Growing Up Gardner: Analyzing Beau Smith's Warrior.

I love Warrior. I do. Not many people actually understand why. It's crazy, the art is weird, the stories seem to make no sense, it's an insane jumble of testosterone-overloaded action-packed incoherency.

But I really do think there's more to it than that.

I think that Beau Smith's run on Guy Gardner: Warrior is a story about growing up.

Wherein Kalinara Dissects WarriorGuy Gardner is a character of transition and dynamic growth. The Guy Gardner of JLI/GL v3/early GG:W is for all intents and purposes a child. He's got a very simplistic understanding of the world. Abstract concepts are pretty much beyond him. He sees things very immaturely, in black and white. He wants to do what he wants to do without any real awareness of consequences.

He claims to hate Hal, fights him at every opportunity, but as soon as Hal wants out, he's doing his best to provoke and annoy him back into the job. And even the relationship with Ice, his sole means of displaying softer emotions, is really a child's relationship.

He takes her to things he thinks are fun regardless of the inappropriateness, and the real clincher, when he tells Kilowog the usual completely exaggerated stories about his role in the Justice League, he doesn't tell him they're sleeping together or dating, he tells him he's going to marry her. I know many men have ambitions of marriage, but the expression of it in this manner is very much a child's fancy.

If superhero comics are adolescent power fantasies, then the beginning of Guy Gardner: Reborn/Guy Gardner: Warrior is an 8-10 year old's power fantasy. Taking on the universe, breaking the rules, no one telling you what to do, to play as you want... The only time this really changed was in Dixon's flashback arc, but even that really emphasized Guy Gardner's childish mentality. The bowl-cut's origin was revealed as a young boy's attempt at escapist fantasy. Parallels ended up drawn between the Guardians and his father, Hal and his brother, using his childhood relationships to underscore his adult ones.

However, when Beau Smith took over Warrior things started to change. He started it with Emerald Fallout, in which Guy and others go to Oa and end up confronting and being beaten badly by Parallax. It was one hell of a brutal fight and the first real step in moving Guy past the childhood stages. Then the story actually started and it was the story of a boy growing up.

A good portion of the developmental transformation came about presumably due to both the flashbacks in the Dixon story and the reparation of his brain damage in the Smith run, but the mental capacity is only a small part of it. As I mention in my Women of Warrior post, Guy's very much at a loss, uncertain and confused. He's rather shockingly innocent (getting freaked out by Veronna's proposition, not catching his own double entendres...). He's got a better mental capacity, but still lacks the emotional maturity.

(It's an interesting tangential thought that given his 3 years in catatonic state, even healthy, he's probably mentally only a few years older than Kyle.)

It's the series itself that actually moves the character from child to man.

This symbolism is emphasized through the narrative itself, the first story after Emerald Twilight is a pulp adventure story, a bunch of guys trompsing through a jungle looking for treasure. A child's story. But not long after that, things start to change. Guy's stories start getting more adult and closer to home. They're about specific enemies (more about them later), his family and friends...there's still the occasional space adventure, but in general the stories toward the end, whether comedic or dramatic, have more drastic consequences and are much "older" in feel than the earlier one.

One can see the difference in the construction of Guy's supporting cast. Before Smith took over, his biggest supporting cast member was General Glory, who was something of a (slightly twisted) father figure. General Glory's claim to fame was being the hero little Guy looked up to, and thus the single person aside from Ice who had any sort of influence over brain-damaged Guy. He was a glorified babysitter, really. However, Smith's Warrior phased him out pretty quickly, instead introducing Buck Wargo as Guy's older male influence. Buck was a guide and even a mentor figure (in his own weird way), but he was never a babysitter.

Even when Guy was a little saner after the Dixon story, Glory still interacted with him like a child, overpowering and domineering, as on this page from GG 16. (One day I will post my I hate General Glory post) In contrast, Buck would subtly push Guy into taking more adult responsibility, up to and including cheating to win the card game that pushed Guy into owning the bar. (Terms were: You win, I sell it back and keep the money, I win, you keep the bar and run it.) Buck treated Guy like someone of less experience but equal potential and pushed him towards that.

The rest of his supporting cast all play into the burgeoning adolescence theme: Desmond, Joey and Rita as the goofy group of friends to get in trouble with, Arisia as little sister, and Veronna...well, Veronna's a special case.

Warrior is, at its heart, a story about loss of innocence and painful growth. Emerald Fallout begins it all by tearing away the two most obvious elements of Guy's childish nature: the yellow ring and the annoying little brother relationship with Hal.

The yellow ring brings to mind another bit of adolescence symbolism in relation to Guy's powers. A Green (or Yellow) Lantern ring, while based on will-power of course, is really a weapon of creativity and imagination. These are traits that children possess in abundance, naturally. Now in Emerald Fallout, the ring is absorbed back into Parallax, and in a few issues, Guy will have Vuldarian powers. Think about that for a moment. Childish imagination disappears with the onset of scary, initially-uncontrollable and traumatic transformations of the body. One of the most important aspects of the story is Guy learning to control and get used to his new powers. In the last panel of Warrior, we have Guy, in full Warrior form, leaning back in his chair, *finally* comfortable in his own skin.

That doesn't sound like puberty at all, does it? (In an amusing note, during GG:W 24, Ice's mother Olaf comments that his voice changed :-).)

(On another tangent, I've heard rumor that Beau Smith wanted to get rid of the bowl cut because it's a "child's hair cut". Which given the Dixon backstory, is particularly true. Thus there's an odd sort of gravity to the scene when he's in Rita's chair getting it clipped off. :-))

The loss of Hal is a worse blow though. The hardest part of growing up is having to let go and to face loss. Hal's fall from grace completes the set up parallel to Mace, a loss that marked the end of innocence for pre-damaged Guy as well. The loss of Ice, when he wasn't there, demonstrating the hard lesson that sometimes bad things happen to those you care about, even when you're not there. The loss of Hal and Tora, rarely addressed outright, is a very palpable presence throughout the series. Mace's death emphasizes a lesson of futility, that sometimes, no matter how much one tries, there are some things that can't be fixed. And Arisia's was a lesson about the abruptness of violence. There are bad people out there who hurt others, for no good reason. It's a hard lesson for anyone to take.

This helps culminate in the end of the series, at Arisia's funeral. Hal-as-Parallax wants to pay his respects and Guy, against all expectation, allows him to. It's the first step toward true adult forgiveness/acceptance.

Now where the Warrior-as-adolescence comparison really gets interesting is in terms of two of the major villains. Dementor and Martika. Because if you look at them in terms of symbolism, you get the very backbone of adolescent development. You get sex.

Hear me out.



This is Dementor. For most of Smith's run of Warrior, he is the main badguy. In storyline terms, he's the product of the first Vuldarian/Human union, born twisted and vile, fond of messing with his "little brother". He lived for a long time in Guy's head and claims credit for the shifts in Guy's personality to brat and "Miss Manners", he's also the one who turns Guy into a woman and leers about his chest size. More on that in a bit.

The first time I saw Dementor I was taken aback because honestly, and this might just be my gutter mind acting up again, he kind of reminded me of a bizarre collection of sex organs. From the patterning of the heads on his torso, to the tentacles, to that hair. He's frightening. And then, considering what he *says*. This guy's disgusting enough to make Johnny Sorrow seem tasteful. He's pretty damn horrifying...and icky.

But here's where I go a little TMI on you. When I was seven or eight and peeking around places I shouldn't have been, I ended up stumbling across a pornographic magazine. Now I'd actually had the sex talk at this point but I hadn't really understood it. I basically knew just enough to go "Oh, this must be sex." And...well...it was *scary*. There were all these parts going where they didn't seem like they should fit, their faces looked weird, I thought they must be in pain! It looked horrible and at the same time because I knew I wasn't supposed to be seeing that sort of thing, I felt icky like I needed a bath. It was a very unpleasant feeling.

Seeing this character kind of brought that feeling back. That mix of disgust and horror and...ickiness. And I realized that that's how Dementor's supposed to be. Dementor's a child's fearful, uncomprehending idea of sex.

Guy's in a weird situation because while brain damaged, he still had the body and the sex-drive of an adult, even though he had the personality of a child. He might understand the idea behind sex, even remember having it, but who knows how much he actually comprehends. Dementor is a scary disgusting figure that starts out living in his head...which could very well be a representation of a sex drive in someone not quite mature enough to understand it. He claims to have "created" the brain damaged guy we all know and love...well, children who learn the birds and the bees are indeed taught that mommy and daddy had to do...that...to have a baby even if the most they understand about it is what goes where.

Dementor is the fright a child has when stumbling into his parents' bedroom when they're "wrestling" and fearing that Daddy's hurting Mommy. Dementor is the ickiness and unease that happens when your body starts doing weird and naughty things and you don't really know why.



Now what makes Martika noticeable is that an issue after she first shows up, Dementor immediately is neutralized as any sort of threat to her and made subordinate. Martika has psychic power over men, which she uses on everyone, but especially Guy as soon as she shows up. She's irresistable with all the men under her spell.

Where Dementor is a child's confused and uncomprehending idea of sex, Martika is a teenager's. She's not alien or monstrous looking because teenagers know full well what sex actually is and what it entails at this point. She's beautiful of course because sex is appealing and fun. But well, to be honest, there's some merit in the saying that teenagers are ruled by their gonads. And in this case, Martika's an extreme example of this. There's no substance, there really isn't even consent, just mindless, out of control lust. She's the idea young people have that their lust and desire is beyond their control, the need to do it and the need to do it now that leads young people to occasionally make very unwise choices. There is no awareness or responsibility or control with the Martika metaphor.

Dementor still exists, but he's shadowy and subordinate. Martika is the primary view of sex, Dementor's instead the scary taboos left.



Which is what makes issue 42 so damn fascinating. Basically, Dementor's done the ultimate taboo, he's turned Guy Gardner into a woman. Now this is a) quite funny, but b) pretty damn interesting symbolism too.

I mean think about your average teenage boy for a second. Think of the institutionalized homophobia in our culture and the way in which anything even remotely seen as effeminate is anathema to teenage boys. But the thing is, deep down, every woman has an animus (male side) and every man has an anima (female side), because really, what we consider gendered traits, lust (male) compassion (female) for example exist in both men and women. It's just conventional assumption that labels them male or female.

Now the important part of growing up is accepting all of who you are. Some people never reach this point. It's particularly hard for men, I think, because there's more leeway for women to express "masculine" traits than there is for men to express "feminine" traits. It's what separates adolescence from adulthood. When Dementor turns Guy into a woman, he's representing the character's own shocking face to face with his anima. Guy as a woman isn't portrayed really as any different than Guy as a man, he doesn't appear any weaker, in fact "she" even says when "she" transforms that "she's" feeling damn powerful. Dementor, as taboo and shame, seeks to humiliate Guy by making obscene comments and making him wear those costumes, essentially parading Guy's own female side in plain sight.

However, then Martika horrified that *her* Guy is now a woman shows up, cows Dementor into submission and forces him to change "her" back. Basically now that he's come face to face with his own "female side", he's beginning to accept it. He's turning back represents the incorporation of that idea into his being. He isn't a woman just because he might have certain "female traits", they're just a part of him. And there's a lasting effect too. When he was a woman, Martika couldn't effect him. When he became a man again, he could tell when she tried to influence him and combat it, with Veronna's help. When he got in touch with his "feminine side", the softer emotions that young teenage guys tend to reject or avoid, Guy's adolescent sex drive loses its power over him.

Veronna is the adult perspective of love. Even if they've never actually had sex. When they meet, she swears herself to him, however he isn't ready to accept her like that. He never really becomes ready but they remain friends, because the love they share goes beyond sex. Veronna had known from early on that Martika was controlling Guy and tried to stop her. She did not interfere when Guy slept with Bea, though she expressed her disapproval. Ultimately his fate is, she keeps reminding him, with her. Basically, as "love", she wars against Martika, against sex for the sake of adolescent lust. His relationship with Bea is that of two friends getting comfort from one another, "love" doesn't interfere because there's a real emotional bond, however, the disapproval is a sign that the emotional bond is not the same as real love.

But by working with her to defeat Martika, he's become an adult in a sexual sense as well.

So basically yeah, Warrior is an allegory for adolescence. Environmental changes, physical puberty (through the powers), mental/emotional development, and sexual maturity are all covered, leaving us with the Guy from Rebirth/Recharge/GL/GLC. The surprisingly perceptive obnoxious jackass with a squishy interior.

I don't know if the allegory's intentional, but I like to think it is. I like seeing characters grow up before my eyes. :-)