#this started as a jaykyle thinkpiece but slowly transitioned lol

[mattzerella-sticks]

I have to say that the choice of Jason Todd and Kyle Rayner for this Justice League Green Lantern Dark Crisis special is... interesting.

I mean, from the synopsis and covers, it does feel like John Stewart's 'fantasy world' really is fantasy-like in that he is a knight and Kyle is a prophet (a blind prophet) and Jason... has a gun?

From what I'm thinking, maybe this fantasy world is like a Gotham City and John is its Batman? And the choice of Jason because of all the Robins Jason is the one whose expertise mirrors John's in a way (John was in the army, Jason is the only trained weapons specialist of the group).

It wouldn't be the first of these JL specials to mirror Batman, as the Superman special finds him in a world where his dream of having Jon be his official sidekick (in a Robin-inspired outfit) is the main premise. This also makes me wonder if all of these specials are variations of Batman themes and involve the Batfamily (because, though we are fatigued they ARE DC's bread and butter y'all).

AND thinking of this made me question the release order of the specials. Superman is #1 and Jon is supposed to be an homage to Dick Grayson. Green Lantern is number 2, and it features Jason Todd. I wouldn't be surprised if 3 and 4 (Wonder Woman and Green Arrow) feature Tim and Steph in some way, not to mention how the backpage stories might work and who will be woven in. And 5 would be Damian but this is also the Batman special, and I think it ends with him because in everyone's perfect world they're some sort of version of Batman, but in Batman's perfect world there is no Batman ("A perfect world would never create a Batman" very similar to when Clark told Earth-2 Superman a perfect world is one without Superman) so it's very much Wayne Family Adventures but with Damian and... either a baby or a grown woman Helena Wayne!

But I could talk about that in a whole nother post... as much as I could how both Bruce and Barry's idealized paradises are ones where they're just being domestic. But I digress...

So that might explain Jason, but what about the Kyle of it all?

There were a plethora of Lanterns to choose from that John has worked with AND are from Earth. We have to think about the character Kyle will be portraying and who would easily fill this role, then.

Hal and Guy are immediately out. No way could they ever be the kind of prophet this story needs. Plus they would overshadow the other characters in the story. Jason and Guy's characters will act to similarly and make the story one-dimensional. Hal would step too much on John's toes. So it has to be those who came after John in the Corps.

Of corpsmen, the three who come to mind are Simon Baz, Jo Mullein, and Kyle Rayner. Of the three, Simon and Jo have been present and featured in the storyline where John became the Emerald Knight, so it wouldn't be surprising if those two were chosen. Plus Kyle's been MIA for a long while since the latest GL series started. However, considering the third element - the Jason factor - they probably looked back to see who could be the perfect complement there to balance things out, and they landed on Kyle. It also helps that they both have history with Kyle as well. I expect Kyle to really lean into his artistic side in this one-shot.

Tl;dr the use of Jason might be more than just a crumb for JayKyle stans, it might hint at how the singular thread connecting the worlds in these is the Batman-ness of it all (especially since Nightwing seems to be leading the heroes and confirmed villains running amok after the DotJL are Deathstroke and Clayface, Batman villains). However, JayKyle has to be considered because choices are not made in a vacuum, especially character and story choices.

#dc comics #dcu #death of the justice league #dotjl #dark crisis #john stewart #kyle rayner #jason todd #green lantern #red hood #jaykyle #this started as a jaykyle thinkpiece but slowly transitioned lol #and into a batman piece too lol #everything is batman related #i mean just look at how dc is falling back on families and legacy #not for nothing but batman started the superhero dynasty in mainstream comics with his need to adopt children #like batman is the blueprint for ensemble casts #i could go more in depth batman and media analysis are two of my special interests #but i meant it when i joked there were other posts for this #and this could be me reading into things but nothing was gained from thinking the curtains were just blue