Did Kyle have the longest uninterrupted run in GL history?

[Andrew NDB Shot Caller Find all posts View Profile Close Andrew NDB]

Well, the only one that KEPT going.... until it got cancelled.

Though people do seem to have the misconception that "Kyle's book" was cancelled because of sales. It wasn't doing cancellation numbers. It wasn't doing Geoff Johns numbers, certainly, but it wasn't in the red. Vol. 3 was ended to make a clean break to roll out the red carpet for Hal as part of an editorial directive, the same one that's "cancelling" the current volume of Flash to bring back in a new Barry volume.

"We're restoring our history," Didio says. "We're not making any apologies for it."

Or explanations. But let's not confuse the issue.

[GL_2814 Bond, Lantern Bond Find all posts View Profile Close GL_2814]

Let's just all admit that the sixties are back in style. Hal's back, Barry's back, The Brave & the Bold is back

[GL_2814 Bond, Lantern Bond Find all posts View Profile Close GL_2814]

Besides, as much as we all talk, any GL is a good GL. Except of course a rogue.

[Big Daddy Dave Skywalker Moisture Farmer Find all posts View Profile Close Big Daddy Dave Skywalker]

Some of you guys are assumming that Hal wasn't the star of GL for issues #76-122, and #201-224. He may have shared the title, but Hal was still the focus of the book during those times. Amd even during GL's 4 year haitus from 1972 to 1976, he was always in print on an almost monthly basis. Same for 1988 to 1990.

Anyhoo, that isn't to take away that Kyle had a very successful run. His character kept the book afloat for ten years, which is especially impressive if you consider the decline of comic sales for the industry the last 15 years.

[Rotten2thecorps Alpha-Lantern Find all posts View Profile Close Rotten2thecorps]

There is no one Green Lantern that is better than any other. Hal did get canceled alot. That is a fact. However there is always enough outcry for him to always bring him back. Kyle has a better running streak. That is a fact too. That said his sales were often not what DC had hopped for and that is why he had so many guest stars.
The point is if you wanna hate on a Green Lantern you may wanna pick one of the less popular ones because Hal and Kyle aren't going no where.

[GL_2814 Bond, Lantern Bond Find all posts View Profile Close GL_2814]

If that's the case, let's pick on G'nort!

[Guest Close hYPE]

From issue 51 to 181, that's 130 issues of Kyle with no cancellations. I don't think Hal has ever gone that long without being cancelled.

Let me get this right, so his has nothing to do with how much GL titles with Hal did vs Kyle? Cause I think your right, Kyle's run was a lot longer.

[Mister Ed Horse of a Different Color Find all posts View Profile Close Mister Ed]

I think some people's definition of "cancellation" is rather broad. Hal's book was cancelled after the initial GL/GA run. Then it was cancelled after the GLC run because they wanted him to anchor Action Comics Weekly (not exactly a stinging rebuke for the character, that). And his tenure as GL was cancelled (even if the title wasn't) at ET. So MAX 3 times, by my count. That makes Hal's longest run 134 issues. (Though Kyle undoubtedly had more special issues during his run that didn't add to the numbering, so he might still come out ahead, all told.)

At no time was Hal absent from regular publication, until ET.

And for the record, I enjoy both GLs (as well as Guy Gardner and John Stewart, with Mosaic being one of my favorite runs of GL).

[Trey Strain Guardian of the Universe Find all posts View Profile Close Trey Strain]

Hal's current run, counting the intro series, is now well past four years, and in that time his comic has sold much better than Kyle's did at any time during Kyle's run. And it's not "only because of Geoff Johns," because Johns has written comics that didn't sell.

And I like it when people insinuate that Hal was "canceled over low sales" when the comic got rolled into ACW, or that Hal wasn't the star during the two years that the comic became the GLC and also during the ACW period. Just very dishonest there.

And something that always inlflated Kyle's sales was the fact that so many Hal fans had the foolish idea that they had to "show support" and keep buying the comic during the Kyle years, when really all they were doing was supporting Kyle. I used to argue myself blue in the face with them on the message boards that they should drop the comic in protest until Hal was brought back, but to no avail.

But with all that said, Kyle's run was quite respectable, especially in terms of its length. Nobody can dispute that.

Really the most important thing that Geoff Johns has done is to finally junk Denny O'Neil's horrible characterization of Hal, which plagued the character for 30 years. With Hal no longer an insecure self-doubter, he'll be a strong seller henceforth. And not dependent on the continued presence of Geoff Johns.

[Big Daddy Dave Skywalker Moisture Farmer Find all posts View Profile Close Big Daddy Dave Skywalker]

Also, Hal's first run went from 1960 to 1970 without interruption (and it ran until 1972 with GA) . Comics just weren't published on a monthly basis back then. So run of 10 years is just as long as any other GL's, including Alan and Kyle, who both enjoyed basically ten year runs.

[Raker616 Corps Honor Guard Find all posts View Profile Close Raker616]

Really the most important thing that Geoff Johns has done is to finally junk Denny O'Neil's horrible characterization of Hal, which plagued the character for 30 years. With Hal no longer an insecure self-doubter, he'll be a strong seller henceforth. And not dependent on the continued presence of Geoff Johns.

Truer words have never been spoken, as long as Hal is written like himself he'll always have an audience when writers try to change him that's when things go to hell.

[Andrew NDB Shot Caller Find all posts View Profile Close Andrew NDB]

And I like it when people insinuate that Hal was "canceled over low sales" when the comic got rolled into ACW, or that Hal wasn't the star during the two years that the comic became the GLC and also during the ACW period. Just very dishonest there.

That they slapped a different coat of paint on his book didn't make it not his book.

And something that always inlflated Kyle's sales was the fact that so many Hal fans had the foolish idea that they had to "show support" and keep buying the comic during the Kyle years, when really all they were doing was supporting Kyle. I used to argue myself blue in the face with them on the message boards that they should drop the comic in protest until Hal was brought back, but to no avail.

This seems largely stemming from your opinion, and something I think would be hard for you to quantify.

Really the most important thing that Geoff Johns has done is to finally junk Denny O'Neil's horrible characterization of Hal, which plagued the character for 30 years.

Which is well over half the character's entire existance.

[Gl Josh Senior Corps Member Find all posts View Profile Close Gl Josh]

Well, actually depending on exactly how you look at...Kyle's run is still going. He has featured in Rebirth, Recharge, GLC, if you count Ion, and back to GLC. Does this mean he is better? Nope. No if you count character name changes and not book title name changes...then Kyle's run gets interrupted when he became Ion. So 51-144(?) or 93 and then 150-181 then 31.

[Gauntlet101010 Alpha-Lantern Find all posts View Profile Close Gauntlet101010]

ACW wasn't solely Hal's book ... nor was he a really big part of that book. He wasn't even in there for the entire run of ACW. He was there for most of the run, but not all of it. It was definately an iterrupt in the GL series.

I wouldn't count the change in titles from GL to GLC as an "interrupted run" in Hal's tenure on GL, though. Nor would I say his time as a civillian (while John was main GL) count as an interrupt in his run; he was still very much part of the book.

[Trey Strain Guardian of the Universe Find all posts View Profile Close Trey Strain]

>>This seems largely stemming from your opinion, and something I think would be hard for you to quantify.<<

True, but in a lot of years of posting about this I've met just one Hal fan who dropped the comic because of ET. I don't think there were a lot of them.

The other side of that coin is that Hal bombed as the Spectre. So how many hard-core Hal fans were there in the late 1990s who would read him in anything? Not all that many, it seems.

You say that Hal has been badly portrayed for more than half his history, and you're correct.

I think the bottom line here is that what sells is Hal starring in Green Lantern, portrayed like a Green Lantern and a test pilot. That should have been very obvious, but unfortunately it took 30 years for Geoff Johns to come along and figure it out.