Green Lantern V
Created by Ron Marz & Darryl Banks
+ History
Kyle
Rayner was
just a freelance artist living in Los Angeles when one day he
was visited by Ganthet, the last of the Guardians
of the U
niverse.
(Green Lantern #50) Ganthet 's power was all
that remained of the great central power battery that powered the Green
Lantern Corps for millennia. The other Guardians had just been killed
by Kyle's successor, the Green Lantern of Earth Hal
Jordan, who was possessed Parallax, the cosmic embodiment
of fear.
Jordan soon went on to sacrifice his own life to save Earth, and was resurrected as the Spectre. After this, Kyle was the sole Green Lantern in the universe. His original ring was keyed to Kyle's genetic code; only he or his descendents could now weild its power.
Like all great heroes, his mere existence drew tragedy to his personal life. Very soon after becoming Green Lantern, he was beset by the evil Major Force, who killed Kyle's girlfriend, Alex Dewitt.
Not long after Kyle began his new career, he fell in with a new formation of the Justice League of America. (JL: Midsummer's Nightmare #3) He served with the League for a long time, at first as the novice of the group. But mentoring from such established peers served him well and Kyle became quite the hero in his own rite.
Kyle was also "adopted" by members of the Green Lantern family on Earth. He met the original Lantern, Alan Scott, and worked side-by-side as civilians with John Stewart. More importantly, he found love again with Scott's daughter Jennie-Lynn Hayden, the hero known as Jade. Kyle eventually proposed to Jennie, but they were never officially engaged. When Kyle left briefly for space, he duplicated his own power ring and asked Jade to serve as in his absence. (#107)
At one point Kyle also attempted to reform the Green Lantern Corps. He went recruiting throughout the universe and made duplicates of his own ring. This experiment failed.
Ion, Part One
While
in space, Kyle acquired godlike powers (Green
Lantern #145) and temporarily
adopted the name Ion.
During this time, he bestowed some of his power on Jade, restoring
her own emerald powers. But when he realized that his new powers
were actually the lifeforce energies of the deceased Guardians
of the Universe, he returned them to Oa, reigniting the central
power power battery and birthing a new generation of Guardians.
This time the Guardians were both male and female and would be
watched over by Ganthet as they matured. (GL
#150)
When he'd returned to Earth, Jade broke off their engagement (she had been unfaithful) and Kyle headed for space once again. This time, he gave one of Jordan's old power rings to John Stewart, who succeed Kyle in the Justice League.
Since then, Hal Jordan has been liberated from Parallax's possession and cleaved from the spirit of the Spectre. Jordan reclaimed the title of Green Lantern of Earth (shared with Stewart). For the first time, Kyle found himself a member of the Green Lantern Corps.
Kyle officially resigned from the JLA when he and Guy Gardner were
summoned to Oa. They were given the special task of training new Lanterns,
of which there would now be two per sector. (Green
Lantern Corps: Recharge #1)
Along with other senior Lanterns, Kyle led a battle against the Spider Guild of Vega. But no sooner was this crisis averted, several others began. The Guardians recognized that Rayner’s destiny lay in the Polaris system, the site of a great new war between Rann and Thanagar. (#5)
Kyle met the legendary Captain Comet and together, they helped reseed Thanagar with new life. Before his allies could celebrate their accomplishments, however, the Guardians' prophesy began to coalesce — Alexander Luthor began to open a giant rift in space, near Rann. (Rann/Thanagar War)
Ion, Part Two
While still in space, Kyle discovered that his former lover, Donna
Troy, had led an army of heroes from Earth into space to investigate
the rift. In the end, Kyle and Jade stood as the front line of protection
against the massive energy wave created by the rift. Jade fell to one
of these surges, and as her body died, she returned to Kyle the energy
he'd once given her. This energy left him changed once again. He was
imbued with the Guardians' power, now tempered by Jade's soul. But the
threat of the rift still loomed and as the heroes launched back onto
the offensive, Kyle once again took the name Ion. (Rann/Thanagar
Special)
After this crisis, Kyle went to live at an artist’s retreat called Kaaterskill’s Notch. It's owner, Schuyler became his mentor, and Kyle's took his painting to a new level. As for the Guardians, they had designated Ion their torch-bearer, an awesome responsibility; they hoped Kyle would prove himself ready for greater challenge that lay ahead. (Ion #1)
Kyle began piecing together evidence that unseen forces were acting most directly on his life. His mother fell to an unexplained ailment (#9) and as she lay dying, Kyle was summoned into a battle wtih his old foe, Grayven. (#11) The villain intimated that he had knowledge about his mother's condition, but Kyle could not elicit the information in time to save his mother.
When Maura Rayner died, Kyle was still in space. In his grief, he used his godlike powers to revive her. But Marua could sense that something was wrong. She pleaded with Kyle to let her go. Kyle was left with far more questions than answers. (#12) Questions that would lead him towards the antimatter planet of Qward. During the Lantern Corps' war against the Sinestro Corps, Kyle discovered that it was the Sinestro called Despotellis who infected his mother. Also during this battle, Kyle was infected himself — by the Parallax entity. (Green Lantern: Sinestro Corps Special) With help from his fellow Lanterns, he was soon free of it. (GL v4 #24)
Sinestro had also stripped Kyle of the Ion power. (Sinestro Corps Special) After the war was over, the Guardians chose to pass the Ion power on to the new Daxamite Lantern, Sodam Yat, (Green Lantern Corps #17) saying that Kyle was only ever meant to be a temporary host for Ion. (Tales of the Sinestro Corps: Ion)
Kyle now serves in the G.L. Honor Guard, partnered with Guy Gardner. The four Lanterns from Earth each contain a portion of the Parallax entity imprisoned in their power batteries. (G.L. #25)
There was another character named Ion in Legion v.4 #66 (3.95). This was post-Zero Hour continuity; she was murdered.
+ Powers
Kyle has no inherent metahuman abilities but weilds the most powerful weapon in the universe. The Green Lantern's ring channels the immense power of the Guardians of the Universe. From their central power batter, the ring's energy can be used to contain or affect almost all forms of matter and energy. The ring is also frequently used to build solid plasma constructs. The plasma is most often used for force or to construct force fields.
The ring also has a measure of "intelligence." It can be instructed to search for information, and it can propel the wearer at light speed through space. The rings have one crucial weakness: their green energies can not be used against the color yellow. This is because of the presence of Parallax (the universal embodiment fear) inside the central power battery. If the ring's weilder has sufficient will power to overcome fear, the weakness to yellow lessens. In addition, the rings must be purposely recharged every 24 hours.
Appearances + References
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