Green Lantern: Circle of Fire
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Green Lantern: Circle of Fire is a seven-issue comic book miniseries starring Green Lantern Kyle Rayner that was published by DC Comics in October 2000. It consists of two bookend issues, titled Green Lantern: Circle of Fire, and five issues in between in each of which a brand new Green Lantern Corps member pairs up with an established DC superhero. These other heroes include Power Girl, Adam Strange, Firestorm, the Atom, and Kyle Rayner. The bookend issues and two of the team-up issues were written by Brian K. Vaughan. Scott Beatty, Jay Faerber, and Judd Winick also contributed towards writing issues, while the team of artists included Keith Aiken, Steve Bird, Norm Breyfogle, Dan Davis, Wayne Faucher, Randy Greene, Ray Kryssing, Mark Lipka, John Lowe, Tyson McAdoo, Trevor McCarthy, Cary Nord, John Nyberg, Andrew Pepoy, Ron Randall, Claude St. Aubin, John Stanisci, Robert Teranishi, and Pete Woods.
[edit] Synopsis
The story opens with Adam Strange witnessing the entire planet Rann lapse into madness due to an attack by a colossal cosmic figure calling himself Oblivion. As Strange tries to defend the planet, he is unwillingly transported to Earth, where he gets help from Firestorm and the Atom in alerting the JLA of Oblivion's approach. When Strange debriefs the JLA about the encounter, Kyle Rayner is shocked to hear the description of Oblivion, because it matches the description of a supervillain Rayner had created as a child. The JLA engages Oblivion, who can create cosmic events such as black holes and dwarf stars. They are quickly overpowered, so Rayner retreats to gather other heroes to help him.
After a brief warning from the Spectre that someone close to Rayner would betray him, the Green Lantern asks for assistance from Oracle, who sends over Power Girl. Just as she arrives to help, however, a group of six new Green Lanterns appears out of nowhere, each of them claiming to be the sole protector of Earth in a different time or universe. Among them are:
- Pel Tavin, the Emerald Knight, a Daxamite knight from the 13th Century
- Ali Rayner-West, Green Lightning, a descendant of both Rayner and Wally West, who has both a power ring and superspeed
- Hunter and Forest Rayner, cousins and members of the Teen Lantern Corps, who are from a world where Rayner's descendants all share his original power ring
- G.L.7177.6, a reprogrammed Manhunter android
- and an alternate-reality Alexandra DeWitt, who had received the last power ring in her reality only to have Rayner murdered soon thereafter, an inversion of Rayner's story
Rayner splits the group of heroes up to go investigate Oblivion's arrival and rescue the captured JLA, pairing Power Girl with the Emerald Knight, Firestorm with G.L.7177.6, Green Lightning with Adam Strange, and the Atom with the Teen Lanterns. He chooses DeWitt to be his partner to go and hunt down Oblivion and stop him.
In Green Lantern and the Atom, the Atom and the Teen Lanterns try to figure out who created Oblivion, narrowing down the field to four suspects: the Scarecrow, Doctor Psycho, Professor Ivo, and Doctor Light, all of whom prove to have no idea who Oblivion is. Back at Rayner's apartment, however, they find a sketch of the Emerald Knight in a notebook from Rayner's childhood, suggesting that Oblivion and Pel Tavin were both created together. In Green Lantern and Power Girl, the Emerald Knight and Power Girl locate the JLA on a distant planet, only to find them encapsulated in some sort of yellow crystal. After being unable to break them free, Power Girl realizes that they are not in danger, but rather are being kept safe inside. In Green Lantern and Adam Strange, Green Lightning and Adam Strange return to Rann only to find it in ruins, not from Oblivion's work, but from the population's madness. They discover the source of the hysteria is a giant green lantern broadcasting a signal that only Rannians can pick up. They conclude a Green Lantern must have constructed the beacon. In Green Lantern and Firestorm the Nuclear Man, unsure if it even exists, G.L. and Firestorm search for the "Omega Option", the only thing capable of stopping Oblivion in Rayner's childhood comics. As they travel through space, they instead come across and battle Professor Martin Stein, a fire elemental who was one half of the original Firestorm. In the last team-up book, Green Lantern and Green Lantern, Rayner and DeWitt deal with their conflicting emotions over each seeing his or her long-dead partner as they track down Oblivion. They finally find him on the ruins of Oa, so they call everyone to rendezvous.
As the backup arrives team-by-team, the friends fill each other in on what each team had discovered. Piecing together the clues, Rayner concludes that Pel Tavin must be the traitor the Spectre warned about. Before the Emerald Knight and Power Girl return, however, Oblivion attacks the heroes, killing Forest. As the Atom and Hunter are about the face the same fate, the missing duo swoops in to save them. Realizing Pel Tavin wasn't Oblivion after all, Rayner charges towards the supervillain, only to be transported into his own subconscious. There, he learns that Oblivion was created using the power of the ring and the emotions Rayner bottled up after DeWitt's death and that the new Green Lanterns are equally imagined, each representing a positive aspect of Rayner's subconscious.
Rayner reabsorbs each of the new heroes to gain back enough power to fight Oblivion, who threatens to destroy everything Rayner loves, starting with New York City, unless Rayner lets Oblivion take over his mind and therefore the power ring. Rayner threatens suicide to stop Oblivion, but Oblivion reminds Rayner that the JLA would be lost forever. Reluctantly, Rayner lets Oblivion into his mind, where the overwhelming positive power of Rayner's personality as represented by the new Green Lanterns defeats the negativity of Oblivion.
Having rescued the JLA and stopped Oblivion, Rayner renders his resignation. Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman, however, interpret this to be a sign of maturity and responsibility and refuse to accept his resignation.
[edit] Aftermath
This miniseries paves the way for the Green Lantern: Power of Ion storyline, in both plot and theme. Here, Rayner denies the temptation of omnipotence for altruistic reasons. In Power of Ion, Rayner is again faced with all the energy from Oblivion, becoming godlike in nature, only to give it all up.
The miniseries also deals with evolving the character of Kyle Rayner from the perennial rookie of the DC Universe to a responsible, powerful hero in the eyes of his colleagues.
