#rip graf and orb guy who aren't really dead too

[greenlantern94to04]

Guy Gardner: Warrior #20 (May 1994)

"EMERALD FALLOUT," Part 3! The "Emerald Twilight" tie-in storyline kicks into high gear as Guy is joined by the Justice League, some former Green Lanterns, a (not so) secret villain, and, at last, new writer Beau Smith! Nothing against Chuck Dixon as a writer, but it's under Smith that Guy Gardner truly became a Warrior.

At the end of GG:W #19, Alan Scott met Guy at the JL's HQ to ask for his help with figuring out what the hell's going on with the Green Lanterns these days. Alan mentions the green dome that covered what remains of Coast City (GL #48), and Guy answers: "Whaddya mean 'remains'?" Yes, Guy is just learning that a major American city where he lived for several years has been totally destroyed...

...but, to be fair, he'd been replaced by an evil alien clone when that happened (this means that the Guy who got some good zingers at Aquaman's expense during Coast City's memorial in Superman #81 was actually the clone).

While Alan and Guy are talking, Colos of the Darkstars ("that second-rate, low-rent Green Lantern wanna-be's" as Guy puts it) also stops by to let everyone know that several GLs, including good ol' Hal Jordan, are missing. Others have been found -- dead. Guy insists, in not very polite terms, that he should be the one to lead a group to planet Oa to find out what's happening, but then Wonder Woman intervenes and... agrees with him?!

So, it's decided that Guy will lead a possibly suicide mission to Oa because he's the only one in the League who knows his way around the place. Martian Manhunter, Captain Atom, and The Ray are also coming along. Ex-Green Lantern (and Hal's ex) Arisia is also at the JL HQ, for some reason, and wants to join Guy's Suicide Squad, but Guy won't let her because she's got no powers and he already feels like he's babysitting The Ray. Right before they're about to leave for space, though, Arisia returns with a giant Cable-style gun, ankle pistols, and, perhaps most importantly from Guy's perspective, a far more revealing outfit. He lets her come, obviously.

(And pouches, but I didn't really need to tell you about the pouches.)

As the group approaches Oa, they run across a ton of GL corpses floating in space. It's only once Guy is actually down on the planet and sees the destruction first hand that he realizes his vision of Hal trashing the place while fighting Sinestro (GG:W #18) must have been real. This leads to the heartbreaking moment from the cover when Guy finds Kilowog's skull on the ground, where Hal left it after killing him (GL #50), and cries for the big poozer. Martian Manhunter and Arisia are also pretty shaken up, but they don't have a lot of time to mourn before everyone is attacked by green monsters.

After several pages of all these heavy hitters (and Arisia) being completely owned by green goop, we find out who's behind all this: HAL JORDAN!

Which we already knew, because we've been reading Green Lantern, but it's still a cool "reveal." TO BE CONCLUDED!

Plotline-Watch:

Ice also wants to come on the mission to Oa, but Guy turns her down far more gently than he did with Arisia, telling her she can't come because he simply can't face the possibility of something bad happening to her (plus he wants her to take care of his crippled supervillain brother). As he leaves, she says "Good-bye, Guy" and drops an icy tear on the floor. I like this scene because it doesn't hide the fact that Guy is a giant sexist, but his genuine concern for Tora still makes him sympathetic. The "good-bye" is particularly poignant in light of near future events...

Before reaching Oa, the group runs into another former Green Lantern: Probert the Bad One, the barbarian GL that Beau Smith introduced in GLCQ #8. Probert is honoring the last wishes of dead GL Graf Toren by "igniting his path to his ancestors" (setting his corpse on fire, I guess?) and is glad to see Guy there, since Graf had spoken highly of him. Smith has said that he had plans for Probert to become a sort of mentor to Guy, but sadly that never happened; he'll only make a couple of appearances after this.

Looks like Probert didn't bother checking Graf's pulse before performing final rites on his body, since Geoff Johns would reveal much later that he was captured alive by the Manhunters after this. Actually, I don't think Johns read this issue: at least one of the GL corpses we see floating around (Chaselon, the orb guy) would be shown to be alive during Johns' run without explanation.

Ironic that Guy criticized General Glory for not paying attention to the news in GG #16 (since Glory hadn't heard about the whole "evil clone" thing) when he himself doesn't watch them at all, it seems. Based on what's been going on in the Superman titles, it's been a few weeks since Coast City blew up. Hard to believe something like that would be out of the news cycle in that time, unless there was some sort of presidential sex scandal and/or celebrity murder case going on.

The Wonder Woman interaction is interesting because another thing Smith has said in interviews is that he wanted her and Guy to become an item, but not really, but yes really. His idea was that, for whatever reason, Guy and Wondy would have to pretend to be romantically involved as part of some mission, with the obvious hilarity resulting from DC's foremost macho knucklehead "dating" a feminist icon. But then, at some point, it'd be hinted that they'd actually started developing feelings for each other. Maybe it's for the best that this story never happened, because the resulting WW/GG fanfics might have destroyed the nascent internet.

I like this moment with Guy telling everyone they better be confident in their "manhood, womanhood or whateverhood" if they're gonna go on the mission, after overhearing The Ray trying to give him some sass. Guy Gardner says trans right???

NEXT: Gardner vs. Jordan!