Guardians of the Universe
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Real Identity: The Maltusian's
Affiliation(s): Green Lantern Corps
Powers/Skills: Immortality, Flight, Telekinesis, Telepathy, and Energy Manipulation
Voiced By: Larry Drake (Ganthet), William Schallert (Appa Ali Apsa), Malachi Throne (Ranakar)
One of the universe's oldest races, the Guardians are said to be over five billion years old. The Guardians originated from the planet Maltus. When an arrogant Maltusian scientist named Krona attempted to observe the Great Hand, that supposedly called the universe into being, a blast of cosmic power created an antimatter universe. Since then, it has been a universal law that no one can see the Great Hand. Overcome with guilt, the Maltusian's migrated to the planet the Great Hand formerly occupied, Oa. There, they announced themselves as the Guardians of the Universe, under the mandate that they represent a force of order.
Focusing their collective energies into a Central Power Battery, the Guardians then created the Manhunter robots to the universe's peace keepers and fueled them with the Battery's power. However, the Guardians realized the need for their peace keepers to have emotions in order to better facilitate certain situations. The Manhunters were stripped of their power and demoted.
The Guardians then formed the Green Lantern Corps and began seeking out worthy aliens throughout the universe to become Green Lanterns. Subsequently, the Guardians arbitrarily mapped out the universe into 3600 sectors and assigned a Green Lantern to each sector.
With the Central Power Battery, the Guardians are essentially immortal and preside over intergalactic matters, despite the wishes of other races to be simply left alone to settle their own problems. While the Guardians retain uniform physical and social features, several of them are more prominent such as the empathic Ganthet and Appa Ali Apsa.
A minority of Green Lanterns ame to believe that the Guardians had become soft, obstructionist, and bound by their word. Sinestro envisioned a new order to replace the one created by the Guardians. They refused to accept Sinestro's proposal and led the Corps against him. When Sinestro began to defeat them, Ganthet placed all his hope in returning a ring to Hal Jordan. After rebuilding Oa and recruiting new Lanterns, the Guardians chose Jordan as their new champion.