The origins of Kyle Rayner's power ring are not unknown, but they were unnecessary. At the end of Emerald Twilight, Hal Jordan had decimated the Corps and the Guardians, and had drained the Central Power Battery of its power. Ganthet, the last surviving Guardian, used his powers to restructure the broken pieces of Hal Jordan's power ring, transported himself to an alley on Earth, and finding only Kyle Rayner, dropped the new ring in his hand and said, "You'll have to do." That's how Kyle got to be the only Green Lantern of a new era.

However, there were also changes to the ring itself. Most notably, the yellow impurity was gone, so the ring was no longer vulnerable to the color yellow. The restriction to killing was gone, only limited by Kyle's own moral compass. Also, unlike Hal Jordan's time, Kyle's power ring was now the only one of its kind. The thing I've always wondered is this: if DC wanted a one-of-a-kind ring that could kill and wasn't vulnerable to yellow, why didn't they just give him Sinestro'syellow ring? As a result of Emerald Twilight, and the follow-up in Guy Gardner, titled Emerald Fallout, Guy lost the yellow ring. So rather than destroy it, they had set up the perfect opportunity to give it to Kyle.

Now, I'm sure many of you are thinking, "Well then he wouldn't be a Green Lantern - duh," but here's the other thing - Alan Scott'sring was destroyed at this time too. If DC had kept that ring around, they still would have had a GL on the books. "So what, then," I am sure you are wondering, "would they have called Kyle Rayner?" I was thinking... Starman.

It was the perfect time for it, really. Kyle's story started in March of 1994, a full seven months before James Robinson's fantastic Starman book had even started. Now, chances are Robinson's story was already in development, but if it wasn't, DC missed a chance to reinvent the name here. Kyle could have wielded the yellow ring as Starman, and eventually formed a Star Corps, which I think would have been a much better use of the name, than the S.T.A.R. Corps title that ended in April of 1994, and was never heard from again. Also, Star Corps seems like a better name than Green Lantern Corps. I've often thought that the GL name only made (semi) sense with Alan Scott. Considering the central source of their power and the rings that they wear, it seems much more likely that the GLC would be known as the Emerald Batteries or the Green Rings (or perhaps something a little cooler sounding, like the Emerald Circle). Whatever the case, Star Corps seems like a better name all around.

This would have done a few cool things for DC. One, it would have revamped the Starman name, which was inactive at the time. Two, it would have tied Starman to the Green Lantern family of books, which seems to do pretty well. Three, it would have put the focus back on Alan Scott as Green Lantern for awhile, giving us a year or so to delve into the character of Alan Scott, and see what it is that makes the original Green Lantern cool. I'm sure that his story would have had something to do with trying to bring Jordan back from being Parallax, and eventually led to Hal Jordan coming back to being a hero. In a world where Kyle Rayner entered as Starman, this would be where Ganthet would present Hal Jordan with the pieces of his shattered power ring, and reform them into a power ring once again. After that, things could have still led to where they are today, but with slightly different histories for Hal and Kyle. The Star Corps could have easily been turned into the Sinestro Corps, and Kyle could have either become a villain or taken a green ring at this time, showing himself to be a true hero, and joining the cause of the new Green Lantern Corps (which Jordan would have brought back, whether I think it's a good name or not).

Is this a better idea than the stuff that happened? It has potential, but I don't know that it actually would have been better. It's just that thing of changing the rules for the green power ring that bugs me, when the yellow power ring already had all of that in place. It's something like this that I look at and say, "Why reinvent the wheel," and in this instance, I still haven't seen a good answer to that question.

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You're missing the fact that the whole point of Kyle was to revitalize the Green Lantern universe and make it more appealing to new audiences. So from the editorial point of view, killing of Hal to give Alan the spotlight as Green Lantern would have made no flipping sense. It would have been one old geezer replacing another, and DC wanted to do away with older heroes at the time.  
No, Kyle Rayner, Green Lantern, had to happen, and with that in mind, the rest of the puzzle falls into place. No matter how similar, you cannot have the last member of his kind, burdened with carrying on the legacy of the whole organization, fly around with the ring of their greatest enemy. It just doesn't fit. 
 
Removing the weaknesses, I don't know, there isn't really much sense about it, but I guess it was probably an attempt to fit into the edgier theme of the nineties or something.... 
 
Now from the strictly story point of view, I could see that happening. Hell, it would probably be ten times a better storyline than the Rainbow Lantern stuff Goeff Johns is shoving down our throats.

" @cbishop:  1) Isn't that the same thing that happened with Kyle? 2) I didn't mean Alan was an old geezer physically (Hal wasn't old either), but their styles and personalities were old school, and DC wanted some new blood for the franchise.  Agreed about everything else. "

@cbishop:  
For an in story example of why Kyle couldn't use the yellow power ring, at that time Sinestro's ring could only be recharged by fighting other Green Lanterns. With no other Green Lanterns around it would be next to useless. Or if Alan got his ring back, we'd have Kyle traveling to fight Alan Scott once in a while. So your proposal still changes the rules a bit.

"@cbishop:  For an in story example of why Kyle couldn't use the yellow power ring, at that time Sinestro's ring could only be recharged by fighting other Green Lanterns. With no other Green Lanterns around it would be next to useless. Or if Alan got his ring back, we'd have Kyle traveling to fight Alan Scott once in a while. So your proposal still changes the rules a bit. "

" @cbishop: There are so many holes in this it's not even funny. At all... "

"@AtPhantom: Nah, I completely get why Kyle had to be Green Lantern, instead of getting the yellow ring - that's how they preserve the copyright on the name, and they probably figured fans wouldn't buy a book about Alan Scott.  However, two things there: 1) If they had made Alan Scott the only Green Lantern for a year or so, fans probably would've whined and moaned about it, but they'd have still bought it, because they still would've wanted to know where the story was going to go.  2) Alan Scott wasn't an "old geezer" at the time.  He had been de-aged in Green Lantern Corps Quarterly, just before Emerald Twilight happened.
 
Also, when I think of this stuff, I generally try to come up with a way that this could have happened, and still ended up where we are today.  It would have been a different path, but we could have still wound up at the War of Light stuff, as noted in the blog.  I'm of two minds about that though.  On the one hand, I think the stories have been okay (from what I've read about them anyway - I haven't had money for comics for awhile), but on the other hand, I think the concept of a rainbow of corps, or even just a Sinestro Corps, dilutes the whole concept.  I liked it that there was only one yellow ring, and Sinestro was considered THAT big of a threat to the entire 3600 member (now 7200 member) GLC.  With a whole Corps of yellow rings out there now, I feel kind of "ho-hum" about it.  I could really care less about the other colors, but it's mildly interesting (more of a novelty, I suppose) to see who gets what color ring. "

@velle37 said: "That....... Was ridiculously bada**....... "

Ridiculous in a good way? Or a bad way? lol Sinestro should be an omega-level threat, IMO, but he was never really written that way. Strong will defeated by his own, stronger ego. I liked it when there was only the one yellow ring. :)

"@velle37 said: "That.......  Was ridiculously bada**.......   "Ridiculous in a good way?  Or a bad way? lol  Sinestro should be an omega-level threat, IMO, but he was never really written that way.  Strong will defeated by his own, stronger ego.  I liked it when there was only the one yellow ring. :) "

@velle37 said: "In a very good way........ The way Sinestro has been written, in my book, he's the greatest villian to have existed...... "

Whew! Okay, then! :)

No doubt, Sinestro is one of the top villains. I had hopes for Nero, when he was first introduced, but quickly realized he was a yawn-maker. I haven't been impressed with any of the rainbow corps characters. Luthor with an orange ring seemed cool, but I'm really curious to see what happens if he finds a black one. :}

"@velle37 said: "In a very good way........  The way Sinestro has been written, in my book, he's the greatest villian to have existed...... "Whew! Okay, then! :) No doubt, Sinestro is one of the top villains.  I had hopes for Nero, when he was first introduced, but quickly realized he was a yawn-maker.  I haven't been impressed with any of the rainbow corps characters.  Luthor with an orange ring seemed cool, but I'm really curious to see what happens if he finds a black one. :} "

@velle37 said: "It would be cool to bring Nero back, at least for a litlle while... There are a couple of good ways to do this, i have one idea in particular, but DC writers aren't allowed to use ideas from fans........ My opinion of Sinestro comes from the chronology of what he has been written to have done, and the astronomical scale of it, comparing it alongside his peers...... It's astounding......... "

DC writers may not be allowed to use ideas from fans, but don't believe that they don't. I've got a couple of personal instances of ideas being used at DC Comics. If you don't mind not getting the credit for it, the easiest way to see your idea used is to post it to the DC Message Boards, and make sure that you state something about not minding that it gets used. Of course, the idea has to be good enough to see print. ;)

"@velle37 said: "It would be cool to bring Nero back, at least for a litlle while... There are a couple of good ways to do this, i have one idea in particular, but DC writers aren't allowed to use ideas from fans........  My opinion of Sinestro comes from the chronology of what he has been written to have done, and the astronomical scale of it, comparing it alongside his peers......  It's astounding......... "

DC writers may not be allowed to use ideas from fans, but don't believe that they don't.  I've got a couple of personal instances of ideas being used at DC Comics.  If you don't mind not getting the credit for it, the easiest way to see your idea used is to post it to the DC Message Boards, and make sure that you state something about not minding that it gets used.  Of course, the idea has to be good enough to see print. ;) "