Cover Date: October 1994
Story: Ron Marz
Pencils: Darryl Banks
Inks: Romeo Tanghal
Cover: Darryl Banks and Romeo Tanghal
After being at ground zero for the Big Bang, Parallax and Kyle Rayner are whisked away through a wormhole. Parallax had latched onto Waverider’s teleporting abilities at the last minute, and the resulting vortex brought himself and Kyle to Oa, where they begin fighting once more. Hal’s power has been drained after his recent battles, though, and after seeing Kilowog’s skeleton, he breaks down. He explains to Kyle that all he wanted to do was fix everything, not to be one of the bad guys. Kyle understands what Hal’s going through due to heavy losses of his own, and gives him his ring. Hal becomes Green Lantern once again, but he tries to draw power from Oa to recharge himself. Kyle realizes that he’s made a serious mistake; he tries to fight Hal without his ring, but is beaten and knocked down into the Green Lantern Crypt. Kyle gets the drop on Hal by knocking a sarcophagus down onto him; since Kyle’s ring doesn’t have the auto-protect function anymore, Hal was unprepared for this. Kyle takes his ring back, and rather than let Hal leach any more power from Oa, he overloads its core and destroys it. As the planetary debris settles, Kyle seems to be the only one left. Lost in space, he tries to find his way home.
The ending of Green Lantern (Vol. 3) #0 made it clear that Kyle was the last of the Green Lanterns, and even though he had quite a legacy to live up to, he was going to make sure he was worthy of the name. DC Comics was really pushing Green Lantern as a solo character book after getting rid of Hal and the Corps, and this helped to solidify that.
Even though it was a single issue, #0 was filled with great character moments. Hal breaking down into tears over his failures was fantastic, and reminded us just how human he was. The scene where Hal even offers to bring Kyle’s murdered girlfriend Alex DeWitt back was especially poignant, even though we all knew that Kyle would have to refuse it. Ron Marz is to be commended for the excellent dialogue between the former and current Green Lanterns.
And the artwork? No one can draw Parallax or Kyle Rayner better than Darryl Banks. Since this issue only features the two of them, it’s a showcase of Banks’ abilities. From Hal’s raw power to Kyle’s detailed constructs to both characters’ varying emotions, the art in this issue is truly a treat for the eyes. (The cover’s not too shabby, either!)
Green Lantern (Vol. 3) #0 was a perfect balance of action and character development. This is superhero storytelling at its finest, people!
