Guy Gardner: Warrior #29 (1995)
It’s My Party and I’ll Fight If I Want To
Guy Gardner’s Warrior’s Bar is having its grand opening and it appears that ALL of DC showed up. To emphasize/celebrate the over the top event, this book is outfitted with a cover that opens up to the impending party. Guy’s Warrior’s Bar is open for business! Step right in…
The gathering is so large, even Darkseid heard about the shindig.
You’d think with the vast cast of characters present that Beau Smith (writer) & Phil Jimenez (pencils) were trying to set a record for most superheroes in a single issue. And amongst this enormous cast of characters lies an extremely small Swamp Thing appearance.
Did you miss it? Maybe I should have been more clear. This is less of a Swamp Thing appearance and more of a forearm cameo. In the above panel, on the left side, that’s Swampy’s arm. You could say the panel is an early Justice League Dark outing with Zatanna, Constantine and Swamp Thing making an appearance at Guy’s grand opening event. Below, I’ve included a detail taken from the digital version of this book for clarity purposes.
The party is short lived as various disturbances arise. Guy Gardner starts a fight with Captain Atom, Lobo crashes the party and a number of characters within the book sense a disturbance within the universe (or perhaps it’s the arrival of Dementor). The issue ends with a cliffhanger but continues in Action Comics #709.
Along with the never ending list of comic characters at Guy’s grand opening, Hollywood stars were also in attendance. Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone dropped by the opening to assess the professional competition. It appears that Warrior’s Bar is Planet Hollywood for Superheroes.
if i remember correctly, at the time this was published, Karen Berger who was editor for the Vertigo imprint didn’t want Swampy to appear in the main DC line of books. writers and artists who were fans of the character would sneak him into their comic using similar tricks as above. another classic appearance was in Infinite Crisis #6 (2006) where just his hand appeared.
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yes!! another excellent small appearance. That’s why John’s back is to us in the panel. it’s so funny
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