Kyle Rayner - Powers and Abilities

Powers and Abilities

As a Green Lantern, Rayner is semi-invulnerable, capable of projecting hard light constructions, flight, and utilizing various other abilities through his power ring which are only limited by his imagination and willpower. Kyle's constructs are much more elaborate than those of any other Green Lanterns, often fading into view like a sketch refined into an illustration. Eventually, he is able to utilize his skill as an artist to manipulate the pigments and dimensions within his constructs, making them appear so realistic that even Alan Scott was amazed at what Kyle could do with his ring's creations.

Rayner's ring was constructed from what remained of Hal Jordan's ring by Ganthet. It is keyed to Rayner and Hal Jordan's DNA, making it only accessible to Rayner, Jordan, and anyone who is closely related to them unless the bearer willed the ring to another individual. This is done by Ganthet to prevent the last ring from being stolen, as there would be no other lantern to send to retrieve it. Unlike most of the Green Lanterns' rings, Kyle's did not require a twenty-four hour period of recharge, only when the ring's capacity was depleted; and it was not necessary to recite the Corps' oath when recharged. Rayner is the first Lantern not to suffer from a weakness to items colored yellow. Both Mongul and Superman are very surprised at this upon first encountering him. Kyle states that he didn't know about the weakness and never had any trouble with it. Originally, this was explained as his ring being a "new model", which also explained why it had slightly different abilities than those seen previously. Later, this was retconned with the explanation that rings can affect yellow if the user faces and overcomes their fear; as an artist, Kyle had faced his fear of rejection every time he showed his work, and this extended to his constructs, which he considered part of his artwork.

When bonded with the benevolent Ion symbiont, Rayner was capable of much more elaborate usage of his imagination which can extend to the manipulation of reality. In possession of the more sinister Parallax entity, Rayner was theoretically capable of similar feats.

During his relationship with Donna Troy, Rayner engaged in combat training with his then-girlfriend. During his first battle with Fatality, he proved to be a formidable fighter and was able to defeat her when his ring was drained. In nearly every encounter with Fatality since that incident, Kyle would use his combat skills to defeat her rather than his ring in order to maintain an element of surprise (she expected him to use his ring) or when his ring is drained or absent during battles. As a member of the Justice League, Kyle occasionally would train in the League's combat training systems on the Watchtower and under the tutelage of combat-experienced Leaguers, such as Batman. Even though Rayner is now a skilled hand-to-hand combatant, having been trained by the Dark Knight himself, he is not an expert in hand-to-hand; for example, while he initially held his own in a hand-to-hand fight with Sinestro, the villain proved to be a better fighter due to his greater experience.

As an Honor Guard Illustres, Rayner ranks only below Salaak, who holds the rank of Clarissi, and the Guardians in the new Corps chain of command.

During a brief period where he was turned into a 'magnet' for all rings, Kyle could briefly wield the power of the entire emotional spectrum, but the strain of doing so meant that the other six rings disintegrated after only a few moments, leaving him feeling significantly weakened by the effort. Despite all of the rings barring his own turning to dust, a measure of each ring's power resides in Kyle which he is able to channel in a combined burst of multicolored lights, Sayd noting that Kyle is the only being she knows capable of bringing together the powers of all of the branches of the emotional spectrum.