Originally Posted by
Vampire Savior
It's another sign of too many GL's. It's not the main one that suffers, really. It's all those mini ones that have to fight with each other over limited panel space and exposure. And now the argument of who is the most disenfranchised is a topic of discussion. With John and Kyle, it's an interesting topic. John has a considerably higher profile in general awareness, but he only really has one short comic series where he is really the star of the show, and it was written by a convicted pedophile, which tarnishes the whole thing and will keep it from ever being celebrated and revisited (not that it was before, but it definitely won't be now). John has some other key runs like his stint in the 80s and the Van Jensen GLC run, and I guess the six issue Lost Army if you want to mention that, but ALL John Stewart runs are of relatively very limited length. Furthermore, he doesn't matter to the overall mythology of Green Lantern. When I think about it, I really believe you could remove John Stewart from Green Lantern entirely, and you wouldn't change that much, if at all. The most important thing John did was fill in for Hal when Hal quit the GL Corps, but the important event is that Hal quit the GL Corps.
Kyle lacks outside media presence, but he was the main Green Lantern protagonist for 10 years, and John Stewart was never really the main Green Lantern protagonist. The closest he got was his short time as Green Lantern of Earth in the 80s, but I would say he co-starred with Hal Jordan. And Kyle Rayner matters a whole lot more to Green Lantern mythology than John Stewart.
Who really winds up being short changed more? I think that's actually a good question. Kyle doesn't matter to ANYONE except (some) comic readers, and likely less and less as time goes on and Kyle doesn't do anything of any importance, and John Stewart basically has nothing going on for him in comics and doesn't have much history as a leading man despite being around for 50 years.
It's an interesting thing to consider, but I will say now that the Justice League cartoon and Kyle Rayner's run as GL are both long behind us that John Stewart has walked away with more general relevance than Kyle Rayner today. So, it's kind of weird. John kind of matters more to Green Lantern than Kyle in one sense, but John doesn't matter at all to Green Lantern in another sense. It's a really weird situation, and I'm not quite sure what to think of it.
I think I have mixed feelings about it. On one hand, it was really cool the way Justice League reinvented John Stewart and totally skyrockted his profile out of nowhere...but...I can't help but walk away with the feeling that it was kind of false advertising. Who's to blame for that? I dunno'. I guess you could blame DC for not following suit with the cartoon and capitalizing on John Stewart, or you can blame Bruce Timm and co. for presenting a warped view of Green Lantern that isn't all that faithful to what you'll find in the comics, at least regarding John Stewart's role and importance.
Well, it's interesting stuff to ponder.