Tales of the Sinestro Corps: Parallax
Kyle has been having something of a rough time of it lately. His mother died, due to Sinestro's machinations, he gets kidnapped from Oa, beaten up by the entire Sinestro Corps, had Ion ripped right out of him, and finally gets possessed by Parallax. The boy just cannot catch a break.
The Sinestro Corps special goes inside of Parallax, where Kyle...the uncorruptable essence of Kyle still exists. He is trapped in what appears to be his mother's empty house. Empty that is, except for a painting hung on the wall. This is the same painting that he refers to waaaay back in the first Sinestro Corps book...right before he gets kidnapped. It is of a small boy, who is apparently lost in a field. Kyle and his mother used to trade stories about the painting, and what was going to happen, and it obviously has a great deal of meaning to Kyle, since he is using it as his last lifeline to his own sanity.
Kyle is on the inside, looking out, and seeing himself as Parallax beat the snot out of Hal and the rest of the Lanterns. He has just about given himself up to despair, when who should show up, but Parallax himself...at his taunting best. Kyle has been drawing on the walls, and has lovely portraits of Alex, Donna, Jade and his mother, which Parallax proceeds to view and mock. Kyle has just about had enough and transforms into his Ion costume and attempts to fight Parallax. He actually even gets in a few licks. Parallax of course is just playing with him, and finally Kyle stabs him in the eye with his pencil, which doesn't faze him in the least, and he finally leaves Kyle alone, with the echoes of his taunts ringing in his ears...especially the one about having no hope.
Kyle rips the portrait off the wall and is about to smash it, when he looks at the back, and recognizes the signature of his mother. It turns out that she was the one who painted it, and it is her final gift to him. Kyle smiles and suddenly, he IS the little boy in the picture, and he walks into the distance WITH hope.
Let me just say that the art is beautiful, drawn byAdriana Melo, she makes a HECK of a gorgeous Kyle. It is written by Ron Marz, who does indeed have a deep fondness for Kyle. The story doens't change anything at the moment, Kyle is still trapped,and Parallax is still gloating, but we finally see some evidence that Kyle IS still fighting and will break free of Parallax...eventually. The Green Lantern Corps has been getting pummelled relentlessly for quite some time now, so I'm ready for a little bit of redemption.
So, a nice bit of characterization and some beautiful art.
So...so pretty.
posted by SallyP @ 7:20 AM
10 Comments:
I liked this issue very much, despite the fact that poor Kyle, as usual, seems to be getting 100 times more grief than the other GLs. At least that's the way it's always seemed to me.
The issue does bring up some questions about the time Hal was possessed by Parallax, though. Hal as Parallax was led to believe that he, and not Parallax, was responsible for his villainous behavior -- Hal didn't know about the Parallax parasite until the Spectre revealed everything to him. But, as Parallax, Hal also engaged in behavior that was very Hal-like, such as when he sacrificed himself to reignite the sun. That implies that Hal had more control over his actions when possessed by Parallax than Kyle does -- unless Parallax was also interested in reigniting the sun for some reason ...? Hmmmmm ...
Hal had been in Parallax for some time before reigniting the sun. I'm sure Hal was able to instill some of his willpower onto Parallax. Of course, Kyle will figure it out much quicker, as he is truly the greatest GL.
Sorry, I couldn't resist.
Where exactly was Parallax between Hal re-lighting the pilot light in the sun and Hal being reborn as the spectre?
Supposedly, Parallax was still attached to Hal's soul when the Spectre was using Hal as a host. Actually, come to think of it, Parallax did surface a time or two while Hal was the Spectre.
Any differences between Hal's and Kyle's Parallaxy relationship can be explained away easily with: Parallax was weak at first and had to sneak into Hal and manipulate him at the strictly emotional level. In contrast, Parallax is now at the peak of power and can simply lock Kyle up in his own mind, taking full control of Kyle's body.
I can't say this issue did anything at all for me. Just seemed to go nowhere, and it didn't really even reveal much of anything useful about Kyle. Kyle feels bad about all his old dead girlfriends? Old news. Kyle hates feeling helpless? That's a big "duh". Kyle hasn't given up? Noted, but Parallax already told us a month or so ago, so I'm neither shaken nor stirred by the news.
There was the bit about how his mom painted the painting, but of course, since we're talking about a simulacrum of the painting in Kyle's mind and not the actual painting itself, as far as "dramatic revelations" go that one falls flat.
The one thing the issue may be giving us is some build-up to Kyle's realization that, within his own mind, no power ring is required. That's how he can step into paintings, Gumby-like, within his own mind, or create power rings out of nothingness. So what's going to happen, I imagine, is that Kyle's going to throw a wrench into whatever Parallax is doing long enough for Hal and company to apply enough physical-world smackdown to put Parallax on the ropes.
I haven't been getting near enough Kyle Rayner lately, so I was just happy to have a beautiful drawn book where he was the star.
Yes, I'm buying the "Search for Ray Palmer" books, and no, I don't count those as good Kyle stories.
Greatest?
What about G'nort and Drtzky Rrrr, Hmmm?
I've just got a say: PLEASE DC! Hold on to Miss Melo, that is a hell of a beautiful book.
To a degree, I think that anonymous is correct, when Parallax first infected Hal, he'd been in the Power Battery on Oa for aeons, and was pretty weak. He really was only able to influence Hal at first...with the grey temples, and dickery such as taking Guy's ring away from him...(boo!)
It wasn't until Hal went to Oa and beat the crap out of everybody and destroyed the battery that he was FULLY possessed by Parallax.
In Rebirth of course, Ganthet and John, Guy, Kyle and Kilowog help free Hal, and stuff Parallax back into the battery, from whence he was freed by Sinestro. But Parallax is still more powerful and feeling his oats than when he first latched onto Kyle.
I'm encouraged by the idea that HOPE is the opposite of FEAR. Kyle's going to manage somehow to break out of this mess by himself...as he should.
But absolutely gorgeous art.
I have to argue that Parallax never quite got up to full strength until "Rebirth". For one thing, he said so right in "Rebirth", I'm pretty sure -- something along the lines of, "I'm finally powerful enough that I don't actually need a host". (Now finding hosts useful on occasion ... that's another matter.)
Also, don't forget that Hal died and took Parallax with him to Limbo ... if Parallax were strong enough to survive in non-parasitic fashion at that point, he almost certainly would have let Hal meet his final reward all by his lonesome. But when Hal's soul crossed over, Parallax got sucked along with him; hardly something I would expect of a primordial fear avatar at full strength. (Which would explain as well why Hal/Parallax seemed to need Green Lantern energy or temporal energy: because Parallax didn't have much in the way of power to expend. Hence the use of other power sources.)
Ugh, forgot the final bit of connective tissue in that last post: while Parallax was still in low power mode, he kept as low a profile as possible -- including manipulating Hal rather than outright controlling him.
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