I agree with Barry, not so much with Hal. Far from a gutsy move it was merely the third attempt at replacing him (John and Guy were the earlier attempts).
You may think it's stupid or out of character, but you can't say it wasn't gutsy. Turning a square-jawed superhero into a major villain is the kind of idea anyone would hate if they were reading the book at the time, but it made a kick-ass character origin for anyone who wasn't. And the overwhelming majority wasn't. For anyone who jumped in at that point, the fact that this guy had been published as a superhero for 30 years only made the concept cooler.
Kyle isn't any less of an "attempt at appealing to a demographic" than Spider-Man or the Human Torch. Or John himself, some would say. I don't see how that takes anything away from the character.
