Kyle Rayner

Kyle Rayner
Rayner as White Lantern Art by Ethan Van Sciver
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	Green Lantern (vol. 3) #48 (January 1994)
Created by	Ron Marz Darryl Banks
In-story information
Full name	Kyle Rayner
Species	Human
Team affiliations	Green Lantern Corps New Guardians Justice League New Titans Blue Lantern Corps Sinestro Corps New Guardians White Lantern Corps The Omega Men
Partnerships	Hal Jordan Guy Gardner John Stewart Jade Kilowog Carol Ferris Green Arrow (Connor Hawke) The Flash (Wally West)
Notable aliases	White Lantern, Green Lantern, Blue Lantern, Ion, Oblivion, Jade Dragon, Torch-Bearer, Parallax
Abilities	As Green Lantern and White Lantern: Energy-based constructs, flight, various other abilities As Ion and Parallax: Nigh-omnipotent with control over time and reality Flight Energy manipulation Other powers similar to a Green Lantern Corps Power Ring and the Starheart

Kyle Rayner is a fictional comic book superhero appearing in books published by DC Comics, usually in those starring the Green Lantern Corps, an extraterrestrial police force of which Rayner has been a member.

In 2013, Kyle Rayner placed 14th on IGN's Top 25 Heroes of DC Comics.

Created by writer Ron Marz and artist Darryl Banks, Rayner first appeared in Green Lantern vol. 3, #48 (1994), as part of the "Emerald Twilight" storyline, in which DC Comics replaced Green Lantern Hal Jordan with Rayner, who was the sole Green Lantern for years until the late 1990s. He was DC's star Green Lantern into the mid-2000s. During this period he was also briefly known as Ion.

Following Jordan’s return to Green Lantern status in the 2004–2005 limited series Green Lantern: Rebirth, and the 2005 crossover storyline "Infinite Crisis", Rayner returned to his alias of Ion. After the events of the "Sinestro Corps War", Rayner returned to his original role as a Green Lantern officer, along with a promotion to Honor Guard Illustres of the Corps. Later on, he becomes a White Lantern following the mastery of all seven lantern rings.

Before he acquired a Green Lantern power ring, Kyle Rayner was a struggling-but-gifted freelance graphic artist who was raised in North Hollywood and lived and worked in Los Angeles. Kyle was raised by his mother as an only child; his father abandoned his mother when she was pregnant. It was later revealed that his father was a Mexican-American CIA agent named Gabriel Vasquez and that Aaron Rayner was merely an alias. Kyle and his mother lived a very modest lifestyle until he reached adulthood. After Hal Jordan, grief-stricken over the destruction of his home town of Coast City, went on a mad rampage killing various members of the Green Lantern Corps and the Guardians of the Universe, Rayner was found by the last surviving Guardian of the Universe, Ganthet. Ganthet gave Kyle the last working Green Lantern power ring that would allow him to conjure any form of matter or energy through sheer force of will. Ganthet's reasons for choosing Kyle to bear the ring have never been made completely apparent, aside from Rayner having been in the right place at the right time: prior to bequeathing the ring upon Rayner, Ganthet simply utters, "You will have to do." Ganthet later revealed that humans make great Green Lanterns (before Hal Jordan's mental breakdown he was the Corps' greatest Green Lantern, and John Stewart became the first mortal Guardian of the Universe). Several sources, however, imply that Ganthet was following a deeper reason: Kyle Rayner was not chosen because he was fearless but because he was able to feel and overcome fear, thus making him, and all the future Lanterns, less susceptible to Parallax's influence. The New Guardians retelling goes so far as to replace the scowling "You will have to do" with a smiling "It would seem I chose well."