Green Lantern John Stewart Appreciation Thread

[Sodam Yat]

Anything EVS said buy/ coming from should be taken with a grain of salt imo.. He just seem happy to be back working on GL franchise in general and having said franchise look/written a way he's comfortable with as he said he didn't care for the different Lantern colors combining in Lost Army, I'd be shocked their were other things he didn't care for while he wasn't working on the franchise and lastly he DC employee it's a incentive is for us to buy a book he's working on so don't be surprised if you get a lot of telling you what you want to hear... That's just my opinion could be wrong but some how I'm bet I'm not...

He said Geoff Johns said that on twitter. But yea, I'm not going to fall into that trap.

You're right about that, but I don't think he didn't care about the red and green merging in Lost Army. But it seemed more of a continuity problem to him. Can't say I don't disagree with him there. But the thing is, John and co. was in a different universe altogether, so anything was possible. This gave Cullen Bunn creative ideas to change things up a bit.

EVS is real awesome guy, who's a fan more of the Green Lantern concept than anything else.

About Van Sciver, I think he should go, too. All those guys from back around 2004 are holding the franchise back, in my opinion. It's time for Green Lantern to find... something else to move on to. No constant color wars. No Emotional Spectrum stuff. No more John Stewart in the closet. I don't think things will progress in a way in which John's fans will like so long as those guys are controlling the franchise. We've seen what they have to offer, and I think it's just going to be the same old stuff. And it's time to move on. I'm honestly tired of them. They were already there too long, and now they're just wrecking the franchise, and making it incredibly stale and redundant. AND Venditti is still there, who is up there with Ben Raab as one of the most boring, uninteresting, nothing happening Green Lantern writers I've ever read.

Yes, Geoff Johns definitely needs to go and do something else, instead of fracturing the fanbase and screwing over John even further. Robert Venditti need to go, too, instead of making low quality GL comics. But EVS? I don't think he's the problem, Desh. He's the artist, not the writer. I'm sure you feel when he's doing artwork, it reminds you of the Geoff Johns' era. But he was involved in Godhead. And reading that, didn't really remind me anything on what happened to John during those bad Geoff Johns days. But I do agree with everything else, other than EVS.

I find it hard to believe that Johns has been oblivious to fans' railing against Vendetti, there has been quite an outcry against his inclusion in GL all over Facebook (and not just). If Johns is truly ignorant of the fans' distaste for Vendetti, just imagine how he's handling things overall. Kick him out DC. Like I said, Marvel could use another kicked to the curb DC writer. Put him on Daredevil with someone who can draw with colors.

I definitely endorse the idea of getting rid of Geoff Johns. But I doubt he'll get kicked out or anything like that, because he still have a name among the comics industry. The most what we can want to happen to Geoff Johns is demote him as a regular writer doing a few titles, which he'll no longer have a say on what the GL franchise should be like.

[StaticShock99]

Instead of double shipping "Green Lanterns" and "Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps" they should have just added 1-2 other Green Lantern books starring the other earth lanterns. Instead of the encouraging the fanbase fights and favoritism they should be doing the best to promote the entire franchise. For some unknown reason DC seems to like having the characters in some ridiculous hierarchy of relevance, and tbh feels like even if DC got an good John Stewart pitch they wouldn't green light it because they like him in the background.

[Desh]

EDIT:
Nevermind.

[Sodam Yat]

and tbh feels like even if DC got an good John Stewart pitch they wouldn't green light it because they like him in the background.

Well Van Jensen said in his own words that the editors didn't like his pitch. And we all know how great of a writer he was in GLC that starred John Stewart.

[The Whovian]

Instead of double shipping "Green Lanterns" and "Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps" they should have just added 1-2 other Green Lantern books starring the other earth lanterns. Instead of the encouraging the fanbase fights and favoritism they should be doing the best to promote the entire franchise. For some unknown reason DC seems to like having the characters in some ridiculous hierarchy of relevance, and tbh feels like even if DC got an good John Stewart pitch they wouldn't green light it because they like him in the background.

And that's the problem. They want Hal front and center, or the newbies in the JLA.

[Jinwaller]

Meh. I watched the rebirth panel live and wasn't upset or disappointed at the announcements. I simply didn't care. I've only been reading the Titan books and Cyborg book and it looks like bunker and power girl will be in limbo soon along with Karen and Mel, although it's not like they were doing anything in Titans Hunt. I may check out Blue Beetle and Cyborg but I think I'll be dropping Titan books. JL roster is so lackluster. I figured they would've at least switch things up and maybe used some of the characters that have been appearing on Tv like Firestorm, vibe, Vixen, or Hawkgirl.

Lol @ Ethan tweeting that Hal and GLC is a John book too. Sure, Jan.

edit: I have no interest in reading anything dealing with the emotional spectrum and other color corps. I was pleased when it seemed DC was lessening their presence in the universe. It was apparent DC painted themselves in a corner with the emotional spectrum when they started expanding the line with color corps books like Larfleeze, New guardians, and red lanterns and they had to either be repackage as Human lantern focus or were canned. What DC was trying to achieve with Threshold should've been attempted in the Green Lantern rebirth line.

[Flabbergaster]

I ain't goin' NOWHERE, Desh. I'll be on GREEN LANTERN for a loooooooooooooooooooooong time.

About Van Sciver, I think he should go, too. All those guys from back around 2004 are holding the franchise back, in my opinion. It's time for Green Lantern to find... something else to move on to. No constant color wars. No Emotional Spectrum stuff. No more John Stewart in the closet. I don't think things will progress in a way in which John's fans will like so long as those guys are controlling the franchise. We've seen what they have to offer, and I think it's just going to be the same old stuff. And it's time to move on. I'm honestly tired of them. They were already there too long, and now they're just wrecking the franchise, and making it incredibly stale and redundant. AND Venditti is still there, who is up there with Ben Raab as one of the most boring, uninteresting, nothing happening Green Lantern writers I've ever read.

[Sodam Yat]

Hi Ethan,

I don't know if you know this, but is there some kind of reasoning to rename the Green Lantern Corps title? It just sounds illogical if your superiors is okay with this and expects fans of other Green Lanterns to be okay with this. The renaming really hurts the brand in a business sense, considering if your superiors and writer expects to have a book that shares multiple Earth GL's in a single title.

[Flabbergaster]

First and foremost, I LOVE GREEN LANTERN.

I jumpstarted this franchise with Geoff 12 years ago, created a lot of concepts and characters and put a lot of things in motion, and then left. We made it HUGE. At one point Green Lantern was second only to Batman. I came back here and there to do an annual or a fill in, but I mostly watched from the sidelines, unhappily, while other creators worked on this book and these characters.

GREEN LANTERN should be an endless fountain of spin off books for DC Comics. It really should. Hal Jordan should always be at the heart, in my opinion, because he's the Silver Age start of the title. But there really SHOULD be a John Stewart solo book. There really should be a Guy Gardner spin off book. There should be a Kyle book.

I think we'll get there. At the moment, HAL JORDAN AND THE GREEN LANTERN CORPS, a lengthy title I will rue having to type all of the time, is the classic GREEN LANTERN title. It's Hal-centric. All other Lanterns will appear there in, but as his partners. My hope is that if we do a fantastic book, and win back readers again, the franchise will grow once more. As it stands, I'm shocked at it's position on the top 300 charts. I can list a hundred different reasons why I believe this has happened. But I want to keep things positive, restore what works, and create new stuff to expand and enrich.

If you are a fan of GREEN LANTERN, you'll join us! I promise you it'll be great. If you're just an isolated fan of one Green Lantern character, hopefully we'll make you happy. But further, hopefully we'll get things back to where they should be and a John Stewart title will be forthcoming.

Love you all,
Ethan Van Sciver

[Flabbergaster]

No, there's absolutely no reason whatsoever. Before I knew about REBIRTH, I was working up the conditions of my exclusive contract with DC, and one of the things I asked for was my own Green Lantern title called HAL JORDAN AND THE GREEN LANTERN CORPS. I just wanted my own playground, like Dave Finch got with Batman: The Dark Knight. I wanted it to be along the lines of the classic 1980's GREEN LANTERN book that Joe Staton drew. I'd get to draw all of the Lanterns, and Hal, (who I'm sorry, is my favorite) would be the lead. And I'd choose my own writer.

I was told "nah." No to that title being created for me. I can only speculate as to why, but it probably had to do with plans already in motion with REBIRTH.

Suddenly, I am invited to join this event. What do I want to draw? And I just said, "Green Lantern, Green Lantern, Green Lantern." At which time, I was told that there was a book being planned with the title HAL JORDAN AND THE GREEN LANTERN CORPS (guess they liked it) and that if I wanted in, I could have it.

My feeling is that GREEN LANTERN has shrunk. There's blame to go around, but look, we've got a progressive new GREEN LANTERNS title with a fresh approach, and then a classic title with the flavor of the Joe Staton run. Those are the two book we have to build from. I think we can do great things, but we need fan support.

I hope you'll cheer us on. I do hear you. Believe me. I only care about telling great Green Lantern stories to the widest possible audience. So I'm listening.

Ethan Van Sciver

Hi Ethan,

I don't know if you know this, but is there some kind of reasoning to rename the Green Lantern Corps title? It just sounds illogical if your superiors is okay with this and expects fans of other Green Lanterns to be okay with this. The renaming really hurts the brand in a business sense, considering if your superiors and writer expects to have a book that shares multiple Earth GL's in a single title.

[Sodam Yat]

Thanks for the response, Ethan!

I'll respond to both of your posts.

Very informative. Thanks for sharing us about your story!

With that said, there's absolutely no doubt at all that Geoff Johns brought the Green Lantern franchise to new heights, which thanks to him, there came to be multiple Lantern-related titles that starred all of the Earth lanterns. I would say he's done amazing things to where the Green Lantern franchise is at today. He's the guy to really thank for. But one thing to look at is that I don't see the Green Lantern franchise to be able to even compete with the Batman brand at all or even being close to it. I'm sure if you put a mediocre writer in the Batman title, it would still sell. While the Green Lantern brand will further decline. The Green Lantern brand doesn't even match Batman in media, toys, merchandise etc. Geoff Johns has a real strong name and that's the reason the franchise sells so well. Even when Geoff Johns announced his departure, many GL fans talked about how they were considering on dropping the title without giving the new creative team a chance. People pretty much follows wherever Geoff Johns go.

You got to understand, DC has too much of a nostalgic way of thinking. I'm sorry, but it's true. John Stewart is where he's at is because of his success in the cartoons, while many other fans of the character never even heard who Hal Jordan is. So when they see John being in the sidelines, especially on what Geoff Johns had did with the character, then it became a huge problem for them. They didn't get into comics, because of Hal Jordan. That's absolutely not the character who they grew up with. And then when it's confirmed by the writer JHF that editorial were considering on killing off their top POC character, it sparked outrage. There's absolutely no reason for John to still get the treatment that he's getting. He's not just as popular as Guy Gardner. He's MORE popular than Guy Gardner, which isn't even a debate.

If there's such concern for the Green Lantern franchise moving forward, then Geoff Johns shouldn't have created two new lantern characters in the first place. It's already overcrowded, so that's another problem. Therefore, space has to be created for both of those character having their own titles. If you and your superiors aren't satisfied with what's happening to the Green Lantern brand, then it's far too risky to have two new characters, who doesn't even have a wide fanbase to star in new titles. But yet Geoff Johns would rather give them a chance than to use the very own most logical choice POC character (John Stewart). Who is by far the most popular POC character that DC has right now.

This is not a direct towards you, Ethan, but rather your superiors.

But with that said, I am glad that you are listening to us and agree that John deserves his own book. Hopefully it'll happen.

Edit: Sorry, but let me clarify. The situation here isn't about John Stewart standing over Hal Jordan. It's about about separating both of those characters. Hal leading Earth and John leading the space was the most logical thing to go for both fanbases. It's just too much of a change of direction on where this franchise is headed at the moment. But if they share the title, John always has to act as some inferior black best friend character. And that just leaves a bad taste for John Stewart fans.

[Desh]

This is why we need new people. It's spelled out crystal clear here. With these guys, John Stewart will NEVER get a chance, no matter how far Hal Jordan falls. They will reboot him until the end of time if they must. The ONLY way John Stewart will get a little bit of play is if Hal Jordan succeeds. I always knew they thought like this because it's obvious, but it's good to have it actually confirmed. I will not support them because I fundamentally disagree with them. Under their stewardship, John Stewart will NEVER get ahead. It won't happen. And it's upsetting to see them back AGAIN, because their vision was already given a chance. It's time for something else, and it's upsetting to see that John will be held back for x amount of time again. I believe to support them is to support John Stewart as a black best friend, and I know he's capable of much more than that, because I've seen him shine much brighter than that, and so have millions of other people on the Justice League cartoons. But these guys are too beholden to ancient comics that very few people in comparison have read to give John his due.

[Götterdämmerung]

Well Van Jensen said in his own words that the editors didn't like his pitch. And we all know how great of a writer he was in GLC that starred John Stewart.

He told me similarly, and with obvious regret. Van Jensen comes across to me as someone who really loves the Green Lantern Corps. Something I don't find in Vendetti (though I suspect he really likes the Flash).

[Götterdämmerung]

I ain't goin' NOWHERE, Desh. I'll be on GREEN LANTERN for a loooooooooooooooooooooong time.

I count this as great news, but it's too bad Ethan couldn't be paired with a better writer. As in, much. Actually, I take that back, Venditti is a good writer (I really like his current Flash run), just not for GL. Or whoever the heck this other writer is...I keep forgetting him for obvious reasons.

A lot of the time I feel Ethan's skills are being paired with somebody (or some story, i.e. the messy Flash: Rebirth, Edge of Oblivion) beneath his ability.

HELLO DC PEOPLE LIKE VAN JENSEN ARE DYING TO WRITE GREEN LANTERN AND WE'D RATHER HAVE HIM THAN VENDETTI OR MR. ANONYMOUS PLEASE! WE'D ALSO LIKE JOHN STEWART TO BE FEATURED MORE!

This is why we need new people. It's spelled out crystal clear here. With these guys, John Stewart will NEVER get a chance, no matter how far Hal Jordan falls. They will reboot him until the end of time if they must. The ONLY way John Stewart will get a little bit of play is if Hal Jordan succeeds. I always knew they thought like this because it's obvious, but it's good to have it actually confirmed. I will not support them because I fundamentally disagree with them. Under their stewardship, John Stewart will NEVER get ahead. It won't happen. And it's upsetting to see them back AGAIN, because their vision was already given a chance. It's time for something else, and it's upsetting to see that John will be held back for x amount of time again. I believe to support them is to support John Stewart as a black best friend, and I know he's capable of much more than that, because I've seen him shine much brighter than that, and so have millions of other people on the Justice League cartoons. But these guys are too beholden to ancient comics that very few people in comparison have read to give John his due.

It's frustrating...Desh pretty much voiced my own feelings here. I'm a big fan of Ethan, but I'm just really unhappy about the way things are being handled outside of his control. When coupled with a top writer Ethan's work comes across like a champ. Him working with the no name...I feel like I've spent too much of my money already on great art and bad (or no real) stories. Oh well. I'll give the boy band comic a try, just to keep up with Ethan...

NO! No more! It's as Anthony put it: I have to vote with my wallet.

[Sodam Yat]

The bottom line is the Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps title shouldn't have changed. I do hugely respect that Ethan Van Sciver admitted there's blame to go around here. Because it really is. I believe Geoff Johns is the cause of this disaster by giving two unknowns the Green Lanterns title and moving Hal Jordan out of there. As I said earlier, John would be the last guy that they would even promote, despite being arguably the most popular Green Lantern among the demographic. Geoff Johns KNOWS and is aware of John Stewart's popularity. The dude knows he John has a following among comic readers, but he would rather create two new characters and give them a book than to do something with him. That's why Geoff Johns really needs to go.

He told me similarly, and with obvious regret. Van Jensen comes across to me as someone who really loves the Green Lantern Corps. Something I don't find in Vendetti (though I suspect he really likes the Flash).

He really does and I believe Van Jensen liking John Stewart as being his favorite Green Lantern (as he said multiple times in his interviews) is a problem among the editors. It wouldn't even surprise me why they won't let him take over the Corps title, because he would be the guy who refuses to make John Stewart a black best friend towards Hal Jordan.