GL on the cover caught my eye, but JLGL's name sold it for me! From 1995,
Superman #105, "Misperceptions" Written by Dan Jurgens, pencils by José Luis García-López, inks by Joe Rubinstein.
Kyle Rayner gets kidnapped (and taken away from his nude model!) by aliens who seem confused that he's younger than they remember: they're pretty obviously gunning for Hal, but still take him. Later, at the christening of new boat the
S.S. Lara, named after Superman's mom, new WGBS reporter James Olsen makes a routine report, then gets to go live when a giant robot attacks! Back in the studio, a producer makes a snide crack about Cat Grant managing "to get her little lover-boy on
live after all," which Cat overhears and somehow doesn't axe that guy right there.
The robot proves to be a tough customer, but also drops Green Lantern into the water: when Supes recovers him, the monster picks up the
Lara and tosses it into Metropolis, along with several passengers, including Jimmy and Lois! With the live feed lost, WGBS has to go to "the Superman bio tape," a computer-generated account of the publically-known origins of the Man of Steel...narrated by Steve Lombard? Who appears to be smoking during his intro, à la Rod Serling? I don't think Steve had been a fixture in
Superman stories since pre-
Crisis, though. Also, a lot of the story was from events Superman had recounted to Lois, and involve deep points of the then-current history of Krypton, like cloning, the Eradicator, and the Cleric.
GL catches the
Lara, and rings up his own giant robot. They're going to need it, since Superman's powers are disappearing one by one. But he realizes he's seen this before--not the Parasite, but--well, he's smacked before he can let the reader in on it. It's alien also-ran baddies, Psi-Phon and Dreadnaught, who seem like they could've faced Supes a dozen times before, but I think had only shown up a couple of times. Realizing what Superman had been trying to tell him, Green Lantern switches dance partners, putting Superman in the cockpit of his construct-robot and taking on Dreadnaught and Psi-Phon himself. Meanwhile, Jimmy manages to get the live feed going, getting some impressive footage: the mouthy producer changes his tune, while Cat says "they don't call him
Mr. Action for nothing!" That probably only
sounded dirty...
When Psi-Phon and Dreadnaught are beat, the robot is released from their control: he looked different, but Superman had met him before, with the previous Green Lantern. He didn't want any of that, and presumably heads on his merry way, with the other two turned over to the Metropolis Special Crimes Unit. (For...what? Extradition? Dissection? The Suicide Squad?) Supes and GL give Jimmy a brief interview, as his star continues to rise. I'm pretty sure he'd jack that up later and be a copy boy again before long.
Probably just me, but going based off what I'm seeing Joe Rubenstein inks doesn't seem to compliment Garcia's art. Just me probably, but me no likie.
ReplyDeleteAlso, when did Cat and Jimmy hook up? DID NOT know about that.
Definitely an odd couple if I ever saw one.
Makes a lot of sense to me- I wasn't too into that era of Superman but I seem to remember Cat being a somewhat 'hands-on' boss.
ReplyDeleteSeems like the whole 'I was expecting your Silver Age equivalent' thing shows up a lot in this period. Think it happened a couple times in the 80's during that period where Hal quit and John took over too. Never got Hal's appeal though- he's the least interesting of the Earth GLs, as far as I'm concerned.
@H:
ReplyDeleteYeah I can see why you and a lot of others feel that way. I know various writers like O'Neil, Englehart, He WHO SHALL NOT be named (GJ) and Geoff Johns have all tried to give him one to various degrees of success. Can't recommend Morrison's Hal though. Just...doesn't work for me. Feels like it should be better than it is, idk.
Barry's the same way though up until Johns decided to give him the "Adult" treatment and ruined his childhood to make him more interesting.
Still, I like 'em both regardless.
Who's your preferred GL overall?
It's largely headcanon, but I like really late era Kyle. Like post-Omega Men: he's seen horribleness that all the power rings in the universe couldn't fit. While my Green Lantern reading is sporadic, have we seen Kyle do any art since then? Probably dark as hell...
ReplyDeleteI like Guy now so much more than I did back in the 80's! And I think they should lean into every couple of years, continuing to do whatever random-ass thing somebody thinks will finally break him big. Yellow ring, Warrior, red ring; go harder and weirder.
A guy like Guy could handle that sort of thing yeah. Maybe he should've been the focus of that weird Morrison run instead of Hal. Might've liked it more too.
ReplyDeleteYeah they really seemed to drop the fact that Kyle's an artist. Idk why, but apparently that's no longer an important detail worth continuing anymore...until it is again.
I prefer early 90's Kyle myself though. It was fun seeing his fresh young rookie take on the world of the DCU at the time.
I'd probably go JLI era Guy but that's more due to the writers than the character. I also liked that Green Lantern Corps book from around the same time where there were six or seven GLs handling Earth. The best use of Hal as far as I'm concerned is in a team book.
ReplyDeleteI actually prefer Barry from before he got all the childhood trauma stuff. He was a consistently fun character even when others were getting the darker and 'more realistic' treatment in the late 60's/early 70's. Even when he did have drama, he didn't dwell on it too long (until The Trial, which was stalling for time as I understand it).