GUY GARDNER versus BLACK HAND

Book One Of Three (DC)
Where: Guy Gardner Reborn #1 When: July 1992
Why: Gerard Jones How: Joe Staton

The Story So Far...
As Green Lantern, Guy Gardner had the cosmos in the palm of his hand. He was an intergalactic space-cop and idol to millions - the Justice League of America's take no prisoners powerhouse. He had it all! Then he lost it...

Having gambled his power ring in a showdown with an Earthbound Hal Jordan, Guy Gardner is now a super-hero without super-powers! Not that that will stop him!

Back on the beat of New York City, Guy Gardner is going to clean up dirty streets - starting with Times Square! Possessing only his fists and a bad ass attitude, he begins a grass roots fight for justice starting with a smut peddling hero-hater he's handled before: Black Hand!

Tale of the Tape...
Strength: Guy Gardner 3 (Athlete)
Intelligence: Black Hand 5 (Professor)
Speed: Guy Gardner 3 (Athlete)
Stamina: Guy Gardner 5 (Marathon)
Agility: Draw 2 (Average)
Fighting: Guy Gardner 4 (Trained)
Energy: Guy Gardner 7 (Cosmic Power)


Here on Secret Wars on Infinite Earths we use The Tale of the Tape to compare, contrast, and summarize the characters appearing in a featured fight. A popular shorthand has always been the tape stats [above], using an independent metric to highlight the strategic advantages of one character over the other(s).

These stats take from a standardized impression of the character - but sometimes circumstances have it that a character isn't fighting at peak condition. That fact plays a major role in today's featured face-off!

Guy Gardner has been better known for much of his career as one of several Green Lanterns designated to Sector 2814. Legend has it he was very nearly the first man of Earth to be chosen for the honor, but proximity to a fatal crash site of Green Lantern Abin Sur led daredevil test pilot Hal Jordan to receive the ring.

In later years, Guy Gardner became a reservist for the Green Lantern Corps, taking responsibility when Hal Jordan was forced away from his duties. In time, this led to full deployment as a Green Lantern, and even amendments by The Guardians to allow for multiple representatives from a single space sector. No such luck at this point in Guy's career, though!

Hal Jordan's return from a lengthy stay in space led to a showdown for patrolling rights on Earth. Refusing to give up his ring without a fight, Guy challenged Jordan to a powerless fist fight. The cocksure Gardner lost his fight, and we find him today shortly after he'd surrendered his ring.

Not having a power ring obviously lessens Gardner's offensive arsenal, but when it comes to fighting Black Hand -- it also diminishes the threat of the villain!

William Hand would eventually come to be known as the death obsessed scion of the Black Lantern. Long before that, he was merely a pathological hero-hater with a penchant for proverb, cliché, and crime! This profile led to inevitable conflict with local hero Green Lantern, who he battles with a device of special design that can drain a power ring of its energy - turning it against the wearer!

In a past feature we saw Black Hand wave his energy wand at Green Arrow and Speedy [Green Lantern: Rebirth #1]. They don't have super-powers to drain, but their archery gave them the edge against a feverish Hand. Will Guy Gardner be able to produce the same result with his fists? Let's find out...

The Math: Guy Gardner Ranking: Guy Gardner (#95)

What Went Down...
Like a human battering ram -- Guy Gardner ploughs through Black Hand and his gang of rubes! A right hook sends the ringleader flying, leaving his mooks to do the fighting in a descending five-on-one flurry of fists!

Black Hand commentates the action from the sidelines with an assault of applicable proverbs. Gardner takes his lumps from all sides and explodes out of the pack with an extension of muscle. He comes from Black Hand, but the villain uses his position to throw a leg at the stalking hero!

Gardner absorbs the kick to the gut and compliments his foe for scoring an impressive hit. It inspires the hero to strike back with another right hook, and an improvised adaptation of an old cliché: "A fist in the mouth..."

Black Hand's head snaps back from the blow, but is caught with another two-prong assault of mangled wordplay and a mangling left cross!

The big bad is on the ropes and his goons are getting antsy! It won't be long now before the Green Lantern tires of toying with his prey and scoops them up in a big green net of justice. Or will it?...

As the moustached mook tries to run, an observant goon points out a certain power ring absent from the Green Lantern's swinging, white gloved fists. With a twisted grin the meagre muscle rejoins the game, clutching a nearby desk lamp.

Unaware of the conspiracy around him, Gardner continues to sink his fists into Black Hand's waiting stomach. His nose bleeds and his body quivers, but still Hand manages a smile: "The... The... The light that burns twice as bright..."

This time quip serves a distraction gambit that pays off! A desk lamp rockets across the back of Guy Gardner's head - knocking him out cold!

The Hammer...
As commander of the nameless crooks who work for him, Black Hand claims a surprising victory over his arrogant nemesis!

With the former Green Lantern out cold in their midst, Hand and his boys toss him to the gutter, to resume their disreputable trade. It's a harsh lesson in adjustment for the now powerless hero, but as Hand would say, you've gotta break a few eggs to make an omelette! Or scramble some brains, as it were.

If you thought Hal Jordan was the first Green Lantern to be reborn - surprise! Guy Gardner was doing it a whole decade before it was cool! He even kicked off his mini-series with a fight with Black Hand -- something Hal Jordan did twelve and a half years later in Green Lantern: Rebirth #1!

The comparisons between GG Reborn and GL Rebirth taper off pretty quickly after that. There's whole a lot of ring slinging in both - naturally, and a face-off (or two) with Sinestro, but the intent of both stories is binary in difference.

When Hal Jordan was coming back in 2005, DC Comics were correcting course on a mid-nineties twist that turned their Silver Age icon into an arch-villain. The goal was to restore the character to his definitive identity as Green Lantern.

In 1992, Guy Gardner was heading in the opposite direction - ousted as Green Lantern, and in need of a new identity all his own. That identity would come at the end of Reborn through the acquisition of Sinestro's yellow power ring of Qward. A story I'm sure we'll look closer at some time in the future.

Ironically, the definitions of all of these details would be changed significantly by Green Lantern: Rebirth, and the extensive reign of Geoff Johns as writer and creative engineer for the entire Green Lantern mythos.

Rebirth restored Guy Gardner to the Green Lantern identity he was famous for as well, stripping him of Vuldarian powers he'd acquired a few years after Reborn as "Warrior". Guy's Qwardian ring returned to Sinestro, and eventually spawned an entire Yellow Lantern Corps. All the colors of the emotional spectrum would follow shortly thereafter, leading to Black Hand's rise as the first of the death wielding Black Lantern Corps.

I don't know that I'd called Guy Gardner Reborn ahead of its time, but it's certainly an interesting time capsule in the sprawling modern history of the characters involved. It taps into some interesting parody of trends of the time, while also indulging in them. Guy has misadventures as gun-covered vigilante, and doubles down on the bad taste violence in a tenuous team-up with another icon of parody gone straight: Lobo. If you were wondering how a smut peddling Black Hand factors into that - it's actually a callback to an issue of JLA!

If you're a Guy Gardner fan, rest assured there'll be plenty more opportunities to revisit his Rebirth, and other stories. In the mean time, we press on...

As you may know, the entire DC Universe is presently in the process of another line-wide "Rebirth", which is the theme running through all of our feature fights this July! Since we talked about it so much today, next week's feature fight will come from the pages of Green Lantern: Rebirth!

If you're reading this sometime in the future - you'll be able to find that fight and many more by scouring the Issue Index Archive! There you'll find even more superhero smackdown and comic book review!

Winner: Black Hand
#334 (+297) Black Hand
#105 (-10) Guy Gardner

Hero of the Week #31: Black Hand

BLACK HAND (DC)
Real Name: William Hand
First Appearance: Green Lantern #29 (June, 1964)
Group Affiliation: Black Lantern Corps
Gaming Credentials: DC Universe Online (TBA)
Infinite Wars Cumulative Ranking: #603

If you read the penultimate HOTW for 2009 [The Hood], then you already the score -- I'm finishing the year with representatives from the corporate "big two" and I'm forgoing my usual desire to tie that somehow to video games. I've regularly brought a comic book perspective to aspects of video games and I suppose I'll just have to embrace that (unless you offer gainful employment to freelance writers who could use the work, and are really willing to change this time! No, really!!! BABY!!!).

If you read the afforementioned previous HOTW, you probably also noted a hint of cynicism toward the once proud House of Ideas. At the beginning of the decade, they were instrumental to turning around the slump comics incurred in the mid-to-late nineties, reinvigorating the creative landscape of four-colour heroes with a renewed emphasis on characters and urban pseudo-realism. By the middle of the double-ohs, many of the key players in Marvel's turnaround were elevated into new positions of power, and sadly, their touch wasn't as golden at the top. A problem DC hasn't struggled with as they elevated some of their brightest talent from writers-for-hire, to architects of a DC Universe that will hopefully find it's way into the MMO gamespace in 2010. [There's that game connection!]

At the forefront of DC's hike to the top has been Geoff Johns, who's of special note today for his role in moving forward the Green Lantern franchise and spinning his work out into the DC-wide undead extravaganza that has been Blackest Night!

Putting a face to the name, at least until the real big bad revealed himself, was Black Hand: a villain who started the year a typically trounced upon halfwit out to cause problems, and has ended it as one of the most threatening figures in comics! As a scion of Nekron -- guardian of the universe and master of the dead -- Black Hand hasn't actually been dishing all that much mayhem himself, but like any general, is as culpable for raising armies of undead Black Lantern versions of characters as the murderous zombie-lanterns themselves. Moreso, if you consider the notion that the exhumed bodies are merely psychologically intriguing vessels through which Nekron is attacking the heroes!

It was in Green Lantern #45 that readers were introduced to the first official Black Lantern -- Black Hand himself! Detailed in an entire issue dedicated solely to the villain was a man twisted and demented, so obsessed with death that he had become barely human, ultimately willing to murder his entire family as a sacrifice to his idol, Nekron. In that story, Black Hand was elevated with a single chilling page, depicting his own suicide! The sinister and slightly disturbing character study, a trademark of Geoff Johns, and a terrific way to establish the creepy tone of the event and it's villain!

Blackest Night wasn't the only story to put DC on top in 2009, but it was instrumental to one of their first sales victories in an estimated four decades! Blackest Night #4, along with several related issues, pushed DC into the top six slots of top ten issues sold in October 2009 -- a rare win for the company who've often failed to garner the same blind dedication Marvel's media presence has. Of course, events like Batman: Reborn and Flash: Rebirth have also kept DC bouyant in the 'event' stakes, while quieter efforts have maintained the company's prestige when it comes to more experimental fare.

Just as they did in the comics; DC also succeeded in defying expectations and redefining what it means to make a licensed video game. Batman: Arkham Asylum was an undisputed Game of the Year contender for it's high-concept simplicity, attention to franchised detail, and competence in bringing a character to life whose exploits in the medium have often been less than admirable. It's little wonder that we're now looking toward a Batman sequel -- to say nothing of their efforts to crack the MMO genre open with story-driven adventures, free roaming superheroics that have the potential to defy the standard of stat-counting, and the iconic characters gaining traction in all mediums, in DC Universe Online!

Blackest Night player, Sinestro, is confirmed for DCU Online, while Black Hand remains an outsider possibility.

DC won't be able to rest on their laurels in 2010, however, as Marvel initiate their Siege counterfire that already looks like a vast improvement over some of their recent failures. It also paints a stark contrast to the continuation of DC's Blackest Night juggernaut, which, although well orchestrated and enjoyable for it's simplicity, has been spread quite thin! Fortunately, there's plenty on the DC horizon with announcements preparing fans for the return of Bruce Wayne from his in-universe fake-out death, and a new effort to explore original graphic novels with a pair of single-volume stories coming in the form of Earth-One Batman, and Superman.

With that, we bring 2009 to a close!
Barring unforseen distraction, we'll do it all over again in 2010 with a brand new sweep of influences to steer observation across the world of superheroes and beyond! If you haven't quite had enough for this year, ring in the new one with more me via the Best of 2009 recap, or head over to The Comic Book Fight Club and vote in the Annual Year-End Infinite Wars DC vs Marvel Fantasy Fights, whilst wondering why updates stop at July. Hey, it's been a big year, and you are my favourite readers!

Happy New Year, folks!
Hope it's a good one for us all!

In case you missed them, DC's 2009 HOTWs: Batman (06/08); The Flash (06/15); Green Lantern (06/29); Superman (07/13); Hawkman (07/20); Batman (08/11); Aquaman (08/17); The Joker (08/25); Scarecrow (09/05); Green Arrow (10/04); The Flash (10/18); Solomon Grundy (11/01); Dr. Fate (11/15); The Sandman (11/22); Two-Face (12/13); Black Hand (12/31).

<< Hero of the Week 01/08: Wonder Woman       [Home]       Hero of the Week 12/27: The Hood >>

Originally posted: http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=9015028

BLACK HAND versus GREEN ARROW/SPEEDY
Blackest Night (DC comics)
Where: Green Lantern: Rebirth #1 When: December 2004 Why: Geoff Johns How: Ethan Van Sciver

The story so far...
When the space-villain Mongul would attempt to capitalize on the apparent death of Earth's Superman by joining forces with the villainous Cyborg-Superman; the ever-courageous Green Lantern, Hal Jordan, would be there to confront them.

Though Jordan would win the battle and save Earth from a fate of decimation, his home of Coast City and all it's citizens would be obliterated. Thus would begin the legendary fall from grace of one of the greatest Green Lantern's in the Corps history. It would begin with an attempt to resurrect the city with his ring, and end with the destruction of Oa and the entire Corps as he becomes -- Parallax!

Jordan would eventually die in a final act of nobility, using the power he amassed as Parallax to reignite the Earth's depleted sun. This act of redemption would be recognised in the after-life, seeing Jordan become the new human-host of the spirit of vengeance, the Spectre. As the Spectre Jordan would attempt to use his powers for redemption, but he deals with forces beyond his control...

Previous Form:
Green Arrow (#17): Multiple victories over crime boss; Danny Brickwell, & Red Hood.
Speedy (#335): A defeat at the hands of Red Hood, the resurrected Robin!
Black Hand: Making his debut in the Infinite Wars.

Tale of the tape...
Strength: Green Arrow 2 (Average)
Intelligence: Black Hand 5 (Professor)
Speed: Speedy 3 (Athlete)
Stamina: Green Arrow 4 (Athlete)
Agility: Speedy 3 (Acrobat)
Fighting Ability: Green Arrow 4 (Trained Fighter)
Energy Powers: Black Hand 5 (Lasers)


- William Hand was a naturally gifted inventor from birth, but despite these gifts of intelligence, he would eventually turn to a life of crime in a ploy for attention. Inventing a wand that could absorb residual energies left by interactions with the power of a Green Lantern ring.

Channeling the power through this wand, he turns the Green Lantern's power against them as Black Hand. His many defeats in this guise would eventually leave him emotionally unhinged, but not completely deter him from a life of crime.

- Having survived a cruiseship wreckage, and been washed ashore on a deserted island; wealthy playboy, Oliver Queen, is forced to hone his skills of archery as a means of survival.
When the island is beset by drug-runners, Queen turns his archery against them, and captures the lot, using their boats to return to civilization.

Upon his return a new sense of perspective remained with the billionaire, who would use his fortune to fund a life of crime-fighting as the costumed vigilante: Green Arrow!

Along with skills in archery, Green Arrow has also trained extensively in martial arts and hand-to-hand combat, including expanding his arsenal to include skills as a swordsman. His repetoire as an archer often features trick arrows to avoid killing his opponents, instead using concussive objects, nets, and other.

- Green Arrow would adopt and trained a ward in Roy Harper, who would grow-up to become a crime fighting archer in his own right. Following in this tradition, Queen would rescue an underage prostitute who, upon following his advice to meet with his alter-ego, would see through the duplicity and earn her place as his new sidekick; Speedy.

Like GA, Mia Dearden has had extensive martial arts and archery training, enjoying the mentorship of other heroes such as Black Canary and Connor Hawke; another Green Arrow sidekick, and replacement.

The Math: Green Arrow/Speedy The Pick: Green Arrow/Speedy

What went down...
Preparing for a night on patrol, Green Arrow and Mia Dearden are rocked by an explosion from the lower levels of Queen's Star City mansion! Responsible for the destruction, the Black Hand, who uses his energy manipulating wand to follow mass traces of the Green Lantern energies it runs on.

Blasting his way into the Queen sub-basement, Black Hand discovers a spare Green Lantern ring created long ago by Hal Jordan as an emergency contingency for his friend and ally, the Green Arrow.

His rummaging is brought to a halt as an arrow tears through the air to impale his hand against the brick wall. The shot knocks the ring and box from his hand.

Green Arrow quickly identifies the villain, familiar with him as one of Hal Jordan's old foes, which prompts a surprise appearance by the deceased hero. Jordan reveals he had hoped to speak with his friend, but actually has alterior motives for appearing in the mansion basement, as the energies of The Spectre swirl.

As his trademark cloak and washed out skin envelop Jordan, The Spectre's flaming energy glows in the emblem of the Green Lantern, evidence of the man beneath the spirit that so keenly seeks vengeance against evil.

For Black Hand's continued crimes against the Green Lanterns and those close to them, The Spectre condemns him to an ironic but relatively small taste of his justice: A non-lethal transliteration of his name into reality, seeing his hand turned to coal, which crumbles around the arrow that pinned it.

The wound cauterizes itself as Hal Jordan struggles from within the Spectre.
He disappears into a cloud of green smoke, leaving Black Hand in the care of his concerned friend, while the villain goes into shock.

The hammer...
It's difficult to be certain in any assessment of how incapacitated Black Hand was after being shot by GA/Mia, but for the sake of our overarcing exercise, I'll downscale them to assist: Making The Spectre/Hal Jordan the victor(s) on this occassion!

If you've taken any interest in the Green Lantern over the past couple of years, it's almost inevitable that you've either been recommended Rebirth, or the currently running Sinestro Corps War crossover event occurring in the GL books right now.

It's probably fair to say that the Green Lantern has struggled to find relevance since the controversial decision to twist Hal Jordan into a murdering villain.
Some might say that's due to an antiquated take on the superhero/science fiction genre, but others would say it's just been a matter of finding the right stories and creative teams.

The right writer certainly came along in the form of fan-favourite and revamp master of the 2000s; Geoff Johns. With the editorial decision to resurrect Hal Jordan, Johns was let loose with a formula that was simple, but effective enough that it resonated with not only fans old and new, but also the uninitiated.

Johns entered the arena with a very clear intent to exonerate Hal Jordan of his crimes, to restore him to his classic, vintage glory as an All-American superhero. The way he did this wasn't particularly brilliant - deferring blame to secret third-party influences in a classic 'the devil made me do it' twist - but what made Johns' efforts so endearing was the minutia between the less than stellar high-concept. It was the caring attention to surrounding detail, and an awareness of the broader spectrum of the events, that saw a winning formula.

The central plot-device of this series can be distilled to simple brilliance. Taking Hal Jordan's devolution into the self-proclaimed Parallax; Johns redefines the name, grafting it onto 'the devil' that made him do it, with the additional foresight to explain not only the classic 'yellow impurity' of the Silver Age stories, but also why it disappeared around the time of Jordan's moral demise.

Parallax: No longer the regrettable identifier for a hero's fall from grace, instead the malicious personification of fear as a primal force in reality. A creature that dogged the Guardians who created the Lantern Corps from the beginning of time, and is now the powersource for those who would join Sinestro's yellow perversion of the Green Lantern tradition.

Commitment to the story helps build it's resonance as it becomes the modern reference point for all Green Lantern stories to follow. In much the same wayJohn Broome and Gil Kane reinvented the Lantern concept, Johns polishes it off once more, making much less radical changes than the leap from Alan Scott to Hal Jordan, but with the same mythology expanding template.

I'm not sure if this is the Green Lantern story I'd recommend to the interested, but it's certainly a valued touchstone for those looking to be initiated beyond the rings and black and green costumes. It serves as an introduction not only to the mythology of Hal Jordan and the Green Lanterns, but is also, in some ways, a crash-course for the major players of the DC Universe, featuring members of the Justice League and Justice Society, as well.

Johns also throws in an array of villains, setting himself apart from many of his contemporaries even with the use of Black Hand, opting to mortally wound, but not kill him. Motivation for the decision or not, Johns exibits an all too rare value for consistent characterization and enhancement, that has seen even the silliest of villains grow to prominent icons. An approach that's helped put characters like Black Adam, and many others, back on the map.

And that's about all the recap time we have!
If you own a personal planner, cell phone, or calendar - you're probably aware that today is a Friday! That means, along with your guaranteed dose of action beamed direct from the Secret Earth, you'll find an entire cosmos of fisticuffs as Bahlactus puts out the call for yet more fighting, still!

More and more bloggers are taking the opportunity to go a little deeper into the comics, to discuss and feature various fights, characters, and concepts, which has us jazzed! Be sure to cruise the Infinite Wars archives, and then check out some of the action around the blogosphere!

The Fight: 3.5 The Issue: 5
[Like many other legacy characters from the DC Universe, many fans can identify with one particular Green Lantern over others. While my mispent youth involved combing over Hal Jordan stories, a retroactive love for Alan Scott could not be denied! And now that we've finally got Jordan on the books, you know who's next!]