Lyle first came to prominence as penciler on DC Comics' Starman with writer Roger Stern. The creative team introduced the second Blockbuster in Starman #9 (April 1989).
Lyle worked on the first Robinlimited series with writer Chuck Dixon. The series was an enormous surprise hit, prompting many reprintings of the first few issues as well as two sequel miniseries — Robin II: Joker's Wild and Robin III: Cry of the Huntress — both of which reunited the creative team of Dixon and Lyle. Dixon and Lyle co-created the Electrocutioner in Detective Comics #644 (May 1992) and Stephanie Brown in Detective Comics #647 (August 1992).
Lyle's next project was The Comet for DC Comics' Impact Comics imprint, which he pencilled and plotted with writer Mark Waid contributing the scripts.