Quarter Bin #4 "Ganthet's Tale"

This week we take a radical departure from our usual strolls down Thousand Comic Book Lane and examine a single title, GREEN LANTERN: GANTHET’S TALE.

Now, one of the things I still lament about the return of Hal Jordan and the old familiar status quo (to a certain extent) is that it undid all the things that had come to make the Green Lantern mythology my own during the 1993-1999 period, the first time I could call myself a regular and true comics reader. Ron Marz had been given the task of reshaping the mythos, and after getting Jordan out of the way (at this point I should emphasize how much I appreciated everything that was done with the character in the years that followed, including the genius way Geoff Johns wrote Hal out of this hole, in a way that is still paying dividends to this day), he introduced a new Green Lantern for a new era, Kyle Rayner.

After Hal’s rampage, the Green Lantern Corps had been completely decimated, much as the Jedi were after Anakin Skywalker finally became Darth Vader in ‘Revenge of the Sith’ (a movie that followed “Emerald Twilight” by a decade…not that Star Wars buffs were surprised to see that story lead to such grizzly results). For intents and purposes, there were no more Green Lanterns left. The same could be said for the Guardians of the Universe, the little blue men who inhabited Oa, the center of everything (both the lore of this franchise and that of the DC universe in general). Except one Guardian still stood. His name was Ganthet. This unlikely survivor was responsible for giving Kyle his ring, and guided him along (what else was he supposed to do?) the first hesitant steps toward his heroic career, pragmatic, realistic, and more than a few times a little frantic that Kyle Rayner of all people was supposed to carry the noble tradition and heritage and legacy of the Corps. I came to admire Ganthet’s presence a great deal. I hadn’t read many Green Lantern comics prior to Hal’s meltdown (though I was infinitely familiar with his history), so I didn’t care that Ganthet, like Kyle, now alone carried on where multitudes had once existed.

Ganthet, of course, survived the big revival in fine form, and now stands as an actual member of the Corps, the only Guardian to ever claim such an honor (as he sees it), co-starring in GREEN LANTERN CORPS, ensuring that a new generation of readers feels as warm and fuzzy about him as I did fifteen years earlier. And just how did Ganthet actually get his start? How did he originally warrant the distinction of standing out in a crowd of other midgets?

Well, you almost wouldn’t believe it now. No, really, it almost sounds like a joke. To anyone currently reading GREEN LANTERN, seriously, you almost wouldn’t even recognize him. GANTHET’S TALE is actually the story of debunking the famous tale of Krona, the ancestral Guardian who famously created the multiverse by peering in on the moment of the Big Bang. Krona has, of course, returned recently, the latest of the big revelations concerning the spectral avatars and their attendant corps that Johns has been working since REBIRTH.

The prestige format graphic novel was released in 1992, only a handful of years before Ganthet would gain prominence in a more significant way. Written by acclaimed sci-fi novelist Larry Niven (perhaps one of the last time it was automatically assumed such a writer could bring instant acclaim and legitimacy to a project, something fans of the original Star Trek series still lament, but something that Tad Williams only a few years ago learned simply isn’t the case anymore), it was perhaps the only real comparable experience to the efforts of Johns in that era, when Hal had become such a routine presence that writers rarely exhibited much ambition in his comics. Oh irony of ironies!

Niven bends over backwards to explain how Krona’s actions couldn’t possibly have resulted in the awful consequences that had been attributed to them, twisting this way and that, a mind-boggling display of apparent hard science fiction that really didn’t have much relevance to Green Lantern material (try and follow it now, and even Geoff Johns haters will be kissing his feet in hasty apologies to everything they have ever said about him). In fact, it’s clear that even though “Ganthet” is in the title, “Krona” would have been the more appropriate choice. But the funny thing is, Niven breaks with tradition in a far more significant degree by challenging convention and allowing a Guardian to interact so directly in Green Lantern’s adventures. That’s it, that’s the original significance of Ganthet. Just that he dared to interfere, that Niven did something unexpected, played with the actual mythology of Green Lantern lore. That’s his true lasting impact, and in that way, it’s completely fitting that Ganthet has stuck around since, and seems to have played a hand in every significant development since.

It just so happens that, continuity-wise, GANTHET’S TALE has otherwise proven to be complete hooey. For years I read about or heard it referenced in a way that seemed to rival DARK KNIGHT RETURNS, that if Hal Jordan ever had an equivalent story, this was it, the one that was bigger than him, that had to be read, but wasn’t necessarily part of the canon. Well, now, that’s a little more literal than ever. Still, it deserves another look because it truly has grown relevant. That’s John Byrne on art, by the way, perhaps the last piece of important work he did with DC.

It took me years to finally read GANTHET’S TALE, and eventually, I just ordered it along with a rush of other back issues, an inexpensive oddity and curiosity I just had to finally have my hands on. It was worth the wait, all considered.