Guy Gardner
Guy Gardner is the fictional main character in a series of comic stories published by the US publisher DC-Comics since the 1960s, in particular an eponymous comic series that the publisher published from 1992 to 1996 ( Guy Gardner or Guy Gardner Warrior).
The main character of the Guy Gardner stories is a parodic variation of the superhero character type : an unruly and rowdy man who, unusually, experiences genre-typical adventures not under an alias but under his regular name (fighting criminals of all kinds, traveling through the universe, confrontations with other superheroes or supervillains etc.). The Guy Gardner series is a mixture of science fiction and action, mostly mixed with satirical and humorous elements.
Publications under the title "Guy Gardner"
The comics published under the title “Guy Gardner” are a so-called spin-off series, ie a media publication that emerged as an offshoot from another older media publication, with the new publication each having a specific element , which in the older publication was only one of many aspects that were considered in this one, makes it the main object of their considerations (e.g. the television series Frasier and Joey represent spin-offs of the older series Cheers and Friends by each The experiences of a certain individual character, who was a minor character in an older series or one of several main characters of equal rank, continue to tell in a new series in which the previous minor character is the main character in the focus of the new series or in which one of several main characters to become the sole main character).
In the case of the "Guy Gardner" comics, the "mother line" from which they emerged is the science fiction comics about the superhero Green Lantern , a space policeman , published by DC Comics since the early 1960s who can use a magical ring to create green hard light constructs with which he fights all kinds of threats on earth and in all sorts of other places.
The character Guy Gardner appeared occasionally since the late 1960s, and since the mid-1980s regularly, as a supporting character in the comic series Green Lantern and Tales of the Green Lantern Corps . At times, Guy Gardner was even the co-star and the second main character in the Green Lantern comics. The considerable popularity that Guy Gardner finally enjoyed in the late 1980s and early 1990s with readers of the "Green Lantern" comics, finally led the DC-Verlag to make the decision in 1991 to dedicate a series of its own to the character . That means: Instead of appearing as a minor character in the Green Lantern Comics, Guy Gardner should now be the focus of his own series, according to the will of the publishing house management, which should revolve specifically around his adventures.
In the spring of 1992, DC published the miniseries Guy Gardner: Reborn as a test run to see if a Guy Gardner series would find satisfactory sales . This was laid out in three issues with 48 pages each in prestige format. After Guy Gardner: Reborn found good sales, the publisher started an independent series briefly called Guy Gardner in October 1992 . This series was then published for almost four years, until July 1996, on a monthly basis and reached a total of 44 issues. In addition, there are three special editions: The so-called "zero number" ( Guy Gardner # 0, 1994) and two so-called annual books with twice the size ( Guy Gardner Annual 1993 and Guy Gardner Annual 1995 ). Issues # 17 to # 44 had the modified cover title Guy Gardner: Warrior . The series was discontinued due to weak sales figures recently.
Author of the miniseries Guy Gardner Reborn and the first eight issues of the ongoing Guy Gardner series was Gerard Jones . The series was then overseen by longtime Batman writer Chuck Dixon (# 9-21) for a year and most recently by Beau Smith (issues # 22-44 and # 0) for two years. A fill-in edition was also written by Phil Jimenez (edition # 35).
The visual design of the comics in the ongoing "Guy Gardner" series was taken care of by changing artists: Most of the booklets were written by Joe Staton (issues # 1-14 and part of issue # 44 of the ongoing series), Mitch Byrd (issues # 17- 25 and # 27-31) and Mark Campos (# 33-34 and # 36-39, # 41-42 and # 44). As guest draftsmen, individual issues from the draftsmen Chris Hunter (# 15), Mark Teney (# 16), JH Williams III (# 26) Joyce Chin (# 32 and 35), Aaron Lopresti (# 40) and Brad Gorby (# 43) worried.
The figure
The original version of the character Guy Gardner was conceived by the American writer science fiction writer John Broome in the late 1960s : Broome had decided to add a new supporting character to the comic series Green Lantern , which he had been the lead author for several years. to introduce, which, for a change, shouldn't be a villain who should fight the hero of the series, the test pilot Hal Jordan, who as a space cop Green Lantern has typical superhero adventures, but who should fight against Jordan for the claim as a rival to play the role of the Green Lantern of the planet Earth should compete.
Hal Jordan was a sci-fi superhero typical of the 1960s, who camouflaged with a face mask and in a green costume experienced adventures on earth and in space parallel to his life as a test pilot under the code name Green Lantern, whereby he was used as a weapon resorted to a "magical" alien ring given to him by a dying alien named Abin Sur, which enables him to create constructs of hard green light, such as weapons (giant boxing gloves, laser cannons, mousetraps etc.) or Vehicles (cars, spaceships, etc.). In issue # 59 of Green Lantern Comics (March 1968), Broome revealed that Abin Sur had contemplated a man named Guy Gardner as a candidate alongside Hal Jordan, to whom he would hand over his wonder ring, who would henceforth be the new character in the Green Lantern Comics appeared, trying hard to prove that he was a more capable Green Lantern than Jordan and therefore deserved to receive his ring and as a representative of the intergalactic Green Lantern Corps - a kind of space police made up of others Bearers of the mighty green rings, with each ring bearer responsible for protecting a "space sector" - to function on planet earth.
The appearance of the new character Guy Gardner was developed by the draftsman Gil Kane , the then regular draftsman of the Green Lantern Comics. Guy Gardner's appearance was based on the appearance of television actor Martin Milner . The name Guy Gardner was based on the name of the comic author Gardner Fox, who was friends with Broome, and that of the prominent "fan" Guy H. Lillian III.
Until the 1970s, Guy Gardner was a fairly common character in the Green Lantern comics. After the figure was largely forgotten, it was given a general overhaul in the 1980s by the author Steve Engelhart , who, together with the draftsman Joe Staton, gave it a greatly changed appearance and a distinctive new personality: while the original version of the figure was still one Had been a typical, conformist and edgeless superhero, the “new” Gardner created by Engelhart and Giordano was an outspoken “jerk” that was deliberately offensive and combined all sorts of unsympathetic character traits: So he became a downright bully, chauvinist and over-the-top -Macho and Jingoist are portrayed so that, measured against the norms of American superhero comics, he appears more as an antihero than a superhero: In most of the comics of the 1980s and 1990s in which Gardner appears, for example, a decidedly proletarian behavior, bad manners, Showy behavior, tendency to excessive alcohol consumption, an outward one returned to obtrusive libido , rawness in dealing with other people (or aliens), pleasure in exercising physical violence and misbehaving, but ultimately it shines through that despite these attractive external deficits and traits he is basically a “good guy “Is who wants to do good. Outwardly, Staton Gardner gave a "pisspot" hairstyle as a characteristic trademark, which has been the character's trademark ever since.
Even though they completely turned Gardner upside down as a character, Engelhardt and Staton later complained, they did not receive any royalties for using the version of the character they had created, since DC-Verlag took the position that they had not originally created Gardner, but this is a figure that has existed since 1968. Engelhardt objected that if he and Staton, instead of giving their de facto new creation the existing name Guy Gardner, simply gave them a new name, they would receive royalties for their creative work up to the present day due to the use of their ideas .
Developed by Engelhardt and Staton version of "Guy Gardner" figure was from the late 1980s until the mid-1990s, except in the various Green Lantern comic books, mainly in the Team series Justice League International - to the Guy Gardner belongs to a whole ensemble of superheroes who work together as the "Justice League" to fight particularly dangerous threats - and from 1992 onwards developed it further in his own series Guy Gardner . Keith Giffen , the author of the Justice League comics for many years, and the Green Lantern and Guy Gardner authors Gerald Jones were in charge of this .
In the 2000s, the author Geoff Johns Gardner, after going through all sorts of (mostly short) changes, returned to his roots.
Fictional biography
In the first stories of the Green Lantern series, in which Gardner appears, he appears as a friendly and personable younger man who befriended the main character of the Green Lantern comics, Hal Jordan, after learning that Gardner was affected by a kind of subconscious owning Green Lantern ring, which the alien Abin Sur gave him as his replacement as the Green Lantern of the earth (and the space sector in which it is located) in case he (Jordan) should fail . In this way, he appeared again and again in the 1970s as a supporting character in the Green Lantern Comics, who helped Hal Jordan on his adventures.
In the Green Lantern comics of the 1980s, Gardner was subjected to a comprehensive re-characterization: Instead of being a nice sun boy, he appears here as an uncomfortable contemporary who is in constant rivalry with Hal Jordan and makes life difficult for him at every opportunity. For almost ten years Gardner tried incessantly to outdo Hal Jordan in the Green Lantern stories from the early 1980s to early 1990s and to prove that he is a much better and more effective Green Lantern than this.
In the 1990s, Gardner was given a matching personal background story that explains his idiosyncratic and awkward personality: This is how you learn that he was beaten and emotionally abused in his childhood by his father, Roland Gardner, an alcoholic. In contrast, his older brother, Mace, is adored and spoiled by his father, which arouses strong feelings of inferiority and rejection in him. As a teenager, Gardner developed into a rebel and marauder who revolted against authority and came into conflict with the police over minor offenses. In the restarted DC universe of the 2000s, Gardner's father is renamed Ebenezer Gardner and portrayed as a crippled ex-cop and alcoholic who abused his son out of helplessness.
In issue # 1 of the Justice League International series, which began in 1987 , Guy Gardner becomes a member of the traditional DC superhero team Justice League for the first time (which the DC-Verlag then had a completely new line-up after the original Justice, which ran from 1960 to 1986, was discontinued League series, restarted). Then Gardner experienced - in addition to his appearances in the series Green Lantern (1988 to 1992) and Guy Gardner (1992 to 1996) - in the pages of the Justice League comics, which appeared in the years 1987 to 1996, all sorts of things for almost nine years Adventure as a member of the then incarnation of the "Justice League". Other superhero characters who were on this team at the same time as Gardner for most of these years were Blue Beetle , Booster Gold , Fire , Ice and the Martian Manhunter . Although the always offensive and misbehaving Gardner is the black sheep of the league - and is often fooled by his teammates due to his tendency to act like an "ass" - over time he develops into one of his colleagues (secretly) valued and liked comrades. With the superhero Ice, who has the ability to generate and fire rays of ice in her body, Gardner finally begins a love relationship that has been broken off and restarted again and again.
In the comic book Green Lantern (Vol. 2) # 25 Guy Gardner and Hal Jordan finally fight a duel in which they try "once and for all" to clarify who should be the only Green Lantern on earth in the future: After Gardner is defeated he hands in his Green Lantern ring. In order to fulfill his wish to continue to be a superhero, he instead travels in the 1992 miniseries Guy Gardner: Reborn with the help of the intergalactic bounty hunter Lobo into the anti-matter universe Quarc, where he steals the yellow power ring of the dead super villain Sinestro and from then on no longer as Green Lantern, but simply to operate under his name as Guy Gardner as a superhero: The yellow ring has essentially the same capabilities as his earlier green ring, the only difference being that Gardner is the only person wearing a yellow ring. Instead of a costume, Gardner simply wears a black leather jacket with his initials, a pair of jeans and a wide belt in his subsequent adventures.
After he has become a superhero again by acquiring the yellow ring, he continues to endure various other adventures as a member of the Justice League until the end of this series in 1996, the most famous of which is the "Death of Superman" storyline from 1992/1993: In this story, an extraterrestrial creature named Doomsday, who seems to have come out of nowhere, embarks on a campaign of destruction in the area of the American east coast - aggressive, irrepressibly strong and almost unstoppable. Guy Gardner and the other members of the Justice League try to stop Doomsday, where they suffer a crushing defeat against the dumb but overpowering angry monster. Gardner is beaten to hospital ripe by Doomsday. Only the superhero Superman finally succeeds in stopping Doomsday, whereby both - Doomsday and Superman - kill each other at the end of their duel. In the subsequent The Reign of the Supermen storyline, in which four men pretend to be Superman who has risen from the dead, Gardner engages in a duel with the "Last Son of Krypton", one of the four new Supermen, who is ultimately impressed of his “hands-on” way of ensuring justice - to befriend him and to declare him the “real” Superman. However, this Superman ultimately turns out to be a living alien weapon called the Eradicator, which after Superman's death took the place of the dead Superman to continue the culture of Superman's destroyed home planet Krypton and to represent Superman while he (the Eradicator) apparently did dead superhero resurrected in a birth matrix in Superman's Fortress of Solitude.
In the 1990s Guy Gardner series, Gardner faced villains like the hyper-intelligent ape Gorilla Grodd , the muscular and strong fiend Sledge , the psychopath Major Force, and the Alien Evil Star . His main adversary was a terrorist named Militia , who was eventually revealed to be his own brother. In the first editions of the series, Gardner used the yellow power ring from Sinestro as his powerful weapon that made him a superhero. After the ring loses its power, Gardner suddenly finds himself there as a normal person, a circumstance that he compensates for by purchasing high-tech combat armor before finally traveling to an Amazon tribe that lives deep in the South American jungle , discovered biological superpowers that he carries within himself: In # 20 of the Guy Gardner series it turns out that Gardner carries latent genes of an extraterrestrial race called the Vuldarians, which he - after being through an exotic jungle water from the " Warrior “source - giving the ability to transform his body into a weapon almost at will by allowing weapons to grow out of his body or parts of his body (mostly the arms) into weapons such as battle axes or blades can transform. Furthermore, he can absorb energy and release it through weapons that he generates from his body (for example laser pistol-like body shapes) or fire it at his opponents. In addition, since the activation of his vuldarian genes, Gardner has had strong self-healing powers that enable him to quickly cure even the most severe injuries and undo physical damage. A concomitant phenomenon is that from now on the enthusiastic Gardner can no longer get drunk because his body generates itself too quickly to be able to let him get into a state of intoxication. Gardner then takes off his previous leather jacket costume and goes for the code name "Warrior", where he covers his upper body and face with tattoos.
The author Beau Smith, who wrote the stories in which Gardner discovered his body transformation abilities, later reported that the DC-Verlag gave him an editorial mandate to give Gardner these new superpowers. The background was that DC hoped in this way from the popularity of the TV series The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers at the time , the adventures of a group of transforming themselves several times in each episode (first into costumed heroes, then into a combat robot, which by joining several vehicles) told young superheroes to benefit from by adding their own body “morphing” (parts of the same) hero to the repertoire of their own superheroes. In later issues of the Guy Gardner series, Gardner opens a bar called “Warrior”, which he raises as a theme restaurant (similar to the hard rock cafe or Planet Hollywood in real life) by dedicating it to the superhero theme: This is how it is the bar is dedicated to pictures and other decorative objects that revolve around superheroes, their deeds and adventures or their identifying marks. In particular, there are numerous showcases in the restaurant's dining room that are filled with superhero “relics” such as the original costumes or the weapons of various heroes of the DC universe. The Warrior's has since been Gardner's source of income and headquarters between his adventures.
After retiring his own series in 1996, Guy Gardner made sporadic guest appearances for a number of years on the Green Lantern series around the 1990s Green Lantern Kyle Rayner.
In the 2005 Green Lantern Rebirth miniseries, Guy Gardner becomes a Green Lantern again after more than ten years, again wearing his old costume from the 1980s and early 1990s (with oversized green boots and a green vest). As in the old days with a Green Lantern power ring, he again belongs to the Green Lantern Corps in the Green Lantern comics of the following years, with whom he fights against galactic threats in the universe or solves problems on remote planets. His adventures were mainly in the series Green Lantern. Emerald Warriors told.
In the crossover xy Gardner finally leaves the Green Lantern Corps again and instead becomes the leader of the "Red Lantern" Corps of a group of bearers of red power rings that work similarly to the Green Lantern reinge, but not through willpower, but through the anger of the bearers are driven.
opponent
Recurring opponents of Guy Gardner include a.
- Atrocitus : A monstrous alien who founded the so-called Red Lantern Corps , an intergalactic group of bearers of red power rings who are fed by the anger of their bearers. Gardner eventually steals his ring from Atrocitus and becomes the leader of the Red Lantern Corps himself.
- Black Serpent : Black Serpent, aka Anthony Serpente, is a modern day pirate with whom Gardner has multiple clashes.
- Bolphunga the Unrelenting : A bounty hunter set on Gardner.
- Dementor : Dementor is the product of a failed attempt to cross vuldarian and human DNA. In the "Guy Gardner" series of the 1990s, he is at times Gardner's archenemy.
- Enforcer : Enforcer is a clone of Guy Gardner who appears in civilian life as Joe Gardner. A demon named Neron gives him a glove in exchange for his soul. that gives him superpowers.
- General Zod A criminal from the planet Krypton, the home planet of Superman, whom Gardner collides with in the Phantom Zone.
- Major Force : Major Force is the product of an experiment in which an officer was specifically exposed to nuclear radiation to give him superpowers. The experiment succeeded and gave the man super strength, superhuman endurance, extensive invulnerability and the ability to fire bursts of nuclear energy. However, the test person turned out to be a sociopath and, instead of serving the government, pursued a criminal career. In the crossover storyline "Capital Punishment" there is an extended fight between the indiscriminately murdering Major Force and Gardner.
- Martika :
- Militia and Honey : Militia and Honey are the code names of two mercenaries behind whom Gardner's brother Mace Gardner and his girlfriend are hiding. They are cyborgs created by the Quorum organization.
- Mudakka : An evil shaman that Gardner has to deal with.
- The Quorum : The Quorum is a secret organization within the US government that does questionable business. In the Guy Gardner series, Gardner repeatedly comes into conflict with agents of the quorium such as Major Force, Militia and Sledge. In the last few issues of the series, the quorum tries to create an army of meta-humans that it gives the name Blood Pack.
- Ranx the Living City : (Ranx the Sentient City) Ranx is a living city on the planet Mogo, with which Gardner gets into an argument during a visit to the planet, incurring the eternal hatred of the city.
- Sledge : A super strong and largely invulnerable giant man who was given his powers by an organization called Quorum. Later Sledge receives increased physical strength from the demon Neron in exchange for his soul.
- The Tormocks : Di Tomrocks are an alien race that has long been at war with the Vuldarians.
Adaptations
The character Guy Gardner has been adapted from comics in a large number of other media since the 1990s: in particular, it has been used in a number of cartoon series. In addition, there are adaptations of the figure in a television film from 1997 and in various other products, such as computer and console games, as well as in several series of action figures.
In the 2000s, Guy Gardner was created by the creators of the animated series Batman: The Brave and the Bold , a visually and atmospheric series in the style of the DC comics of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, in which the superhero Batman as the main character adventure with a Ensemble of changing “guest stars” from the DC universe experienced, used as a recurring figure. In several episodes of this series, Guy Gardner can be seen as a Green Lantern who fights against various threats (mostly of a cosmic kind) together with Batman. The version of Guy Gardner that appears in The Brave and the Bold is based in its appearance and personality closely on the "jerk" version of Guy Gardner as Green Lantern from the 1980s and early 1990s. In the original English version of the series, Gardner is dubbed by actor James Arnold Taylor .
Another animated series in which Guy Gardner appears in a large number of episodes is Green Lantern. The Animated Series . In the original English version of this series, the voice actor Dietrich Bader lends his voice.
Guy Gardner has only found a physical embodiment by a real actor once: in the low-budget film Justice League from 1997 - which was originally conceived as a pilot episode for a Justice League television series planned but not realized at the time Guy Gardner as part of a Justice League team that is based on the version of Justice League developed by Keith Giffen from the late 1980s and early 1990s. The role of Guy Gardner was taken over by actor Matthew Settle .
In the context of interactive computer and console games, Guy Gardner has been adapted as a playable figure in the games Batman: The Brave and the Bold - the Videogame and Lego Batman: Beyond Gotham . In the game DC Universe Online , on the other hand, he appears as a computer-controlled opponent instead of a player not controllable.
As part of toy adaptations of the DC superheroes, various action figures have been produced by Guy Gardner over the years: such a figure as part of the "DC Universe Infinite Heroes" series by Mattel and a figure as part of the "Retro Action" series, also produced by Mattel Super Heroes ”. In addition, a “Guy Gardner” figure was sold exclusively by the Walmart department store chain as part of the “DC Universe Classics” series.
literature
- Matthew K. Manning: The DC Comics Encylclopedia. The Definitive Guide to the Characters of the DC Universe , 2016.
- 1000 Facts about Superheroes Vol. 1, p. 137 f. [1]
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ GCD :: Series :: Guy Gardner Reborn. In: Grand Comics Database. Retrieved October 29, 2019 .
- ^ GCD :: Series :: Guy Gardner. In: Grand Comics Database. Retrieved October 29, 2019 .
- ^ GCD :: Series :: Guy Gardner: Warrior Annual. In: Grand Comics Database. Retrieved October 29, 2019 .
- ^ GCD :: Series :: Guy Gardner: Warrior. In: Grand Comics Database. Retrieved October 29, 2019 .