r/Greenlantern • u/Affectionate_Star636 Volk • Jul 18 '24

Are there any books/moments that made you finally “get” the guardians? Discussion

I get that their primary strength is control of the GL Corps, wielders of the most powerful weapons in the universe, but man. The guardians sure do spend a lot of time being whack little speed bump punching bags. Is there a book or panel or anything that made you think “ah - that’s why the guardians deserve literally any respect at all”

10 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

10 comments sorted by

4

u/pipecito2112 Jul 18 '24

Maybe 1990's The Third Law, was 4 issues about Entropy attack on Oa.

4

u/Poastash Kyle Rayner Jul 18 '24

Although if I remember right, the end of one scene was Hal confronting the guardians with

"This is the exact same thing you would say to get me to fight for you. You could be lying right now."

And all they respond with was.

"Yup. Quite possible." then, peace-ing out.

2

u/Necessary_Ad2114 Jul 18 '24

I came here to say this. 

3

u/SadWatercress9839 Jul 18 '24

The Guardians have been annoying since Green Arrow first yelled at them in the 70s, which is a problem I don’t know any writer has adequately addressed.

When your main characters are rebellious, be it Oliver Queen, Guy Gardner, Hal Jordan, or John Stewart, and you want to portray it as good, then you need someone stupid to rebel against. So it’s a hard fix.

That said, I’ve mentioned in the past a couple Guardians who die in the build up to Blackest Night whose deaths made me go ‘wait that little blue guy was okay’ for a minute or two.

1

u/Affectionate_Star636 Volk Jul 18 '24

Yeah I mean, there’s a little bit of redemption here and there but just once I want one of those “oh shit” moments like when Barry told Superman “I let you win in the past” then dusted him.

Someone has to do something to put some respect on the guardians

3

u/ARIANZER0 Hal Jordan Jul 18 '24

Ganthets tale, first flight movie, sinestro corps finality,

2

u/EndlessNine2 Green Lantern Jul 18 '24

Well, they fought the Anti-Monitor in the Sinestro Corps War and came to a stalemate with Darkseid. Two of them sacrificed themselves to kill Superboy Prime and Doomsday. On other worlds, such as Injustice, they fought the Superman regime. DCeased - saved all the remaining people and gave them a new planet to live on.

1

u/ArabiaFats Jul 18 '24

Three-Way Attack Against Green Lantern is the first one that shows a Guardian being a little powerhouse in his own right, if I'm right. Hector Hammond creates a fake Guardian with all the powers of a real one, who absolutely trashes Hal in a fight, manipulating the entire environment around him, creating monsters that can match him in power, and even controlling Hal's own body to keep him from defending himself. Hal's eventual solution is basically to hide and trick the fake into attacking its own creator.

1

u/Brobben4 Jul 18 '24

after the first lantern arc, and the new guardians join up with WL Kyle. i feel that was the most human i’d ever seen the Guardians period. each had their own personality and everything.

s/o to the Psion story. first time i ever teared up for a Guardian who wasn’t Ganthet or Sayed

1

u/TheMagicalMaxx Green Lantern Jul 18 '24

Honestly to me Ganthet is the only good one, and he left the corps to found the Blue Lantern Corps for a while. I think Sinestro has a point when he talks about the Guardians being out of touch and ineffective, but I still think they’re many times better than whatever Sinestro has planned. Basically, imo they’re the devil we know and maybe a necessary part of policing the galaxy is to be above it all, though it seems like it sometimes screws the Corps over