As Hal's Bad At Being In Charge, Kyle's Bad At Being Low Key

I don't read any of the Green Lantern books, but I read enough blogs by people who do that it isn't hard to keep up with what's happening, now that this latest crossover event thing is done. I think it's funny - and great -  that with Johns gone, Hal's lost that seeming air of infallibility he had for so long, but he's still carrying on as if nothing's changed. Which makes sense; Hal's a fictional character, he doesn't know there are different writers handling things, ones perhaps not so enamored of him as their predecessor.

Putting Hal Jordan in charge of the entire Green Lantern Corps? That's a terrible idea. Hal's not a bad guy to have around for bad guy punching, last minute heroics, stuff like that. But he's not cut out to lead, certainly not on a level with that many administrative headaches. He's like one of those field commanders that's great on a squad level, where there's only so much to keep track of, but he can't handle the extra responsibility that comes with the promotions, the logistics, paperwork, etc. Honestly, the Corps might be better off keeping Hal in reserve. "In case of Universe-threatening emergency, break glass". Don't let him out before that, because he'll rush in recklessly and make things worse. But if you wait until things can't get any worse, then he seems to be pretty good at turning the tide.

But as a boss? No, bad idea. Witness sending Guy off to join the Red Lanterns pretty much on his own, in spite of the risks to Guy's life. At least let one of his friends in the Corps go along, say Guy convinced them to defect, too. Then they can watch each other's backs. Now he's instituted some rule about not using the emotional spectrum energy without authorization, which comes from Hal, apparently. He's the boss for a few months and already he's making laws he's specially exempt from to use against people he considers a threat, while cutting his friends slack. Ah, cronyism and corruption, ain't it a wonderful thing?

 I've always thought it was a little dodgy the way the GLs seemed to police things whether they were wanted or not, but Hal just making up a new law all by himself, then rushing off to arrest someone with that new law as one of the charges five minutes later, that's going pretty far. Gavok noted it on 4thletter, Hal's veering into Tony Stark circa Civil War territory these days. Nobody needs to go there, especially Hal. The last time he got a swelled head and started trying to dictate how things were going to be, it ended with Ollie shooting him with an arrow before he wiped out the entire universe. Though if Hal does go on another trip to looney land and tries to remake existence, it might be better to let him. He could hardly do worse than Barry Allen, who's responsible for the current state of things. Plus, if this leads to several months of all Hal's friends taking turns calling him a jerk and punching him in the face, it might be a lot of fun. That was certainly one (the only) result from Civil War I enjoyed, everyone - Spidey, Dr. Strange, She-Hulk, Nova (especially Nova) - taking a shot at Stark.

I really didn't mean to speak so much about Hal, this was more about Kyle. I guess he joined the Source Wall for about 5 minutes, then got popped back out after everyone had left. But he's going to pretend to still be gone. Well, nobody seemed very broken up about it, which doesn't make a lot of sense, but maybe it needs time to sink in.

As it is, I don't see Kyle managing to keep his status a secret very long. He's an artist whose super-power is using energy to do stuff, which usually means "Big, flashy constructs". Not exactly subtle. Then there's his inherent personality. He's very nice, loyal, brave, clever when he needs to be, but I wouldn't say he's good at really thinking through his actions ahead of time. Consider how bad he was at something as basic as a secret identity. He'd switch into costume in full view of a coffee shop worth of civilians at the drop of a hat. If you needed an Earth Lantern to pretend he was dead and make it stick, I think John's your choice, assuming you could convince him it was necessary, which I think would be harder than with the others. The same thoughtful, steady approach that would make him think out how he was going to do something while not blowing his cover, would probably also make him question just why he needed to play dead in the first place. Recall how he wisely balked at becoming an Alpha Lantern.

Anyway, Kyle strikes me as such an absent-minded type I could easily see him deciding he was lonely or thirsty, and heading for Mogo to visit Warriors. Wait, was Warriors still on Oa when it went, and if so, did it get incorporated into Mogo? Let's say it did. The GLs need a place to relax, and I bet Mogo could grow some stuff that would make some wicked brews. So Kyle lands, and walks in, says hi, asks for a drink, starts up a conversation with Kilowog or Soranik like nothing happened. A couple of minutes in, he's still chattering along, he notices everyone's gawking at him, and it dawns on him they're supposed to think he's dead. At that point, I sort picture Kyle letting out this shriek, maybe creating one of those dressing screens to hide himself, or a bunch of giant hands to cover everyone's hands, maybe while yelling, "Don't look at me! I'm not supposed to be seen!"

OK, I stole that last bit from an issue of Groo, but Sergio Aragones is a pretty good guy to steal from when you want knuckleheaded hijinks. Point is, Kyle's not a good person to ask this of, so I don't expect it to be long before he blows it in some ridiculous manner.