The Guardians are among the most prominent cosmic leaders in the DC Universe, best known for creating and overseeing the Green Lantern Corps. These mysterious blue-skinned beings have guided the organization for billions of years, using their vast knowledge and authority to maintain order across the cosmos while influencing countless major events.

Despite their lofty position, the Guardians are far from flawless. Their long history contains moments of remarkable wisdom alongside questionable decisions, hidden agendas, and outright failures that have shaped Green Lantern lore in unexpected ways. From their origins to their relationship with the Corps, these cosmic figures have far more to them than meets the eye.

10

The Guardians Helped Create the Green and White Martians

Long before the Green Lantern Corps became the universe’s primary peacekeeping force, the Guardians intervened on Mars after encountering the Burning, a dangerously powerful race whose ambitions threatened countless other worlds. Rather than letting them continue unchecked, the ancient beings altered their biology, ultimately dividing them into the Green and White Martian races.

The intervention did more than simply separate the Martians into two groups. The Guardians also changed their reproductive process and implanted a powerful vulnerability to fire, ensuring the descendants of the Burning could never regain their former potential. Over time, the two races developed very different cultures, with the Greens becoming peaceful while the Whites embraced violence.

9

The Guardians Created the Psions

The Guardians also played a key role in the history of the alien species known as the Psions. They created the group through experimentation on a lizard-like lifeform on Maltus, granting it greater intelligence and eventually producing a race devoted to scientific discovery. The Psions would later develop into one of the universe’s most dangerous groups of scientists.

Interestingly, the Psions became obsessed with understanding their creators and sought to learn from the Guardians after developing advanced technology. The Guardians essentially rejected them and sent them to the Vega System, where they continued their experiments in isolation. Their pursuits notably brought them into contact with Starfire, as they experimented on both her and Blackfire to study their abilities.

8

The Guardians Knew About the Blackest Night Before It Happened

One of the more interesting details about Blackest Night is that the Guardians had already received warnings about it before the dead rose across the universe. The Book of Oa contained a hidden prophecy describing the coming crisis, meaning its existence was known on Oa well before Nekron and the Black Lantern Corps emerged.

The Guardians, however, were poorly prepared when the prophecy finally came true. Much of the warning had been kept secret, and Abin Sur was discouraged from investigating it further after consulting the Five Inversions. Only Ganthet and Sayd openly supported his concerns, leaving the Corps largely unaware of the danger until it was already unfolding.

7

The Green Lantern Corps Wasn’t Their First Police Force

The Guardians’ earliest attempt at creating a universal police force came in the form of the Manhunters, an army of robotic soldiers designed to enforce their laws. Created billions of years ago, these machines were sent throughout the cosmos to confront criminals and other threats, giving the Guardians a way to maintain order on a massive scale.

Their lack of emotion eventually proved disastrous, as the Manhunters followed their instructions without the judgment needed to distinguish different situations. After their programming was compromised, they turned against the Guardians and launched a violent campaign that devastated entire populations. The incident became one of the earliest major failures in the Guardians’ pursuit of universal peace.

6

The Guardians Created the Green Lantern Corps to Replace the Manhunters

The Guardians established the Green Lantern Corps after the disastrous failure of the Manhunters, choosing living beings instead of emotionless machines to enforce justice across the universe. They selected recruits from different worlds and gave them formidable power rings, allowing them to build a vast organization capable of responding to threats of any strength.

This approach addressed one of the Manhunters’ greatest flaws: their inability to understand emotion and make nuanced decisions. Green Lanterns could experience fear, compassion, and courage while possessing the willpower needed to overcome their many trials. Their individual personalities also allowed them to approach individual situations differently, making the Corps a fundamentally more flexible force.

5

The Guardians Built the Central Power Battery

The Central Power Battery is one of the most important creations in the Guardians’ history, serving as the enormous energy reservoir at the heart of the Green Lantern Corps. Built on Oa, it was designed to gather and contain vast amounts of power, giving the Guardians a reliable source that could sustain their growing intergalactic organization.

Rather than giving every Lantern direct access, the Guardians developed a system that lets its energy reach individual Lanterns through smaller personal batteries, which they use to charge their power rings. This allowed the Corps to operate across enormous distances while remaining connected to the same central power source on Oa.

4

The Guardians Hid Parallax Inside the Central Power Battery

Beyond serving as the energy source for the Green Lantern Corps, the Guardians also used the Central Power Battery to contain one of the universe’s most dangerous entities, Parallax. Parallax is the living embodiment of fear, an ancient being that feeds on terror. At some point, the Guardians captured it and confined it within their great power reservoir.

They deliberately kept Parallax’s imprisonment secret from the Corps, with the entity remaining dormant inside the Battery for ages. Its influence also caused the famous yellow weakness of Green Lantern power rings. The Lanterns and many others originally believed yellow was simply an inherent limitation of their abilities, not knowing Parallax was behind it.

3

They Are Responsible for One of the Universe’s Greatest Disasters

The Guardians’ decision to rely on the Manhunters resulted in the Massacre of Sector 666, one of the most devastating events in the history of the universe. After the robots were compromised, they began exterminating all organic life across the sector, killing nearly everyone before the Guardians could stop them.

The few survivors included Atrocitus, whose family was among those killed during the genocide. Filled with rage, he and the other survivors sought revenge against the Guardians and became the Five Inversions. Their campaign led to the rise of the Empire of Tears, while Atrocitus would later channel his anger into forming the Red Lantern Corps.

2

Oa Wasn’t Originally Their Home

The Guardians are so closely associated with Oa that it can be easy to assume they originated there. In reality, the planet became their new headquarters after a catastrophic event convinced them to dedicate themselves to maintaining order. Its central position allowed them to monitor the universe more effectively and establish a lasting base for their work.

Maltus is the planet that formerly hosted the Guardians’ civilization before they established themselves on Oa. Their society had already developed an extraordinary scientific tradition there, producing discoveries that shaped the future. After the catastrophe caused by Krona, however, many left that world behind, marking a significant turning point in their history.

1

The Guardians Belong to a Race Called Maltusians

The Guardians are members of an ancient race known as the Maltusians, a species of blue-skinned humanoids who lived billions of years ago on the planet Maltus. They were among the earliest intelligent beings in the universe and eventually became renowned for their immense knowledge and long study of the cosmos.

The term Maltusian therefore predates the Guardians themselves, referring instead to the race from which the universe’s legendary overseers emerged. After the calamity caused by Krona’s experiment, the portion of these beings that left their original world and began residing on Oa became known specifically as the Guardians of the Universe.