Friday, April 03, 2009

Some Last-Minute Glorification...


Over at Green Lantern Butt's Forever, SallyP has just wrapped up "Glorify Guy Week", and I'm hoping I can slip one more under the wire to showcase another of Guy's best moments.

This moment comes to us from Adventures of Superman Annual#4, which was part of the "Eclipso: The Darkness Within" Annuals crossover. Reader's Digest Version: Eclipso wants to gain ultimate power, and to do so he "eclipses" some of the DCU's most powerful heroes, including Green Lantern (Hal), Flash (Wally), Power Girl, Wonder Woman, and Superman, among others, placing his consciousness in their bodies and giving them half-moon faces and Spock-ears. The remaining uneclipsed heroes locate the eclipsed Supes hiding out in an active volcano and confront him before the sun goes down (the "eclipsees" were fearful of the sun as prolonged exposure to it freed the victims from Eclipso's influence).

Right before the big showdown, a golden yellow rocket shoots down from the sky headed toward the heroes. Suddenly, the rocket "unzips" to reveal Guy debuting his new (at the time) outfit and power set. This was right after he lost his power ring to Hal and had just acquired the Sinestro ring. Guy was in what I call his "not a GL, not yet a Warrior" phase, with the jeans and "G"-monogram leather jacket.

The heroes confront Eclipso Supes inside the volcano and he singlehandedly kicks the crap out of them, including Guy, with Metamorpho and Lobo getting damaged pretty badly. Worse, all their fighting activates a volcano, endangering the village. The heroes stabilize the volcano's threat, no thanks to Guy, who appears to be running off. More ass-kicking by Eclipso Superman ensues. Ice is one of the last heroes standing. Supes is about to kill her when suddenly a voice rings out: "Hey, ECREEPO!"

It's Guy, and he hasn't come back emptyhanded. He apparently hadn't run out after all, but rather travelled to the sun and brought back a big ol' vat full of solar matter, which he proceeds to dump on Eclipso Supes (making sure Ice and all other vulnerable heroes are free and clear, of course). In classic Guy fashion, he even comes in close to rub the the solar matter right in Supes' face while dragging him into the volcano. Moments later, Supes emerges from the volcano, back to his normal uneclipsed self and carrying an unconscious Guy Gardner, with a vague remembrance of Guy rescuing him.

After the JLI, Eclipso, and even Superman had underestimated him, Guy came through with flying colors.

4 Comments:

At 1:47 PM , Blogger SallyP said...

Ooooh, that's a good one indeed. For all his complaining and posturing, everyone forgets that Guy always DID come through in the end.

He just seldom got the credit for it.

 
At 7:28 AM , Blogger Sea-of-Green said...

Oh, MAN, that entire Eclipso crossover storyline was just ... well, it wasn't quite as weird as Millennium, but it had its moments.

I wonder when DC is going to collect THIS one in a trade?

 
At 8:52 AM , Blogger SallyP said...

The art is simply gawdawful, but I rather liked the story...mainly because Guy rather shines in it...eventually anyway.

And,as you say, it's not as ridiculous a Millenium.

 
At 3:50 PM , Blogger notintheface said...

Godawful art? If you mean the cover art, that was drawn by future Marvel Editor-in-chief Joe "I Hate The Spider-Marriage" Quesada and inked by Jimmy "I Love The Amanda Conner Marriage" Palmiotti. This cover wasn't one of their best.

But if you mean the interiors, au contraire! Those were pencilled and inked by Bob McLeod, and they looked nothing like the Quesada cover. Hint: If you liked Kurt Schaffenberger or the Buscema brothers (particularly John) in the old days or if you like Barry Kitson today, you'd probably like Bob McLeod. He's also one of my favorite inkers of all time, and fortunately he was inking his own stuff here. I thought it was detailed with a solid old-school 70's grasp of anatomy, and it told the story quite nicely.


(Granted, it still might not have been your cup of tea, but I just wanted to keep memories from getting confused.)

 

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