Julian, read my darn post. As I said, I was addressing some of the things that *other posters* had already mentioned. These are not my own ideas of what I think is widely disliked. I really could not think of anything to specific. As I said at the beginning of the post, mostly of what I thought of were things that people who don't like the character commonly dismiss him for and I mentioned those. I'm sorry if you feel I wasn't on topic enough.
Okay, my bad. I must have misinterpreted you there.
And for the record, I hate those guys that always urge people to stay on topic. It's the nature of discussion - on the internet and elsewhere - to skeebabadoodle everywhere. You start talking about the Flaming Lips's best albums and you end up chatting about THE EWOK ADVENTURE.
Hal vs Kyle fan feuds crack me up. If you read GL from beginning to end, it's a wonderful epic. Although I'll admit, Hal's story became more multi-sided.
Nothing in comics was nastier than the Hal Jordan/Kyle Rayner fights back in the day. It was the Civil War, brother vs. brother. If I never see another Kyle vs. Hal fight, it'd be too soon.
They almost approach the nastiness of the Moore/Connery Bond fights. ALMOST.
I blame this entire mess on Ron Marz. I'm all in favor of bringing in some interesting new GLs, but he could have created a new character and not done it in a way that was profoundly alienating.
And as always, my estimation of the incredible Geoff Johns, currently DC's greatest writer along with Busiek, is elevated. I will admit, until Johns, I wasn't a Kyle kind of guy. But Johns made me enjoy the character and understand he has a place in the scheme of things. He brought Hal Jordan and the GLC back, but he did so in a way that Kyle Rayner had a role and his fans weren't slighted - an act of admirable professionalism from a man that, by all accounts, personally didn't like the Kyle character.
In other words, Geoff Johns, unlike the Civil War, ended with everybody being happy.
It reminds me about long-standing discussions about the role of writers. People often say, "the role of the writer is to ignore what they like and use what they don't like."
My response is, "NO. You're wrong. A writer doesn't get to do that working in a universe created by others. He has to use what he likes...and what he doesn't like too. That's the difference between a fan and professional." This is why CRISIS and other such events irk me. Writers shouldn't have the option to hit the ERASE button...even on really terrible stories.
Dilber MC Theme by HarzeM