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Guardians of the Universe

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Guardians of the Universe
Official Name: Guardians of the Universe
Aliases: Guardians, Maltusians, Oans
Founder: Maltusians
First Appearance: Green Lantern Vol.2 #1 (July 1960)
Creators: John Broome
Gil Kane
Team Leader(s): The Team Leads Together as a Group
Current members: List of Current Guardians of the Universe
Former members: List of Former Guardians of the Universe
Status: Active
Base of operations: Oa
Place of Formation: Oa

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] Background

The Guardians of the Universe evolved on the planet Maltus, and were possibly the first intelligent life forms in the Universe. At this time they were tall greyish blue humanoids with black hair. They became scientists and thinkers, experimenting on the worlds around them. One experiment led to the creation of a new species, the Psions. In a pivotal moment, billions of years ago, a Maltusian named Krona used time-bending technology to observe the beginning of the Universe. This experiment flooded the beginning of the Universe with entropy causing it "to be born old".

Feeling responsible for this, the Maltusians relocated to the planet Oa (at "the center of the Universe") and became the Guardians. Their goal was simple: combat evil and create an orderly universe. And they acted quickly on that goal. During this period they also changed to their current appearance.

[edit] Campaigns

  • Before life existed on Earth, they learned how to manipulate what they called "The Glow", and eventually created a Central Power Battery to store this energy. This "energy" was actually the collective willpower of the inhabitants of the universe. Accessing and manipulating this willpower gave the Guardians an ultimate tool to pursue their goals.
  • Hunting down those who preyed on the weak, they captured a fear elemental, Parallax. They imprisoned the creature in the Central Battery, hoping to lock it away forever.
  • Millenia ago after a protracted war they achieved an accord with the Reach, an alien race who turned out to be the source of the Blue Beetle Scarab bonded to Blue Beetle (Jaime Reyes).
  • The magic-wielding Empire of Tears was subjugated and imprisoned on the throneworld and tombworld of Ysmault.
  • Trying to remove magic from the Universe, they bound as much magical energy as possible into an orb called the Starheart. This would eventually become the ring and lantern of Alan Scott.
  • On Mars, the Guardians confronted the destructive race known as "The Burning" and split the race into two new species: the Green Martians and the White Martians. The Guardians changed their reproductive behavior, and gave them an inherent fear of fire in order to stop their species from destroying much of the universe.
  • Robotic Manhunters were created to patrol the Universe. The Manhunters rebelled, believing they were superior to the Guardians and should be in control, and were exiled.
  • The mad god that was the entire Space Sector 3600 was defeated by the Guardians and was constrained by a matrix of their making. By showing the sector that they were its superiors, the Guardians had imprisoned it for all time.
  • The insect race of Tchkk-Tchkki, later known as Legion, was enclosed in an emerald forcefield around their world.
  • They reached an accord with the Spider Guild whereby they and their operatives would stay out of Vegan space. Due to this agreement the Omega Men have become the only peacekeepers in their sector.
  • After the failed experiment with the Manhunters, the Guardians invented other ways of opposing evil in the universe. The Green Glob was an intelligent teaching machine created from their emerald energy, programmed to educate mortals all over the universe and able to briefly alter reality to do so.
  • The Halla's, an intergalactic police corps wielding power guns channelling the emerald energy, was a short-lived successor of the Manhunters and a precursor to the successful Green Lantern Corps.
  • Finally, the Green Lantern Corps was established to replace the Manhunters and the Halla's. These troops were given some of the power of the Central Power Battery, accessed through a ring.
  • Against Apokolips, they waged a war. They tried several times to infiltrate Darkseid's home, finally deciding on a war against his rule. Their troops were brutally defeated with two-thirds dead. The attack on Apokolips ended with a truce.
  • The Guardians guided Kal-El on his journey to earth.
  • During the Crisis on Infinite Earths the Guardians were again divided. A small group desired to take a more aggressive role in destroying evil and recruited Guy Gardner to act as their Green Lantern. The failure of the Guardians to act decisively in the Crisis led to their decision to temporarily withdraw from the universe.
  • The Guardians, along with the Green Lantern Corps., stopped the Lord of the Unliving, Nekron, from entering the universe the first time he attempted. Though the Central Power Battery was destroyed by Krona and Nekron's undead armies, and many Guardians were killed as they valiantly attempted to halt Nekron's corrosive influence on the universe and close the portal he was attempting to escape through, they managed to contain both Nekron and Krona in the land of the unliving with the help of hundreds of deceased Lanterns rebelling against Nekron.

[edit] Consequences

The Manhunter rebellion led to schisms. One group (the Controllers) thought that the only way to protect the Universe was to control it. The female Oans (the Zamarons) felt no need to involve themselves in the Universe's problems. Over the years, both groups evolved to look most unlike the Guardians. Other groups have also left the Guardians; one such group settled on Earth, becoming the origin for leprechaun legends. The Manhunters became avowed enemies of the Guardians. The Apokolips campaign ended with a truce with the Guardians forced to abandon a soldier (Raker Qarrigat) to Darkseid. Fearing dissension, they ordered all records of the Campaign expunged.

[edit] Recent History

The Guardians were almost wiped out when Parallax took control of Hal Jordan, the only survivor being Ganthet. They sacrificed themselves to create one final power ring, a power ring perhaps more powerful than all others before it. Oa was itself destoyed in a battle between Parallax and Kyle Rayner, but rebuilt as the final wish of Hal Jordan's former power ring. The Guardians were restored when Kyle Rayner, as Ion, recharged the central battery. Rayner lost his power and role as Ion but this sacrifice released all the Guardian's life forces from the dormancy in his ring. The immortals first appeared as children but aged quickly and many seemed to return to the identities they had before they created Kyle Rayner's power ring. Unlike before however: the Guardians were male and female, rather than just male. While Kyle had made them children in order for them to grow up and become less cold than their predecessors, this did not work. Instead the Guardians were as cold and manipulative as they were before. Also one of them (Lianna) seemed to revert to the original Malthusian appearance in the process. With their revival they began to rebuild the Green Lantern Corps using veterans to train the new ring-bearers. Kyle Rayner's recent metamorphosis into Ion again seemed to be part of a new Guardian experiment, the evolution of the Corps. Alongside this experiment, the Guardians refortified Oa by creating a planetwide armour and defensive system to prevent successful attacks against them.

[edit] Sinestro Corps War

The Sinestro War forces them to rewrite the Book of Oa and to add ten new laws. They also expelled Ganthet and Sayd from their rank, because they have experience emotions, which they consider to be not permitted. The first law allowed the lethal force against the Sinestro Corps. During the Sinestro Corps' invasion of Earth, the Guardians decided to reassign Ion to Sodam Yat, a Daxamite who develops Superman-like abilities under Earth's yellow sun.

When the Anti-Monitor begins absorbing the positive matter of Earth, the Guardians joined the battle and unleashed their combined might on the so-called "Guardian of Fear", partly out of anger for being rendered nonfactors during the First Crisis. Though the Anti-Monitor manages to injure only one female Guardian by grasping at her, he was slowly but surely waning under the combined assault of the Guardians as they labouriously unleash their full might upon him. Fortunately, Green Lanterns John Stewart and Guy Gardner come up with a plan to use Warworld and it's mobile power battery as a weapon against the Anti-Monitor, seriously weakening him by pulling it down upon him and encasing both in a large willpower force bubble as the warworld detonates. Following Superboy-Prime's betrayal of the Anti-Monitor, the Guardians turn their attention to him, and one of the Guardians sacrifices his life to warp Prime out of the New Earth reality by acting as a living bomb. With Hal Jordan's arrest of Sinestro, the re-imprisoning of Parallax, and the supposed deaths of the Anti-Monitor, Hank Henshaw, and Superboy-Prime, the leaderless Sinestro Corps withdraws.

[edit] The Rise of the Lantern Corps

Following the Sinestro Corps, the Guardians, at the lead of the increasingly militant Scarred Guardian, decided to take steps to prevent the War of Light from coming to pass. They created a new division called the Alpha Lanterns, which serves as a sort of "internal affairs" group. The selected Lanterns were subjected to invasive surgery that allows them to store Power Batteries in them and directly links them to the Book of Oa. However, it also appeared to strip the Lanterns of all emotion, a sort of Lantern-Manhunter hybrid. Also, the Alpha Lanterns have a rigid, literal following of the Book of Oa, not allowing circumstances to be included in their decisions. Additionally, the Guardians authorized the use of lethal force against all enemies of the Green Lantern Corps after they detected a surge of red energy of hate on the emotional spectrum.

While this occurs, the Sinestro Corps, though leaderless and fighting off a hostile takeover by Mongul II, embarked upon a campaign to terrorize the Green Lantern Corps by targeting their families. Additionally, the Zamarons, having long harnessed the violet energy of love, form their own Star Sapphire Corps to spread love throughout the Universe. The Guardians decided to try a diplomatic mission to disuade the Zamarons from continuing, where they discover that the Zamarons have captured multiple Sinestros and crystalized them in an effort to fill their hearts with love. The Guardians request that the Zamarons stop their experiments, but they refused. Recognizing the threat from the Sinestro Corps and the Star Sapphires, the Guardians add a third law forbiding romance or physical relationships between Green Lanterns.

The Guardians are next seen when Hal Jordan returns to Oa, bearing a Blue Lantern Ring. Looking upon him darkly, they attack him with blasts of willpower in an effort to force him to give them the ring, which he cannot do. They stop when John Stuart intervenes. Because of the Controller's interference into the Vega system, Agent Orange sends the Guardians a message in holographic form via a damaged Lantern Stel, who had been close to the Vega System chasing a Sinestro Corpsman. He demands that they give in to his demands, or he would descend his Lantern Corps. upon them. Scar blasts the hologram, remarking that the Guardians do not deal with terrorists. The Guardians then decide that Agent Orange has had free reign for long enough, they relieve the ban on the Vega system, and along with a battalion of Lanterns, all go to Okaara to apprehend him, with the notable exception of Scar, who is "sick".

Upon reaching Okaara, they meet the Lantern of the sector, Gretti, who is standing on the edge of the forest of weeds. The Guardians blast the forest aside, only to be ambushed by Larfleeze's Orange Lantern avatars. Hal Jordan is kidnapped by Agent Orange himself, for during the battle the Green energy constructs continuously fail, even those of the Guardians, though Hal's Blue Lantern ring seemingly can't be drained. Gretti is killed in the battle, and his identity stolen by Larfleeze.

The Guardians burst in on Larfleeze's battle with Hal Jordan, who is using the infinite amounts of charge in his green ring (courtesy of his blue one), to create a host of green avatars to counter Larfleeze's orange ones. Agent Orange is defeated, however before the Guardians can kill him, he points out that even if they do so, the Orange light will move to someone else; they can never destroy avarice. Considering this, the Guardians agree to strike a deal with him. When they exit the temple, they inform the Lanterns of what they've done, but do not tell them what they promised Larfleeze in return. What they did however, is seen in the next panels, as Larfleeze's entire Orange Lantern Corps. descends upon Odym.


[edit] The Blackest Night

The Guardians are at this point beginning to realise that they cannot stop the War of Light. Despite this, they order the Alpha Lanterns to eradicate the Red Lanterns on Ysmault. The Alphas manage to capture the Red Lantern, Vice, who they lock in a Sciencell with a muzzle on to keep him from spewing corrosive blood everywhere. However, when the other Guardians go off to the Vega system, Scar releases Vice's muzzle, which allows him to burn down his sciencell. The surrounding criminals, including many Sinestros cheer, until Vice begins killing everyone in sight. The situation turns into an outright jailbreak, as Vice wounds the jailer, Vozz.

Upon returning to Oa, the Guardians find the entire planet in uproar, and order the Alpha Lanterns to contain the breach. The Alphas do so, and with the exceptions of Kamjar Ro and one other, who helped the Lanterns on Oa to contain the other prisoners, the Guardians order all of the escaped convicts to be executed. meanwhile below Oa, the Sinestro Lyssa Drak used the cover of the riot to try and find her Book of Parallax, instead finding the Book of the Black. About to take possession of it, she is ambushed by Scar, who seals her within the book. Scar then decides that it's time for the Black to begin, and she uses the Book to crack open Oa's protective shell.

The Guardians, along with Scar, look on the Universe in dismay. The War of Light is raging across the Universe, and they realise they could not have stopped it, and decide instead to prepare for it. No sooner do they decide this, than Ryut, the Black Lantern Homeworld, begins spewing Black Lantern Rings from it's Central Power Battery, and spread throughout the Universe. As soon as they reach Oa, Scar reveals her true allegiance, seizing a nearby male Guardian, mercilessly killing him, and then ripping his heart out and eating it. During the rise of the Black Lanterns, she has imprisoned her fellow Guardians on Ryut, immobilising them with the black ooze energy. She has implied to them that they are going through some sort of transformation or are being made ready for something more sinister, with the words "Now. You will need your rest for what's to come. Back to sleep -- fellow Guardian"

[edit] Personality

The Guardians of the Universe long ago gave up on emotions in favour of cold, to the point intellect (This later led to the estrangement of the females of their race, who would become known as the Zamarons). This has led to them developing a form of uniform personality (With the exceptions of Ganthet, Sayd, and Scar, though Scar's personality aberration is in fact due to her being infected with evil by the Anti-Monitor), which likely has been abetted by their mental familiarity.

The Guardians are collectively very strict, by the book, and are very set in their own ways. This gives them the appearance of being cold, almost stubborn and unreasonable when confronted, which at times they are (As when during the events of "Green Lantern: Agent Orange", they willingly gave up the location of Odym in exchange for Larfleeze not to interfere with the Green Lantern Corps.). However, the Guardians have on several occasions proven that they are capable and willing to adapt to situations, and will take circumstances into account in everything that they do. Their decisions usually follow a logical standpoint, as they take a tactical view in situations that threaten the well being of the Universe, and the Green Lantern Corps.. This often leaves them at odds with Hal Jordan and other characters, who wish to settle personal matters.

Being billions of years old, the Guardians are very wise, though their inexperience in "the front lines" since founding the Corps. occasionally lead them to make faulty decisions on what is for the best.

The Guardians are also fairly confident in their abilities, both in their tactical methods and in their sheer power (being on a level of cosmic manipulation to go one on one with beings like the Anti-Monitor, the Spectre, and Gods described in the comics), and their political standing in the Universe. (This in particular they are sure of, as during the Sinestro Corps. War, one of them is noted to have said "We're the Guardians of the Universe, we can do whatever we want").

Though the majority of the time they are emotionless and coldly logical, the Guardians have on the instance been shown to become angry, and have admitted to becoming fearful. They have also been shown to show minor levels of compassion and concern, though these occurrences are generally far in between.

Though some have called their professed care for the Universe into question, their actions continuously speak for their sincere devotion to the interests of the universe as a whole. Despite their continuously dwindling numbers, they have put their own lives on the line, and often given up their lives to defeat great evils. Examples include their personal victory over the Empire of Tears, which killed a great number of them, the attempted prevention of Larfleeze attaining the Orange Light, their personally spreading throughout the cosmos to attempt to stem the corrosive influence of Nekron as the undead lord tried to enter the Universe, their battle with the Anti-Monitor during the Sinestro Corps. War, the sacrifice of Guardian 7 to remove Superboy Prime from the Universe, and many others over the eons.

[edit] Powers and Abilities

[edit] Powers

Functionally immortal,they possess vast knowledge, durability, awareness, flight, psionic powers, and the ability to manipulate the green energy of the emotional concept of willpower, making them essentially demigods. Although, since it has been said that they chose the most stable color of the spectrum, it is possible that the Guardians may have limited access to all colors. In Green Lantern: Rebirth, Kyle Rayner is recorded saying that Ganthet could "crack a planet in half with a thought." Indeed, they have been shown able to defeat titanic entities such as Superman-Prime and the Anti-Monitor. In Green Lantern (v.2) #100 the Guardians display the power of time travel as they send a time-lost Kyle Rayner back to his future timeline. The guardians can manipulate time, space, matter, and reality, and even the evolution and biological makeup of sentient life, making them among the most powerful beings in the DC universe


Green Energy Manipulation: The Guardians are capable of harnessing and effectively wielding the emotional concept of Willpower. This, combined with their natural telepathic and telekinetic abilities give them unimaginable cosmic powers that rival that of the beings such as the Spectre and the Antimonitor.

  • Cosmic Awareness


The Guardians utilising their God-like powers against the Anti-Monitor
*Dimensional Manipulation
  • Energy Absorption
  • Energy Shield
  • Force-Field
  • Light Projection
  • Invulnerability
  • Time Manipulation
  • Matter Absorption
  • Phasing
  • Reality Manipulation
  • Healing
  • Teleportation
  • Willpower-Induced Energy Constructs
  • Siphon Abilities
  • Siphon Lifeforce
  • Size Manipulation
  • Holographic Projection
  • Genetic Manipulation

Immortality

Telepathy

  • Astral Projection
  • Illusion Casting
  • Technopathy

Telekinesis

[edit] Abilities

Genius-Level Intellect

Leadership


[edit] Weaknesses

  • Antimatter: As beings of the positive universe, they have a natural weakness to antimatter.
  • Orange Light: As wielders of the Green Light of Willpower, their abilities have little to no affect on the orange energy, despite their near Godlike powers

[edit] Notes

  • Coming Soon

[edit] Trivia

  • Coming Soon

[edit] In Other Media

Four male and one female make up the Guardians in Superman: The Animated Series.

[edit] Links

Retrieved from "http://greenlantern.wikia.com/wiki/Guardians_of_the_Universe"