It's a Whole New Week!

Now that we are finished with Bashing Batman, and I've already done Whacking Hal, I think that the time has finally come...for Let's Glorify Guy Week! I feel that it is time...nay, HIGH time to let people know just how fabulous my favorite crazy Lantern really is.

He set the tone really, by his very first cover.



I've said it before, and undoubtedly, I'll say it again. That's one HECK of a cover!



Here we have our hero at a very young age, proudly portraying his signature haircut, in honor of his comic book hero's sidekick, "Ernie, the Battling Boy". Frankly, I find this youthful appearance to be simply adorable. Unlike so many superheroes, Guy actually HAS a family consisting of both parents and an older brother. Unfortunately for Guy, his family is a real piece of work.

Despite the obstacles raised by a violent alcoholic father, an indifferent and whining mother, and a bully for an older brother, after a brief flirtation with juvenile delinquency, Guy does manage to pull himself together, get into college, and actually do quiet well, both as a football star, and graduating with TWO degrees.
However, he's still at loose ends.



Here is Guy at the Rose Bowl,where his alma Mater, the University of Michegan is going to play. He manages to run into a time-jumping Booster Gold, and due to Booster's meddling, misses meeting Sinestro, AND becoming Abin Sur's sucessor instead of Hal. But it's really all for the best.



His life is fairly uneventful until he meets Hal Jordan. Up until now, he's been an unassuming Grade School Gym Teacher. But he was actually Abin Sur's other choice as a sucessor, only Hal happened to be closer. Hal decides to check out his rival, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Believe it or not, they are actually friends, and Guy is quite happy to go and visit Hal, while on a bus trip with some of this kids. But, as will become the normal course of events for Guy from this point on, things Do Not Go Well.



Yeah, there is an earthquake, and while trying to rescue one of his students, Guy gets hit by a bus and falls off a cliff, only to be rescued by none other than the Green Lantern! Then while recovering from his injuries, he meets Kari Limbo, an exotic gypsy fortune-teller, and is quite smitten. I would have LOVED to have found out what Mrs. Gardner's reaction to Kari Limbo was.

And finally,



His first appearance as a Green Lantern! A very very inexperience Lantern, who's been roped in by Hal, because Hal thinks his ring is malfunctioning. Hal zooms back to Oa to check on things, leaving Green Arrow and Black Canary to babysit Guy.



Guy even manages to survive Ollie's chili, which has to be at least the equivalent in pain, as falling off of a cliff. He even manages to save Ollie from being squished by a falling wall! Too bad that when he goes to charge up his ring for the second time, it blows up!

And, at this point, Guy's life goes directly into the crapper. They all think he's dead, although he has actually been blown into the Phantom Zone, and then ends up being tortured by Sinestro as a way to get back at Hal, and presumably pass the time. In the meanwhile, Hal is hitting on his fiance, Kari Limbo, and the two of them are actually in the church about to get married, (which is more than Carol Ferris ever managed) when she swoons and has a vision that he's not actually dead. Hal flies off and rescues him, but there is one small problem.



All that torture by Sinestro put him into a coma for the next three years, which I am sure you will agree, is something of a bummer. But all of this is merely prologue, for with the first Infinite Crises, the Guardians decide to finally wake up their poor rookie Green Lantern, and use him to fight as their champion against the rest of the Guardians, and our own brain-damaged, childish, bratty, malcontent was born.

And comics haven't been the same since.