#71 - Kyle goes to Gotham to get a few pointers from the Dark Knight. Batman, however, isn't in the mood to teach Kyle how to be a hero, and leaves him. Kyle's not feeling too good about things at this point; Donna's not at all happy with him, the first hero he thinks of to learn from blows him off, and he still isn't sure what it takes to be a great hero. That all ends when Alan Scott shows up. Alan was the first Green Lantern, but recently has started calling himself Sentinel. He's got the same powers as before, but doesn't need the ring anymore. Alan agrees to help Kyle and the two of them go off and battle a woman named Harlequin (no not the Joker's sidekick on Batman The Animated Series). Way back in Zero Hour, Alan was made young again, but his wife, Molly, was still the same age. During the Underworld Unleashed series, Molly bargained with Neron to be young again. Instead of making her young again in body and spirit, Neron just made her body young and kept her spirit. Alan went to Hell to get her soul back and this battle was fought in order for him to restore body and soul. The lesson learned here is that sometimes a hero needs to be cold and hard to get the job done. Alan lied to Kyle in order to get the job done, for he didn't think that Kyle would help if he told him the truth. This left Kyle wondering what he would have done if Donna had been in the same situation. Would he have lied to get help? Oh well, on to more amazing adventures in Fawcett City. . .
#72 - Kyle heads to Fawcett City to learn from the World's Mightiest Mortal, Captain Marvel. While looking for him, he runs into Billy Batson and they have an interesting conversation, both trying to protect their secret identities. While their talking, there is a large explosion in the museum and when they investigate (as their superhero alter egos) they find an ancient Egyptian high priest hurling energy bolts at them. When Kyle tries to take the guy by force, he only gets whipped. Captain Marvel realizes that it's really the professor in charge of the Egyptian collection and decides to talk to him. This works and the soul of the Egyptian priest leaves the professor, but looks to try and take over Marvel. Kyle captures the soul and gets Cap's thanks. Hey, what did we learn today? We learned that sometimes you can't fight your way through a situation, you CAN reason with some villains. The issue ends with Darkstars on many different planets slaughtered along with the planets' other citizens. The remaining Darkstars decide that it's time to take action against this unknown foe, before it gets to the next planet
#73 - It's Green Lantern Vs. Wonder Woman in this issue. Kyle tells us a while in that this is a show, that he has to make it look like he's killed Wonder Woman in order to flush out some criminals. The plan works and the bad guys make their appearance. Kyle and WW are there to stop them, two alien strong men and a woman. WW takes the strong men and leaves Kyle with the woman. Kyle makes the mistake of being too easy on her and she nearly kills them all while destroying one-of-a-kind equipment. The lesson here is that a hero needs to use all the power available and shouldn't pull punches for any reason, and never underestimate a woman. In the end Kyle runs into a very surprised Donna, well actually, they're both pretty surprised.
#74 - It turns out Donna came to Gateway City looking for Wonder Woman. She explains that some unknown foe has destroyed twelve planets, and with them nineteen Darkstars. Kyle offers to help and they meet up with the other seventeen Darkstars (yep, that's all that's standing between the unknown enemy and total destruction) on the planet Rann. The group is still preparing defenses when the enemy shows up. Donna and Kyle lead a successful space battle, but the problem lies with the ships that made it to the planet. The Darkstars there put up an admirable fight, but they are simply too overwhelmed. John Stewart, leader of the Darkstars, falls at the hand of the enemy leader, Lord Grayven. The story is continued in the next issue, but that is a pretty good cliff-hanger, eh?
#75 - Lord Grayven turns out to be another of Darkseid's sons. He wants to take his place as ruler of Apokolips and needs a weapon from Rann in order to complete his goal. Kyle is the last hope for Rann, the other Darkstars are down or busy fighting Grayven's minions. John Stewart, nearly dead, manages to use the weapon Grayven was looking for in order to defeat him, but Kyle's work isn't finished. The city where the battle took place was really a city above the planet, and all the destruction caused by Grayven had caused it to fall out of orbit. It's up to Kyle to save it, which he's not even sure he can do, but tries anyway. He answers the question he went to Gotham, Fawcett and Gateway for, he now knows why he is a hero. Also on the plus side he and Donna decide to talk and everyone's happy. Kyle does have one unanswered question, though. Grayven was so intent on pleasing his father that Kyle wonders what happened to his father. There's definitely more to come on that front in the next few issues as we continue another long-standing superhero team. . .