For many DC Comics aficionados, the announcement was likely met with excitement, but it might have been a little confusing to more casual fans of superhero movies or DC TV shows who grew up knowing John Stewart, Hal Jordan, or other famous Emerald Knights as their Green Lantern.
The first character to hold the Green Lantern moniker is Alan Scott – a Golden Age hero from Earth-Two of DC’s Multiverse and founding member of the Justice Society of America with no association to the Green Lantern Corps.
Guy temporarily fulfilled that destiny when Hal’s ring was damaged, even though a subsequent one would send him to the Phantom Zone and leave him comatose for some time.
While he was initially deemed worthy of the Green Lantern Corps, Guy Gardner would fail to hold onto that privilege for very long after earning it.
This put him at odds with much of the Corps and much of the galaxy, making him even more bitter, arrogant, and rude to his peers whom he believed he was superior to.
There, he was raised by his mother, Peggy, and father, Roland – a heavy drinker who was known to idolize his elder son, Mace, while subjecting Guy to daily beatings.
After attending college, where he was able to channel his aggression into football, Guy got a job counseling inmates before becoming a special education gym teacher and, much later, making peace with his father before he died of liver failure.
As a Green Lantern, Guy Gardner is able to do all the things that his power ring enables him to do, such as fly, project energy fields, and create literally any object he can imagine.
This meant he was naturally gifted in other amazing abilities like shape-shifting his body parts into weapons, adapting to his environment for a better chance at survival, and your typical superhuman enhanced strength, speed, stamina, etc.
By the time Guy Gardner discovered his alien physiology, he had already attempted to rebrand himself as a new superhero called Warrior, which was also the name of the bar he opened .
During the Blackest Night arc, the death of Guy Gardner’s Corps partner Kyle Rayner caused him to develop a scathing rage, which happens to be the one emotion which rings from the evil Red Lantern Corps are most attracted to.
Well, I can tell you that I certainly empathize with those who would have rather heard about the casting of John Stewart, Hal Jordan, or even Kyle Rayner on the upcoming Green Lantern TV show before the casting of Guy Gardner was announced.
Jason has been writing since he was able to pick up a washable marker, with which he wrote his debut illustrated children’s story, later transitioning to a short-lived comic book series and amateur filmmaking before finally settling on pursuing a career in writing about movies in lieu of making them.