Green Lantern, Volume 4: Passing the Torch

Green Lantern

by Judd Winick, Dale Eaglesham (Illustrator), Rodney Ramos (Illustrator)

Kyle Rayner has seen enough prejudice and violence on Earth to last him a lifetime. He and his girlfriend Jade decide to roam the stars, fulfilling his duties as a Green Lantern. Along the way they encounter several worlds in trouble. But who's watching Earth? John Stewart once again wields a power ring but he's filled with doubt and turns to Alan Scott, the Golden Age Green Lantern, for some advice.

Collecting GREEN LANTERN #156, 158-161 and GREEN LANTERN SECRET FILES #2.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Dc Comics, Graphic Novels Comics, Comic Book, Comics Manga, Science Fiction

128 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2004

About the author

Judd Winick is an American cartoonist, comic book writer, screenwriter, and former reality television personality known for his diverse contributions to storytelling across multiple media. He first entered the public eye in 1994 as a cast member on The Real World: San Francisco, where he formed a close friendship with AIDS educator Pedro Zamora, an experience that deeply influenced his later work. Winick memorialized their bond in Pedro and Me, a critically acclaimed autobiographical graphic novel that earned several literary awards and became a staple in school curricula.

Winick's career in comics took off with The Adventures of Barry Ween, Boy Genius and continued with major runs at DC Comics, including Green Lantern, Green Arrow, and Batman. His stories often explored socially relevant themes, such as HIV, homophobia, and identity. He was recognized for introducing gay characters and tackling difficult subjects with empathy and clarity. His work on Batman notably included resurrecting the character Jason Todd as the Red Hood, a storyline later adapted into the animated film Batman: Under the Red Hood, for which Winick wrote the screenplay.

Beyond comics, he created The Life and Times of Juniper Lee for Cartoon Network and served as head writer for Hulu's The Awesomes. In 2015, he launched the Hilo series, an all-ages sci-fi adventure inspired by his own children. The bestselling series has been widely praised and is expected to reach its eleventh volume in 2025.

Winick lives in San Francisco with his wife, Pam Ling, also a Real World alum, and their two children. He continues to create heartfelt and imaginative stories for audiences of all ages.

Reviews

[James DeSantis · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I think Winick does a great job of letting me enjoy Kyle and his growth and relationships this plotting here is just okay.

So we begin with Jon being a badass green Lantern again. That's the first part of the whole story and he's basically kicking ass and taking names. Then we slip back to Kyle with Jade and all their adventures into space. Kyle is trying to find peace with himself and what happened in the last volume but instead we get a zanny space adventure with the return of a certain Planet Lantern.

Like I said, the characters and dialogue are top notch fun. I love the dialogue between Kyle and Jade and really all the characters. Feels well crafted and well...real. But the actual plot of the bad guys here is silly, everything wraps up quickly, and the ending kind of leaves you like "okay what's next?"But sadly this is the last graphic novel of Winick's run until Johns comes on with his Hal Jordan reboot.

This was a middle of the road adventure but it was pretty fun regardless. A 3 out of 5.

[Sean · Rating 3 out of 5]

What Judd Winick has always excelled at has been interpersonal stories. Here, the strongest portions are not the super powers and alien battles. Conversations between John, Alan, Kyle, Terry, Jen, and even Ganthet are fantastic. The drawback is that Winick's big picture action stuff leaves a lot to be desired. The book is hit and miss but its worth the read for the dialogue alone.

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

Judd Winick's whole run gets four stars, but the series does end less dramatically and with less fanfair than I would have liked. I really enjoyed reading about Kyle Rayner's adventures, and he has a decent supporting cast. Winick really just focused on telling strong, superhero stories with no frills.

[Tobias Wilson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Got this half price and I'm always up for some GL, especially Kyle, my favourite. I thought it was going to be more of what it sounded like- generational gaps in lantern history but it was just a bunch of monster of the week issues. Not bad but not very good.

[Chuck Ventura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bittersweet ending to Kyle's solo run. Winnick focuses on what matters to Kyle the most: his relationships and, more specifically, family. In hindsight, it foreshadows him losing his Earth family in favor of his GL family.

[Douglas Gibson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Winick continues to make me fall in love with Kyle Ranyer!

[Grant · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the better green lantern comics in this run. Seems like a cool set-up for a comic that never really got to follow up on it.

[Brannigan · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s a quick read two separate storylines. John Stewart on earth getting back into the grove of being a GL again. Kyle in space getting away from humans and finding lost GLs. It’s a good read.

[A.L. · Rating 2 out of 5]

This collection features GL #156 and #158-161. No explanation is given for the omission of GL #157.

In this chapter of Kyle Rayner's life he's left Earth because he's "lost hope in humanity" due to a recent beating of a friend. During this self-imposed exile, John Stewart is left to fill the green boots back in sector #2814.

Strengths: Judd Winick's dialogue, especially between GL and Jade. Winick writes dialogue within a couple in a highly believable way that demonstrates nuances in their characterization. Also, Winick helped reshape the GL universe bit by bit in this volume: re-introducing the Living Planet Mogo, Bring the Zamerons back to OZ, and giving John Stewart his legs back.

Dale Ealesham's art is also clean and mostly consistent. My only quaff is that he and/or the DC editor's evidently forgot that GL's hand is broken on p.107+. Even if it was healed upon Ganthet's return on p.110, what about those 3 pages in between?

Also, the extra content about the power rings, the three page timeline, and the family tree were cool. Maybe even the best parts of the book.

Weaknesses: these issues didn't feel or read like one story and so the collection suffered as a whole. While the overall story of Kyle Rayner was nudged forward with each tale, the individual issues felt very individual.

Where was issue #157? What did #156 have to do with any of the other issues included? Why introduce "Fatality" in the beginning of the book and then not come back to her again? And the same question applies for John Stewart in this book.

Re: the title, who passed the torch?

Also, GL's exile seemed more like cosmic pouting than anything else. Hadn't he already seen the worst of humanity? (This could be debated, I'm sure.)

This book was a collection of the filler issues between major storylines in the comic. On a month-to-month comic reading schedule this can work well. Compiled into one book it just seems fragmented. As DC continues to re-publish every (or almost every) issue in trade paperback format I anticipate seeing more mediocre collections like this.

[M · Rating 2 out of 5]

Judd Winick uses the history of Green Lantern to generate this volume of the Kyle Rayner era. Having left Earth to reconsider his role as its protector, Kyle is helping rebuild Oa with the help of fellow GL and girlfriend Jade. Their space sojourn leads them to rediscover a long-lost Lantern, raise the reborn Guardians alongside Ganthet, and tackle the possibility of parenthood. A brief check-in with original Lantern Alan Scott and current GL John Stewart help provide a look at the legacy of the Lanterns across the DC Universe. Despite some fun couple moments with Kyle and Jade, the book feels uneven; most likely due to editorial trying to decide of John, Kyle, or Hal would be returning to the main book as its sole ring-slinger. This indecisiveness hurts the current protagonists, leaving them unable to truly move forward within their own stories. While the title does indicate a passing of the torch, this collection has already lost its fire.

[Eric · Rating 2 out of 5]

Again the cover fooled me. I was expecting to see pivotal points where the ring was passed on from one incarnation to another. Instead there was a series of stories about Kyle Rayner that really weren't that interesting. The history and family tree in the beginning were the best part.

[Tyler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed it. Good character moments, just funny spacey adventures. Good stuff.

[LBK · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting. I liked the more in-depth look a Kyle.