Issue 24: Superhero Information Initiative
By Amdnarg Toh

Guy Gardner: Super Hero or Super Zero?

Of all of the superheroes that have graced my comic book collection over the years, the one that has caused me to seriously doubt the credibility of the whole enterprise is Guy Gardner. Why DC chooses not to kill this guy off, at least permanently, continues to elude me.

Here’s the deal – to fill in some gaps in the Green Lantern saga, DC brings in this Green Lantern “scab” while Hal Jordan, the Green Lantern we’ve come to know and love, is on hiatus. To understand why Guy Gardner is chosen as the replacement for Hal Jordan, we have to first go back to when Hal Jordan became Green Lantern. (I just love superhero origin stories, so bear with me…)

Abin Sur was an alien from Ungara, who was appointed as Green Lantern of sector 2814. Green Lanterns were a corps of sentient beings who served as protectors of the space sectors to which they were assigned. Each possessed a power ring that, combined with the will power of the bearer, could form any sort of force field or object. Their only weakness was that they were not effective against anything yellow. While on patrol, Abin’s spaceship was disabled and he was forced to land on the nearest planet, Earth. Mortally wounded in the crash, he sent his ring on a quest for the next ring bearer. It found Hal Jordan, Abin willed the ring to Hal, and Hal became Green Lantern. It was later discovered that Hal wasn’t the only candidate the ring found. Guy Gardner was the second candidate, but Hal was closer to Abin, so he chose Hal instead of Guy.

Later on, Guy and Hal met, Guy became the second string GL for Earth, and when Hal left on a mission to recruit more GLs for the corps, Guy was assigned as Earth’s GL, and became quite involved in the superhero gig. Only one problem – Guy was bold, brash, stubborn, and made an all-out ass out of himself by clashing with just about every other superhero with whom he came into contact. He locked horns with Batman over control of the Justice League, and this became his modus operandi for quite some time. Willing to pick a fight with just about anyone, he eventually picked a fight with Hal, who by this time had finished his recruiting mission. Forced to surrender his power ring after losing the fight with Hal, Guy retreated into the normal world as a broken man, bereft of identity and power.

If that was the end of Guy’s sad story, it might be worthy of some acclaim. However, there was apparently enough interest in the blue-blooded, redneck, white-collar-guy- turned “super” that Guy underwent several “rebirths” as writers desperately tried to find a place for Guy.

So.. What’s a tough guy without a power ring to do??? Down, but not out, he embarks on a quest of sorts to find the power ring of a recurring Green Lantern foe, Sinestro. After enlisting the help of some questionable characters, he obtains Sinestro’s ring, and returns to Earth, reborn as just Guy Gardner, (not Green Lantern). He has the power ring for a time, then it is taken from him. Sniffle… Whine… He goes on a quest (Hmmm… A theme perhaps???) and finds a chalice that transforms him into “The Warrior”. He finds out his past was a sham and that he is REALLY an alien with special powers. This becomes his primary identity for a while, until he is killed off… Boo hoo!!! But… We’re not done with Guy yet… He isn’t dead – just lost in a remote corner of the netherworld. Reborn (again), he makes cameo appearances all over the place, and is finally re-recruited into the GL corps after his DNA is re-written and he becomes human again. He currently serves as one of a new breed of GL “mentors”.

Here’s my beef with this whole scene… If you’re going to pander to your readers, (like we haven’t seen this before), by “resurrecting” a character, you MUST maintain some storyline consistency. And – if you make major plot/identity twists, at least make some attempt to reconcile the differences rather than just having him show up transformed with no explanation. Some of the crappiest story lines are the ones that later go back to reconcile history/identity consistency issues that should never have existed in the first place.

However, in spite of the problems with story line consistency issues, I can see why some readers kind of liked Guy. He’s not the normal goody-two-shoes, creedal bound, honorable sort of guy. He grew up in Baltimore, (sorry east coast fans.) He lived in the shadow of an over-achiever older brother and a father who gave him little attention. I can sympathize with this guy. He’s played second fiddle all of his life and he deserves some respect. But to continually change his personality, looks, and powers did little more than leave us wondering… Where will Guy pop up next? What will he be like? Will he stay a Green Lantern? Is he really dead? I think the most recent incarnation is probably the most likely to stick around… But I also think that this is probably the way he always should have been… A tough guy with big brother issues learning to do the responsible thing with the powers he has been given. There’s enough angst there to do character development for a LOOONNNGGG time. When you use a super hero as comic relief, it’s difficult to then place him/her back into a serious role, which is just what happened to Guy. The impression I’m left with is – how can Guy screw this up? He’s done it before. I just don’t have faith he’s done his final bit of growing up and can be considered to be a serious hero now. Time will tell…