Originally Posted By: Im Not Mister Mxyzptlk
 Originally Posted By: the G-man of Zur-En-Arrh
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.


That's all true in theory. The problem was that it was executed poorly.

Case in point: one day the writers/editors decided that they needed a Hispanic superhero and so, rather than create one, it was revealed (by Winnick) that Kyle's dad was really Mexican and that his Irish last name was an alias.

Ooooh....kay.

There's appealing to a demographic and then there's stupid retconning and out of context heel turns. Far too much of the Hal/Kyle story over the past 15-20 years consisted of the latter.