John Stewart Appreciation 2019

[Sodam Yat]

Because as I said, in this case that doesn't even really follow because it was a big name writer getting a tailor made book for her. It's rather unlikely had DC told her she wasn't allowed to create her own Lantern, she would've just said "Fine, I'll use John Stewart instead."



Simply put, I don't agree with that reasoning. That's why I pointed out it didn't take Jessica Cruz getting killed off or depowered for John to get back into the Justice League during the Snyder run.

Ok, I see what you're saying

I feel the reason the John Stewart character is where he's at today is because of luck. Snyder wanted John in the story, so he's in there. The editors didn't request this.

Hal, Simon, and Jessica are good examples of editors solicit pitches specifically for those characters. That's where John lacks at right now. And that's what he needs. Sure, there are some pitches where a writer get to choose what he/she wants to write from editors(Green Lantern:Earth One is a good example), but that seems more like the chosen GL has won the lottery. John needs more than luck to get some attention.

[EsotericFailures]

He likes John Stewart and even submitted a pitch to DC to do a book with the character. But the book cannot happen right now because of Morrison's Green Lantern book. And since Morrison/Liam Sharp announced a second season, the wait is going to be an extra year. And even after that, it doesn't mean they will approve his pitch.

So DC is only allowing one mainstream Green Lantern book at a time? Ugh. The franchise has fallen so low since Johns left and I was hoping Morrison would lead to some kind of return to glory but apparently not.

[Vampire Savior]

Ok, I see what you're saying

I feel the reason the John Stewart character is where he's at today is because of luck. Snyder wanted John in the story, so he's in there. The editors didn't request this.

Hal, Simon, and Jessica are good examples of editors solicit pitches specifically for those characters. That's where John lacks at right now. And that's what he needs. Sure, there are some pitches where a writer get to choose what he/she wants to write from editors(Green Lantern:Earth One is a good example), but that seems more like the chosen GL has won the lottery. John needs more than luck to get some attention.

This is true. DC has done nothing to entice writers to want to write John Stewart, so I wouldn't even expect many writers to send out random pitches for him. I don't believe he's many writers' dream project, like Batman.

The only reason I could see a writer wanting to even use this character is because they saw him on JL/U, which was done by Warner Bros. Animation. Besides that, the character has floundered and done very little of note since Mosaic ended, which was in 1994. So it's useless to hope that a bunch of magic writers will come along and flood DC with requests to write John Stewart. You'll be waiting for quite some time, I think. And even if they were to do that, it doesn't mean anything unless an editor actually wants to publish a John Stewart title, which is what really matters.

I believe DC would need to proactively pursue a John Stewart title for readers to see one.
And DC doesn't do that. For better or worse, DC would rather proactively pursue writers who don't know anything about Green Lantern and likely very little about comics, who will give us random characters instead. I suppose it's an effort to try to tap new audiences, but I think DC would be better served doing that with preexisting characters, like what they are doing with that Mera book by that YA writer. That way, whoever may like the book just might choose to follow the character in DC's regular comics.

EDIT:
One more thing. For what it's worth, I don't think we're certain Far Sector is out of continuity. It's just published under a special imprint. Though I could have missed something.

[Johnny]

He likes John Stewart and even submitted a pitch to DC to do a book with the character. But the book cannot happen right now because of Morrison's Green Lantern book. And since Morrison/Liam Sharp announced a second season, the wait is going to be an extra year. And even after that, it doesn't mean they will approve his pitch.

Like what Vampaire Savior said, you need EDITORS to give John attention and give him a book. Creators liking John doesn't mean anything, unless guys like Dan Didio and other editors decides request pitches specifically about John Stewart. Just like what they're doing with Hal Jordan and what they previously did with Jess/Simon. (this was not directed towards you, Johnny)

You think writers like Van Jensen would turn down a John Stewart solicit pitch from editors? Of course not, but the issue comes from the top and needs to be resolved from the top first

I see. Could it be that they probably don't want more than one GL book for the time being? They published two bi-monthly GL titles until fairly recently and none of them had particularly good sales.

[Sodam Yat]

So DC is only allowing one mainstream Green Lantern book at a time? Ugh. The franchise has fallen so low since Johns left and I was hoping Morrison would lead to some kind of return to glory but apparently not.

Yea, it's very frustrating.

I see. Could it be that they probably don't want more than one GL book for the time being? They published two bi-monthly GL titles until fairly recently and none of them had particularly good sales.

Yes, it seems they do not want more than one Green Lantern book currently. And honestly, that's very selfish of DC. I think another GL book can sustain, especially if they start doing crossovers again. You just need a real quality GL writer, and DC needs to promote the material. No need to hold back a certain amount of promotion, just because Grant Morrison has a GL ongoing. The books should be treated as the same. Not one over the other.

They want only one character who they obviously prefer to get successful first before opening the possibility of having another book starring a different Green Lantern character. That's very selfish.

I consider it selfish when Ethan Van Sciver there could be a possibility of a John Stewart book if you rely and support Hal's book.

[SecretWarrior]

Not gonna happen, to be honest. Geoff Johns' influence seems to be happening in full force.

Susan Eisenberg says to use #JLReunion @WarnerBrothers on twitter to make a cartoon reunion happen.

[Vampire Savior]

I think some aren't realizing this. When you KEEP creating new characters, it makes it hard for other Green Lantern characters. It's not healthy for the franchise. Characters like Guy and Kyle are affected by this as well. Simon, too, I think. I don't think they would be in the shelves at the DC offices if it weren't for constantly creating new Green Lanterns. Currently, there's no real good balance here. This is a good example of what happens when you create new human GL characters in a franchise that is declining since the Geoff Johns' era.

Yes, that's actually the problem. Green Lantern is experiencing no growth, but DC keeps putting new characters in it that aren't increasing its growth. This, naturally, creates a problem. Having a problem before (John getting no focus) does not excuse this current problem. In fact, it makes the first problem (John getting no focus) even worse.

[Bored at 3:00AM]

I think John Stewart has suffered some real bad luck creatively. Dwayne McDuffie's death put the character in limbo for a while, Gerard Jones's conviction poured lighter fluid over the chances of Mosaic ever getting the attention it deserves, the cancellation of GL:TAS prevented John from getting reintroduced in animation beyond the JLU, and the Other History of the DC Universe has gotten indefinitely postponed for unrelated legal nonsense.

At least John is being used well in Justice League now.

[lemonpeace]

I think John Stewart has suffered some real bad luck creatively. Dwayne McDuffie's death put the character in limbo for a while, Gerard Jones's conviction poured lighter fluid over the chances of Mosaic ever getting the attention it deserves, the cancellation of GL:TAS prevented John from getting reintroduced in animation beyond the JLU, and the Other History of the DC Universe has gotten indefinitely postponed for unrelated legal nonsense.

At least John is being used well in Justice League now.

Oof! Bored, you wound me. I forgot about how much I was anticipating that book.

[Bored at 3:00AM]

Oof! Bored, you wound me. I forgot about how much I was anticipating that book.

It might get sorted out eventually, but the creators might just move on. It's kinda DC Editorial's fault on this one though. They shouldn't have greenlighted one pitch without at least paying for the older pitch of the exact same idea.

Granted, telling the story of the DCU from the perspective of the non-white heroes isn't exactly ground-breaking, but DC should have known this was going to bite them in the ass.

[lemonpeace]

It might get sorted out eventually, but the creators might just move on. It's kinda DC Editorial's fault on this one though. They shouldn't have greenlighted one pitch without at least paying for the older pitch of the exact same idea.

Granted, telling the story of the DCU from the perspective of the non-white heroes isn't exactly ground-breaking, but DC should have known this was going to bite them in the ass.

What was the legal issues that put the kibosh on that title exactly? I never read anything besides that it got postponed indefinitely around the same time Outsiders got delayed.

[Bored at 3:00AM]

What was the legal issues that put the kibosh on that title exactly? I never read anything besides that it got postponed indefinitely around the same time Outsiders got delayed.

Outsiders and The Other History of the DC Universe are related only in the sense that their delays both happened when DC's new head honcho took over from Diane Nelson.

As far as I've heard, another creator had pitched a history of the DCU from the perspective of its black heroes prior to the current pitch. Lawsuits have been threatened and its now in the same legal hell hole the Milestone characters are in.

[lemonpeace]

Outsiders and The Other History of the DC Universe are related only in the sense that their delays both happened when DC's new head honcho took over from Diane Nelson.

As far as I've heard, another creator had pitched a history of the DCU from the perspective of its black heroes prior to the current pitch. Lawsuits have been threatened and its now in the same legal hell hole the Milestone characters are in.

That's so petty and stupid I'm thorough annoyed. Like, UGH!!! Can DC get anything related to diversity off the ground!? When they "push" characters of color they're (mostly, not always) ineffective, the ones they already have tend to get shoved in limbo or backup, they couldn't settle/fix the Milestone situation, and now this? -sigh- it's all just so depressing and frustrating. Interesting and well done representation might as well be a pipedream for me when it comes to DC at this point. At least we have a couple promising inklings of representation.

[Bored at 3:00AM]

That's so petty and stupid I'm thorough annoyed. Like, UGH!!! Can DC get anything related to diversity off the ground!? When they "push" characters of color they're (mostly, not always) ineffective, the ones they already have tend to get shoved in limbo or backup, they couldn't settle/fix the Milestone situation, and now this? -sigh- it's all just so depressing and frustrating. Interesting and well done representation might as well be a pipedream for me when it comes to DC at this point. At least we have a couple promising inklings of representation.

To be fair to DC, they have tried again and again to diversify. They just keep hitting the same walls over and over of not enough readers being on board or legal issues gumming up the works.

The biggest problem remains the lack of diversity within creators themselves. Since the vast majority of creators who have worked for DC were (and still are) white dudes, we end up getting more focus on white dudes than anyone else. Same goes for female characters. It’s changing, but there’s clearly a lot of work to be done.

[Vampire Savior]

Well, the problem is what I've been saying forever.

DC's "diverse" characters are most often side characters, team players, and variations of white characters, usually with the white characters being more important. Side characters, like John Stewart, can (usually) only go so far, because they are not the main character. They just exist in the main character's world for the purpose of enriching the main character's world. I don't believe John Stewart will ever be able to get out of Hal Jordan's shadow. He might seem to for certain select instances, like JL/U for example, but I believe there will always be a Geoff Johns or a Dan DiDio to come around and put him back in his place and set things back to how they're supposed to be. He also has all those other extraneous Lanterns to deal with. It's difficult for me to believe John Stewart can get very far ahead when Hal Jordan is keeping him beneath a glass ceiling while he's also being buried and dogpiled under Jessica Cruz, Simon Baz, Sojourner, Teen Lantern, Vietnamese Boy, and all the others.

Team players like Cyborg are usually created to support the foundation of a team. Not to have their own independent foundation. That's one of the many reasons why Cyborg fails. Other reasons include having a piss poor character design that changes with almost every artist but manages to suck every time, which leads us to another reason. He's physically ugly, thus no sensible girl will ever appreciate him for his looks. This leads us to him lacking a penis at least some of the time. And there is a huge list of other reasons you've likely heard.

Building fresh characters with their own foundation is difficult in the context of the DC Universe, and I think it's unlikely for anyone over there to get something like that to work. First, most creators will take their best ideas elsewhere, otherwise DC will own them. This isn't desirable to most creators. On top of that, DC's fanbase is generally very closed minded and disinterested toward new characters and ideas. Also, creating new characters, ideas, foundations, and mythos that are good enough to get legs of their own requires serious effort, creativity, and patience, and I don't think anyone at DC is willing to put forth the creative and promotional effort that would take. Most of their people probably aren't skilled or inherently creative enough to get that to work, either. Not everyone is a Jack Kirby.

Which leads us to the current outcome of DC not having any really worthwhile minority characters. I'm of the mind that even characters like John Stewart--though I do like him a lot--are also quite disappointing in their own ways, for some of the reasons I've listed above. For quality minority leads, DC just isn't the place to go.