Despite all his bluster, Guy Gardner may not be the Green Lantern he wants people to think that he is. A look at an alternate timeline reveals that the traditionally self-centered Corpsman never had a shot at being the greatest Green Lantern of all.
Hal Jordan may be one of the Corps' most well-known ring bearers, but he was far from the only qualified candidate for the job. Sector 2814's original Lantern, Abin Sur, was gravely injured in a crash landing on Earth and forced to find someone on the planet he could his ring onto. Of all the suitable Green Lantern replacements, the ring chose Jordan mostly because he was the closest to Sur's crash site. But Jordan eventually discovered a man named Guy Gardner was also considered to replace Sur. And before long, Guy became an official member of the Corps and began a mission to prove he was the best Lantern to ever wear a ring.
And while Gardner may talk big, the reality is he never had a shot at being the best. Green Lantern #59 by John Broome and Gil Kane features the Guardians of the Universe showing off a machine that can scan the minds of dead Green Lantern Corps for the Corps' personal records. After viewing Abin Sur's last moments, Jordan is curious about what Gardner would have been like as a Lantern. The Guardians' machine is able to construct a simulation of that particular scenario and shows Gardner becoming the Earth's Green Lantern. Guy serves just as well in the role as Jordan, but during a mission in deep space, Gardner becomes gravely ill with a disease known as "Yellow Plague." Dying, he reaches out to find the best replacement and winds up ing his ring onto Hal Jordan.
This wouldn’t be the last fans saw of Hal Jordan’s backup. While Guy Gardner would become a Green Lantern eventually, his later portrayals were far from the noble spirit he was initially portrayed as. When Guy got the chance to wield a Power Ring of his own, he had developed some jerkish tendencies. Despite the large ego he later presented, this peer into a potential timeline provides a much-needed reality check for the most boisterous member of the Corps.
The idea of who the "greatest" Green Lantern is is a subject of debate as nearly every member of the Corps demonstrates great potential. On Earth alone, there’s nearly ten Lanterns who have a case for being the best. Even the "best" Green Lantern, Hal Jordan, isn't universally agreed upon by fans. But Guy Gardner's biggest flaw is how certain he is in his own abilities. He's even expressed the feeling that he's trapped in Jordan's shadow because of circumstance. But the "what-if" scenario shows that Guy was never meant to be the Green Lantern, just one of many. If Gardner did become Green Lantern first, he'd have just died early, and the glory he wants so bad would have just gone to Hal anyway.
The truth may be hard to hear, but Guy Gardner just wasn’t meant to be the best Green Lantern.
