Kyle Rayner and the Spectrum of Light is an animated action/adventure series by DC Studios and airing on HBO, featuring the titular character. Taking place in the same continuity as The Sensational Wonder Woman and The Flash: Born to Run, the show follows the exploits of a rookie Green Lantern and their interactions with the wider galaxy of Penguinsz's DC Universe.
Summary[]
Kyle Rayner was just starting their tenure at Blaze Comics when a strange short figure appeared outside their window with a glowing green ring. As it turned out, Kyle had been chosen as the newest (and seemingly only) Green Lantern of Sector 2814, also known as our solar system.
While art deadlines and constant calls to action would be draining enough for the young illustrator, various rival corpsmen start to appear in the sector, reasons ranging from completely unknown to oddly petty, yet all somehow seeing the last Lantern as a threat. However, Kyle soon finds camaraderie (and inspiration) through the travelling capabilities of their ring, deciding to try to get to know their system better if their fighting to protect it.
Characters[]
Protagonists[]
Green Lantern/Kyle Rayner - Our main protagonist. A comic book artist and writer for the independent publisher Blaze, Kyle was suddenly chosen personally by Ganthet to wield what was once Hal Jordan's ring.
Generally lighthearted, snarky, and a self-admitted dork with a love for cute characters and robots, they steadily grow more responsible (though not more serious) as they learn the true stakes of their new status. Their creativity and treatment of their ring as an artist's tool alongside a weapon means they're also a lot more unpredictable and experimental with their ring, to the point of being able to maintain a construct hours after first manifesting it and even becoming able to 'edit' other constructs.
Their current project is Samuroar, where three locals of a cartoon world end up piloting an anime-style mecha against the threats of the latter's home universe and beyond.
Supporting[]
Portland[]
Kyle Rayner's home, a city some miles away from the former Coast City. When the latter was decimated during the Infinite Crisis, the survivors moved here, managing to integrate rather well due to the city's own established weirdness. It's the headquarters of Blaze Comics, as well as the new home of FerrisAir and Warriors, as well as the location of an earthbound boot camp ran by Kilowog.
Blaze Comics[]
Alexandra DeWitt - A co-worker at Blaze and Kyle's ex, though they still remain friends. Mature and down-to-earth, she ends up being the unlikely mentor to Kyle on their Green Lantern ring, having experience with superheroes that she doesn't disclose. Terry Berg - Kyle's openly gay art assistant, who helps to colour and create backgrounds for them.
Sam Simeon - The publisher/chief creative officer for Blaze Comics and a prominent artist and writer himself, having been the artist for many works for Fawcett, Major, and CQ. Stern yet always with a cool head (particularly to avoid emulating his previous bosses), Sam always prides himself in breaking away from the usual conventions of comic books, and encourages Kyle to do the same.
His most famous works include The Blackest Night (where police officer Roddy Mire tries to rebuild society in an post-apocalyptic world plunged into darkness and overrun by monsters both human and inhuman) and Warrior (A bloody space opera series where Margrav Galaxic comes into his powers and becomes a galactic knight, only to learn his father is actually the commander of the comic's galactic empire).
He is also a talking gorilla, but that's not really important.
Meredith Clatterbuck - An enthusiastic fan-artist and fanfic writer, with particular loves for yuri, clowns, and yuri with clowns. Usually writing lighthearted comics in and out of Blaze, she's decided to make something more... experimental. What she and another writer end up creating is The Divine Continuity Unit, a very New Weird work about an organization of 'continuity cops' whose job is to maintain the timeline of an in-universe comic world.
Ellen Baker - A children's book writer trying to expand their repertoire and one of Kyle's idols as a kid. Having worked at many other comic companies and book publications, they decide that their latest work would be The Divine Continuity Unit alongside Meredith, basing some of the characters on people their husband had apparently met, most notably The Processor Man.
The Scott Family[]
Alan Scott - One of the earliest modern superheroes, the first Green Lantern of the Age of Superheroes, and now the current senator of Oregon. Still possessing the Starheart, which kept him alive and youthful to the present, he mentors Kyle alongside his daughter.
Jade/Jennifer-Lynn Scott - The adopted daughter of Alan Scott, who alongside her brother ended up exposed to the Starheart when they were young. bonding to it directly.
Obsidian/Todd Scott - The adopted son of Alan Scott, whose exposure to the Starheart instead connected him to the Shadowlands. A social worker with a particular expertise in mental health and restauranteur of the Atomic Bomb Cafe in his civilian life.
FerrisAir[]
Carol Ferris - The current CEO of FerrisAir, the former fiancee of Hal Jordan and a former wielder of the Star Sapphire. She still keeps it closeby in case of emergencies.
Tom Kalmaku - The current COO of FerrisAir, the best friend of Hal Jordan before his disappearance into outer space.
Goldface/Keith Kenyon - The union commissioner of FerrisAir, formerly a supervillain whose skin is now permanently golden.
The Spectrum Unit[]
Formed by John and Kyle during the advent of Solomon Grundy's unfinished freeing of Nekron, the New Guardians put together a team to harness the White Light of Life before the Lord of the Unliving fully broke out. Of course, the team's formation was heavily tinged with Kyle's own stylings because they couldn't help it.
Arisia Rrab - A Venusian from the city of Graxos-6, A mega-fan of Hal Jordan, she's somewhat disappointed with his direct replacement at first... only to quickly warm up to Kyle when they praised her art (especially once she learned what had happened to Hal).
Keeping with making alien characters not just recoloured humans, Arisia resembles a humanoid praying mantis-leafbug hybrid with golden skin and green hair.
Iolande okin-Betrassus - The princess of the royal family of Betrassus.
Soranik Natu - A Korugarian-Ungaran doctor, the daughter of Sinestro and Arin Sur, the twin sister of the legendary Abin Sur. While she grew up with the same fear and hatred towards the Green Lantern Corps as the rest of her species, her close connection with her mother and what she suffered through taking care of her significantly changed her views enough that she would be one of the only Korugarians to volunteer herself as a Corpsman.
Bleez - A veteran Crimson Flamebearer and the second-in-command of Atrocitus himself, notably chosen by him to become a member of the Spectrum Unit against her will.
Earth[]
Air Wave II/Haoua Nadjoari - The second Air Wave after her grandfather, Haoua rediscovered the suit Lassane Nadjoari used as the local hero of Burkina Faso before his death during the Infinite Crisis.
Green Lantern Corps[]
Recruits/The Kilowog Korps Bootkamp[]
Kilowog - A member of the Bolovaxians, whose long time with the Corps and willpower could have made him a member of the New Guardians. However, he declined, wanting to continue training the next line of Green Lanterns in his remaining millennia.
26 - A Numericron
B'dg - A young H'lvenite who was chosen directly by Ch'p as his successor. Due to being the age equivalent of a teen, he looks exactly like a regular squirrel compared to the more anthropomorphic older GL.
G'Nort - Already different from the others due to his bumbling attitude and the fact he's a 40-something sewer worker, G'Nort's slacking demeanor and cowardly nature did not make him many friends on his home planet, but did prove surprisingly popular when he got stranded in Portland combined with his funny look.
Lorix Monzoto - An astronaut for the gorilla city-state of Nenemosi, who Kyle had to save when his craft was suddenly attacked by the Spider Guild. During Season 3, Lorix becomes one of the first recruits to Kilowog's training program.
Trilla-Tru - Another Xudarian training to become a Green Lantern. and just as eager to protect and fascinated by the universe as her predecessors.
New Guardians[]
Jabu Sithole - An architect from Durban, South Africa who became a full-time Green Lantern and the replacement of Hal Jordan when he decided to take a leave from the Corps to re-examine his life. Now leading the city of Mosaic World, a patchwork of various communities saved from Brainiac's ship during its destruction in the Infinite Crisis, Jabu was the one who personally recruited Kyle alongside Ganthet.
He is the Penguinsz' DC Universe version of John Stewart, reimagined as a South African to add more diversity to the human side of the Green Lanterns.
Katma Tui - John's husband, a renowned politician and revolutionary on Korugar and now a leading member of the New Guardians, as well as helping John to deal with the administration of Mosaic World.
Apros -
Chaselon -
Isamot Kol -
K'ryssma -
Larvoxax - From the planet Xputaos,
Medphyll - A banyam, cycloptic vegetoids from J586.
Mogo - A living planet whose 'ring' is in fact a belt of land and forestry centered on a lake formation resembling the Green Lantern logo. While not very social, he helps Jabu and Katma with managing Mosaic World... primarily because said settlement is now stuck on his surface as a particularly ugly kaleidoscope in the northwest.
NautKeLoi - An aquatic alien from the underwater planet Aeros, forced to wear a suit outside of his usual habitat in order to breathe.
Stel - A robot of the wholly mechanical ecumenopolis of Grenda,
Antagonists[]
Main Villains[]
The Highmaster/Thaal Sinestro - The overarching antagonist, responsible for the destruction of the Guardians of the Universe as the final event that released the Anti-Monitor in a bid to pull the entirety of the galaxy under his dictatorship. Despite having mysteriously disappeared alongside Hal Jordan during the Crisis, his effects are still felt throughout the series.
The Dominators - A group of Maltusians who decided that evil needed to not only be exterminated, but also pre-emptively stopped indefinitely. However, all of their efforts lead to, among other things, the creation of the Crimson Flame,
Effigy/Martin Van Wyck (Season 1) - A graffiti artist from Seattle, Martin was abducted by the beings known as The Controllers and transformed into one of their first Darkstars, only for him to break free and return home. Bitter and resentful even before his transformation due to a streak of unluck throughout his life, his abduction caused him to snap, packing up and going to Portland... though not before setting the apartment he living in on fire.
The Black Lantern Force (Season 4) - With the exception of Grundy, the Black Lanterns have lost their memories of who they were, only retaining corrupted versions of their deceased's names, personality, relationships, and ambitions.
- Solomon Grundy/Cyrus Gold - The leader of the Black Lantern Force and the current avatar of Nekron. However, with his body still being repaired and improved, he's forced to stay out of the conflict, instead sending his proxies to gather up enough negative emotional energy to speed up his resurrection.
- The Caliginous Comet - One of Grundy's field generals, able to run at high speeds. A scout first and foremost, often seen speeding away from the Spectrum Unit with his only traces being footsteps which smell of burning rot.
- The Black Daughter -
- Corpsemen - Monstrous parodies of the deceased powered by Black Lantern rings, able to take the forms of their original selves and seamlessly blend in back into their previous lives.
Earth[]
Ohm/Viryaj Lawton - A recurring nuisance who stole a suit of powered armour from S.T.A.R. Labs, who slowly grows to respect Kyle. The arsenal of his suit constantly change every appearance, most notably resembling various weapons from anime.
The Tattooed Man III/Gil Tohunga - An amateur burglar and a friend of Kyle who bought the original Tattooed Man's power-providing chemicals to better help in his crimes... and soon stumbles upon more of them jogging through the forest. Learning the chemicals are actually artificial alien lifeforms, he soon embarks on a greater crime spree.
He remains friendly to Kyle even after they discovered his true nature.
Sportsmaster/Victor Gover - A former player for the Portland Steel NFL team who ended up kicked out of the sport after the discovery of his active metagene, with his later attempts to play in others disbarred due to it. Rightfully outraged about something he didn't even know he had leading to him losing his career, Victor immediately used his newly-discovered trajectory redirection ability to break the faces of everybody, leading to his arrest by Kyle Rayner and eventual escape.
He's a drinking buddy of Gil.
Karshon Man-Eater - A wanted serial killer in the Sea Kingdoms (even among her own kind due to her eating her opponents while they're still alive, a deadly sin in various sharkman cultures), Karshon was exposed to cosmic radiation when a cracked meteor sunk close to her, granting her telekinesis, telepathy, and a gluttonous desire for psychic energy.
Evil Star/Guy Pompton - The director of the live-action series adaptation of The Blackest Night. During a particularly awful shoot mostly caused by himself, he stumbled upon a starfish-like alien on the beach he named Aoran, who was a modified form of Starro who could manipulate biological tissue, most often creating offspring known as Starlings.
Solar System[]
Sonar/Banele Wacera - A professor who wanted to put the newly independent nation of Modora on the map and defy his fanatically anti-science government. Creating a suit that would allow him to convert sound into energy, Banele planned to fly to all the planets of the solar system and place the flag of his country down on each one, but would soon mysteriously disappear.
Decades later, he would be found by the criminals Blindside and Throttle, who learned that his exploits have left him completely transformed into a being of sound and metal... as well as get him a bit of his rocker, wanting to establish an 'Intergalactic Empire of Modora'. Even worse is that he's able to back up his claims, with his newfound sonic powers able to shatter even the constructs of a Power Ring. His shock at seeing Modora now being a province of Zambezi (even after learning that the previous regime was toppled and that it had successfully developed) drove him into more full-blown villainy.
Blindside and Throttle/Stella Kanea and Arinze Ngwangwa - Two henchmen-for-hire who end up discovering Sonar after he fell back to Earth. Their tech was upgraded by Banele in order to better live in the far reaches of outer space, though they tend to use this newfound power to explore the places they end up in instead, to Sonar's chagrin.
The Invisible Destroyer - Neal Emerson was the villain Doctor Polaris, albeit unwillingly. Wanting to be rid of it all, Neal built a machine that would take away his magnetic abilities and leave his alter powerless as a result. However, the machine instead coalesced his powers AND parts of his alter, gifting it a body and allowing it to act freely without Neal.
Intergalactic[]
Lord Starbreaker - The last cosmic vampire, a species of energy feeders that completely siphon the life and light from entire stars. A very vain being with exquisite tastes and requisite needs, he particularly enjoys enslaving the people he leaves starless rather than leaving them to die, using them as entertainment and labour.
Mrwhydden of Ys - An exiled fifth-dimensional imp who styles himself after a fantasy novel evil sorceror and got to work remaking an entire planet based off his tastes, which would end up becoming Betrassus. Expecting to face off against Hal Jordan, he was disappointed to learn he had mysteriously disappeared, and was very stubborn when asked to stop controlling Betrassus and allow its people to grow.
Of course, after being defeated and his hold over Betrassus' development was destroyed, Mrwhydden soon realized that he'd make quite a good villain himself, carving out a domain in the very north to become Iolande's own constant pain in the arse.
Trivia[]
- Blaze Comics as a whole is a riff on Image Comics, with many of their works being wholly or loosely based off properties by the company, but with some references to the DCU. This includes but is not limited to:
- The Blackest Night - The Walking Dead, named after the storyline of the same name
- Warrior - Invincible, named after the comic featuring Guy Gardner
- The Divine Continuity Unit - The Department of Truth, mixed with the metafictional aspects of Grant Morrison's Animal Man and Sam Humphries' Harley Quinn.
- Hellspore - Spawn
- Viridian Dawn - Radiant Black
- Mosaic - Saga