John Stewart: Green Lantern Appreciation 2020

[Iconic]

Alpha Lantern might work. No one complained about that title when it was introduced years ago and John has clearly internalized the energy. Why not?

[Sodam Yat]

Alpha Lantern might work. No one complained about that title when it was introduced years ago and John has clearly internalized the energy. Why not?

Didn't the Alpha Lanterns get destroyed during the first arc of the New 52? They were originally designed to be loyal to the guardians and had little to no free-will. It was a good thing that John rejected the guardians' offer, because of that reason.

[Iconic]

Didn't the Alpha Lanterns get destroyed during the first arc of the New 52? They were originally designed to be loyal to the guardians and had little to no free-will. It was a good thing that John rejected the guardians' offer, because of that reason.

Yeah. But what’s stopping them from repurposing that title?

[SecretWarrior]

Lol, a lot of people can't stand to see a Black man as a top 5 icon and key decision maker.

Trying to ice skate uphill in an attempt to undermine his branding. Kyle became Ion, which was unpopular, so he went back to the GL branding. I guess some people never learn.

[SecretWarrior]

Get rekt.

[SecretWarrior]

[SecretWarrior]

[Iconic]

Lol, a lot of people can't stand to see a Black man as a top 5 icon and key decision maker.

Trying to ice skate uphill in an attempt to undermine his branding. Kyle became Ion, which was unpopular, so he went back to the GL branding. I guess some people never learn.

You misunderstand why some are open to a change of some fashion. It’s not to take John away from the branding. The branding is great. It’s just that John fans have no faith that DC would ever stick with John in this fashion. Some just want to move him away from Harold Jordan so he can stop being minimized by the next fanboy DC honcho that comes along.

But if DC were more like Marvel and would push John regardless on the dissenters, then that would be the ideal situation.

[SecretWarrior]

You misunderstand why some are open to a change of some fashion. It’s not to take John away from the branding. The branding is great. It’s just that John fans have no faith that DC would ever stick with John in this fashion. Some just want to move him away from Harold Jordan so he can stop being minimized by the next fanboy DC honcho that comes along.

But if DC were more like Marvel and would push John regardless on the dissenters, then that would be the ideal situation.

NO-- And I mean NO-- Black characters at DC owned outright by the company have books. None. It has nothing to do with John's codename. It has to do with DC being a racist company in practice. Never a crossover event centered on a Black character-- No franchises built around black characters-- No mythologies centered on Black characters. No key roles, besides John leading the GLC, headed by Black characters. Nothing. Just there to add color for wallpaper and say "we're not racist." Problem is that secondary status is not enough. Tokenism is not enough.

DC's five biggest solo brands are Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and Flash. There's no reason why John can't lead the Green Lantern franchise instead of being relegated to side character with a codename that does absolutely nothing, as evidenced by Dick Grayson, War Machine, etc. There's a reason Marvel calls Miles Morales Spider-man and not some other name.

We're under new management, who seem to be promoting him-- For all the reasons already listed, John is Green Lantern and anything else is trying to sweep the legs out from under him.

DC should be treating John like Marvel treats Carol Danvers, Scott Lang, Kamala Kahn, etc.

[Sodam Yat]

Yeah. But what’s stopping them from repurposing that title?

Because it would be way out of character for John to accept that role. The Green Lanterns aren't really fond of Alpha Lanterns. There's a reason why the original guardians got destroyed (except Ganthet and Sayd). The Guardians only created them, so they can have greater control of Alpha Lanterns. I think it would be a huge disservice for John to be relegated to something like that imo.

[Sodam Yat]

Hard yes of agreement with you. They have yo-yoed him around as the second best GL for the last 10 years trying to rub him out in favor of Hal. As I type this there's a book given to top talent for the purpose of highlighting Hal Jordan GL. John is just a floater.

The thing is, is that Hal got the book because Dan Didio requested for Hal Jordan to have another solo to be written by top talent. Dan Didio has (thankfully) gone bye bye now. We don't have to worry about him anymore. Now we're seeing a sudden change with John Stewart over at DC. He has a strong presence in Death Metal Multiversity. Even freaking Guy Gardner of all people had stronger presence in that book than Hal Jordan which is unheard of. Those are the kind of changes of what happens when guys like Dan Didio, Ethan Van Sciver etc. leaves. John is going to be playing a key role in a crossover event in next year. He's also in more promotional materials and a part of the top 5 core team. And then you have a new DC General Manager, who is of color that seems to have strong favoritism towards John Stewart. I don't think there's no reason for John now to become anything other than a Green Lantern and worry that other Green Lanterns are going to push him back in the background.

[chief12d]

The only reason I wouldn't support a name change is because it probably wouldn't work. But I agree with the idea he'd probably get more investment/distinctiveness as far as the comics are concerned. Millions of people know John as Green Lantern and fans have grown used to him in that role. Darkstar, Alpha Lantern, etc. are too big a deviation from what the core of the character is to be viable UNLESS they showed him transition into that title on the big/small screen.

[SecretWarrior]

The only reason I wouldn't support a name change is because it probably wouldn't work. But I agree with the idea he'd probably get more investment/distinctiveness as far as the comics are concerned. Millions of people know John as Green Lantern and fans have grown used to him in that role. Darkstar, Alpha Lantern, etc. are too big a deviation from what the core of the character is to be viable UNLESS they showed him transition into that title on the big/small screen.

Even then, he would always be a Green Lantern first, like Dick Grayson still appears as Robin. Going to his wiki, he would always be Green Lantern. A name change only serves to make him a supporting character in the franchise, when the elements of the character-- from personality to origin to powerset indicate he should be a leading character. Van Jensen showed us how well that can work. There's nothing wrong with John creatively-- Just editorially.

[lemonpeace]

Alpha Lantern might work. No one complained about that title when it was introduced years ago and John has clearly internalized the energy. Why not?

I still feel the best way to transition to a new role would be to make him a Guardian again and just make his epithet as "Master Builder" his official title in the Corps. I feel post-New 52 they've set up John as the only Lantern that the Guardians see as an equal; Hal is more like a loose cannon that they respect, Kyle is more like a secret weapon than anything due to his potential for all colors, and Guy is Guy. John on the other hand, they've been monitoring and guiding since birth, they singling him out to check them if they overstep, and he's been trusted to lead the Lanterns multiple times over the years. Also, what sets the Guardians apart from the Lanterns power-wise? their ability to directly use and manipulate the Emotional Spectrum, just like John can now do as a human power battery. the set up is all there, they just have to pull the trigger. people care about the characters and part of the beauty of Green Lanterns is that most of them just go by their names anyway, so it really doesn't matter if they are officially called Green Lantern or not. Guy at his best and most interesting for me was when he was a Red Lantern, so I'm more than fine if they started giving each Lantern their own unique roles to play besides all just being reskin Green Lanterns.

[Iconic]

NO-- And I mean NO-- Black characters at DC owned outright by the company have books. None. It has nothing to do with John's codename. It has to do with DC being a racist company in practice. Never a crossover event centered on a Black character-- No franchises built around black characters-- No mythologies centered on Black characters. No key roles, besides John leading the GLC, headed by Black characters. Nothing. Just there to add color for wallpaper and say "we're not racist." Problem is that secondary status is not enough. Tokenism is not enough.

DC's five biggest solo brands are Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and Flash. There's no reason why John can't lead the Green Lantern franchise instead of being relegated to side character with a codename that does absolutely nothing, as evidenced by Dick Grayson, War Machine, etc. There's a reason Marvel calls Miles Morales Spider-man and not some other name.

We're under new management, who seem to be promoting him-- For all the reasons already listed, John is Green Lantern and anything else is trying to sweep the legs out from under him.

DC should be treating John like Marvel treats Carol Danvers, Scott Lang, Kamala Kahn, etc.

I agree with all of this. I just hope DC does too!