Guy Gardner...Reborn!

Now this is something that I haven't done in quite a while. But rooting around in one of my boxes, I unearthed a charming little treasure, the three-part Guy Gardner:Reborn mini-series, by Gerard Jones and Joe Staton.

This takes place between Hal's brutal beatdown of Guy in Green Lantern #25, and before Guy's own book, and if you have never read it, then by all means, go out and find it, because it is a hoot. A hoot and a HALF! Plus Joe Staton has a rather cartoony way of drawing, which suits this quite nicely. You DO have to put up with some really really awful costume choices, but that's just part of its charm.

So, enough preamble, onto Book One.

We open with a little bit of soliloquizing by Guy, about having the ring, and how he was on top of the world, and life was pretty good. Then we find him fighting Black Hand in some dive in Times Square. He's still wearing his Green Lantern uniform, and it all looks like a regular Green Lantern book. Guy's doing a pretty bang-up job of trashing the place and Black Hand's goons, until they finally realize that he doesn't have his ring. Guy and Black Hand are busy trading quips when Guy ends up being bashed over the head, and then tossed out into the gutter...literally. Fortunately, he is found by a young lady, a working girl with the requisite heart of gold.

She hauls him up, and he pours out his tale of woe, how Hal tricked him into giving him his ring, how Max insulted him by saying he could go on monitor duty, how he accidentally knocked Ice down a flight of stairs because he was so angry he didn't even notice her, and how General Glory offers him a sidekick job. Poor Guy. At this point, he's so desperate that he even considers going to the Guardians, but he figures that they hung him out to dry before, and he's not quite reduced to begging...yet. He does get the bright idea of going to find the NEW Guardians, who are the bunch that apparently came about as a result of the Millenium cross-over. I haven't read that, but somehow Tom "Pieface" Kalmaku and some other people have these eerie powers. Guy shows up, bloviates, and gets put in his place rather handily.

Guy's new friend is at least sympathetic, and it isn't as though Guy has anybody ELSE to talk to. She even suggests that he get some guns. To Guy's credit, he makes it quite clear that he isn't the gun type. Then they get tossed out of the burger joint by the cops since Guy is making a scene.

At this point, Guy has a change of heart. He finally, comes to the realization that he's not a Green Lantern anymore, and sadly takes off his uniform. He also gets a whole LOT of guns. And the most ridiculous outfit ever, with a sleeveless black belly shirt, black pants and brown boots, not to mention fifteen holsters, bandoliers and strappy thingies. He DOES go back and blow up Black Hand's sleezy dive quite nicely however.

He also decides that he's going to go after Goldface. One of the things that Hal threw in his face during their fight, was that he let Goldface get away. Having something of a once track mind, Guy decides that he's going to take care of Goldface, and even goes to see Kari Limbo for a little help. So Guy ends up heading west, with an arsenal and a mission.

Lo and behold, he does find Goldface, and at first, he's doing pretty well, then they realize that he's ringless, and although he has a LOT of guns, he really doesn't know all that much ABOUT guns, so he runs out, and then they start jamming, and he's in biiiig trouble. He does manage to hightail it out of there in one piece, but that's just about all that he accomplishes. His jeep is wrecked and he manages to bum a ride with a trucker.

Guy has just about hit rock bottom at this point. He's had all of his powers taken away, not to mention his job and his self-respect. General Glory is no help, and even Ice, although she is sympathetic really doesn't understand. Guy's doing a bit of daydreaming, when it occurs to him that Sinestro had a ring, and he's dead, and...and there's a ring out there, just for the taking! He wakes up and starts babbling about Qward to the startled truckdriver, who thinks that he's nuts, and dumps him back onto the road, in the middle of nowhere.

So Guy has a plan...of sorts, but he's still without transport or help. Then, from out of the midnight sky, who should show up buy G'nort! At first Guy is horrified, and then...you can almost see the wheels turning in his head...it occurs to him that, idiot though he may be, G'nort is the one person in the Universe who will do anything for him. He manages to con G'nort into conjuring up a spaceship for him. It looks like a giant glowing green fire hydrant, but what the heck. He even scratches G'nort behind the ears! You just KNOW that G'nort's leg is thumping, and he's in utter bliss.

So off Guy goes, in his cool new space ship. But then he starts to thinking, that just showing up on Qward or on the Poglachi planet (see a Guy and his G'nort) might not be the smartest thing for him to do. Exactly why he thinks that Lobo can help him, is strange, but keep in mind that this IS Guy Gardner after all, and his thought process is strange. Strange and wonderful. So he crashes on Lobo's planet, unfortunately trashing his pad at the same time, and cheerfully starts calling out Lobo's name. Lobo IS there. Unfortunately for Guy, he is also peeved...!

The artwork is fun, and Joe Staton does some really great expressions. Black Hand is still a rather pathetic character at this point, certainly not the Black Hand that Geoff Johns has created, he's running shady movie houses, and brothels in Times Square, and running around spouting aphorisms, which is quite amusing. I love Guy in this. He may have lost his powers, but he still thinks of himself as a hero, and the lengths that he's willing to go to, to prove that is darned impressive. Insane, but impressive.

Part II, tomorrow.