Hal was always one of my favorites. Grew up watching Superfriends, and I just liked the quiet, background guys from the Silver Age. Not the Big 3, but I thought a good JLA would consist of Hal, Ollie, Katar and Shayera Hol (Kubert and Gardner Fox), J'Onn Jonzz, Barry Allen, Adam Strange, and Captain Comet.
Anyways, few of those people remain. Katar and Shayera were retconned out of continuity, Barry Allen is dead, Captain Comet is somewhere, but he makes appearances every decade. Adam Strange gets the nice cameos. Ollie has his series, but he went to hell and back.
And Hal? He did the same. I wasn't overly pleased when they made him go postal. It was a sad, and disappointing effort to bring closure to his reign as green lantern. It tainted everything he had done, and made all look very bad. So, asides from killing green lanterns in his quest for power, he also killed people and was responsible for the deaths of others in Zero Hour. Messing up his role in the DC universe even more.
Replacement-wise, Kyle was a stretch. I mean, I don't know how Marz got approval for it. Supposed to be Gen X stuff I guess. Weak character, kind of a rocker, starving artist and blank slate. Hopelessly neurotic and lacking confidence. Seemed a little too emotional.
I would have drown comparisons to Peter Parker, back in the 60s, except that character was a bit more interesting. He had some enemies in his normal social life (Flash Thompson) and it tried to discuss his personal life--Gwen, Mary Jane, Harry Osborn, Aunt May, school, etc.
But Marz and company generally avoided, to my knowledge, Kyle's personal life. There was his ex-girlfriend, who he got back together with. The photographer. She ups and dies, and that was supposed to be his big thrust of responsibility or something. But there was nothing established early on.
He was, to me, and still is, a weak character.
In the JLA, he was the whiny one. But whatever, everyone needed personality. I liked Geffin's JLA work a hell of a lot more than Morrison's. Rock of Ages was good, but Waids 2 issue stint on Mystery in Space was good too.
Back to Hal and Kyle-- Hal was mature and a leader. Kyle, generally immature and always figthing for acceptance. Not just among the readers, but within the pages of the comic. People can easily justify that as being an amateur, which makes sense from a writing standpoint, but if you want to create a character that will last, you give them a background, establish them quick, and get them adjusted quick.
Didn't happen.
Plus, people were bothered that Hal was somewhere out there, always potential he could come back. And that he left on an ill note meant things needed to be rectified. One of the signs that writers make mistakes and those mistakes can be fixed. Kind of takes away from quality of comics, if indeed, there is quality. Because it means, "Oh, if you don't like that, we can just change it later." Case in point--Most of Marvel continuity. Heroes reborn, Ultimate stuff, Spider-man clone.
