Green Lantern: Baptism of Fire

Green Lantern

by Ron Marz, Darryl Banks, Paul Pelletier

Unlike the Green Lanterns who preceded him on Earth and throughout the galaxy, Kyle Rayner was given no training or guidance in the use of his power ring. In this new collection, Kyle decides to seek the guidance of the greatest heroes alive -- the Flash, Batman, and Wonder Woman -- only to find that he is already worthy of the name "hero."

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

197 pages, Comic

First published March 10, 1999

About the author

Marz is well known for his work on Silver Surfer and Green Lantern, as well as the Marvel vs DC crossover and Batman/Aliens. He also worked on the CrossGen Comics series Scion, Mystic, Sojourn, and The Path. At Dark Horse Comics he created Samurai: Heaven and Earth and various Star Wars comics. He has also done work for Devil’s Due Publishing’s Aftermath line, namely Blade of Kumori. In 1995, he had a brief run on XO-Manowar, for Valiant Comics.

Marz’s more recent works includes a number of Top Cow books including Witchblade and a Cyberforce relaunch. For DC Comics, he has written Ion, a 12 part comic book miniseries that followed the Kyle Rayner character after the One Year Later event, and Tales of the Sinistro Corps Presents: Parallax and Tales of the Sinestro Corps Presents: Ion, two one-shot tie-ins to the Green Lantern crossover, The Sinestro Corps War.

His current creator owned projects include “Dragon Prince” (Top Cow) and “Samurai : Heaven and Earth” (Dark Horse).

Photo by Luigi Novi.

Reviews

[Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice window into 1990s DC and what actually worked during that era... Ron Marz writing Kyle Rayner may be a product of it's time, not that particularly deep, but there's a lot of heart and good superhero storytelling. Plus in this volume Kyle goes on a sort of tour of the DC universe, meeting all your favorite characters like Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel (the original) and of course Batman, making this collection well worth the price. Kyle's angle goes from the personal to the cosmic as his drama with Donna Troy unfolds and it all culminates on a battle with the Darkstars on the plant Rann, as these things tend to go.

[Dan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Team ups felt cheap and the story.....wtf was that even about?

[James DeSantis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Going back in time I decided to check out some more of Ron Marz Green Lantern before making my new Green Lantern video. Fun times!

So we have Kyle still learning to be a hero. He's decided to be one but what better way to get used to it than going around and fighting crime with other heroes. That's basically what 80% of this book is as he teams up with Flash, Wonder Woman, Batman (kind of) and more. We also get a crazy weird story where Kyle gives a disable man legs with his power ring and then the guy loses his legs again and makes a deal with a evil guy to get his legs back and kill Kyle...

The things that work are mostly in Kyle's fun outlook on life. He says jokes, he's enjoying being a hero, and his team ups can be fun. The best being with Flash by far. I also enjoyed that we get down to earth issues like his relationship with Donna. Also, the art is fun 90's flare to it! The things that didn't work were the many crossovers, most feeling half told here in the collection. Also, it is old school, so every issue closes up a story usually. No big overarching storyline.

Overall, fun times. Nothing remarkable, but worth a read if a Kyle fan.

[Raul Reyes · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5
Also read #68 and #69, and I had already read #59
I had fun with the first four issues. It was kind of weird seeing Wally and Kyle be so openly hostile towards one another but the story was inoffensive, and like they said in the issue: Flash x Green Lantern is an iconic team up. Then, I also liked the Underworld Unleashed tie-ins. You really didn’t need to know anything about that event to follow the story which was just Kyle facing against Mr Freeze and some other guy whose name I can’t remember. My problems with the story were that one the lesson that Kyle learned being don’t do nice things for people was weird, and Donna was literally incapacitated for no reason, something I’ll talk about later. Then, we have issue 70 which I hated. Donna throughout the series has been written kind of weird but this issue takes it to a whole ‘nother level. She extremely overreacted in a completely unbelievable way to what happened with Kyle and makes me ask why she’s even in the book since: I don’t think that Ron Marz likes her and also because she’s never allowed to fight maybe because they think it would emasculate Kyle. I don’t have anything to say about the first two parts of Hero Quest. Alan’s new costume really looks like Adam Warlock’s and I don’t agree with what he did but it’s fine. Where I did have a problem thought was with the Wonder Woman issue though, Ron Marz is just constantly sexualizing Wonder Woman to an insane degree. Even from the first couple panels you get weird bondage kinky vibes which are present in her Golden Age stories but hasn’t been part of her character for a while. Finally, I didn’t care about the Darkstars story. I’ve never been interested in them and the story just felt like it should’ve belonged on their own book since you don’t know any of the people, which then makes the stakes non existent. I also think that the speech that Jon gave to Kyle very much made it seem like it was his duty to stay at the city and help rebuild it but then he leaves because the other Darkstars say it’s fine. It really messes with his character arc and muddles the message. Surprisingly Donna acts pretty normal, so maybe Ron got a lot of complaints but even then the art is still sexualizing her. There’s literally a panel where her and Kyle are flying and the artist intentionally contorts her body so that we can see her ass. Why?
As a whole the collection was pretty mid. I hope next volume just lets Kyle be in New York and that Donna doesn’t appear anymore.

[Grant · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book marks the beginning of me reading a series of comics starring my favorite character when I was a youngun: Kyle Rayner, Green Lantern. I've kinda fallen off of superheroes as a concept/genre, so this is my way of trying to pin down what it is that no longer does it for me.

This comic was... not a great one to start with. It was all pretty empty, but fun. There's a guy in a jackal mask who's possessed by an Egyptian ghost, and there's a hilariously blase plotline about an old man turned young again whose wife sold her soul so she could ALSO be young (that's Alan Scott, the 1st Green lantern: I assume this WILD development was foreshadowed elsewhere). There is also a cringey crossover with Wonder woman where Green lantern can't stop ogling her. It's offputting.

[Jay Pendragon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I will always love the Green Lanterns and Kyle is a favorite of mine, I've been meaning to read more of him and this story was a great intro honestly. I liked his little adventures which were all very fun to read, I'm a big fan of superhero team ups and this book has a ton of them. I do wish all the stories were more connected, the final battle comes a little out of nowhere and the villain doesn't have much build up. However I think the ending is cool and Kyle becoming a hero is a nice way to wrap things up. It's nothing too deep but it's a great time especially if you're looking to read more on Kyle Rayner.

[Marcus · Rating 4 out of 5]

A coming of age volume of sorts for Kyle. Kyle goes on a journey of soul searching as he tries to figure out what kind of person and what kind of hero he wants to be. I really enjoyed the cameos from other DC Heroes as well as Kyle’s relationship with Donna. There’s drama but it all felt organic and realistic, Ron Marz maintains that wonderful character work that he has since the beginning of Kyle’s run.

[Drew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another fun collection of early Rayner stories, with some great appearances by heavyweights like Batman and Wonder Woman.

[Ir Bing · Rating 3 out of 5]

Después de tantos años me hago de este volumen y aunque no ha envejecido bien si me han dado ganas de leer más sobre Kyle Ryner.

[Lizzy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cuando los comics tenían buenas historias

[Skylier Lehmann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Peak

[Chuck Ventura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great variety in this story - romance, action, coming-of-age.

Starts off with this really cute Christmas story between Kyle and Donna, then onto his "Hero Quest" where he tries to learn as much as he can from veterans. Then ends with him saving planet Rann and proving himself as a superhero.

I would have enjoyed if the things he learned from Hero Quest related to how he saved Rann - what a missed opportunity. Oh well!

[Russell Pearce of Sector 2814 · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am a big Ron Marz fan and love most of his work with Green Lantern but this book is just ok. I feel that the idea of Kyle going to various heroes for tips on how to be better is a great idea and for that portion of the book it works. Where it starts to go off the rails is later in the book when the Not Green Lantern Corp: Darkstars get involved. They always kind of just drain any interest in a story they are involved with. I feel there was a lot of good here but also some parts that just didn't need to be here as well. Still worth the read if you want to get really familiar with 90s GL.

Edit: Some of these issues aren't necessarily with Marz writing but more so with the way the TPB is structured.

[Sean · Rating 3 out of 5]

First off, I absolutely love the art by Paul Pelletier and Darryl Banks! Gorgeous Green Lantern constructs, perfect costumes, and excellent fight scenes. Fantastic work! The writing, even given the time, left a lot to be desired. Ron Marz, who I don't hate like other GL fans, makes some odd choices here. I like the idea of Kyle reaching out to other, established heroes looking for heroing advice and tips. I didn't like the hokey dialogue, subpar villains, or the entire Darkstars storyline. He also plays pretty fast and loose with what a Green Lantern ring can do. Overall, a decent book with fantastic artwork!

[Nicolas · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good collection and an interesting expansion on the Kyle Rayner character. It read a bit like a classic "The Brave and the Bold" team-up book with appearances by Teen Titans, Flash, Batman & Robin, Sentinel (Alan Scott), Captain Marvel, Wonder Woman, Adam Strange and the Darkstars (including John Stewart and Donna Troy).

[Fugo Feedback · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lo leí (y lo tengo, creo) en la edición de dos tomos de Editorial Vid. No recuerdo mucho de su contenido, pero sí que en su momento hizo que Kyle se convirtiera en mi Green Lantern favorito, puesto que aún hoy ocupa (aunque contra el John Stewart de la Liga Ilimitada saldría perdiendo).

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun, though flawed. Donna Troy could have been written out or swapped with anyone else and it wouldn't have mattered. The team ups were fun but the Darkstar stuff was dull. I enjoyed seeing Kyle and Wally team up, but the rest was average 90s fair.