After the Green Lanterns lost their rings, one surprising Green Lantern was unexpectedly able to bring peace to an entire alien world without it.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for the story “Book of Guy” from Future State: Green Lantern #1 by Ernie Altbacker, Clayton Henry, Marcelo Maiolo & Steve Wands, on sale now.
The Green Lanterns Corps are full of “act-first, ask later” figures. But it’s when these powerful heroes lose their powers that they best prove their full potential and why they were chosen to protect the galaxy — with perhaps the most short-tempered one of them actually finding a way to bring peace to an entire planet without raising a single fist.
Guy Gardner spends twenty-five years in Future State stranded on an alien world — and even without his Green Lantern Ring, he’s able to bring peace to the entire planet.
One of the major mysteries of the Future State-era is what happened to the Green Lantern Corps. Some mysterious event led to the Green Lantern Rings across the galaxy being shut off, effectively bringing down the entire Corps. One Green Lantern who was seriously affected was Guy Gardner, one of the Green Lanterns of Earth. Arriving on the remote and technologically-primitive planet of Rerlin, Guy went about stopping a war between two rival religions on the planet. Both sides perceived Guy as a prophet from the stars, and a protector of the relic they’d been warring over. This is when Guy’s ring completely powers off, leaving him with no special powers or ability to translate to the local language or assist in his mission.
However, his arrival was enough to give the locals a certain reverence for him and his choices. Guy’s status allows him to survive and even thrive on the planet, establishing a new Warriors Bar as a base of operations. Working with leaders from the two tribes and slowly learning their language, Guy is able to help usher in a period of calm and quiet peace for the planet. “The Book of Guy” helps instill valuable teachings, preaching that acceptance is a virtue and that conflict over differing beliefs is pointless. Within twenty-five years, Guy has successfully brought peace to the world, helping set up irrigation and in-door plumbing for the locals.
Realizing there are no more problems to be solved in the world, the older Guy sheds a single tear of happiness and sets up a party to celebrate. Considering Guy’s history of starting fights, throwing himself into conflict, and all-around not thinking of his choices before making them, it’s heartening to see how much of a leader he can become. Without his ring, Guy is forced to use his brains, his bravado, and his surprisingly deep well of empathy to help rescue a world from itself. It’s a reassuring moment for Guy and an important reminder of why someone like the usually abrasive Guy is allowed to be a Green Lantern. Of course, this peace is then almost immediately ruined by the arrival of Lobo, who is surprised that Guy didn’t inform him about the new Warriors bar.
While this likely means Guy will be able to hitch a ride back to Earth with the bounty-hunter and discover what happened to the rest of the DC Universe, it also means his peaceful world might have a bit of chaos thrown into it by the intergalactic bounty-hunter. But at least for a little while, Guy proved that he may not be the first Lantern anyone ever thinks of as diplomatic — but that he’s still more than capable of figuring out how to help rescue a world even without his power ring or his fists. It’s a nice reminder of how good of a leader he can be — and what he can do to help the future if given the chance.
