According to a recent announcement, Green Lantern has officially announced his intentions to enter Washington D.C.'s mayoral race.
Now, I have many fond memories of Kyle Rayner. I like him as a person. I respect his more severe face-mask and his poofy hair. I like that his imagination as a graphic artist greatly helped his ability to conjure up energy constructs as Green Lantern. I liked the way he wasn't vulnerable to the color yellow. But I have seriously doubts about his abilities as a Mayor.
Kyle is prone to being overly ambitious and his grand attempts often fall short. At one point, he tried to re-start the Green Lantern Corps by himself but only succeeded in creating a galactic despot and killing one of his newest inductees. Kyle also tried to go back in time and get his contemporary Hal Jordan to change his destiny. This ended poorly with Hal Jordan, quite literally, hitting himself. In both instances Kyle Rayner's heart was in the right place, but his brain was definitively elsewhere.
I also have problems regarding the way in which Mr. Rayner is conducting his campaign. The campaign web-site makes few specific references to which Green Lantern is running for office. Because of this, Mr. Rayner is able to cash in on the legacy of other Green Lanterns and use them to bolster his public image. Name recognition is not the way to draw voters to your camp. I find such activities to be unethical. This is the very reason why I withdrew my support of Ron McCain.
There's also the fact that Kyle Rayner has previously been possessed by Parallax, an entity responsible for the death of the Green Lantern corps and nearly destroying the universe. Now, a lot of good people get possessed by evil forces. Happens all the time. But I'm not entirely comfortable with my city being run by a man who is prone to being controlled by dark, primordial beings who are the living manifestations of fear. Things like that cause me to take pause. If the possession ever occurs again, it could be disastrous. At worst, the whole universe would end. At the very least one could expect major disruptions in public transportation which, in a city like D.C., could be disastrous enough by itself.
But beyond my personal issues with Mr. Rayner, there are problems that any Green Lantern would face upon entering office. The very nature of a "green" lantern would put any lantern at odds with established corporate lobbies who would view the inherent environmental connotations of the candidate as threatening. This could make interacting with large corporations difficult for any lantern Mayor due to preconceptions about the Lantern's political leanings.
It's also likely that any Lantern Mayor will bring their powers into the workplace. And while I agree that Green Lantern energy has great potential for improving infrastructure and helping the community, I worry that having a Kyle Rayner as a Mayor will make D.C.'s community too dependent on his powers. After all placing a lot of emphasis on a person who controls their powers with will is somewhat risky. You run the risk of Seasonal Affective Disorder sapping your Mayor's willpower and causing the new city hall building to collapse because the Mayor was propping it up with Green Lantern energy.
Furthermore, a Green Lantern in office means the oversight of the Guardians of the Universe. After all, no Green Lantern is an autonomous unit. Each Lantern is overseen by the watchful eyes of the Guardians, making any elected Green Lantern essentially a puppet candidate. As a result, putting Rayner in office would really put the power into the hands of individuals who are never seen by the voting populace and have not been given democratic power over the city of Washington. Do you want your city controlled by blue oompa-loompas in romper suits? In secret? From a galaxy away? I think not.
By electing Green Lantern Kyle Rayner, the citizens of Washington D.C. run the risk of having their future chopped into pieces and stuffed in the proverbial refrigerator.
And that's not a pretty picture.
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