John Stewart: Green Lantern Appreciation 2021

[Anthony Shaw]

I'm quite happy with the new direction for John, and the GLC. Also, I want to say thanks to RJ for bringing John's history as a Guardian back into the mix.

[Jabare]

I don't think you can fully move away from the space cop/space army aspect but if they are going to pursue that angle, maybe they should be organized like one. Like have all the GL's operating out of one precinct or space station and they just send out whoever is best suited for a mission be it on earth or in a galaxy far, far away and maybe have the GL's s be more specialized in their fields.

I think trying to simply say the GL Corp should be police officers or an army is kind of a myopic view. They might embody some elements or ethos of those institutions but they are also explorers who have a grander purpose. Preserving order, stoping impending universal catastrophe, etc. . That's how I see Green Lantern, sounds more appealing than just being a "Space Force."

That's an interesting idea. I don't know how practical it is if they are overseeing the entire cosmos, sounds like they'd have to spread out on some level.

[Bored at 3:00AM]

This is exactly what I've been looking for from a John Stewart comic since Mosaic got cancelled all those decades ago. John Stewart was always more than a solider. He's a problem-solver, a peacekeeper, diplomat, and strategist. All that is present here. Congratulations to everyone involved.

I am very much looking forward to what this series has up it's sleeves.

By the way, I am absolutely loving the pirate magician baddies. Exactly the right balance of threatening and ridiculous, as all great comic book villains are. Well done.

[Bored at 3:00AM]

I'm quite happy with the new direction for John, and the GLC. Also, I want to say thanks to RJ for bringing John's history as a Guardian back into the mix.

Absolutely. That's subplot has been left dangling for more than 25 years. About time it finally got referenced again, even if GL: Mosaic will likely never get reprinted, I'm glad it's still a part of the character's history as it's the series that really dug deep into who John Stewart is and what makes him tick in a way that no other comics had really done prior (or since, unfortunately).

[Sodam Yat]

The Book of Oa has been
-A collection of laws regulating Corps conduct
-A history book of the GLC
-A powerful artifact in its own right
-A book containing the secrets of the Guardians
Yet nobody has really bothered to clarify what it’s role is beyond “ominous MacGuffin”.

Seems like you did some good research there

It's been a while since I've looked into The Book of OA. We're in a new saga with expanding concepts. So I think it's a good time to see it being explored.

[Sodam Yat]

I'm quite happy with the new direction for John, and the GLC. Also, I want to say thanks to RJ for bringing John's history as a Guardian back into the mix.

Same here, Anthony. This issue was really good. I'm really glad the Guardian reference has been mentioned here. I feel like there's been a slight retcon. To where it seemed like John willingly gave up his power as a guardian, rather than losing it, due to sudden events on what happened in Emerald Twilight.

This is exactly what I've been looking for from a John Stewart comic since Mosaic got cancelled all those decades ago. John Stewart was always more than a solider. He's a problem-solver, a peacekeeper, diplomat, and strategist. All that is present here. Congratulations to everyone involved.

I am very much looking forward to what this series has up it's sleeves.

By the way, I am absolutely loving the pirate magician baddies. Exactly the right balance of threatening and ridiculous, as all great comic book villains are. Well done.

Agreed! The first issue is at a great start. John was always seemed to be regarded as the heavy thinker. I'm glad to this characterization being shown here.

[Vordan]

I think trying to simply say the GL Corp should be police officers or an army is kind of a myopic view. They might embody some elements or ethos of those institutions but they are also explorers who have a grander purpose. Preserving order, stoping impending universal catastrophe, etc. . That's how I see Green Lantern, sounds more appealing than just being a "Space Force."

That's an interesting idea. I don't know to practice it is if they are overseeing the entire cosmos, sounds like they'd have to spread out on some level.

I agree with you, not a fan of the militarization of superheroes, but unfortunately I think that ship has sold in regards to GLC. Them being cops/soldiers feels heavily engraved into the core of the franchise these days. We’ll see what direction Thorne takes John and the Corps in though.

[Bored at 3:00AM]

I agree with you, not a fan of the militarization of superheroes, but unfortunately I think that ship has sold in regards to GLC. Them being cops/soldiers feels heavily engraved into the core of the franchise these days. We’ll see what direction Thorne takes John and the Corps in though.

I think the cop/soldiers elements are always going to be there, but there's so much more there that can be explored, such as the tricky diplomatic and peace-keeping tasks that we've unfortunately saddled cops and soldiers with. With the Green Lantern concept, I think talented creators can show new angles on this that go beyond the tired policing/militaristic tropes that have already been done to death.

It's certainly been done before in the GL stories and I look forward to seeing more of it.

[Robanker]

A lot of what I'm reading here has me stoked to pick this up at my LCS after work tomorrow. Can't wait.

[HsssH]

I think that the whole idea of what does it exactly mean to police/guard an entire universe should be expanded. I don't think that it would be that similar to our own police and military forces.

[Besouro]

just read the first issue. overall, I dug this issue. it's doing a good job setting up the cosmic landscape we're gonna be working with going forward, has some interesting nods to the story elements we're gonna see explored, and some interesting looking new characters. I did really like the Guardians straight up recognizing John's tenture as a Guardian and acknowledging that makes his relationship to them uniquely significant within the greater Corp. although I would've preferred John more confident in the face of the United Planets, I did like that once shit hit the fan he went straight into work mode and got on his job. I respect that.

what knocks it down for me is some of the dialogue; especially with Teen Lantern. I've grown a little sensitive to the spanglish/"slips into spanish" trope, it's cringey and makes me roll my eyes. it's especially egregious here because we're in space and dealing with a setting where everything is autotranslated across species through their technology, so the broken english makes even less sense. the elemental people's "medieval" speak was pretty bad too. ye this ye that, it reads like a bad renaissance fair; that ain't it chief. also the dialogue at the begin doesn't makes sense when we revisit the same scene later in the book, which kinda took me out of it because it retroactively made the opening scene feel like an overtly cheap "for the previews" hook. I would've preferred if they just started the story at the start of the story instead of the flashforward then "how did we get here" maneuver.

other than those nitpicks, it was a solid read. pilots/first issues are almost universally rough but there's still enough there that I wanna see where it goes. like a strong 6 to a light 7.

I really don't get the compliants against Spanglish.....it's being spoken by a Hispanic TEENAGER not some uppity international corporate executive.

[Sodam Yat]

A lot of what I'm reading here has me stoked to pick this up at my LCS after work tomorrow. Can't wait.

Nice! You're not going to regret it

I think that the whole idea of what does it exactly mean to police/guard an entire universe should be expanded. I don't think that it would be that similar to our own police and military forces.

I agree. Well I mean Green Lanterns were portrayed as an intergalactic peace keeping force or even referred as space cops or whatever. There may be more details about this in the upcoming issues.

[ERON]

I really don't get the compliants against Spanglish.....it's being spoken by a Hispanic TEENAGER not some uppity international corporate executive.

Like I said in another thread, I don't think people are complaining about Spanglish in general, but rather that Teen Lantern's "Spanglish" in this book is nothing like what actual Hispanic teenagers sound like.

[Redjack]

Like I said in another thread, I don't think people are complaining about Spanglish in general, but rather that Teen Lantern's "Spanglish" in this book is nothing like what actual Hispanic teenagers sound like.

I was fairly meticulous in running down Bolivian street slang. I'm sure i made errors here and there (I'm not a Spanish speaker, obviously). Some of the things that don't read as proper syntax are specific to the Bolivian version of Spanish. For instance...

Anda a moler agua translates directly as “go grind water."

Obviously, it's nonsense when taking it literally but, in reality, it actually means “screw you!”.

¡Anda a moler agua! Estoy cansado de tus mentiras. – Screw you! I'm tired of your lies.

I tried my best to be as authentic to the culture Keli is said to have been raised in. Since I'm not from that country or that city, I'm sure I will, on occasion, get things wrong. And I'll keep trying to do better.

[SebastianS]

I was fairly meticulous in running down Bolivian street slang. I'm sure i made errors here and there (I'm not a Spanish speaker, obviously). Some of the things that don't read as proper syntax are specific to the Bolivian version of Spanish. For instance...

Anda a moler agua translates directly as “go grind water."

Obviously, it's nonsense when taking it literally but, in reality, it actually means “screw you!”.

¡Anda a moler agua! Estoy cansado de tus mentiras. – Screw you! I'm tired of your lies.

I tried my best to be as authentic to the culture Keli is said to have been raised in. Since I'm not from that country or that city, I'm sure I will, on occasion, get things wrong. And I'll keep trying to do better.

Hi!

Anda a moler agua is one of the phrases I didn't understand at first (and I am a native Spanish speaker), so it actually took me out of the story, and I had to Google its meaning. But in insight it makes sense.

But Eres estupido is quite the strong word for a teen/kid, and Agua Chica is just plain wrong.