#least dickish guardian is still pretty dickish btw

[greenlantern94to04]

Green Lantern #49 (February 1994)

"EMERALD TWILIGHT," Part 2! Hal Jordan has gone so far off the deep end that he's started imitating one of history's most infamous monsters: Ringo Starr. After the events of last issue, a pissed-off Hal is speeding towards planet Oa to give his bosses, the Guardians of the Universe, a piece of (what's left of) his mind. The Guardians try to stop Hal by deploying formidable Green Lanterns like, uh, this red guy and that purple girl.

Hal brutally whoops their asses and steals their GL rings to become more powerful; if he manages to nab 3597 more rings, he can become a One Man Green Lantern Corps. Hal's dangerous bling addiction even leads him to fight Lanterns he personally recruited into the Corps, like Tomar-Tu (the guy with the bird face who doesn't sound like Geoffrey Rush) and Boodikka, a fierce warrior who refuses to let go of her ring... so Hal just chops her hand off. I like to imagine a Green Lantern from some sort of phallus-shaped alien race turning around at this point and going home.

Meanwhile, in Oa, the Guardians seem pretty confident that one of their "servants" will stop Hal, but their arrogance starts evaporating with every ring he steals. Ganthet, paradoxically the least dickish of the Guardians despite being the only one wearing a ponytail, has some sort of secret plan for how they could "preserve themselves" if all else fails. At first, the others just mock him (for his plan, not the ponytail), but as Hal gets closer, they get nervous and start preparing for Ganthet's plan, whatever it is.

Hal finally reaches Oa and faces one of his best friends, Kilowog, the most distinguished trainer of the Green Lantern Corps and the Justice League's one-time handyman. Hal reminds his former mentor that he's got like ten rings by now, but Kilowog defiantly says, "Didn't I teach ya nothing? It's the warrior, not his weapons."

As it turns out, nope, it's the weapons, because Hal defeats Kilowog too within one page. With no one else around to stop him, Hal heads for the Central Power Battery -- literally, a giant battery that powers every GL ring in the universe, and now Hal wants that power to himself (I guess stealing it from here is easier than figuring out how to wear 3600 rings on his fingers). However, the Guardians still have an ace up their oversized sleeves. A hooded figure walks out of the battery, and the final page reveals that it's the other "greatest Green Lantern ever" who went rogue: Sinestro! A villain so heinous that the Guardians executed him for "crimes against the universe," causing his soul to get trapped inside the Central Battery.

Yes, the Guardians are so desperate that they're willing to give a GL ring to a guy whose name means "evil" and who has tried to kill them multiple times in the past. Interesting tactic. Will it pay off?!

NEXT ISSUE: It doesn't pay off.

Plotline-Watch:

When Sinestro is revealed at the end, we also find out that he'd been narrating the issue, which gives a double reading to lines like: "Were he not blinded by his obsession, would these acts wreak havoc on his conscience? I rather like to think so." That almost sounds like Sinestro's version of the Joker's "Far too late" moment from The Killing Joke.

The fight with Kilowog could be seen as another callback to Emerald Dawn, Hal's origin story, since that contained a montage of 'Wog training Hal when he was a rookie... by making him balance rocks and catch eggs in the air and stuff. Would have been funny if Hal and Kilowog's dramatic face-off in this issue had consisted of an egg-catching contest. To the death.

Ganthet the Least Dickish Guardian first appeared in 1992's Green Lantern: Ganthet's Tale graphic novel by Larry Niven and John Byrne, which establishes that 1) he once drove himself insane by looking at the beginning of the universe, and 2), perhaps related to the above, he has a fondness for human fashion. Ganthet had appeared in exactly two issues of the regular series before this one, but he'll appear a lot more often and have plenty more chances to show off his fashion sense after this.

Also in Ganthet's Tale, Hal learns the "forbidden knowledge" that the end and the beginning of the universe are linked together, which the other Guardians would have erased from his mind if Ganthet hadn't protected him. Not only will this little bit of trivia come in pretty handy for Hal as he starts toying with cosmic forces in the near future, but also, looking at the final panels in the graphic novel, Hal's comments about being disappointed in the Guardians' lies almost feel like a teaser for Emerald Twilight (which, again, was definitely not being planned in '92).

Question for the Hal Jordan veterans in the comments (hi, Neil): was the idea that wearing more GL rings makes you more powerful already a thing before this issue? Seems like something a villain would have exploited by now. Or did Hal change how the rings work through sheer force of will?

Guy-Watch:

Meanwhile, in Guy Gardner's corner of the GL universe: the Guy Gardner series officially becomes Guy Gardner: Warrior with #17, which sees the debut of Guy's new moniker and his shorter, non-Moe hairdo. Plus, artist Mitch Byrd!

In this issue, Guy finally works up the nerve to go back home and tell his abusive dad what he thought of him, only to find out that he died shortly after his brother Mace committed suicide. Both were assholes, but that's still pretty rough. Then, he's attacked by Militia, the armored loon we met last issue. The fight ends when Guy's yellow power ring (which, incidentally, used to belong to Sinestro) suddenly stops working, but luckily, Militia's armor happens to malfunction at the same time and he's ran over by a truck.

Huh, curious that Militia has ginger hair too. Probably a coincidence. To be continued!