Ganthet
Ganthet is a
fictional character from
DC Comics who made his debut in the
graphic novel "Ganthet's Tale", by
Larry Niven and
John Byrne. Ganthet is a Guardian, part of the
Guardians of the Universe. However, where most of the Guardians were very stern 'by-the-book' characters, Ganthet showed a personality that was more human-like, including displays of empathy and concern for an individual, instead of only thinking of the
Green Lantern Corps. In various DC crossover
limited series, Ganthet is shown as being part of the
Quintessence, a group of near-omnipotent beings who overlook the results of what happens on Earth.
When
Hal Jordan first encountered Ganthet, he was asked to help Ganthet battle a renegade Guardian, Dawlakispokpok (or Dawly, for short) who was attempting to use a
time machine to change history. In the early era of the planet
Oa, a character named
Krona attempted to use a time-machine to see the beginning of time. In using his time-machine, Krona somehow 'bled' the universe of a billion years of life. Dawly was going to use his own time machine to thrust Krona to the end of time, preventing him from following through on his plan. In battling Dawly, however, it turned out that Dawly was responsible for the mishap that caused the universe to be 'born old'. When Dawly's family was brought before the Guardians, Ganthet prevented the others from seeing his thoughts, allowing Hal to retain his memory of one of the biggest secrets of the Guardians.
When Hal lost
Coast City and went insane, the Guardians decided to focus all of their remaining power into Ganthet. As such, he was the last Guardian after Hal bled off the energy of the Main Power Battery and became
Parallax. He created a new Green Lantern ring from Hal's ring (which was crushed by the former Green Lantern after murdering
Sinestro) and went to Earth. When he spotted
Kyle Rayner coming out of a club, he hastily handed him the ring, muttering "You shall have to do". During Kyle's first few months as
Green Lantern, Ganthet was less than satisfied with Kyle. However, Kyle eventually grew into the role of Green Lantern, and eventually earned the respect of Ganthet.
When Kyle briefly became the character Ion, he possessed more power than Hal Jordan did as Parallax. Realizing that he couldn't go on being Ion, since he was losing his humanity, Kyle went back to Oa and recharged the Power Battery with his power. As he was doing so, he created a new set of Guardians, this time as small children (both male and female), with the intent that Ganthet could look after them and teach them how to be better Guardians than their predecessors. However, following the return of Hal Jordan, all the Guardians were aged to immediate adulthood and are just as cold and manipulative as they were before. Only now there are female Guardians as well as male.
