I was not expecting that gif after reading that novel.
I'm not a fan of objects giving people their powers, in this case a ring. Also, I feel like his powers are not well defined. I do like the "will" aspect because it leaves the door open for the character to both fail and succeed when necessary. However, I wish they got rid of the rings, and for their power to come from within, kind of like "Ki" in Dragon Ball or "the schwartz" in Space Balls when Yogurt tells Bill Pullman he had the power inside the whole time and the ring was just some price he found in a Cracker Jack box.
If GL was just some magic ********, then that'd have been cheaper IMO. The whole point is that he gets done whatever he gets done because of his innate quality; his Will. The Ring is the crutch that takes him Universal. It's a Sci-Fi story where this guy gets this super-duper-ultimate weapon, but only because of attributes. If he was just another Superman light, it'd not have the same punch to it. It is a PowerFantasy of sorts, sure. Aliens just giving you a super-weapon because you're special, but "cuz he b speshul" is the origin of 95% of comic book characters. I like GL because of the core concept (space cop with the world's greatest weapon), the setting (literally existence) and the "heart" of it, which comes to "your will is your greatest weapon". It's a different "moral" than the average cape**** which never goes beyond "like, b, just like, gud".