One Major Justice League Character Was Never Meant To Exist

Summary Green Lantern Kyle Rayner was not originally meant for Earth-1, but Earth-8.

Kyle Rayner's status as a member of the Green Lantern Corps reshaped the DC Universe.

Without Kyle Rayner, the DCU would have been very different, highlighting his importance.

A staple member of the Justice League has always been Green Lantern, whether it be Hal Jordan, John Stewart, or Kyle Rayner — but one Crisis-level event revealed the surprising fact that Kyle Rayner was apparently never meant to exist at all. With the collapse of the Multiverse, Kyle Rayner found himself on a planet he didn't belong on.

Kyle Rayne's multiversal origin was confirmed in Infinite Crisis #5 by Geoff Johns and Phil Jimenez. In this issue of the essential event series, as Alexander Luthor is building a machine to help him rearrange the multiverse, he mentions that each person he's strapped to the machine was originally meant to be from another universe.

The most surprising statement is when he calls out Green Lantern Kyle Rayner for having originally been meant for Earth-8, but since the Multiverse was collapsed in Crisis on Infinite Earths by Marv Wolfman and George Pérez, Kyle ended up on the main Earth instead.

Infinite Crisis is one of DC's major Crisis events and drastically reshaped the scope and tone of the DC Universe. Fans can revisit the classic and influential story digitally and in various collected editions from DC Comics.

Related DC's Most Underrated Green Lantern Shines in a Tribute to His '90s Debut Beloved Green Lantern Kyle Rayner finally gets his chance to shine on an amazing new variant cover that pays tribute to the hero’s beginnings.

Green Lantern Kyle Rayner Was Never Meant for Earth-1

Infinite Crisis #5 by Geoff Johns, Phil Jimenez, Jerry Ordway, Ivan Reis, Andy Lanning, Art Thibert, Jeremy Cox, Guy Major, Rod Reis, and Nick J. Napolitano

Kyle Rayner was the Green Lantern of the 1990s and found himself on the Justice League pretty quickly. Instead of the military background that was common for Green Lanterns at the time, he was specifically an artist. It seemed like a perfect match: giving a character who relied on creativity for work a superpower that allowed him to create anything he wanted. Kyle quickly became a fan-favorite Green Lantern, which is why it's all the more shocking that he apparently was never meant to exist on this Earth at all.

Readers are never shown what Earth-8 actually is; Alexander Luthor claims it is an Earth that was home to "duplicate" heroes, Firestorm, Huntress, and Breach, who were all different iterations of previous heroes. Given this fact, it makes sense why Kyle Rayner likely belonged on this Earth as well, as he was far from being the first Green Lantern. Kyle Rayner rose through the ranks of the Green Lanterns and ended up being the most decorated member in the Corps, which is why it's so shocking he wasn't meant to join at all.

Kyle Rayner Is One of the Greatest Green Lanterns

The DCU Would Be Completely Different Without Kyle

After the Green Lantern Corps were destroyed, Kyle Rayner was given the final power ring and became the last Green Lantern in the universe for a while. The Corps was eventually reformed, but there was a period of time when Kyle Rayner was quite literally the only Green Lantern around. The DCU would've surely been a much different place if Kyle had instead been put on Earth-8, where Alexander Luthor theorizes he belonged. Instead of being just an alternate version of an already existing hero, Kyle redefined the role and became one of the greatest Green Lanterns in Justice League history.

Infinite Crisis #5 is available now from DC Comics!