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.

Sinister Sharks versus Amazing Amazons

The Shark was a perpetual predator who not only plagued the Green Lantern of Earth-One, Hal Jordan, but also sought other powerhouse prey. After three clashes with the Emerald Crusader, the Shark diverted his attention to the Lantern's Justice League comrades Aquaman, Superman and finally Wonder Woman. Each time he faced these Leaguers, his mutated humanoid form was reverted back to his natural state as a tiger shark. However, the atomic radiation he was initially exposed to and which caused his mutation forever affected his genetic structure, and it was only a matter of time before he regained his former stature.

In his various altered forms, the Shark possessed not only superhuman strength and the power of flight, but also vast mental powers which included the ability to induce fear in his victims. His doppelgänger on Earth-Two was born a human who gained unspecified powers after his imprisonment, although this individual known as King Shark ended up allied with his world's Green Lantern, Alan Scott. Once his girlfriend's life was saved, he disappeared never to reappear, although another man named Shark Wilson seemed to fully mutate into a shark during a clash with his reality's Aquaman. Wilson's counterpart Shark Norton was a mere criminal and foe of the Justice Leaguers Aquaman and Green Arrow.

Interestingly, additional shark-human hybrids appeared on Earth-Two, spawned by the young scientist on Paradise Island named Gerta Von Gunther. These creatures were transformed into flying mermaids, led by the sinister Sharkette, whose Earth-One cosmic twin was the Global Guardian heroine named Little Mermaid. 

Just as the Earth-One Wonder Woman initially encountered the Shark and later battled him on Paradise Island, so too had the Earth-Two Wonder Woman first met Sharkette and her blonde haired "mermaid-sharks" whom she battled on Paradise Island. The mindless mermaid minions filled in for King Shark, who never interacted with Wonder Woman, and three of these ladies found corresponding creatures in the Shark's "Princes of the Prey, whom the Shark unleashed upon Wonder Woman and her Justice League allies on a later occasion. 

Whether the chemical concoction created by Gerta for Sharketta was the catalyst for Shark Wilson’s temporary transformation into a shark is unknown thought quite possible. The Shark’s initial mutations were caused by the radiation while subsequent transformations were the trials of genetic engineering such as that performed at S.T.A.R. Labs Florida. 

Unlike the Shark and his Prey Princes, who were irredeemably evil and transformed back to their natural states, Sharketta and her mermaidens were made docile and integrated into Amazonian society. While Sharkeeta remained the self-appointed “Queen” to her fellow mer-sharks, Shark only had a brief stint as self-proclaimed royalty when he attempted to usurp kingship of Atlantis from Aquaman under the human alter ego of Kershon. 

Aquaman Allies and Adversaries: The Sharks

This time we spotlight two characters who were opposite sides of the exact same coin. There was the mutated Shark, originally a shark that upon gaining irradiated intelligence was a foe of Earth-One's Green Lantern. Mutated by atomic radiation into becoming a  humanoid, he gained telepathic and telekinetic powers. The Shark created the disguise of a business-suit clad man, seeking prey that would challenge him as per his natural instinct. The Lantern, being a man without fear, became the perfect foil for this future felon. After a couple encounters with the Emerald Crusader as well as one case involving the Justice League, the mental madman turned his attention to Superman and found a similar result as he was once more returned to his original form.

After these string of defeats, the finny foe turned his attention to fellow dweller of the deep, Aquaman. Attempting to claim the Earth-One Atlantis by adopting a human form as Karshon, a usurper to the Altantean throne, he enlisted foes such as Black Manta and Fisherman in his schemes to distract their mutual foe. In the end, they all met defeat and had to bow to the true master of the seas! When the Shark returned some time later for a rematch with his arch-enemy, he was more bestial in nature than before and nearly vanquished Green Lantern, before the hero found the will power to overpower Shark's fear factor.

Decades previous on Earth-Two, a felon known as King Shark encountered that world's Green Lantern, only his goal was to redeem his name prior to his execution for the crime of murder. However his mysterious appearance and seeming superhuman powers made him a force to be reckoned with by friend and foe alike.

A few years later on Earth-Two, Shark Wilson attempted escaping the clutches of the law, diving into legendary waters that were said to transform men into beasts. Sure enough, when Aquaman tried to track down his prey, he ended up himself an endangered species! In the end, the shark disappears and Wilson returns. While the Shark had the same motivations as Wilson, not to mention the same first name, there was no definitive evidence to either confirm or deny whether the rather human looking face on the fatal finned fish was tied to the crook. Nevertheless, this was a memorable exploit that has been reviewed periodically. Wilson's Earth-One counterpart was Shark Norton, who faced his world's Aquaman as well although unlike Wilson didn't transform into a human shark.