Guardians of the Universe

Origin

Maltusian

An immortal race as ancient as life itself, the benevolent Guardians of the Universe desire a peaceful, orderly existence for all living beings, as well the pursuit of their own enigmatic agendas. They never allow emotions to infect their thoughts and actions. The Guardians created the Green Lantern Corps, an interstellar police force that now patrols the universe's 3600 space sectors. Each sector is designated two Green Lanterns on average, totaling 7200 officers. There are currently nine guardians on the council, four male and five females. One female has been left scarred by her recent encounter with the Anti-Monitor. The Guardians describe themselves as being so old, that when the first proteins were beginning to form life amongst the planets in the universe, they'd already long since had a thriving civilization on the planet Maltus. Originally blue skinned humanoids, the people of Maltus were immortals that had created an advanced civilization which was powered by scientific wonders unmatched in the universe. Over eons, the Maltusian people had developed powerful telepathic and cosmic powers. Their civilization was a paradise, until the greedy ambitions of one of their finest scientist led to a cosmic accident; the ramifications of which would have a profound impact on life throughout the universe. Although some specifics of this story are questionable (with an attempted thorough explanation in the story Ganthet's Tale), the general story is that, long ago in their history, the scientist known as Krona broke their highest law by constructing a machine capable of looking back into the dawn of creation. Krona had been repeatedly admonished against this heresy but had ignored all warnings in his desire for knowledge and power.

As a result of his arrogant disobedience, Krona unleashed an explosion of anti-matter which wiped out billions of years of time and created evil throughout the universe. Krona's rash act further resulted in the creation of the Anti-Matter universe and the Multiverse, the fracturing of time resulting in countless alternate dimensions. Feeling responsible for their brother’s actions, the Maltusians banished Krona, turning the madman into a being of pure energy sent on a wandering course throughout the cosmos. More seriously, the Maltusians knew that, as it had in the past, the universe would one day contract upon itself to be reborn by a new "big bang". Due to the anti-matter unleashed by Krona, the universe was deprived of sufficient matter necessary to ignite a new "big bang". As a result of the actions of one of their own, the universe and all existence would one day simply die out, never to be reborn.

Creation

Guardians of the Universe were created by John Broome and Gil Kane

Team Evolution

Oans / Guardians Of The Universe (Silver Age)

Oans / Guardians of the Universe (Silver Age)

The Maltusians decided to dedicate their species to policing the universe. By keeping evil and chaos in check they calculated that they would be able to preserve a sufficient amount of the existing universe to ignite the next "big bang". Through order and conservation the universe would be saved from extinction. Calling themselves the Guardians of the Universe, a group of Maltusians left Maltus and settled on the planet Oa, located at the center of the universe. The Guardians believed that emotion had clouded Krona's mind and was at the root of his evil. Emotion, they reasoned, was a fatal flaw of lesser creatures that lacked the vision and foresight of immortals such as the Guardians. While a creature with a lifespan measured in years could afford to act on concepts of love, honor, and duty, the Guardians must measure their actions against the fate of an entire universe over billions of years. Emotion was therefore a luxury they could not tolerate and, if they were to successfully steward the universe, the Guardians would need to forgo emotion all together.

Zamarons

Zamarons

After the failure of the Manhunters there were disagreements among the male Maltusian as to how they should go about the fight against evil. The female Maltusian preferred not to interfere in this matter, and by then the Maltusian had become immortal, essentially evolving past the need for reproduction. The women left Maltus and eventually colonized Zamaron. The Zamarons would create the Star Sapphires and harness the violet light of love.

Controllers

Controllers

A second group of Maltusians believed that direct control over the universe was the only option in protecting the cosmos. This group came to be known as the Controllers, a faction responsible for the Darkstars and for later attempting to harness the orange light of avarice.

Mesopotamian Gods

Before their female counterparts separated, a group of malevolent Maltusians found their way to Earth around 3000BC. These powerful beings masqueraded as the Babylonian deities and became gods throughout the Mesopotamian crescent. The sole hero of this group aided humans in vengeance against the other Mesopotamian gods and even learned to mate with humans.

Leprechauns

Leprechauns

Yet another group of Maltusians would leave before the incident with Krona and eventually settle down on Earth in Great Britain becoming the Leprechauns of legend.

Oans / Guardians Of The Universe (Post-Final Night)

Oans / Guardians of the Universe (Post-Final Night)

The Corps and Guardians were destroyed by Hal Jordan who was possessed by Parallax. The Guardians sacrificed their life force to preserve the life of one member of their order, Ganthet. Ganthet used this power to forge one last ring and travel to Earth, where he met with Kyle Ranyer in an alley. Ganthet give the ring to Rayner, who becomes the last Green Lantern. Later Kyle Rayner managed to resurrect the Guardians as babies. Ganthet raised children with the help of Zamarons. During a battle with Parallax where Ganthet was possessed by entity. He was eventually restore back normal and returned to Oa where he matured the infant Oans to their previous Guardians state. The Guardians set about rebuilding the Corps, expanding its ranks to 7200 Lanterns; two for every known sector of space. Oa was repopulated to its earlier glory and the Corps began reasserting its place as the law in the universe.

Major Story Arcs

NOTABLE PERIODS IN GUARDIANS HISTORY

Parallax

• Many eons ago the Guardians discovered how to manipulate a form of energy which they called "the Glow". They forged the Central Power Battery to store this energy, which was comprised of the collective willpower of the inhabitants of the universe. The discovery and control of this energy provided the Guardians with the means to combat evil and chaos in the universe.
• In one of their earliest acts the Guardians hunted and captured the fear elemental, Parallax. They imprisoned Parallax in a box that was stolen. After its retrieval, Parallax was moved to the Central Power Battery, resulting in the yellow impurity that originally plagued the Green Lantern Corps power rings.
• This may be how they learned of the the Entity and its connection to Earth.
• On Mars, the Guardians engaged the destructive race known as " The Burning" and split the race into two new species: the Green Martians and the White Martians. The Guardians altered their reproductive cycle, and instilled an inherent fear of fire to prevent this conquering species from ravaging the universe.

LEGION

• Threatened by its innate need for expansion and conquest the Guardians confined the locust-like race of Tchkk-Tchkki to their homeworld under an emerald force field. Without the ability to expand and conquer the Tchkk-Tchkki died off, forcing them to preserve their last life spark in the yellow armored behemoth, LEGION. LEGION killed many Lanterns in its quest for revenge against the Guardians.

"No man escapes the Manhunters!"

Agent Orange

Five Inversions

Halla's

• The Guardians created the robotic Manhunters to patrol the universe. When the Manhunters artificial intelligence concluded that the only way to prevent chaos was to exterminate all life, it resulted in the " Massacre of Sector 666" an event still clouded in mystery. The Guardians decommissioned the Manhunters, who rebelled against their own extermination. After a protracted war, the Guardians and Manhunters entered into an uneasy truce with the Manhunters being exiled beyond Sector 3600.
• The Guardians entered into a treaty with Agent Orange whereby they and their operatives would stay out of Vegan space. Due to this agreement the Omega Men have become the only peacekeepers in that planetary system.
• The demon sorcerers of the Empire of Tears were defeated and imprisoned by the Guardians on the Empire's throneworld of Ysmault.
• As a result of the engagement with the Empire of Tears, the Guardians resolved to remove magic from the universe. Although they were only partially successful, the magical energy which they did gather was forged into an orb called the Starheart. The Starheart was later the source of Alan Scott’s lantern ring.
• Reasoning that they needed sentient agents to exercise the judgment and compassion that the Manhunters failed to show, the Guardians formed the Halla, an intergalactic police corps wielding laser guns that fired the emerald energy. The first and most well known Halla was Kendotha Kr'nek who was murdered by Darkseid when she tried to liberate Apokolips.

The Reach

• Millennia ago after a lengthy war with the alien race known as the Reach, the Guardians reached a truce. The Reach crafted the Blue Beetle scarab as a means of combating their enemies, should a weapon against the Guardians be needed in the future.
• Another of the Guardians early attempts at combating evil came with the invention of the Green Glob. The Green Glob was an advanced teaching device formed out of emerald energy. It was programmed to educate beings throughout the universe and had the ability to alter reality to convey its lessons.
• When the entire Sector 3600 was revealed to be a living and insane being of godlike power, the Guardians imprisoned the Sector in a matrix of their making, paralyzing the Sector with the knowledge that the Guardians were its superiors.
• After the creature eventually known as Doomsday killed the Green Lantern Zharan Pel and hundreds of his fellow corpsmen, the Guardians of the Universe battled the monster on Oa where one Guardian sacrificed himself in battle, forcing Doomsday through a tear in space.
• The Guardians guided Kal-El (Superman) on his journey to Earth after their agent Tomar-Re was unsuccessful in preventing Krypton’s destruction.

THE GREEN LANTERN CORPS

While on Oa the Guardians set about creating a police force that would stem the tides of evil in the universe. Over time the Guardians appearance evolved from their original humanoid form to the smaller more cerebral persona they now assume. Their first attempt was to create a race of machines called the Manhunters, but there was a rebellion by the robot enforcers after their artificial programming concluded that order could be better maintained if they exterminated all life. Their second attempt was the formation of the Green Lantern Corps. Combining the energy from their own bodies, the Guardians constructed the Central Power Battery. The Battery resembled an enormous lantern and was capable of harnessing sentient willpower as a source of energy along the green spectrum of light. The Guardians drafted "the Book of Oa", a tomb containing the laws and the history of the Corps and selected representatives from across the universe to be their new police force. Originally, the Corps was comprised of a small group of select individuals who worked directly with the Guardians, however after the Lantern Raker Quarrigat was easily defeated by Darkseid, the Guardians expanded the Corps to greater numbers.

The Green Lantern Corps

The Guardians divided the Universe into 3600 Space Sectors, and appointed one member from each of those Sectors to patrol and manage that space. Every Lantern was equipped with a Lantern power ring and a miniature version of the Central Battery linked to allow the Lantern to recharge its ring remotely. The Guardians cautioned their Lanterns that within the Central Power Battery there was a yellow impurity, and that because of this impurity, their rings would be powerless against anything colored yellow. The Guardians withheld the true nature of this impurity from the Corps, simply explaining that if the impurity were to be removed, the rings would cease functioning. Knowing that some of their former mates, the Zamarons, had begun mating with the men of Korguar, the Guardians implanted a fail-safe in the Central Power Battery which caused it to reach critical mass should a Guardian or their agents take the life of a Korugarian male. Over time, the existence of this fail-safe was lost to history.

The Green Lanterns Corps faithfully served the universe for billions of years. Even though countless galaxies are comprised of federations, empires, and kingdoms, over time the Corps was widely recognized as the governing law throughout the universe. Through the Green Lantern Corps, the Guardians promulgated treaties, intervened in border disputes, dictated trade and federations, halted invasions, and in general, policed the universe; stemming the tide of chaos where necessary.

Although they present a united front, the Guardians have not always agreed among themselves. During the Crisis on Infinite Earths, a faction of six Guardians disagreed with the majority opinion to remain out of the war with the Anti-Monitor. This group splintered off and formed their own Corps, reviving Guy Gardner from his coma. Outfitting Gardner with a unique uniform and his own power ring, these Guardians instructed the brain damaged Lantern to recruit his own strike force to attack the Anti-Monitor. When the Guardian Appa Ali Apsa took human form to travel alongside Hal Jordan and Oliver Queen, he was exiled from the Guardians and stripped of his immortality for succumbing to emotion, after he had rescued his "friend" Hal from certain death. The Guardian Dawlakispokpok left his brethren to raise a family with his Zamaron wife, and would later defy the Guardians by attempting to recreate Krona's disastrous experiment.

FIRST DESTRUCTION

The Guardian Herupa Hando Hu expressed concern over how indecisive his brethren were during the Crisis. Alarmed that the splintering of the Guardians was a sign that the Guardians had lost their way, Herupa Hando Hu proposed that they reunite with their former paramours, the Zamarons, and retreat from this universe for an undetermined sabbatical. After defeating the Zamaron leader in combat and taking her as his consort, Herupa Hando Hu lead the Guardians and Zamarons beyond the universe.

The Guardians first vacation in 4 billion years

The Guardians had stated that they would not be returning and turned over control of the Corps to the Lanterns themselves. They tasked the Lanterns of Earth, specifically Percival, with protecting the " New Guardians" a group of super powered humans said to be the forefathers of the next race of Guardians. Appa Ali Apsa, now restored as a Guardian, would remain working on Oa in preparation for the ascension of the New Guardians. Without their masters' guidance the Corps broke up into smaller confederations such as the Green Lanterns of Klyminade and the Green Lanterns of Earth. When Sinestro destroyed the planet Bolovix II, a group of Lanterns captured the renegade and brought him to Oa for trial. A universal call was sent out and the Corps was momentarily reunited for a vote on whether or not Sinestro should face lethal punishment.

Sinestro is sentenced to death

After some debate, the Corps chose execution. No Lantern had been aware of the fail-safe in the Central Power Battery, but as a Korugarian male, Sinestro's death would trigger the battery’s meltdown. Although it appeared as if Sinestro was gone forever, turned into energy and placed into the battery, the battery’s fail safe was triggered and the Lanterns' power source heated up to critical mass. Only the intervention of Hal Jordan and Eddore of Tront prevented an explosion that would have killed all present. Eddore did not survive inside of the Central Power Battery, but emerged safely with one of the last working power ring in the universe. Without the Guardians present to restore the battery, the Corps disbanded . Oa was abandoned, leaving Appa Ali Apsa as its only steward.

APPA ALI APSA and THE RESTORATION OF THE CORPS

Over time, the solitude began to affect Appa Ali Apsa's mind, driving the Guardian into madness. He killed the former Green Lantern Priest when the Lantern resisted his attempts to meld their minds together. Appa then used his awesome power to lure a vulnerable and emotionally broken John Stewart back to Oa. There, Appa forced his mind into Stewart's while using his power to create a nightmarish world for him and Stewart to enjoy. Appa had recalled various cities which he had visited during his travels throughout the universe. He used his powers to rip these cities form their home worlds, resettling them on Oa into a mosaic world. Fighting the mad Guardian's control, Stewart was able to send a mental distress call to Hal . Jordan and Gardner responded to their friend’s distress and traveled to Oa, intent on stopping Appa’s insane plan. Knowing that the two Lanterns had little chance of defeating a fully powered and insane Guardian, Jordan sent his own distress signal to his former masters in the universe beyond our own. The Guardians returned and aided the heroes in destroying Appa Ali Apsa. Following their victory, the Guardians announced that they would be returning to this plane of existence and reforming the Green Lantern Corps.

A Guardian driven insane

The Guardians may have returned but had soon found that their secretive nature and lack of emotion were called into question by their new Corps. Hal had been appointed to recruit the first of many new Lanterns and his selection of independent minds differed from the Corps of old. The Lanterns more readily questioned the Guardians authority, and openly disagreed with the Guardians decision to maintain the Mosaic World on Oa for study, defying their masters and alerting the various home worlds to the location of their lost cities. When the renegade Guardian Krona returned to this plane of existence as Entropy he attacked Oa. Any being that attacked Entropy would lose years of its life. Hal was joined by other Lanterns who could not understand why the Guardians refused to engage Entropy in battle, given that they held immortal life spans compared to the faint years of the Lanterns. The Lanterns refused to fight for the Guardians until they explained themselves; resulting in the revelation that the universe would fail to be reborn should the Guardians not to live long enough to facilitate the next "big bang".

PARALLAX AND THE SECOND DESTRUCTION

However, the most damaging of the Guardians secrets was the concealment of Parallax, the living entity of fear which the Guardians had imprisoned in the Central Power Battery. Parallax was the true reason for the yellow weakness suffered by the Corps and has lingered within the battery for countless eons. When the Green Lanterns imprisoned Sinestro in the Central Power Battery the renegade Lantern made contact with Parallax, allowing Sinestro to use the fear entity as a weapon. During this time, Hal had suffered a terrible tragedy that would drive him to despair, weakening his resolve enough to allow Parallax to take hold of him through his power ring. Jordan’s hometown of Coast City as destroyed by Cyborg Superman and Mongul, and the hero who had worked so hard to rebuild his life had lost it all; his friends, his family, and his familiar memories.

Hal was devastated by this wholesale slaughter and attempted to use his power ring to recreate . Seizing on this weakened state, Parallax infected , twisting his mind so that Hal saw the Guardians as the reason why his home was destroyed. In his altered perception, the Guardians were cold and cruel. They possessed the power to remake but lacked the humanity to see that it was right to do so. Under this influence, he came to believe that the Guardians did not deserve the power they wielded and set of for Oa to take it for himself. He would use the power to restore and address all of the wrongs in his history that the selfish and unfeeling Guardians had not cared to correct.

Now fully under Parallax's sway, Hal carved a path of destruction through the ranks of the Green Lantern Corps. Taking rings as he defeated each Lantern Jordan arrived on Oa and confronted the Guardians. Their questionable leadership was only reinforced when the Guardians freed Sinestro from his imprisonment in the battery, and set him against Lantern Jordan . The villain secretly delighted in the chaos he had caused, and taunted Jordan in to "killing" him. An action he knew would further denigrate the once noble hero. Hal defeated the Lanterns, killed Sinestro, and would kill his former friend Kilowog, all to confront his former masters. The Guardians did not resist; their edicts against direct intervention paralyzing them from acting. The Guardians watched as he entered the Central Power Battery and drained it of its power, knowing that doing so would destroy the Guardians. However before he could complete his task, the Guardians sacrificed their life force to preserve the life of one member of their order, Ganthet. Ganthet used this power to forge one ring unlike any other ring seen before. Traveling to Earth, Ganthet had little power to spare on finding a qualified candidate to wield this ring. A chance meeting with Kyle Ranyer in an alley outside a club led to Rayner becoming the last Green Lantern.

THE TORCHBEARER AND THE CORPS REBORN

Ganthet finds the Last Lantern

Over time, Rayner distinguished himself as a Lantern working with Ganthet to slowly restore the Corps. Jordan’s own saga while possessed by Parallax would take the former hero on a journey from universal scourge, to martyrdom, to reluctant host of the Spirit of Vengeance, the Spectre. When Hal Jordan’s old friend, Tom Kalmaku was taken on a journey by an embodiment of Jordan’s will. Tom helped the former Lantern restore Oa, and some time after that, Kyle Rayner managed to resurrect the Guardians. The Guardians are raised as children by Ganthet, Kyle, and later the Zamarons, who Ganthet invited back to Oa for the purpose.

While patrolling into the farthest reaches of space, Kyle made contact with an ancient race which was gripped in fear over the return of something called Parallax. Learning the truth as to the nature of the fear entity Kyle Rayner confronted Ganthet regarding the true nature of Parallax. As Hal and the Spectre struggled with Parallax for possession of Hal's soul, Ganthet and Kyle recovered the once great Lantern's body entombed in the heart of the sun. During the battle against Parallax, the fear entity momentarily took hold of Ganthet, only to eventually be defeated by the combined might of Rayner and the Lanterns. Ganthet returned to Oa and matured the infant Guardians to their previous state. Fully in control of their power once more, the Guardians set about rebuilding the Corps, expanding its ranks to 7200 Lanterns; two for every known sector of space. Oa was repopulated to its earlier glory and the Corps began reasserting its place as the law in the universe.

THE WAR OF LIGHT AND THE NEW LAWS

The Guardians ordeal did not change their approach on dealing with the Green Lanterns. Often cold and inflexible the Guardians sequestered themselves for long stretches of time, rarely communicating with their Lanterns directly. The protocol Lantern Salakk has been entrusted with managing the day to day affairs of the Corps. The Guardians now issue the majority of their orders through Salakk and their gatekeeper and quartermaster Shorm. Recent events have called into question the wisdom of the Guardians actions. During the Sinestro Corps War, they rewrote the Book of Oa to allow for lethal force to be used, but later exiled one of the Corps finest officers, Laira, for killing Amon Sur. When the war moved to earth, the Guardians appeared and infused Lantern Sodam Yat with the power of Ion before personally engaging the Anti-Monitor, furious at his previously imprisoning them during his last bid at Multiversal Domination.

The Guardian's Revenge

The Guardian who has come to be known as " Scar" was disfigured by the Anti-Monitor's anti-matter/matter explosion. Guardian-7 stood alone against Superboy-Prime and sacrificed himself in battle. As Prime tried to dig his fingers into Guardian-7's head, he released his awesome energies to banish the villain outside of the known Universe. Following the wars end, the Guardians created a controversial internal affairs division, the Alpha Lanterns, using radical surgery to implant Manhunter technology into the program's recruits. The Guardians imprisoned dozens of Sinestro Corps soldiers, including Sinestro himself captured by their Corps. Sinestro was allowed to be taken to Korugar for execution.

The harnessing of the yellow spectrum by Sinestro was a warning to the Guardians that the War of Light may be approaching. Another secret kept by the Guardians, the War of Light was a prophecy first discovered by Abin Sur on the prison planet Ysmault. The prophecy speaks of a war among several Corps each harnessing a different spectrum of light. This war will tear the universe apart and usher in "the Blackest Night"; the end of the universe. Troubled by the appearance of first the yellow spectrum, then later manifestations of orange, red, and violet the Guardians debated internally as to how to prevent this war. The majority of the Guardians hoped to contain the other spectrums, ordering their Lanterns to hunt and destroy each manifestation as they appeared. Ganthet and the Guardian Sayd believed that the prophecy could not be stopped and that the Corps must be made aware of the long heralded danger ahead. Condemned for "embracing fear" as well as for their love for one another, Ganthet and Sayd were expelled from the Guardians counsel. In exile, the two Guardians used their power to harness the blue spectrum "the color of hope" creating the first ring of a new Corps that would stand ready to intervene when the prophecy has arrived.

During the rise of the Zamarons' Star Sapphires, the Guardians become uneasy about their burgeoning power. Scar, suggesting a diplomatic mission, uses the situation to manipulate the Guardians into acting against Love, the Zamaron power source. Intentionally ruining the diplomatic mission, and citing the Sinestro Corps attacks against Lantern families, she manipulates the other Guardians into creating the Third New law, which forbids love between Lanterns (This would later be repealed), with the idea of weakening the Green Lantern Corps. from within. At this time, Hal Jordan returns to Oa with a Blue ring. The Guardians attempt to force the ring off of him, but the ring refuses to budge. At almost the exact same time, Salaak and John Stewart bring in the injured Green Lantern, Stel, who had been branded with the Orange Lantern symbol. The Guardians, shocked by this, are threatened by a construct of Larfleeze, the Agent Orange, who had been confronted by the Controllers. despite the Guardian's assurances that the Controllers were not associated with them, Larfleeze begins to make demands of them under threat of his Corps., though Scar blasts the construct, saying "The Guardians do not negotiate with Terrorists". She then tells the other Guardians that they must get personally involved with the War of Light. Having been feigning sickness for some time, she did not accompany them and their force of lanterns to the Vega System to confront Larfleeze. The Guardians were ambushed by Larfleeze's Corps. when on planet, and fought their way with their Lantern guards to Larfleeze's sanctuary. Once inside, Hal Jordan who had been kidnapped during the battle unleashed the power of his blue ring and defeated the Orange Lantern. The Guardians considered killing Larfleeze, but one Guardian pointed out that the Orange Light could not be extinguished, and therefore it would be wiser to allow the one they knew about to exist rather than have to deal with an unknown. In return for his placation, they gave up the location of Odym, home of the Blue Lanterns, believing this would keep Larfleeze out of Corps. business.

Meanwhile on Oa, Scar unleashes the recently captured Red Lantern, Vice, and uses the ensuing prison riot to destroy the protective shell the Guardians installed over Oa after the Sinestro Corps War, leaking information to the computers that the Children of the White Lobe were responsible. The Guardians returned to find the planet in uproar, and ordered the Alpha Lanterns to contain the threat using the Phalanx maneuver. car then manipulated her fellow Guardians into ordering the Alpha's to kill the rioters, hoping for more Black lantern hosts.

The Blackest Night

The Guardians return to their Citadel, and realize they could never have stopped the War of Light, watching it blaze across the universe. They decide to prepare for it, and are about to execute a Code Zero, when on Ryut, the Black Lantern Central Power Battery spews out billions of black rings. Scar reveals herself at last, seizing one of her fellow Guardians and viciously killing him. Using her powers of the Black, she immobilizes the other Guardians before they can act, and reveals that she's been dead since the Anti-Monitor touched her. She teleports them to Ryut, and shackles them to the Black Battery, telling them that she is only fulfilling their ancient promise to bring order to the universe, and forcing them into a sleep.

Upon the Battery coming to 100% power, she warps it, herself, and the Guardians to earth, where Black Hand summons Nekron to rise.

Several attempts are made by the Flash, Ganthet and Sayd, the New Guardians, and other heroes to free the Guardians from their imprisonment, but all are unsuccessful. Nekron murders one of them, Black Hand using his gutted innards to summon the Life Entity, which Ganthet explains is the origin of all life. He also explains that the Guardians, upon finding it, realized life first began on earth, despite the Guardians being the first sentient beings, and that they hid the Entity, and the earth, so as to protect the Entity from exploitation.

The Brightest Day

Upon the defeat of Nekron, the Guardians return to their Citadel to oversee the rebuilding of Oa. Secretly distraught by their depleted number (now being down to 6), and the fact that their Corps. has lost some faith in them, the Guardians are reluctant to see anyone. Salaak, Kyle Rayner, and Arisia however, force entry. Arisia punches one of the Guardians, having believed them to have stopped Sodam Yat accessing the Ion power, which facilitated his necessity of flying into the Daxam Sun. They explain that this was done by the Rogue Guardian Scar, and that they had no hand in it, being in the Vega system at the time. Kyle Rayner makes several points about their recent behavior, in particular the Third law. After the Lanterns leave, and some pointed words from Salaak, the Guardians consider, and decide unanimously to repeal the law.

Not long after, Ganthet appears before them, and resigns his position as a Guardian of any Corps. The Guardians express their sadness that he will not join them back as a Guardian, but respect his decision when he asks them to "do what immortals find almost impossible", which is to have faith in him. They sincerely wish him luck, and ask him to tell them of what he discovers in his future, and to not underestimate their ability to understand. They then make him the official Green Lantern of Sector 0000.

Other Versions

Other Media

DCAU

They first appear in Superman: The Animate Series where they ask Superman to help Kyle battle Sinestro. Strangely, they wear GLC uniforms in this appearance.

They next appear in Justice League episode "In Blackest Night" where they attend John's trial and later defend OA from attack. They appear briefly in the JLU episode "The Return" where they deny John's request to leave earth and take a tour of duty on OA.

Other

They appear briefly at the end of Batman the Brave and the Bold episode "The Eyes of Despero".

Film

They appear in Justice League: The New Frontier.

They have also appeared in the Green Lantern: First Flight animated movie.