Guy Gardner: Year One is the origin story for the (former) Green Lantern Guy Gardner by Chuck Dixon and Joe Staton.
Synopsis
Yesterday's Sins
Guy Gardner gets kidnapped by a race of aliens called the Draal, who plan to make a clone to act as a sleeper agent on Earth. Since the Draal targeted Green Lanterns, they initially looked for Hal Jordan. But they find more profit in Guy Gardner, who wears a more powerful ring.
In the Draal spaceship, Guy meets some Green Lanterns also kidnapped and stripped of their rings. They've been locked and cloned long before Guy's arrival, but he leads them on a breakout plan.
Through a series of mind-probing sessions, the Draal learn and register Guy Gardner's past to transfer his memories to the clone. This "trip through Memory Lane" causes Guy to remember long-repressed memories of his childhood in Baltimore, about his abusive and alcoholic father and his brother Mace, who kept overshadowing Guy. Guy suffers a crisis of conscience when he relives the day that Mace got shot and his subsequent suicide, which only dragged his family in disgrace.
In time, the Draal finish transferring Guy's memories to his clone. However, Guy tampering with the process caused his clone to come out as a twisted copy of himself, with his same skills and powers but lacking all restraint or morale. The Lanterns manage to escape from their cell and defeat the Draal. Still, Guy's clone breaks out of the spaceship and heads toward Earth, where he poses as Guy and takes his place in the Justice League.[1]
Powerless and with his mind a mess, Guy convinces the Lanterns to take over the ship and fly him to Earth, both to take care of his clone and face his family's past.
Aftermath: The Trouble with Gus
Even though his fellow Leaguers noticed a change in "Guy"'s attitude, his facade was finally revealed when he executed an alien fugitive taking refuge on Earth.[2] The real Guy Gardner returned in time to expose his evil clone and clean his name. Even though Joe was capable of overpowering the entire Justice League, Guy defeated Joe with the help of his fellow Green Lantern inmates, who teleported Joe back to the Draal spaceship, locked him in a stasis field, and stripped him from Guy's ring, giving it back to its owner.[3]
Issues
Notes
- The events of this storyline conclude in the two-part crossover "The Trouble with Guys," which takes place in:
Recommended Reading
Links and References
  This event or storyline specifically revolves around the Green Lantern of Earth, or the Green Lantern Corps as a whole. This template will automatically categorize articles that include it into the Green Lantern Storylines category. |