This is the thread where I ask questions about I Can't Believe It's Not the Justice League

Or what Huk managed to say in just 10 words.

Okay, who's the chick who's in fact not pregnant?

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My public cluelessness on this thread is my penance for only reading DCU books written by Grant Morrison.

Also, a lot of the characters created during their run (Manga Khan / the tribe on & the island of Kooey Kooey Kooey) don't get used too often outside of their books, and it's probably for the better (given what directly followed the Giffen / DeMatteis run). G'nort is a notable exception, tho - he was used during Winick's GL, right?

Okay, short history of (pre-Emerald Dawn II and whatever else happened in the 90s that I mercifully missed out on) Guy Gardner.

In Green Lantern (second series) #59 (reprinted in #184), Hal Jordan, Green Lantern of Space Sector 2814 is hanging out on Oa, homeworld of his pimps, the Guardians of the Universe. Using a freaky moving image speculation machine, he watches an alternate history play out where, instead of him, his predecessor Abin Sur of the alien world Ungara selected a Mr. Guy Gardner (an obvious homage to Golden & Silver Age doyen, Gardner Fox) as Earth's Green Lantern. This red-head gym teacher performs his role well, and then, one day, while returning from Oa by a route Hal Jordan never took, Guy stumbled upon a world where kids and adults were at war. He stopped the war, saved the planet, and was on his jolly way. Once he got back to Earth, however, he realized that he had contracted a deadly Yellow Fever on this alien world and died, choosing Hal Jordan as his successor, proving that Hal Jordan was fated to be GL.

Though John Stewart was the official back-up GL, he was unavailable in the late 70s when GL was having strange problems with his ring. Finally, Guy Gardner gets his chance to shine. With one of Jordan's innumerable spare rings and Jordan's own power battery (which charges the ring every 24 hours), Guy teams up with Green Arrow and eats chili in between FITES with Dr. Ojo and the Crumbler.
Unbeknownst to any of the players in this tragedy, the problem Hal Jordan was worried about wasn't with his ring, but with his power battery, which had been corrupted by exposed to the Crumbler's crumbling glove.
While charging his ring at Oliver (Green Arrow) Queen's apt., Guy Gardner is seemingly disintegrated when the battery explodes. Hal Jordan returns too late to save him, and goes to break the bad news to Gardner's psychic girlfriend, Kari Limbo.
Hal Jordan, having never met a piece of tail he couldn't pwn, gets jiggy with Limbo, and they decide to get married.
Featuring the cast of dozens (and the final issue of the Green Lantern/Green Arrow team-up), Green Lantern/Green Arrow #122, is to be the wedding issue--but:

http://www.comics.org/graphics/covers/2327/200/2327_2_122.jpg !

It turns out Guy wasn't killed after all, just sent to the Phantom Zone, where he could only watch as Hal Jordan moved in on his girl. Goaded on by fellow PZers like General Zod, Guy finally lashes out. Hal Jordan and Superman enter the P'Zone and rescue Guy, but in the process he is injured and is comatose.

He spends the next few years in a coma, until, during the Crisis on Infinite Earths, the Guardians need a GL to run a suicide mission to Qward, in the Anti-Matter universe. "Hey, what about that comatose guy?"
So they use their magicks (as it was called back then) to revive, but, surprise, surprise, Guy's a wee bit brain-damaged and a whole lot bitter. Nonetheless, Guy leads a crew of space-villains and Hal Jordan (who had since retired from the Corps for another woman, but was trying to get his job back) to Qward.
The rest of the Corps stopped the mission, which would have accidentally destroyed the positive matter universe as a side-effect (fucking Guardians never think anything through).
The Guardians decide they've lost their cool, and go off into a parallel dimension to make whoopee with the Zamaronian space-babes who are way too hot for them.
Guy gets sent to Maltus, the Guardians' original homeworld, to get schooled by a former Guardian, but he busts out, goes to Earth and demands to recognized as the greatest GL ever.
He's brash and stuff and a hot-headed jerk, and nearly starts WWIII after fellow GL Kilowog defects to the Soviet Union to help with the Rocket Red program.

It's not until he joins the Justice League after the LEGENDS cross-over whizz-bang, that he starts being a really interesting character though. Giffen and DeMatteis really ride him for all he's worth, and then, after a confrontation with team leader Batman (the famous ONE PUNCE incident), Guy suffers another series of bumps to the noggin and becomes a sweet and docile thing.

Needless to say, he eventually gets bumped again.

The big reveal at the end was there because Guy Gardner was the lynchpin of the old series. He was the Archie Bunker/Al Bundy of the team.

http://buzzscope.com/previewer.php?id=4078&p=2

But, y'know, he is a comics artist, so I guess he's allowed.

I'm thinking a Slott / Maguire collaboration could be a thing of beauty.

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OK, Matthew - for forgetting THEE X-ARTIST TEAM, it's on.

though I guess Adam Hughes on JLA did help to downplay that so yr point is valid

he seems really good on the Marvel stuff. I think Giffen's hyper-small panels are killing him on the JLC run.

his Image? Malibu? Anonymousstartupverse? series in the '90s went for big panels and action scenes, and did not succeed very well (compared to his over-laboured small panels of faces)

DEFENDERS #1

Written by Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis, pencils and cover by Kevin Maguire.

Wong possessed by Nightmare! Dormammu and Umar in unholy alliance! The Hulk and the Sub-Mariner at each other's throats! The Silver Surfer...uh...surfing. Can Doctor Strange reunite the Defenders and save "Reality As We Know It?" Come to think of it, can editor Andy Schmidt save the Marvel Universe from creators Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis and Kevin Maguire? Only the Ancient One knows for sure!

32 pages, $2.99, in stores on July 20.

Yeah, an ongoing like that wouldn't be a good idea (well, it COULD,, but I doubt it), but what I was saying was - if this is going to be a 4-issue mini, SAY SO! Don't dick around retailers (& fans) w/ thoughts of a regular series when that's not what the deal is.

that Doom Patrol thing was terrible! missed the point and the tone of Morrison's series altogether, and on top of that lamed out with a "HA HA HE IS ON THE DRUQKS" write-off of the work.