When did we stop looking up?
Heroes should have some kind of virtue. Heroes should be role models. Yes, I know, that's kind of an outdated, antiquated concept, but why are we celebrating jackasses?
You can argue that Guy Gardener is a jerk, BUT at least he's OUR jerk. He's on OUR side.
I beg to differ. We live in a world where citizens want to DEFUND the police. Citizens are protesting ICE doing an ugly, thankless job of separating citizens from illegal aliens. You can call them "undocumented" all you want, but if you try to get into a concert or a sports game without a ticket, you're not an "un-ticketed audience member". There is a disrespect that borders on lawlessness and chaos. The debate rages due to bad apples. Guy Gardner is a bad apple. His gimmick only works in comic books and maybe stretched thinly in live action. I like Nathan Fillion- I really do - however, his portrayal of Guy Gardner is troubling mostly because it's so spot on. My gut tells me that if Guy Gardner were a real person, things would not stop at "one-punch" from Batman. One of his fellow heroes might just kill him and hide the body.
There's a theory that if Gilligan's Island were real, the other six castaways would actually KILL Gilligan. After a while, they'd get tired of him ruining every hope and chance of rescue. They'd kill him and maybe eat him.
My gut tells me that there is a very fine line between Guy Gardner and Sinestro.
Sinestro is the former Green Lantern that trained Hal Jordan. Sinestro was arrogant. Sinestro was a jerk. Eventually, he got tired of following. He got tired of being told. Sinestro eventually wanted to do things HIS own way. So, he found the one weakness of the Green Lanterns. The conceit is that the Green Lanterns' ONE weakness is yellow. So, the Sinestro Corps - imagine that: he named the corps after himself! - bears the YELLOW power ring of FEAR. At one time, both Batman and The Scarecrow were pawns of the Sinestro Corps for their ability to inspire fear.
If Guy Gardner were real, he'd be the cop caught choking someone. He'd be the one caught with his knee on someone's throat. He just strikes me as reckless in his arrogance.
Heroes can be accidentally reckless. It does happen. A hero shouldn't be arrogant and reckless. I'm looking for some quality that separates Guy from Sinestro and I'm not seeing it. Are you?
Unfortunately, Guy is part of a pack of anti-heroes. Or characters that are supposed to be "bad ass", which is supposed to be cool. Unfortunately, Guy Gardner is just a dumbass jackass with a Moe Howard haircut and way too much power. My gut tells me that, like Gilligan, other super-heroes would get tired of his ****, or the Guardians on OA would get tired of his ****, and either he'd start his own Corps, like Sinestro, or he'd be a dumbass jackass without a power ring.
Heroes should always inspire a person to look up. To be someone and something better. Guy's an arrogant, cocky, oafish, reckless, selfish, loud-mouthed bully. He's not "bad ass". Still, I am looking for redeeming qualities. Not seeing any. I know that he had a relationship with Ice before her passing.
What Guy needs is some sort of re-direction. If you're good at what you do, nobody really focuses or pays attention to your personality or attitude. You might be able to get away with being a jackass if you're actually smart and good at what you do. Like Sherlock Holmes.
Guy Gardner may just be dumb. But he's very close to being an evil super-villain. That's not the kind of role model anyone needs.
That's just one fan's opinion. And you're entitled to it!
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