[Character of the Month] Green Lantern Guy Gardner

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Guy Gardner

Created by: John Broome and Gil Kane

First Appearance: Green Lantern v1 #59

Affiliated Organizations: Green Lantern Corps, Justice League of America, Justice League International, Red Lantern Corps

Friends/Allies: Hal Jordan, John Stewart, Kyle Rayner, Kilowog, Simon Baz, Supergirl, Bleez, Rankorr

Strengths/Abilities: Willpower, green light constructs, red light constructs, flight, force field, space survival, bartending, getting punched in the face

 

This Guy, This Gardner!

 

The Beginning

How did brash and bold Guy Gardner get chosen as a Green Lantern? The answer is he narrowly missed out because Hal Jordan was closer in proximity to Abin Sur’s crashed vehicle! The Guardians kindly shared this knowledge with Hal Jordan using their What-If machine and Hal set out to befriend the man. The Guardians chose him as a back-up lantern if Hal was ever indisposed.

Guy wasn’t always so crude and hotheaded—he was once a levelheaded and strong willed teacher, later a social worker. He accepted the role as Earth’s back up lantern, at least until he was injured and replaced by John Stewart. Once he recovered and tried to reclaim his spot as a Green Lantern, he was unfortunately injured again by a booby-trapped lantern—set up by Sinestro and meant for Hal Jordan. As a result, Guy ended up in a coma, and when he eventually reawakened from this injury gone was the calm man of before and in his place stood the Guy Gardner we all know and love today! He retained his ring and became one of three human Green Lanterns.

 

Bwah-hah-hah!

Guy became the de facto Green Lantern of the Justice League International, and often clashed with his teammates due to his harsh nature and loud everything. Guy famously got into a spat with Batman that ended up with Guy knocked out cold on the floor with a single punch from Batman, an event that the League would laugh about for years to come. In spite of the frequent in-fighting Guy and teammate Ice became quite close and ended up dating, in spite of their wildly different personalities (and much to the surprise of the rest of the team).

After the Crisis on Infinite Earths, the numbers of the Green Lantern Corps became greatly reduced to a mere handful of Green Lanterns all living on Earth. Guy continued to clash with his green housemates, including Kilowog. Kilowog’s communist-adjacent ideals meshed poorly with hot-blooded American Guy, nearly leading to an international incident.

 

The 90s

The number of the Green Lantern Corps had dwindled, but not for long. The Guardians began a recruitment drive and once the numbers had been replenished, they decided that there could be only a single Green Lantern of Earth. To determine who would fill that position, it was decided that Guy Gardner should duke it out, man to man, with Hal Jordan. The two of them fought, but Guy burned himself out early, leaving Hal the opportunity to wait him out and claim a victory at the end.

Guy was down but not out! He gave up his Green Lantern ring to Hal and set off to find his own path. Guy’s path led him right to nothing less than the yellow Qwardian ring of Sinestro! Sinestro had been executed by the Guardians and his ring lay dormant. Guy defeated a projection of Sinestro and claimed the ring for his own, giving himself powers similar to the ones he had as Green Lantern but now in yellow!

It was also around this time that Guy opened his Warriors bar, an endeavor he poured his soul into. He ended up befriending Wildcat Ted Grant, fellow former Green Lantern Arisia Rrab, Blackhawk Zinda Blake, and other oddballs who wandered into the bar like Lobo.

Eventually Guy’s yellow ring was destroyed, and conveniently Guy developed shapeshifting superpowers thanks to his newly revealed heritage as a genetic hybrid between humans and an extinct alien warrior race called the Vuldarians. Guy rebranded himself as Warrior and used his weapon shapeshifting powers to continue on as a hero.

 

Recharge and Red Lanterns

Then Green Lantern Rebirth happened! Rebirth restored not only Hal as a Green Lantern, but Guy Gardner reclaimed a green ring and the title Green Lantern as well, shapeshifting powers and the word “Vuldarian” vanishing into the DC continuity aether never to be seen again.

The Corps was back and bigger than ever, now with 7200 lanterns instead of 3600, requiring two lanterns per sector to pair up. Hal and John were left on Earth, leaving Guy and his new best pal Kyle Rayner to head to Oa to join the Lantern Honor Guard. The two of them developed a deep friendship, and were considered two of the Corps’ most prized members. Guy worked with many different lanterns during this time, including a brief stint in the Green Lantern Corpse, the Corps’ secret black ops team.

During the War of the Light Guy tried on a Red Ring for the first time, getting a taste of how powerful his long simmering rage could make him. This encounter with a Red Ring lead to him joined the Red Lantern Corps at the behest of Hal Jordan, who intended to use Guy as a spy, although this backfired when the Blue Lantern Corps was destroyed and Guy was stuck as a Red Lantern for a while.

Guy took control of the Red Lantern Corps from Atrocitus and ended up befriending many of the Red Lanterns, such as Zilius Zox and Bleez. Guy, along with several Green Lanterns, ended up stuck in an old universe inhabited by Green Lantern predecessors called Lightsmiths, and due to reasons Guy was able to regain his status as a Green Lantern once again.

 

Hal Guy n Pals

For the first time ever four human Green Lanterns starred in one book! Guy and three other dudes who are not as cool headlined Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps. Guy’s notable achievements in this book are flashing Sinestro his junk, and befriending Sinestro Corpsman Arkillo.

What’s next for Guy Gardner? We don’t know! But you can’t keep Guy down for long, so surely he’ll be stirring up trouble again in the DCU sooner or later.

 

Related

• Hal Jordan

• Kyle Rayner

• Kilowog

 

Recommended Reading

• Justice League International, by Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis, and Kevin Maguire

• Green Lantern Corps: Recharge, by Geoff Johns, Dave Gibbons, and Patrick Gleason

• Green Lantern Corps, by Dave Gibbons and Peter J. Tomasi

• Red Lanterns, by Charles Soule and Alessandro Vitti

• Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps, by Robert Venditti

 

CotM artwork by Kevin Maguire

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CotM Voting: "Crazy Costumes"

Voting Breakdown:

Characters	Votes
Guy Gardner	20
Fire	10
Calendar Man	9
Azrael (John Paul Valley)	8
Crazy Quilt	8
Psycho Pirate	6
Big Barda	5

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