Who is The Best Green Lantern
What is more important to a Green Lantern, willpower or creativity? Hal Jordan, the original GL has willpower in spades, but is creatively derelict. Hal is on one end of the spectrum. On the other end is Kyle Rayner, except for the fact that Kyle has more willpower than Hal does creativity. Hal makes strong constructs, Kyle makes constructs that are more detailed and dynamic, but are also more effective and specialized.
Lets say Hal wants to stop a speeding ship, he would most likely make a net or maybe even a giant hand (gasp). This is about as stupid as it gets, you can make anything in the universe and you make a big old hand? Moronic.
Kyle in the same situation might make a fully functional machine to capture the speeding ship, perhaps an aircraft carrier or something of the ilk. This would be far more effective than a fist or net, because neither of those items were actually designed to house a ship.
The power of the GL's is to create constructs, period. So to the best constructs go the spoils. In a Justice League issue from the nineties I witnessed Kyle create a fully functional mech similar to a Gundam to train with Superman. Using the ring to create an actual working machine is far superior to anything Hal does.
The willpower argument falters as well, some say Hal is the best GL because he has more willpower. To which I say why? Why is that the case, because Hal's daddy died flying a plane? And when was it explicitly said that Hal has more willpower in his constructs? Even if it were the case are you saying that Hal's big green hand would just break through Kyle's multi layered machine? In the comics Hal's constructs are smashed by baddies on a regular basis, same with Kyle's. Even though some have said that Hal has more willpower, the difference is not reflected in their battles, if Hal was truly noticeably more powerful then Kyle then Hal's should break noticeably less often which is not the case.
Kyle was a League member for years, nobody ever once commented on his constructs being any less powerful than Hal's. Some, Batman included, actually noted that Kyle was the superior Green Lantern on multiple occasions. Lets ponder on that for a second, Batman the most intelligent and prepared man (arguably) in the DC universe, prefers Kyle to Hal for the same reasons I stated earlier. Bruce too feels Hal squanders the light on stupid childish constructs. Even If Hal had more willpower (which could only be slightly more based on the fact that nobody has ever noted Kyle's constructs to be weaker than Hal's) Kyle makes real autonomous things, a robot that can fight by his side with little to no input from Kyle, giant demonic monsters etc.
If Hal is “more powerful” it is not to say he would defeat Kyle in battle, because willpower is only one aspect of the ring, the other is creativity. Kyle is the superior GL because he adjusts to the situation instead of just pulling out the same old stops. Hal in any situation he is in uses the same or similar constructs, and they are never the size or complexity of Kyle's, that alone should be an indication of willpower. The resilience of the constructs made by both GL's are not just dependant on willpower, but the intrinsic sturdiness of the object they create. I don't believe that when Hal creates a giant green hand it has any sort of skeletal structure, and thus is far less sturdy than a fully fleshed out construct with moving working pieces.
Say Hal made a house, and Kyle made one as well, just based on what we know Kyle's would be more complex, more realistic. This would translate to the actual rigidity of the object because if the foundation of the house exists, along with all the load bearing beams it would take a hell of a lot more willpower for Hal's to withstand the same amount of punishment as Kyle's because it wasn't built as well or as realistically.
Creativity in a given situation plays a huge factor as well. Kyle has escaped a forcefield by creating a hotel attendant who just opened a door in the forcefield and let Kyle out. Hal is all force and no finesse, fine for the first GL, but not for the best. This is just one example, but think of it across the board, Kyle thinks of creative ways out of situation. Hal shoots his ring like a laser gun in nearly every comic I have ever read, in almost any situation.
The color yellow is a well known weakness of Hal in the past. The only reason that Hal can now effect the color yellow is because Kyle was able to overcome the ring's weakness without even knowing he had, while simultaneously being the last GL and singlehandedly reviving the entire GL corps. Hal got his butt whooped by an eleven year old painted piss yellow.
Then people talk about the legend of Hal Jordan, about how he is destined to be the best GL. First off, people realize this came about prior to Kyle's creation, so Kyle could not have been in the running when Hal became “destined” to be the best GL. Furthermore, Kyle has surpassed GL at least twice, once when the living embodiment of the GL power, the creature sometimes referred to as Ion, chose Kyle Rayner to be its host. The next time was in the new 52 when Kyle mastered all of the emotional spectrum and was the chosen host of the embodiment of all the different Lantern creatures.
In the case of the new 52, I believe that Hal is only “The greatest GL,” because Kyle surpassed GL long before that and therefore is no longer a Green Lantern, but a White Lantern. This doesn't mean though that Hal is better than Kyle, just that Kyle is able to master more of the emotional spectrum and is thus not measured in terms how good of a GL he is. Must be hard to master the whole emotional spectrum, so hard that the oh so beloved and magnificent Hal can't do it. Must take a lot of... willpower.
So is Kyle superior to Hal? Do any of you people even bother to read the article before forming your opinion? Do you think Hal is mad because Kyle stole his girl? If Kyle hadn't made it so Hal Jordan could effect the color yellow, how would Hal go pee pee in space? Sound off below.