"Guy Gardner: Warrior" Emerald Fallout

Emerald Fallout is a story arc that lasted for four issues of Guy Gardner: Warrior from March to June 1994.

Plot Summary

It is a time of transition for Guy Gardner. Recently his yellow ring lost much of its power and as such feelings of inadequacy pervaded his conscience and his sense of duty. The story begins with General Glory repairing a wall of Gardner's apartment, offering his apologies for having run the latter through it over a physical conflict that occurred a week prior to the events of this story. It would seem then for a hard-knock hero like Guy Gardner that it was just another typical day.

Unfortunately it was not to be just any normal day for Guy. Out of nowhere his yellow power ring goes berserk and experiences a massive energy surge that brings visions to Gardner's conscience. Visions of very vivid and terrible events begin to overcome his mind. He sees Hal Jordan strangling Sinestro in one particular hallucination. In another, Kilowog seems to have been murdered and is lying dead upon Oa. Then guy sees Jordan bedecked in a strange looking armor, unaware of the latter's recent possession by Parallax. Gardner is under the impression that what he saw was nothing more than a nightmare, ignorant of the recent events of the Emerald Twilight.

Gardner's Qwardian ring shorts out as a result of the energized vision and thus he's forced to look for alternative means of making a difference as a superhero. He grudgingly seeks the expertise of Ted Kord, who fashions Gardner a power suit to compensate for his lack of ring-based power as of late. Though the new suit does raise Gardner's spirits somewhat, still plenty of hard feelings are left over. After all, in addition to the different power changes he's experienced, Gardner's also wondering where Tora is and has the distinct impression that she's trying to avoid him. His suspicions are confirmed when Diana tells Gardner that the League has known of Tora's whereabouts for some time but counsels Gardner to exercise restraint by adding that she was going through changes of her own and needed time to straighten things out.

As Gardner is adjusting to his new battle suit, other events are taking place. Militia as of late is enraged that the Quorum isn't letting him have another shot at beating Gardner down, though they assure him that his chance will come in due time. Bad blood has been brewing between Gardner and Militia for some time due to prior conflicts. In addition, an interstellar ship is plummeting toward Earth harboring an unnamed member of the Green Lantern Corps in circumstances not unlike Abin Sur's crash landing. Before his ship is destroyed upon orbital entry, however, he comments on the recent mission of Graf Toren and other Green Lanterns in their attempt to stop Jordan and expresses concern for the others that had gone missing in that venture.

Taking Diana's words into account, Gardner goes to the Arctic Circle to seek out Tora and talk with her. Sadly for him, it turns into a war of words between the two estranged lovers. Tora tells him that he is still the same insensitive jerk she had always known while Gardner begs to differ on the matter, claiming that recent events in his life have made him do some serious soul-searching. Just before she can start to accept the fact that maybe Guy has changed, the reunion is quickly disrupted by Militia's arrival, having been jettisoned from a Quorum submarine that had tracked Gardner to the position in the Arctic he had gone.

Militia and Gardner engage one another on the arctic ice shelf in a seesaw battle that goes back and forth between the two, both using their respective power armor in the fight. After gaining the upper hand in the fight, Militia finds himself facing another threat as Tora hoists him effortlessly away from Gardner, a clear allusion to the super strength Tora had recently gained. Militia adapts to this handicap by having the Quorum increase the power of his battle suit so that the two can fight on equal terms. Gardner gets back into the fight just to find that Militia is really his older brother Mace. Eventually his Qwardian ring becomes reactivated, giving him the needed edge to put down Mace for good and win the fight, though he is quick to note that the ring had never had such energy flowing through it prior to this strange impulse.

Hoping to relax after the fight, Gardner and Tora are interrupted once more by an uninvited character. Alan Scott comes to tell Guy that he must come with him immediately since a great danger besieges the universe. He mentions to Gardner the intricate connections between all the recent events dealing with the Green Lantern Corps, Gardner's own experiences and even those relating to Jordan. Recent events like the power surge in the Qwardian ring and the visions that had come as a result of that surge. Also of utmost importance was the recent disappearance of Jordan and other Green Lanterns from Oa and the appearance of a green dome over the area where Coast City once stood. Scott explains these connections and advises that they must be investigated. Darkstar Ferrin Colos reaffirms Scott's story with reports of Green Lanterns missing in action across the cosmos. Guy agrees that something must be done and that he must go to Oa to ascertain the truth of what happened to these missing Lanterns. Fortunately for him he would have the aid of Scott, Colos and several select members of the Justice League to assist in this investigation.

Gardner's team consisted of himself, Scott, Colos, Diana, J'onn J'onzz, Nathaniel Adam, Ray Terrill, and Arisia. Together they headed off to uncover the mystery of the missing Lanterns. En route to Oa they ran into what seemed to be an asteroid field, prompting Gardner, Scott and Colos to go searching. They found out quickly that the debris in the vacuum were not asteroids but instead bodies of dead Green Lanterns, among them Toren and Chaselon. In a nearby space funeral pyre, the three happen to come across an extraterrestrial by the name of Probert, a former Lantern, wrapping up the dead in ceremonial cloth. Probert reveals to them that the culprit behind the mass murders was Jordan himself and that he was still upon Oa. Gardner and the others then proceed to land on the charred planet, finding nothing but death and decay. He is the first to discover the skeletal remains of Kilowog during the impending search, leading to a serious drop in morale among the team members. Shortly thereafter, Jordan comes out of nowhere to savagely attack Gardner and his teammates.

Everyone on Gardner's team is summarily defeated in due course by Jordan. None of them prove a match for his newfound entity-based powers. Green adversarial constructs easily subdue Diana while cosmic blasts knock out Arisia. Emerald flames burn into J'onn's flesh while dark green slime surrounds and consumes Ray, nullifying his light based power. Jordan's energies coat Adams's body, rendering him helpless while Darkstar is quickly overcome in the engagement. Even Scott's Starheart-based ring is unable to even the odds and Jordan ends up capturing every one of Gardner's teammates, imprisoning them in emerald stasis fields.

All seems lost for Gardner's team-up adventure until he attacks Jordan himself using a combination of his Qwardian ring and battle suit. His furious attacks only stun Jordan initially before the latter gained the upper hand by breaking Gardner's yellow ring, rendering him powerless once more. Gardner is then struck with such lethal force by Jordan that he crashes into Oa, upon which his battle suit is shattered beyond all hope of repair. Jordan then absorbs the remaining yellow energy and traps Gardner into a stasis field like his comrades. Hal Jordan has gained satisfaction then knowing that nobody will stand in his way of righting the wrongs of the past, however wrong his methods might be. In the end, he warns Gardner to tell the rest of the universe's heroes to stay out of his way lest they suffer the same fate as his.