From Green Lantern #185:
From Green Lantern #185:
You will NEVER get that so long as Dan DiDio and Geoff Johns are at DC and with the decision making capacity they have. I'm fairly certain of that. They are 1000% Hal Jordan and I'm pretty sure they will never put John Stewart in front of him, crappy money losing movies, cancelled cartoon shows, and failed merchandise lines be damned. So yeah, if you're looking for that, you may as well split, I say.
He wasn't the "face of the franchise" even at that time, it was Kyle. John was on TV, but he wasn't the "main" GL in comics. I forget already, but was he even active when JLU started? I remember he was injured, then Parallax healed him, afterwards the late 90s to very early 2000 it's a blur. But I'm sure both John and Guy weren't active GLs during the early adventures of Kyle. I remember John joined the Justice League in the comics shortly after he showed up on Timm's show, but I'm not certain what his status was around 2000-2001 in the comics.
But that's beside the point, why do we need a "face of the franchise"? It's multiple characters, everyone should be given a chance to shine. It's always been difficult to balance them out, but I hope the 2020 movie changes that. Whenever GL is used, it shouldn't be just Hal or just John, it should be 3 or 4 characters simultaneously. The "legacy" aspect of the characters is the one thing that JLU didn't really try to do, compared to Young Justice for example that did it so exceptionally well.
Cool post. Wasn't the main GL title still Kyle's ballgame in 2000-2001? And I must mention that in my opinion the Kyle run was mostly great (the Ion thing weirded me out though), and there were some great insights featuring John during that run. I realize this isn't exactly a shared opinion, but I love the 90s GL. And thought it was a HUGE improvement over what Jordan left, even right before the Parrallax thing I thought he was bombing out.
Now that I think about it, Jordan's been bombing out all over again, witness the Vendetti GL. It's okay, but essential? I don't think anybody feels that way about it.
John was a Darkstar and then crippled when Kyle was in charge.
Guy was the Warrior as well.
John was not active when the cartoon started. John only became active as that cartoon went on.
I agree with you-the franchise needs someone who understands what an Ensemble cast is. McDuffie understood that with JLA as did Morrison with his run as did Griffin with his run.
You can not keep recruiting guys who have pet favorites and yes that includes John Stewart. You get someone who can let everybody shine and THEN after a few years-you slow expand to where each can be spotlighted on their own.
I don't think he is bombing out, GL is still one of DC's better selling titles. Outsells some of the Bat-titles, Action Comics, Flash or Wonder Woman, so I suppose it should amount to something. The Venditti run isn't spectacular at all for sure, but it does seem to put more emphasis on the character's actual personality, compared to Johns who pretty much sent him from a light show to a light show. Stories like Sinestro Corps War or Blackest Night did have some good character moments, but Johns generally didn't seem to pay a lot of attention to Hal Jordan's character in his run. I mean Sinestro was more developed as a character than Hal was. Now when I think of it, given how well he did on GLC, I can imagine what Van Jansen might have done on the main book. He is one hell of a character writer.
Last edited by Johnny; 03-16-2016 at 02:22 PM.
I meant bombing out in terms of actual stories. The run of the past several years has been good, but to me the War of Light was freaking incredible. As far as Van Jensen, huge fan of his Corps, I jokingly begged him several times to come back, and he said DC told him not yet. He also stated he would be thrilled to once again "speak the oath".
Well I think no character can truly bomb out of stories, as long as there's good writers with good pitches. Making the character a "renegade", which we've seen before, is retreading old ground. Hopefully Rebirth does favors to all the GLs, since supposedly it's about "legacy" and Green Lantern is synonymous with legacy.
Guys, Ethan said to ask a writer to write a particular glc centric story about John Stewart. Which writers can you guys think of that could be a good ideal candidate to write a good John Stewart story? I would pick either Van Jensen or Brian Azzarello for the job.