Green Lantern masters power spectrum in 'New Guardians'

• Kyle Rayner is the human star of 'Green Lantern: New Guardians'
• The hero works to master the color spectrum in order to become the White Lantern
• Rayner's showdown with a father figure rolls into upcoming 'Wrath of the First Lantern' story line

Under the watch of writer Tony Bedard, the Green Lantern Kyle Rayner is getting a taste of the whole spectrum of cosmic colors.

Rayner is on a mission to master all of the powers and emotions associated with the different Lantern Corps in DC Comics' Green Lantern: New Guardians series.

Since launching last fall, Bedard's New Guardians has been focused on Rayner's connection to the Indigo Lanterns, Red Lanterns, Orange Lanterns and the rest. His goal now, though, is to bring all the disciplines together to be the White Lantern and a secret weapon against the increasingly feisty Guardians of Oa, although he still has a long way to go.

In New Guardians issue 14 (out Wednesday), written by Bedard and drawn by Andrei Bressan and Amilcar Pinna, Rayner continues his quest of visiting prominent Lanterns of various shades by mastering the indigo energy of compassion and yellow energy of fear — although that latter one may be a bit tricky since he has to deal with the fearsome Arkillo.

However, when Rayner reaches him, Arkillo's not in a great place. He feels he has been betrayed by the true master of fear, Sinestro — who, along with Green Lantern Hal Jordan, has been taken off the board by the villainous Black Hand.

"Kyle is going to have to mentor Arkillo as it turns out," says Bedard, who has found the Sinestro Corps warrior to be a fun character to write.

"When we started the book, his tongue had been ripped out and he was basically just this scary dinosaur-looking dude. We've kind of restored him — he's got a weird friendship with the Blue Lantern Saint Walker, and he's developed more of a personality. But he'd still just as soon kill you as look at you, so there's that."

Since Green Lantern writer Geoff Johns added many of these colored Lanterns to the universe of the will-powered Green Lanterns and created a rich galactic mythology, the stories explored have shown men, women and aliens who are not black and white in terms of deeds and personalities. Instead, it's all a nice shade of gray.

Rayner learns this, too, when training with Indigo-1 and trying to learn the indigo energy.

"She tells him compassion isn't necessarily a positive thing. He feels that positive emotions like hope come easily to him, but things like avarice are going to be a harder thing to master," Bedard says.

"With avarice, you think greed is something that will always be bad, but self interest drives us to do a lot of good things. There's a lot of stuff to mine there in those different emotions."

To study up on his avarice, Rayner encounters Larfleeze, the unpredictable Orange Lantern, next month in issue 15, and that and love will be the final two colors he'll need to have the whole spectrum working within himself, according to Bedard.

"It's ironic, you'd think Kyle who's had all these girlfriends would have no problem mastering love," he says, "but that's going to end up being the last piece of the puzzle for him."

It couldn't come at a better time because the clock is ticking in order for him to ignite the white light. The Guardians are up to no good in the current "Rise of the Third Army" story line crossing over in all the Green Lantern books, and if Rayner can get all the emotional energy under his control, he might be able to stop them.

Bedard says Rayner will come face to face with the father figure and Guardian who gave him his ring, Ganthet, in issue 16, and that showdown rolls into the next major story line, "Wrath of the First Lantern."

"Every once in a while Geoff comes up with these things that explode the possibilities in the Green Lantern idea, and I think he's come up with another great twist with the First Lantern," Bedard says. "It almost eclipses what is being set up right now. It cranks up the danger level to 11 when the First Lantern finally hits the scene."

Carol Ferris, who has become a co-star of sorts in New Guardians, will also play a significant role in the current and upcoming story lines. The most prominent of the love-filled Star Sapphires, she's shepherding Rayner through his gauntlet of colors in order to rescue Hal Jordan, and one issue of the "First Lantern" issues will focus on her and her background.

"She's a venerable Lantern character," Bedard says. "In some ways, she's been as big a nemesis to Hal Jordan as Sinestro was as Hal Jordan's love of his life. It's fun to get to examine her and her take on everything that's happening in the Lantern-verse."

Of all the human Green Lanterns, Kyle Rayner has always felt most identifiable to Bedard, more so than John Stewart, Guy Gardner or Jordan, who was a fearless test pilot from the start.

"Kyle is more like you and I, and it's almost like what if one of us got the ring. He's the most relatable from the start of the four Earth Lanterns, and he's also always finding his way through this whole Lantern thing," Bedard says.

"He's the one who's had the most relationships because he's more dimensional as a character than the other guys. I'm sure Geoff and (Green Lantern Corps writer Peter Tomasi) would argue against that but Kyle is the one who seems the most real to me."