The Classics - Guy Gardner: Warrior #40

So I decided to review an issue of one my of my favorite comics from the 1990s, Guy Gardner: Warrior - but I wasn't sure which one to choose.

So I took the easy way out and emailed writer Beau Smith (who has fired a comment or two in our direction) to ask which issue he'd recommend. He pointed at this one with a cover date of March 1996 as one of his favorites.

Beau took over as writer of the Guy Gardner comic at a tough time in the character's checkered history.

Of course, Gardner is a character who's really been put through the mill. He started out as an understudy - the answer to the question, "What if Hal Jordan had not been able to be Green Lantern?"

In the years since, he's been critically injured, restored and made a Green Lantern, became a running gag in Justice League International, and finally became a hero again - just in time for Hal Jordan to go crazy, become Parallax and destroy the Green Lantern Corps.

So when Beau took over this comic, he had a hero who was de-powered and, by editorial decree, could not be connected to the Green Lantern Corps (things are quite different today, of course).

Beau solved the problem by granting Guy alien powers that made him a powerhouse and visually unique. It was a clever solution to being painted into a difficult corner.

Which brings us to this issue, wherein Guy faces the one opponent he's helpless against - his own mother!

No, she's not here as a villain - she's just paying a visit to the son who managed to destroy her home. Of course, she manages to wreak as much havoc as most bad guys as she takes over Guy's hangout. It would be impossible to describe her without using the word "battleaxe."

She was another colorful addition to a comic packed with fun characters. And that's the key to this issue - it's loaded with humor (something that's hard to find in comics these days), loads of adventure and apes - who could ask for more?

The issue also features strong art by Aaron Lopresti, including a fun double-page spread of the good guys fighting a pile o' apes, and a terrific cover by Tony Daniel in one of his earlier efforts.

Beau was the first writer to really flesh out Gardner, and what's really amazing is, he managed to do it in a single panel in issue #22, where Guy says, "The super-hero biz is a strange one. Ya got a lot of Boy Scout types, some jerks, and some that border on just plain psycho. I always saw myself as the blue collar hero. The one that would block for ya on third and long."

What a revelation! Here was a hero who was willing to do the dirty work to get a job done, and had fun doing it. He was a normal person doing extraordinary things.

In other words, a regular joe. I miss that Guy.

Grade: A-