Who's This? Space lizards.
The facts: The Gordanians are a Marv Wolfman/George Perez creation and first appear in New Teen Titans #1 (November 1980), as part of Vega's many species, and therefore part of Starfire's backstory. They are the Psions' slavers/shock troops, the muscle to the latter's brains. In that capacity, they would appear in Titans books, but also Wolfman's Green Lantern and Omega Men (which sprang out of that series).
How you could have heard of them: The Gordanians appear in both the Justice League and Justice League Unlimited animated series as enemies of Thanagar, and as the mortal enemies of Rann in Batman: The Brave and the Bold.
Example story: Green Lantern #137 (February 1981) "Time Times Two Equals Death" by Marv Wolfman and Joe Staton
Coming into it in the middle of things, I now realize the Gordanians are more of a big deal in the future, because Green Lantern Hal Jordan and Space Ranger Rick Starr (who Who's Who places in the 22nd Centrury) have been captured by the reptilian slavers who have invaded Earth. Invaded AND taken out of ORBIT!
Before we give them too much credit, let's note that they are doing this as servants of the Citadel. Henchpeople to the end of time! Before things get too out of hand, the Ranger's sidekick Cryll frees our heroes, and the Gordanians don't fare all that well despite their reputation as warriors.
Apparently, we are garbage and can't understand their ion destructors. Well, that's propaganda too. And then Rick Starr's ASSISTANT, Myra Mason, shows up and kicks even more of their asses! Hal's lost his memory due to the time beam, so he doesn't even sling that ring of his. It's just normal humans (okay, and the shape-shifting Cryll) doing all this damage. They have lots of weapons, I won't dispute that, including "yellow" paralysis rays and deadly neural disruptors...
But come on. They are clearly the cannon fodder of the universe. Suddenly, the time beam latches on to Hal again and he finds himself in the 58th Century, where Earth is also fighting off a Gordanian invasion (this was the beam's destination all along), and once again, Hal's memory is wiped. I guess he has to recognize the Gordanians are useless all over again. Or are they better fighters in THIS era? Well, they're still collecting guinea pigs for the Psions, so there hasn't been much political evolution. At least Hal now thinks of using the ring.
This is Wolfman's second use of "eon" in this story, and I don't think he knows what it means... Anyway, Hal AND the Lightning Lass look-alike (which really confused the issue of what time this is for me) Iona are captured, so maybe they ARE more competent centuries down the line. In particular, the Psions have studied the Green Lantern Corps and even dissected some of its members. So there's nothing Hal can do. Exposition also featuring their fancy commander armor.
That "golden armor" is impervious to GL ring energy EVEN when it's miscolored (as Green Lantern colorist, you had ONE JOB). It seems the Gordanians shifted their allegiance from the Citadel to the Psions over the (cough, cough, eons), while here I thought the Psions were PART of the Citadel. But truth be told, I'm a little uncertain about Vegan politics even in our time. Of course, the Gordanians didn't think to make everything in their spaceship yellow too, and GL blows it apart by heating the coolant fluids, etc. He blows up the whole dang FLEET! Then BOOM, he's back to the 22nd Century and helps the Space Ranger finish the job there too. And so, again:
Wait. The Gordanians learned everything about Green Lantern in that LAST time frame, but really learned NOTHING because they were defeated the same way in the LATER era? I call shenanigans!
I also call these guys the mooks of the Vega System.
Who's Next? Monkey town.
Comments