The Guardians of the Universe were gone, the Green Lantern Corps destroyed, the Rings powerless. All at the hands of former GL Hal Jordan who angered by the Guardians appearing lack of humanity decided to take the entirety of their emerald power for himself so that he might rebuild Coast City and bring back to life it's seven million inhabitants. All this was unknown to small time graphic illustrator Kyle Rayner as he exited the back of a LA night club to be confronted by the diminutive form of Ganthet - the last of the Guardians.

  In that instant Kyle's life was transformed as Ganthet gave him the last functioning Green Lantern Ring before disappearing. It took Kyle's girlfriend, a local photographer to identify the connection in the uniform that the ring generated and that worn by the heroes known as Green Lantern. Kyle had to begin to learn how to use the ring and was thrown head long into a confrontation with the supervillain Ohm that caused him to under go a crash course in self tuition in the abilities of the Green Lantern ring. After the battle Kyle decided to change from the traditional GL costume to one of his own design to differentiate him from the previous wielders of the ring.

  Things started to snowball quickly for the rookie GL when he had his first encounter with another superhero in the form of Superman whom he helped to defeat the alien warlord Mongul and he gained his first insight into the history behind the ring. Shortly afterwards a shadowy government agency used Major Force to try and capture/kill Kyle so they could gain his ring after they had come into ownership of a piece of glowing green material of extraterresital origins. Major Force killed Alexandra DeWitt, Kyle's girlfriend and left her body in the fridge, in the ensuing battle Kyle found that his ring had literally run out of energy. When the Major confronted Kyle with the green material it morphed into a traditional; power battery and Kyle found that he could recharge his ring and defeat Major Force.

  Mere hours after Alex's death as Kyle tried to come to terms with her death he was visited by Alan Scott, the original Golden Age Green Lantern who explained to him the legacy of the Corps, the fall of Hal Jordan and the destruction of the Guardians of the Universe. It was then that Kyle was pulled into the crisis known as Zero Hour.

  It was during the Zero Hour that Kyle first met Hal Jordan as the villain Parallax. They battled each other at the dawn of time with the result that when the universe was restarted both were thrown back into normal existence on Oa. Hal tried to absorb new emerald power from the very soil of Oa and Kyle was forced to destroy the planet rather than let Hal have access to more energy. On his was back to Earth Kyle encountered the New Titans and Darkstar Donna Troy (the former Wonder Girl). He adventured with them and eventually he started a relationship with Donna and became a member of the Titans.

  Kyle soon had the chance to come face to face with Ganthet again when the Guardian tracked him down and tested him and chose that Kyle was unworthy to wield the ring. Right in the middle of the discussion Parallax appeared and demanded that Ganthet give him the ring. Kyle and Hal broke out into a "Battle Royal" that forced Ganthet to gather together former Justice Leaguers to put a stop to Hal. In the end it was Kyle's unending determination that forced Hal to admit that there was not going back, he could never be Green Lantern again.

  The following weeks made Kyle look more into what it was to be a superhero and a Green Lantern. It forced a rocky time on his relationship with Donna but Kyle gained valuable advice from Darkstar John Stewart and set off to gain further advice from Batman, Captain Marvel and Wonder Woman. He also teamed up with Donna, John, the rest of the Darkstars and Adam Strange to defeat the bastard son of Darkseid , Garyven. Afterwards Kyle started a friendship with the second Green Arrow, mirroring an old tradition. Things started to level off for him as he gained more respect with the Superhero community when he joined the Justice League and helped persuade Hal to save the Earth during the Final Night.

  Kyle had to face the supervillian Fatality, a woman whose world was destroyed due to an accident when John Stewart was Green Lantern. She has hated GL's ever since and sought to track down and kill all former and current GL's. After her defeat Kyle had to deal with the appearance of Jade in his apartment. Her brother Obsidian got into a battle with Kyle when Obsidian mistook his intention towards her as she is only staying there until she gets back on her feet. Recently Kyle has been reunited with his mother in California, while there he learned that Donna's young son and her ex-husband had been killed in a horrific car crash. He is now come to term with the death of Hal Jordan and is beginning to become more confortable in the role of Green Lantern. A further encounter with Grayven catapulted Kyle into the 30th century where he encountered the Legion of Superheroes.

  After joining the Legion in an the fight against a future criminal group called the Green Lantern Corps, Kyle was returned to the 20th century, however instead of ending up back in his present he was sent 10 years further into the past, where he met a young Hal Jordan, who had just recently become a Green Lantern himself. After having helped out Hal in apprehending Sinestro the Guardians of the Universe used their mental energies to return Kyle to the present, but Kyle was not the only one. Just before the energies that were supposed to send Kyle into the future Sinestro pushed Hal into the equation catapulting Hal into the future along with Kyle. The two heroes spent the next few weeks learning more of each other. Following a fight with his own future self, Parallax, Hal was returned to his own time with no recollection of his adventures in the future. However, before returning Hal gave Kyle a dublicate of his own power ring in the hope Kyle would one day recreate the Green Lantern Corps.

  Determined to honor Hal's wishes Kyle elected Jade to be his stand-in while he himself went into space to form a new corps. Unfortunately his attempt didn't turn out quite the way he had hoped as one of his new Green Lanterns tried using his newfound power to conquer the world and although Kyle and the rest of his new Creen Lantern Corps eventually beat him, Kyle decided that he wasn't ready to start a new corps yet and reclaimed the new Green Lanterns' rings and returned to Earth.

Powers and Weapons

  The Green Lantern Power Ring has rightly been called the most powerful weapon in the universe, yet it is far more than a simple weapon. Created by the now defunct Guardians of the Universe it was powered by their unique mental energies channelled via a large central power battery located on the planet Oa.

  The Ring has the ability to shape a form of emerald energy to form physical constructs such as force bubbles, giant sized fists, body armour, etc. These forms are limited via the imagination and the will power of the user. The ring can also provide life support to the wear in hostile environments and any other persons the wielder chooses. The rings can propel the Lantern through space at many time the speed of light and have been observed opening up space warps in the past.

  Another function of the ring to function as a database, language translator and communications device for the Green Lantern Corps. While primarily a scientific device the rings abilities are truly limited only by the mind of the wielder they have in the past been observed to produce effects that boarder on the verge of magic, these cases are normally dismissed by most observers. However now the last remaining ring is in the hands of Kyle Rayner, he tends to use the ring in a limited fashion producing complex forms to complete simple tasks. He lacks the tuition of a true member of the Green Lantern Corps and perhaps because of this he is pushing the abilities of the ring to new lengths and into new areas.

  All the original power rings wielded by the GLC had to be charged from miniature power batteries once every 24 hours, the Guardians also placed an impurity into the energy supply so that the rings energies would not effect anything yellow. The reason for this was to stop the Lanterns becoming all powerful. The sole existing ring belongs to Kyle Rayner and does not possess the yellow impurity also his battery is formed from a fragment if the original main battery and is the rings sole power source. Recently it was revealed that the last surviving Guardian is able to create more rings (he offered one to Hal Jordan who turned him down realising that you can never turn back) so perhaps the Green Lantern Corps is not gone forever.