Guy Gardner

Guy Gardner is a member of the Green Lantern Corps assigned to Sector 2814, aka Earth, along with three other Green Lanterns - Hal Jordan, Kyle Rayner, and John Stewart. Known for a brash, macho attitude and hotheaded temper, he has been a member of Justice League International and is a reserve member of the Justice League. He owns a theme restaurant called Warrior's in Metropolis and, unlike some of the other Green Lanterns assigned to this sector, has a publicly known identity.

The Green Lantern is a familiar name with many faces. Guy is differentiated from two of the other Green Lanterns, Hal Jordan and Kyle Raynor, by not bothering to wear a mask to disguise himself. Although human, he has found he's descended from an alien race as well called Vuldarians. For a while, he's went by the codename Warrior.

Background
Guy Gardner was born in Baltimore, Maryland 38 years ago. Rollo Gardner, Guy's father, was an alcoholic, who was quick to give Guy a good beating. The father also favoured Guy's older brother, Mace, and Guy developed a jealousy on his brother. He wanted his fathers approval, but the father never gave it to him. In his teens, he became a rootless punk, stealing cars, and stuff like that. After his eighteenth year, he was no longer a minor, and when he one night was stopped by the cops in a stolen car, he was in trouble. But instead of bringing him downtown, they brought him to a nearby football-field, where Mace, who in the meantime had become a police officer, awaited him. Mace gave Guy a good beating, then, surprisingly, told him to do something about his life, instead if causing pain to their parents, and gave him a small amount of money to use for that purpose and for starting a new life. Guy took their advice and did exactly that, graduated in teaching and psychology, and got jobs as social-worker, and later as high-school teacher in physical education.

At the time Guy was in his early twenties, an alien member of the Green Lantern Corps named Abin Sur crash landed his space vessel on Earth, and became mortally injured. Realizing he would not survive, he telepathically ordered his ring to find a worthy replacement, that did not know of fear. The ring found two equally qualified men - Hal Jordan in Coast City and Guy Gardner in Baltimore. Jordan was chosen for the reason that he was closer to the crash site of Abin Sur, and Guy was instead chosen as backup, should anything happen to Hal that would prevent him from fill his duties. Guy did his job as backup, but at one of these missions, the Power Battery malfunction and blew up, throwing Guy into the Phantom Zone, where the 'inmates' captured and tortured him. He was eventually rescued by Hal Jordan, but the effects of the stay in the Phantom Zone as well as the torture caused brain damage and Guy was rendered comatoze for some years.

The apocalyptic cosmic even, that later became known as 'The Crisis', initiated a an internal conflict between the Guardians of Oa. One of the two factions reinstated Guy as a Green Lantern, and gave him the mission to rasie an army to appose the Anti-Monitor. Guy was now back and out of coma, but the brain damage had caused his personality into a grumpy, anti-social, childish hot head, imagining he was the one TRUE GL, and that he had been betrayed by the other GL's and their faction of the Guardians. Nevertheless, he was allowed to continue his membership of the Corps, just as he joined the new incarnation of the Justice League, led by Batman, Martian Manhunter, and later Maxwell Lord, an affiliation he would retain throughout its lifespan, allthough not without numerous trials and conflicts. Even though Guy had his problems following orders and accepting the authority of the leadership, he enjoyed being part of a team, and was always loyal to his teammates in combat. Despite the fact that Guy probably didn't stand in high regard with his teammates at the time, he has developed close friendships with most of the over the years, perhaps with the exception of Batman.

After the JLI had disbanded, Hal Jordan approached Guy. Hal wanted to return to active duty, and the only thing that prevented him from it was the fact that Guy was the current Lantern of Space Sector 2814. However, Guy refused to give up the ring, as he felt he had done a good job during his watch, better than Hal ever did. The two eventually decided to settle the matter as men, and after a long, even fist ight, Hal defeated Guy, and Guy turnedpover the ring as agreed. Guy was not powerless, but hellbent on not giving up being a hero. With the help of Lobo, Guy managed to retrieve the ring of Sinestro, who was dead at the time and rested in a mausoleum on Oa, accidently launching as well as defeating a Qwardian invasion in the process. Once again, Guy was back with a ring, and this time, he didn't have the Guardians to tell him the do's and dont's. With the new ring and under his own name, Guy continued as a member of the new, short lived incarnation of Justice League, led by Superman. The League's futile stand against Doomsday almost killed Guy, as it later did Superman. He later left the League and continued as a lone hero.

But when whe Parasite of Fear Parallax possessed Hal Jordan, destroyed the GLC and threatened the Universe, Guy's ringwent dead. Guy's ring was charged by leeching off energy from Green Lantern rings, and since Hal/Parallax had destroyed the Corps, there was no longer any sources for Guy to recharge his rig from. Guy had a battle armor made by Blue Beetle, and joined the other heroes of Earth in the battle against Parallax. The armor was not very durable, and when it was destroyed in a battle against the villain Militia (in fact Guy's brother, Mace) a short while after, Guy was again left powerless. However, he still turned down a GL ring offered to him by the last surviving Guardian, Ganthet. Instead, he went on a mission to the Amazon jungle to find the fabled Warrior Waters, that was said to grant great powers to the person who drank from it. As Guy and his team of adventurers found the springs and Guy drank, it triggered dormant DNA from the alien race of the Vuldarians, that had been in Guy's family for thousands of years. This granted him incredible powers like superhuman strength, regeneration, and the ability to morph his limbs into any weapon desing he could imagine. As a beneficial side effect, his brain damage was regenerated from his biologal changes. Guy had power again, perhaps even more than he had as a Green Lantern.

Guy continued his adventures under the codename 'Warrior', but mainly part time. He opened a bar in Metropolis called 'Warriors', which soon developed into a hang-out for superheroes. Relieved of the cloud in his brain, Guy came to terms with much of his past, ad his persoanlity mellowed down some, allthough he was still hot headed and provocative. But during the battle against Imperiex, Guy seemingly got killed. In fact, Guy was trapped in a part of Hell named The Gorge. He eventually freed himself, and returned to Metropolis to run his bar, now more or less retired from heroing, except for helping with the cataclysmic threats. He had kept contact with the oLanterns through the years, and frequently held social events for them at his bar. One evening, after a baseball game with John Stewart, Guy's Vuldarian genes suddently went haywire, and the following energy ourburst was so vast, that it destroyed his bar, and took out several blocks with it. Guy's Vuldarian physiology was mysteriously being rejected, and Guy was close to dying, when he and the several other of Earth's Green Lanterns were possessed by Parallax, each of them receiving a ring split from Hal Jordan's old ring. During the battle against Parallax, Hal Jordan returned and Parallax was ultimately defeated by the combined efforts of all the Lanterns. And they all had rings and power batteries again. Once again, Guy was back as a Green Lantern, ready to protect and kick butt throughout the Universe.

Personality
Originally, Guy was a kind and generous man. He tried to doing whatever he could to help the needing, and took a job as a social case worker. After he suffered the brain damage, Guy's personality changed. For a while, he was consistently arrogant and antagonistic toward those around him. Then, for a period of time, he occasionally experienced extreme personality changes, between being a callous and pompous individual and an almost nauseating caricature of his former gentlemanly self. After the Vuldarian DNA was triggered. Guy's brain damage was healed, and to some degree, his "current personality" has traits from all of the above.

As a kid, Guy always came in second to his brother, Mace. He was also came second to Hal Jordan as the preferred choice for Earth's GL. Thus, Guy has a subconscious need for frequently attempting to prove to the world just how tough he is. This means that he tries to uphold the "macho code": never back down from a fight, never admit that anyone is better than yourself in any respect, take every opportunity to prove yourself superior to everyone and everything else, etc. This attitude often causes him to leap into action with out considering the consequences or even analyzing the situation. When he became a superhero, he chose not to have a secret identity for the same reason - he wanted people to know who he is.

His macho surface, however, is there to cover up loss. He was beaten by his dad, who eventually died. He lost his frist girlfriend, Kari Limbo, to Hal Jordan - and after he finally got his own Space Sector as a GL, he eventually lost it to Hal as well. He lost his greatest love, Ice, when she died. And when he became Vuldarian, he lost part of his humanity, as well as the entire alien race he was connected to. He needs the tough guy image to steel himself against what he has been through.

Guy is impulsive. He's not stupid, but often he just doesn't stop to think. He constantly leaps into action against even the toughest menaces without any consideration whatsoever. He also openly mocks his relatively "wimpy" teammates whenever he is being arrogant. Guy thinks he's the natural born leader, a thing his peers tends to disagree with - not that this seem to bother Guy in any way, they just don't know any better.

Guy may be a lot of things, but disloyal isn't one of them. He may disagree with teammates or superiors - heck, he's expressed his dislike for the Guardians more than once. But no matter what, he can be counted on to carry through his mission. A lot of people may have a problem with him - but the same people would prefer him to most others to watch their back or have by their side in a fight.

Politically, Guy is a die hard conservative - in terms of RL politics, he would probably be voting in the neighbourhood of Newt Gingrich. He's a patriot that bleeds stars and stripes, and he will readily kick anyones butt that speaks against the U.S. of A.

Guy is stubborn as a donkey. If he's first got an idea into his head, he does not rest until he carries it through, or die trying. There is no force on Earth that can stop him, or in most of the known universe for that matter. As willpower goes, he has it in abundance when it comes to stubborness.

In combat, his stubborness transforms into tenacity. Guy keeps on fighting until either he or his opponent is down. He will never, ever yield, unless special circumstances forces him to do so, and even then, he will just be waiting for a moment to strike again. He will never hold up a white flag, just as he probably wouldn't accept it should his opponent wave one before him.