“Yesterday’s” Comic> Green Lantern #53

“Did you take my sandwich?”

Green Lantern #50

DC Comics (July, 1994)

When we last left our hero Mongul was pounding him into the beach. It takes two pages for Superman to arrive to save him. Explanations take a back seat to teaming up to defeat Mongul, which as you may recall Kyle did spectacularly. Meanwhile, the evil agents have found a connection between Green Lantern and Alexandra, and send Major Force to interrogate her. You know what’s going in the “got wrong” section but let’s start with…

What they got right: Kyle does very well against what the dialog says is his first major villain. He acknowledges that he needed Superman’s help but it still gives him the confidence to push on. Marz also does a good job getting the important details (Kyle doesn’t know where the ring came from, didn’t know about a yellow impurity which ring appears to lack, and he needs to keep his concentration) across to a new reader, and as this is the first issue I read with Kyle that was important to me. What sold me on this new GL is his association with Alexandra and how she pushes him to be the best superhero he can be. Follow that up with the previous issue where they looked so cute together and I was ready to accept Not Hal, and the train showed me he could use the ring better than Hal, and I would later learn he’s an artist and a geek.

What they got wrong: So imagine my disappointment when I picked up the post Zero Hour #0, ready to start picking up the series and learning Alexandra was dead, and my anger at finding out how (the event that started Women In Refrigerators) she died. How do you make a great team and then kill one of them off to Batmanify the superhero. Not every hero needs tragedy and I think the series would have benefited more by having Alex for Kyle to play off of. It’s why I was willing to give Kyle a chance and why I stopped when I learned what happened.

Recommendation: This and the previous issue form a good two-part story, but I would say stop here and look into the earlier issues first, that debut Kyle and Alex to see why people were upset at what will happen to her next issue. Then morn the lost opportunity.