The Other Green Lanterns Who Might Have Been

What if Hal Jordan had never been selected to become the Green Lantern of Sector 2814. Hal learned of another who could have become the Emerald Crusader, and had a tragic tale to tell.

This substitute sentinel, Guy Gardner would have as sad a tale as his counterpart, Mister Billings. While Gardner was a physical fitness instructor, Billings was a wealthy financier. Both were deemed worthy to wield the emerald batteries, each originating from the Guardians of the Universe. The predecessor possessors of these powerful objects were the adventuring alien Abin Sur and the academic Asian Ulthoon.

It wasn’t just Abin Sur and Ulthoon who saw something commendable in these morally flawed men. Traveling counselor Kari Limbo and rich heiress Miss Smythe also found themselves endeared to these maverick men, and emotionally supported their road to recovery.

On Earth-Two, Billings actually inherited the green lantern of Ulthoon while residing in Gotham City’s Arkham Asylum. Having been driven insane when a broker cost him his fortune, which led to Billings taking that man’s life, he was now motivated to recondition the lantern into a more contemporary design. Once Billing’s fractured psyche was healed, and he left the asylum a sane man once more, with the lantern next in the possession of engineer Alan Scott aka Green Lantern.

On Earth-One, Guy would later be called upon to substitute for Hal in an adventure that led to the power battery exploding, sending Guy into other dimension only to be retrieved by Hal only after losing his sanity. He would later be appointed Green Lantern when Hal retired.

However, had Guy been selected instead of Hal, he would’ve had a similar early history as Green Lantern. The Guardians allowed Jordan to see an alternate timeline wherein Gardner too up the reigns of Green Lantern of Space Sector 2814. As such, Gardner would have had confrontations with many of Jordan’s nemesis, such as Sonar, Shark, Black Hand, Doctor Polaris and Sinestro. However, Guy would take a side trip to the planet Ghera to aid the world’s orphaned children, as their parents all perished. Returning home, Guy learned he too contracted the yellow plague which claimed the lives of all adult Gherans.

Legendary Lantern Lads: The Imitators - Guy & Hop

The Green Lantern Corps' most famous human member was Hal Jordan, the Green Lantern of Earth-One. The Green Dragon Tong's most dogged adversary was Alan Scott, the Green Lantern of Earth-Two. However, another pair of costumed crusaders was inspired by the Green Lanterns, these men being Guy Gardner and Hop Harrigan. 

Guy's true Earth-Two counterpart was a man named Billings while Hop's actual Earth-One doppelgänger was Adam Strange, That said, Guy and Hop mirrored each other in one key way... their heroic alter egos. 

Guy briefly assumed the alter ego of Green Lantern, while Hop adopted the alias of the Black Lamp, Gardner possessed Jordan's power ring and power battery, while occasionally substituting for Hal when he was away on a mission. Hop only possessed his astute fighting abilities while wearing his spandex suit. Both were jealous of the attention that their worlds' Green Lanterns garnered, and sought to claim a bit of fame for themselves.

Battered Batteries Bruise Brave & Bold Boys

The source of Hal Jordan and Alan Scott's awesome abilities centered around their parallel power rings, and more specifically the Green Lanterns' power batteries through which they charge these rings with emerald energy. While Alan only had one such battery which endured for centuries, although it had been modified from time to time by its previous owners, Hal actually had two.

Jordan's initially power battery was bequeathed him by his predecessor, the alien Abin Sur, when that Green Lantern crash-landed on Earth-One having sustained fatal injuries. Hal would daily recharge his power ring by touching it the battery. Scott likewise followed this same pattern on Earth-Two with his own ring and battery, given to him by his predecessor the monk Volthoom. 

However, while clashing with his foe the Crumbler, the villain's power glove adversely effected Hal's battery, causing it to be unstable. While away from his homeworld on a mission to planet Oa, home of the Guardians of the Universe who originated both mens' power, Hal's backup Green Lantern named Guy Gardner was shunted into the Phantom Zone while charging his ring on the unstable lantern. The Guardians gave Hal a replacement battery, directing him to destroy the original. Jordan rescued Gardner, whose mind was damaged as a result of the battery's blast.

As for Scott, while his battery remained undamaged, an emerald globe constructed by the designer of the original battery Chang remained in the lampmaker's possession. However, seeking to access the emerald energies to empower his Green Dragon Tong, Chang lured the supervillain Psycho-Pirate into seemingly stealing it from the old man. While it was soon after accidentally destroyed by the Pirate's henchmen, the globe's radiation later empowered the criminal into mentally dominating Scott. This unlocked the power from the battery, allowing Chang to gain abilities on par with Green Lantern himself. That is, until he perished when he failed to realize that its energy had a weakness, wood which through a falling tree ended Chang's life.

Fringe Week: Justice League of America

In our tour-de-force of the Fringe alternate-verse take on DC Comics is this cover of Justice League, showing the World's Greatest Team after they survived the Crisis on Infinite Earths. This was a mismatch and not the greatest by any measure, although it had its fair share of chuckles along the way. The team looks virtually the same, except for darker tones in their costumes... particularly Mantis' who looks remarkably like a nocturnal mammal instead of an insect. And, of course, a time-lost Jonah Hex assuming the mantle of "team pain-in-the-butt" who no one likes, rather than the innoculous Guy Gardner. Good choice on that score.



Legendary Loser Lantern Lads

Guy Gardner was a school fitness instructor while Guy was selected as that backup Green Lantern. Originally, Hal Jordan learned that when his predecessor Abin Sur crash landed on Earth-One while near death, his power ring found two eligible candidates at that time. As Jordan lived closer to where Sur was than had Gardner, he was selected as the next Green Lantern of space sector 2814. When Hal and Guy later met, an accident kept Gardner immobilized for several months, at which point John Stewart was selected as Hal’s emergency backup.

Mister Billings was a wealthy man who lost his fortune during the 1929 Great Depression, and went insane which led to him murdering his stock broker. Interned in Gotham City’s Arkham Asylum on Earth-Two, he mysteriously came in contact with the ancient green lantern that had been passed to various owners for centuries. Motivated by its “second flame of life”, Billings refashioned the lamp into a modern power battery, eventually found by engineer Alan Scott, the Green Lantern.

Eventually, Guy was granted the opportunity to assume the mantle of Green Lantern, although after his first mission tragedy happened! Caught in a power battery discharge, Gardner was sent into the Phantom Zone, after which he was eventually freed and returned to Earth-One by Jordan. The experience left Guy mentally traumatized, as first the Kryptonian prisoners in the Phantom Zone and later the renegade former Green Lantern known as Sinestro mentally manipulate him.

Gardner was kept in an asylum for the next few years while in a comatose state. Gardner would eventually be revived and granted the power and title of a Green Lantern once more during the Crisis on Infinite Earths, when he was given a mission to lead an army of super villains into the Anti-Matter Universe to defeat its leader the Anti-Monitor.

The healing rays emanating from the emerald lamp of Earth-Two cured Billings of his madness, and he was released from Arkham to rebuild his life.

Fawcett's Finest: Power-Ring Protectors

While the preeminent possessors of powerful power-rings were the Green Lanterns known as Hal Jordan and Alan Scott, there were a few less notable mentions to this club. On Earth-S, Jack Lansing came into possessing of his own power-ring which provided him similiar abilities such as creating solid objects from energy and the ability to fly.  On Earth-One, Guy Gardner stood in on occasion for his world's prime protector when Jordan was unable to fulfill his responsibilities. And a third individual, Billing, had previously possessed the power battery that Alan Scott of Earth-Two later used. All three men were minor but notable footnotes in the annals of the power and rings of three Earths.