A look at DC Comics’ New 52: Green Lantern: New Guardians #1 (2011)! Does it succeed or FAIL? The Webcomic Beacon Presents: First Issue crew is here to let you know what we think! Please join Fes Works, Melissa Kaercher, and Marcus A.
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Although they didn’t do a very good job of making it clear, that scene at the beginning was indeed a flashback to when Kyle Rayner first got his Green Lantern ring.
Here’s the cliff notes version of what happens: Hal Jordan, who goes crazy after the destruction of Coast City, launches an assault on Oa; killing the guardians and several Green Lanterns and destroying the Central Power Battery (yeah, New Guardians conveniently neglects to mention it was Hal). The only surviving Guardian picks Kyle Rayner totally at random and gives him the last ring. And for many years Kyle Rayner is the only Green Lantern in the entire universe.
Eventually Kyle recreates the Central Power Battery, resurrects the Guardians, resurrects Hal Jordan (who had died during this time), and pretty much single-handedly un-destroys the Green Lantern Corps.
Also, the little kid insisting that Kyle is not Green Lantern kind of seems to me like a tongue in cheek reference to the way a lot of big Hal Jordan fans responded to Kyle replacing him.
As for the Red Lantern. A Red Lantern ring basically replaces your heart (you don’t loose your old one, but it stops beating). Removing the ring results in death like 90% of the time. Source: http://greenlantern.wikia.com/wiki/Red_Lantern_Power_Ring