, to be consumed and forgotten.

“Hal is about as boring as a supernova in your back pocket.” That’s a nice quote, dude. Obviously a lot of people started reading comics in the 90s, and those unfortunates could easily mistake Kyle for being the ‘greatest’ – everyone else was punked to make him look good. That was the point.

But if you were lucky enough to read comics before that, or at least start your reading further back, you’d know a LOT better. Kyle’s a nice kid, but he’ll never be in Hal’s class.

And despite whatever they wrote in the 90s to push Kyle above his predecessors, Alan is the only GL that rates a real comparison to Hal Jordan, in both deeds, power, altruism, etc. And star power. Kyle was popular for awhile, but it didn’t last. Guy and John are both supporting characters. One is the ascerbic horses rear, the other is the ‘best friend’. None of ‘em would be ANYWHERE without the longtime popularity of Hal, and way back Alan too. You’d think at least a *creator* would acknowledge that.

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I would just like to point out a few facts here but first i would like to say im not trying to down Play Kyle in any way.

#1: is that the creativity of the contructs is limited by the imagination fothe Artist whos drawing the pictures.

#2: Is Kyle Rayner had the entire power of the the Green Energy battery at his disposal because all other were dead and he had more raw power as result so he could create more powerufl constructs and because Paralax was no longer imprisoned in the Green Energy battery his Ring had no weakness against yellow.

I would that if anything Hal Jordan and Kyle Rayner are equals and thus the Greatest the Lanterns in the cores history they were also the only lanterns strong enough to retain their Green Energy rings when they taken over “by” Paralax.