Glossary
Guardian of the Universe
The immortal founders — and failures — of the Corps.
The story
They were Maltusians once — among the first intelligent beings in the universe, born on the planet Maltus some ten billion years ago. A schism divided them: some became the Zamarons, some the Controllers, and the most austere withdrew to Oa at the universe's center, renaming themselves the Guardians of the Universe. There they founded the Green Lantern Corps three billion years ago, dividing the cosmos into 3,600 sectors and giving a power ring to the most strong-willed being in each. Their philosophy was order without emotion — and that coldness would become their curse.
The Guardians' mistakes are the great tragedies of the lore. They built the Manhunters, android enforcers who massacred Sector 666. They imprisoned Parallax in the Central Battery, creating the yellow impurity. They exiled Ganthet and Sayd for daring to feel. And in their final madness, they raised the Third Army to replace the Corps they no longer trusted. Each catastrophe was born of the same flaw: the belief that emotion was the enemy, when it was their own fear they should have examined.
Their end came in 2013, in the aftermath of the Wrath of the First Lantern. Freed from Volthoom's prison, the Guardians faced the judgment of Sinestro — the Lantern they had exiled, the tyrant they had created. He executed them one by one, sparing only Ganthet and Sayd. From the Chamber of Shadows emerged the Templar Guardians, a hidden order of Maltusians, to take up the burden. The little blue immortals are gone; their successors carry the same charge, and the same warning. Explore their full history on the Guardians hub, and their fall in The Fall of the Guardians.
Artwork: DC Comics — fan tribute.