One Punch!

Ahhhhh...just savor that brief phrase. A sublime moment in the world of comics, when a fed-up to the eyeballs Batman finally lets Guy Gardner have it.

But in order to understand the true impact of that moment, we must go back in time a little bit. The Justice League has reformed with a whole passel of new members. From the very first moment, Guy was throwing his weight around and being generally obnoxious. The reformation of the Justice League was led into by Legends, and before that, Guy had been hanging around with the Green Lanterns. He's really at the sublime height of his ability to annoy and harrass.

Batman isn't too much more likeable however. HE'S been throwing his weight around just as much as Guy, but unlike our Mr. Gardner, he's able to back it up, due to the respect and slight wariness that the rest of the heroes give him. So, as could be expected, Batman and Guy clash right from the very start.

Guy thinks that he should be in charge and argues with every bit of strategy, and questions every order. Batman KNOWS that he should be in charge and generally treats Guy like a crazed two-year old. The REST of the League is getting a little bit fed up with BOTH of them.

In the meantime, they've mounted a rescue at the U.N., acquired Max Lord and Booster Gold and Dr. Light, and gone to Russia to fight with the Rocket Reds and disable a nuclear threat. It isn't until Dr. Fate and the Grey Man are going toe-to-toe however that Guy finally challenges Batman.

Guy wants some respect and power and he wants it now. Batman gives him neither of course, and manages to diss poor Captain Marvel at the same time. Guy throws a temper tantrum, and pulls off his ring, giving it to Beetle, who immediately tosses it in the corner.



Marvel steps in and tries to calm them both down, but Bats tells him to butt out and shut up essentially. Guy is just beside himself and takes a swing at Batman. Which leads to this.



One punch, and Guy is flat on his back, unconcious on the floor. Mr. Miracle is marveling at Batman's efficiency, and Blue Beetle is about to give himself a hernia from laughing. Martian Manhunter and Black Canary walk in just at that moment and stare in disbelief at Guy's prone body. Canary then goes into hysterics because she wanted to see Batman punch Guy, and MISSED IT! Even J'onn is trying not to snicker.

Eventually things do manage to calm down, and they all have a meeting and discuss the problem that Dr. Fate has discovered. In the meantime, Guy continues to just lie there on the floor...you can see his feet in the far corner of the picture. In fact, he continues to lie there for the rest of the issue, and part of the next one!

Eventually he does come to, and immediately concludes that yes, he's not in Kansas anymore. He's also a bit shocked and surprised that Batman actually did hit him, and naturally concludes that it was a sucker-punch. Then he starts to look for his ring.



He grabs the mouse that Beetle and Booster were looking for by mistake, and clonks his head. Really, he's just carrying on a fine and old tradition established by Hal Jordan in this particular case. However, the ramifications for Guy are a bit different. Instead of a mere headache, he wakes up with a completely different personality, going from his "angry 10-year old boy" to "sweet 8-year old girl" mode. But I'll leave that for another day.

Kalinara has pointed out before that this wasn't really particularly nice on the part of Batman, since Guy was essentially in his brain-damaged mode, and he really couldn't help himself. They played that up quite a bit more in the Green Lantern books, not so much in the Justice League, where Giffen and DeMatteis were more interested in Guy as comedy relief. It must also be pointed out that the only advantage that Guy had was his ring, at this point in his career he wasn't much of a hand-to-hand fighter. So going up against Batman was just ASKING for his head to be handed to him on a gold platter. Nevertheless, in true Gardner fashion, he didn't hesitate.

That's my boy.