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If you go back and read Guy Gardner’s early appearances the character is unrecognizable. He lacks his signature bowl cut, iconic costume, and sarcastic personality. However, the character was injured during a fight in the Phantom Zone in 1979's Green Lantern #124 and spent the next six years in a coma.

When Guy awoke from the coma during Steve Englehart and Joe Staton’s Green Lantern run, he became the Guy Gardner we all know and love. For years, there’s been a fan theory that Guy’s change of personality was due to the brain damage he received when he was in his coma. It’s referenced on fan-written DC Wikia pages, think pieces, blogs, and more. It’s a generally accepted headcanon of Guy’s history; however, it’s never actually mentioned on page. Going through Englehart and Staton’s run, Guy’s new brash personality is never attributed to any brain damage from his coma. It’s just who Guy is.

It’s possible some readers have gotten mixed up with a Justice League International storyline where a punch in the face from Batman causes Guy to temporarily have an infantile personality.

Popverse recently had a chance to catch up with Englehart, and we asked him if he thinks Guy’s new personality was a result of brain damage from his coma. “Yes, that’s my explanation, that it was the brain damage,” Englehart tells Popverse during a conversation at Dragon Con.

“That is my opinion, yes. When I took over the book, John Stewart was the Green Lantern. Hal Jordan was never going to come back, and I was told, well of course Hal’s going to come back. And I would’ve brought him back anyway. I think Hal should be back. Every time that had happened before, John would leave, and I thought why does John have to leave? He’s as good a Green Lantern as Hal is, why can’t there be two of them? And then I thought, wait, there’s a third one.”

In retrospect, Englehart wishes he had created a new character instead of using Guy Gardner, since this prevented him and Joe Staton from getting royalties.

 “If I had called that jerk character Joe Smith, there wouldn’t have been a question. But because I called him Guy Gardner, then we had all these problems. But I just figured he was completely rebooted. He was a bland blonde guy who was hit by a bus, and that was his story. And I wanted a Green Lantern who was not a good team player. I’ve got nothing against John Broome and Gil Kane, that was a fabulous run. I just say my Guy Gardner is my Guy Gardner.”

[Editor's note: This is an updated version of the original story.]

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