"The End" Week: Green Lantern #181!

Perhaps ironically, Green Lantern was the book that first made me consider this question: how long can you hold a grudge in a superhero universe? After somebody's been killed and reborn (and killed and reborn and killed and reborn like six more times over, in today's case) should you still be mad they killed your girlfriend/sidekick/town/whatever? Also, a dispirited young hero, weary of the burden of the cosmic legacy he had carried his entire series, pisses off into space to keep his loved ones safe in his last issue? I've seen that before! From 2004, Green Lantern #181, "Homecoming? Part six" Written by Ron Marz, pencils by Luke Ross, inks by Rodney Ramos.

Kyle Rayner's first writer is back, to wrap up his series, but I'm not sure how much of this rings true with how Kyle had developed over ten years. It's a rematch with Major Force, who infamously killed Kyle's girlfriend Alex, and may have just killed his mom to boot. Kyle is ready to kill Force, who is completely unconcerned. Not because the hero doesn't have it in him, as traditional, but Force doesn't think he can. He had returned from the dead so many times he couldn't even remember how many funerals he'd had.

Major Force tries a different tactic than the usual punch-'em-up, though: why does Kyle want the ring? What good has it ever done him? Force also admits, he didn't kill Kyle's mom, that was a mannequin planted to stir him up, but it could've been her. Force argues, a free agent shouldn't have to "bear the burden" of the ring; and Kyle--who I'm guessing was pretty depressed going into this one--agrees, and gives up the ring! Which is ridiculously goddamn stupid. How anyone could get psyched out by a purple steroid freak...

With the ring in hand, Force makes an offhand remark, that "they," presumably black ops, will find somebody up to the job. Which sparks something in Kyle: hadn't he proved he was up to the job? Over, and over, and over again? When Force won't give the ring back, Kyle stabs him in the eye with a shard of glass from their earlier fight. He recovers the ring, knocks Force into space, beats the tar out of him (with his ring, sure) and brands a Lantern-logo on his chest to give him something to think about. But that's just starters! Maybe Force can't die, but Kyle decapitates him, seals him up in a bubble, and swats him into space to drift forever...or not quite two years, Major Force would be back in 2006's Crisis Aftermath: The Battle for Bludhaven #5, versus the returned Hal Jordan.

Yes, this was Kyle's last issue, since the Hal Jordan train was starting again: Green Lantern: Rebirth was a month away. Kyle takes off into space, to protect his loved ones, but also in search of something new. Hopefully, a new outfit; I didn't like this one, and while I think the stubble was supposed to indicate inner turmoil, I kind of hate it for him. But he's of course stuck around over the years, even when the focus is off him; my favorite might be the absolutely brutal the Omega Men.