THE DRAAL | BIOGRAPHY |
Created by Chuck Dixon and Joe Staton |
SPECIES DATA
Homeworld: Draal Homeworld
Space Sector: Unidentified
Star System: Somewhere in the Draalian Arm of the Takk Nebula
Physical characteristics:
Eyes: One
Toes: None
Skin Color: Red
First Appearance: Guy Gardner #11 (August 1993): "Yesterday's Sins: Part 1 of 4 - Back in the Days"
Creators: Chuck Dixon and Joe Staton
CHRONOLOGY
For a definitive list of appearances of the The Draal in chronological order click here
NOTE
An aggressive alien race from the Draalian Arm of the Takk Nebula, the Draals as they are known had embarked upon an ambitious plan to invade other worlds. The Draal would abduct members of the Green Lantern Corps and replace them with cloned replicas.
Using a displacement beam and sophisticated targeting system, the Draal would bring the Green Lantern on board their command ship where the Emerald Warrior would be held in a yellow energy field and deprived of his, her or its power ring.
The Draal would later use a xanoglyph, a non-sentient being with powerful telepathic abilities but no intellect of its own, which could transfer data from one organic source to another in an extensive series of mind probes. The initial contact of the xanoglyph was painful, akin to a drilling sensation, but eased during the mind probe. The memory transfer had to be done in stages to prevent the xanoglyph from burning out. By this process, the Draal would transfer the thoughts and memories of the Green Lantern to the clone. The clone would need to be able to integrate itself into the abducted Green Lantern's life as well as pass inspection by the Guardians of the Universe. When the Draal were ready, the cloned Green Lanterns would strike on many worlds at one time.
The real Green Lanterns themselves were kept as prisoners in an area surrounded by an ultra high density neuron field, presumably in case they needed to be cloned again.
The lizard-like Bivvix was the first to be replaced, the alien Green Lantern had been held prisoner for almost a year. He was followed by other Green Lanterns, Graf Toren of Karax, Gpaak of Zoa, the robotic RRU-9-2, and the feral Voz.
Arriving in Space Sector 2814, the Draal had plans to capture Earth's Green Lantern, Hal Jordan. A clone had been previously made of Jordan and only required the memory transfer. How the Draal were able to make a clone has yet to be revealed. Though the hivemind of the Draal had chosen Hal Jordan as their target, the Draal scanners had indicated former Green Lantern Guy Gardner was more powerful as he possessed the yellow power ring once belonging to Sinestro. One of the Draal was determined to take Gardner and killed his fellow Draal that opposed him.
Guy Gardner was taken right off the streets of New York City and transported over sixty-million miles to the Draal ship. Though dazed from the trip, Gardner still had no problem escaping from the yellow energy field that ensnared the Green Lanterns. Still, a Draal was able to stun Gardner and carry the human to the holding area.
A clone was made of Gardner and then the first of the mind probes began. Each time the Draal arrived to take Gardner for the probes, the former Green Lantern would fight before being stunned into submission.
The Draal had to intervene when a fight broke out in the holding area and Gardner was threatened with harm. Once more stunned into submission, Gardner began his third mind probe, but this time he tried to make some changes.
Gardner tried to influence the mind transfer process by placing his adult self in the replaying memories of his life at sixteen years old. The Draal were able to monitor the memory transfer and halted the process.
After the fourth transfer, Gardner led the Green Lanterns in an escape attempt. Using the battery cell of the robotic RRU-9-2, the gelatinous Gpaak carried the terminal to the high density neuron force field holding them in their cell. Gpaak was blasted into globules, but was able to reconstitute himself.
The Draal believed their clone was ready to defeat the escaped Green Lanterns and the original Guy Gardner but it had no experience with the yellow power ring. The ring ran out of energy and the original Gardner was fighting the clone hand to hand. The Draal were able to stun Gardner once more and take him for the fifth and final memory transfer but the Green Lanterns had armed themselves with Draal weaponry and were loose on the ship.
Gardner woke up afterwards, the xanoglyph had died from the strain put on it. Most of the Draal were dead, killed by the running and fighting Green Lanterns. The last memory transfer taught the Draal how to recharge the yellow power ring and the fully programmed Guy Gardner clone was sent to Earth. In the final battle, the last of the Draal were killed and Green Lanterns were able to take control of the Draal ship. Following his request, the Green Lanterns left Guy Gardner on Earth to fight his clone.
Alongside Justice League America, Guy hammered away at his clone before triangulating the clone's location for transport. The clone was brought aboard the formerly Draal ship and stripped of its yellow power ring. The Qwardian ring was then sent to its rightful owner. The Green Lanterns headed out to get their power rings back from their own replicas.
Though the Guy Gardner clone would be seen again, taking the name Joe Gardner or the Enforcer, the Draal have not been heard of since.