Superman: The Animated Series, Season 3, Episode 7: In Brightest Day
"In Brightest Day" is one of the few episodes in Superman's third season that tries to introduce other big-name superheroes as guest stars, and this one in particular acts as an origin story to Green Lantern. And it's a pretty neat backdoor pilot, had it been meant to be one -- Green Lantern would become a major player in the DCAU, but that'd be John Stewart instead of Kyle Rayner. Regardless, the episode does a pretty decent job of introducing the concept of the Green Lantern Corps, a group of intergalactic space policemen who fight with jewelry that can create whatever their mind can imagine. A weapon powered by imagination, which is absolutely perfect for fledgling newspaper artist Kyle Rayner.
We get to briefly see Kyle in action before he gets the ring, helping to beat up a thug and recover Jimmy Olsen's stolen camera, as well as see him make some neat wisecracks with Jimmy (small wonder the two get along quite well). We then get to see Superman encounter the crash-landed ship of the fallen Green Lantern Abin Sur, who sent out his ring to select a new champion... all familiar story beats to anyone who's the least bit familiar with the emerald knight's backstory.
Sinestro shows up without much explanation beyond being a hunter of Lanterns, while Superman gets pulled into Oa for some exposition. It is a bit strange just why Sinestro ended up being somewhat incompetent and unable to straight-up kill Kyle (who isn't even aware how to use his ring for the first couple of minutes of the fight) one-on-one when the Guardians have built up just how dangerous Sinestro is in combat. But eh. We do get some really neat visual flair between the two -- nothing too impressive compared to what Sinestro would do in Justice League Unlimited, but compared to just how dry and mechanical John Stewart's lantern ring constructs tend to be, it's a pretty cool bit to actually see the ring be used creatively.
Overall the episode's just okay, I think. It's not a huge, huge bombastic debut or anything, but it's certainly watcheable and fun enough. I'm not sure what else to say about it... it's a decent origin story episode, it's got a neatly-told story for Kyle and Sinestro both, and Superman... sort of... hangs around? It's kind of like Steel (and, honestly, up until the last three episodes of Superman: TAS, Supergirl) earlier in the series where they get elaborate origin stories but never actually end up doing much for the rest of the series.
DC Easter Eggs Corner:
- Kyle Rayner is the fifth person on Earth to have taken up the mantle of Green Lantern in the comics, after Alan Scott, Hal Jordan, Guy Gardner and John Stewart. In the comics, his day job as a freelance artist is accurately represented here, but being selected by a dying Abin Sur to get the ring is the backstory of the most famous Green Lantern of all, Hal Jordan.
- Thaal Sinestro's backstory isn't really delved to here, but he is a disgraced Green Lantern who once trained Hal Jordan and many others, but his usage of the ring ended up turning him into a despotic ruler of his home planet, causing the Guardians to strip him of his power. In his anger, he crafted a yellow ring powered by fear instead of willpower, and would prove one of the Green Lanterns' mightiest foes.
- Kyle's rejection letter in this episode came from DC comics.
- Hal Jordan's name is briefly seen written on the plane that Sinestro throws Kyle into during the final battle. Hal, of course, was a pilot.
- The restaurant that Kyle and Jimmy were eating at is called 'Gil's Ristorante', whereas the air base that the final battle takes place in is called 'Broome Lake', which are references to the creator of the Silver Age Green Lantern mythos, Gil Kane and John Broome.
- The unspeaking army of Green Lanterns that are shown by the Guardians to Superman include Arisia, Katma Tui, Kilowog, Salakk, Tomar Re, Xax, Arkkis Chummuck and Larvox.
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