John Stewart: Green Lantern Appreciation 2020

[SecretWarrior]

[Holt]

Via Toy Fair yesterday, John will be featured in the DC Heroes toyline from Spin Master.

[Sodam Yat]

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.

Bruce Timm and them can't be blamed for using the Green Lantern they preferred. What Timm, Dini, Mcduffie, hell even Lamarr did with John Stewart was a response to how he was being handled in the comics at the time. It wasn't any different than what Tomasi did with Guy or what Johns, Van Sciver, and Didio did with Hal. It also helped that the Justice League cartoon got to take what worked in the comics and avoid the stuff that didn't which made for one of the best portrayals of the League.

The point about Kyle is interesting in that what I think led to his downfall was that he was not enough of a break from Hal Jordan. Sure he had fancier constructs but for the most part he used them to do the same stuff Hal did with his constructs and I don't recall him doing stuff like bringing people back to life or teleporting or even enhancing his body like Hal, John, Guy and I think even Katma did. The art was nice no doubt (wish Banks had a better inker and colorist in the beginning) but once you realize that he's just punching a person in the face then it's like "Is this really all that different from fists and bubbles?"

His enemies were remixes of Hal's and the few who weren't were either killed off by Johns (damn shame imo) or written into a corner (think that was Johns's fault as well). Or straight up forgotten about. Even his supporting cast hasn't shown up in a long time because Green Lantern was so focused on space. It's like the whole everyman basis for his character which was cribbed from Spider-Man was completely excised from his character by the time the New 52 came around.

In the case of John Stewart there's the argument that despite being a legacy character he was one of the first Black characters at DC so there wasn't really a template to go off of (in comics at least) for how he was characterized compared to Kyle. There were moments where John could've been a lead but that would've required ending Hal's story and not making him the focus like how DC did with Alan Scott. In a way they did end Hal's story when he quit but then they brought him back after Crisis on Infinite Earths and it became apparent that they didn't know what to do with Hal which led to "brilliant" stories which eventually ended with Emerald Twilight. To me the time to really pull the trigger with John was during the period with Wein and later on Englehart but for whatever reason they brought Hal back.

I guess it's all in how you look at it: Is it better to be a temporary replacement but somewhat unique with wasted potential or to be an intended permanent lead who never really goes to the next level?

As far as cerebral John goes, even that I think wasn't a primary trait of his character till Mosaic from what I remember reading. Until they killed Katma sure he was well read and educated but he had a sense of humor and hints of life outside of Green Lantern. It would've been nice to see more of his life in Detroit. That being said my ideal John Stewart would take the best parts of JL/JLU, 80s, early 90s, and even some of the more recent characterizations he's had. I remember reading one story that was alright where he went to a planet that had its beings dealing with a colonial empire and it was interesting seeing how he went about solving that problem. It also mentioned that Stewart was a socialist though I don't know if the writer really got the implications of having a superhero who was also a socialist. I would like to see that explored more but that's just me.

Those are some good points from both of you

[Sodam Yat]

Via Toy Fair yesterday, John will be featured in the DC Heroes toyline from Spin Master.

Looks good! John's eyes looks like it's glowing green

[Customizer]

^ the 9 year old in me is HYPED for that John Stewart figure heh. I recall a lifetime ago playing with a Green Arrow figure on my grandmother's tv room floor. I'd have had John if he were available at that time.

[Johnny]

New 8 inch John figure from Mego. Apparently these are only prototypes and the heads and body proportions would look normal upon release.

[Holt]

Phil talks about voicing Green Lantern with Vanity Fair.

[Vampire Savior]

Heh. I haven't watched the video yet, but what is so easy to tell from looking at the thumbnail is that the character designer clearly modeled John Stewart's face directly from Phil LaMarr. You can see it for sure in the brow area and the eyes and nose, all the way down to that little cleft thing-y in the center of the brow, and the smile lines.

[Johnny]

This guy never ceases to amaze me. Voice actors can sometimes be incredibly underappreciated.

[Sodam Yat]

John Stewart in Justice League Dark:

[SecretWarrior]

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[SecretWarrior]

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[SecretWarrior]

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[SecretWarrior]

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