John Stewart: Green Lantern Appreciation 2021

[Cosmic Emerald 23]

Like what has been said before, it's gonna take a prominent and successful outside media role to redefine the character for the future. If it turns out popular, then that's what most writers will go with because they want to cash in. Also the right casting plays a part in it as well. They need someone who can really express that inner fire that John had in his early years to ward off the boring characterization that's plagued John for so long.

[Anthony Shaw]

Ryan Reynolds will not be playing John, so my blue ring is half full of hope.

[SecretWarrior]

Having a military background isn’t an issue—Just look at Marvel’s/the MCU’s multidimensional vets: Logan, Steve, Sam, Buck, Wade, Adam, Nathaniel, Lucas, etc. If John is written as one note, it’s because the writer isn’t interested, not that the character is uninteresting.

[SecretWarrior]

Compare Duncan Idaho and Gurney Hallac in Dune, or Robb Stark and Edmond Tully in AGoT. Some military folks are interesting, and others aren’t. Spawn’s background works well for him, and Blue Marvel’s is almost forgotten.

[SecretWarrior]

John has the same MBTI type as Hermione Granger, Jason Bourne, Ned Stark, Jim Gordon, Scott Summers, Frank Castle, Sean Connery, Natalie Portman, George Washington, and Denzel Washington: ISTJ. It’s one of the most knightly personalities, and it’s an in-between point between Batman (INTJ) and Superman (ISFJ).

[Customizer]

Stick around.

John's about to go through some VERY interesting times and DC is, thus far, 100% on board.

And this is why i pay for this title.

I trust Redjack and how he will depict the character.

And also his taste in music heh.

[Sodam Yat]

I really wish they hadn't brought John's Marine background (from the animated series) into the comics. It shouldn't automatically make him more stoic and straight edge, but a lot of writers basically fashion his personality after that aspect of the character. "What's John's personality?" "He's a Marine."

The military background was always Hal's thing. Bruce Timm and co. seemingly wanted their versions John and Kyle to have shades of Hal. The Superman: TAS version of Kyle even looked exactly like Hal.

Denny O'Neal and Neal Adams originally crafted John to be a bit of a rebel and an advocate for social change. Both guys worshipped Mohammad Ali and there was probably some influence there.

I'm not saying John should be Ali with a power ring, but the current "stoic good soldier" John is pretty far from their original concept.

As you said, that's the fault of lazy writing. We rarely get to see all the facets of the character.

Bringing John's Marine background from the animated series over to the comics is probably the best thing Geoff Johns done to the character (which is not saying much). It's obvious on why that background was added into the comics. John's huge popularity came from the cartoons, which new potential readers (like myself back then) only knew that version of John. So it's reasonable to see this being translated into the comics, especially there's newcomers looking for a John Stewart book. It's also perfect reasoning on why writers like Van Jensen had John's personality similar to that of the cartoons. And I loved it!

[Sodam Yat]

And I don't understand why some believe John is so stoic these days. Sure, he was like that during the Johns era, because lazy writers had nothing to do with him at that time. But since the new creative team took over after Johns', he never came off as heavily stoic. You can even see Scott Snyder writing the character having a sense of humor, among other writers. I also love the way he was written in Are you afraid of Darkseid issue. I really love how John was written in that issue.

Even on this current run, John isn't heavily stoic either.

[Frontier]

And I don't understand why some believe John is so stoic these days. Sure, he was like that during the Johns era, because lazy writers had nothing to do with him at that time. But since the new creative team took over after Johns', he never came off as heavily stoic. You can even see Scott Snyder writing the character having a sense of humor, among other writers. I also love the way he was written in Are you afraid of Darkseid issue. I really love how John was written in that issue.

Even on this current run, John isn't heavily stoic either.

Was he even that stoic during the Johns era? I mean, maybe he had his moments but he quipped with Hal and Guy and stood up to Batman.

[Bored at 3:00AM]

Compare Duncan Idaho and Gurney Hallac in Dune, or Robb Stark and Edmond Tully in AGoT. Some military folks are interesting, and others aren’t. Spawn’s background works well for him, and Blue Marvel’s is almost forgotten.

Like I mentioned, John's military background certainly gives him some extra layers, and retconning it away isn't an option as John's popularity largely stems from McDuffie's John from JLU. However, I do not think it should be his primary feature anymore, which was certainly the case for the majority of his publishing history over the past couple decades.

I think Redjack's been doing a good job of balancing out the now tired and generic soldier guy elements of John's character with the far more interesting architect/Master Builder elements. I wish there was a little more Blerd, which was the secret sauce that made McDuffie's John click for me, though.

[Sodam Yat]

Was he even that stoic during the Johns era? I mean, maybe he had his moments but he quipped with Hal and Guy and stood up to Batman.

Well that was before the military background retcon. Johns never written him much after that. So he came off as stoic and John even said that he was stoic in one of those issues.

[Thephantasm]

Til redjack is geoffrey thorne...

I'm somewhat surprised by the responses here to the run

Because it is notably different in other communities

[Bored at 3:00AM]

Til redjack is geoffrey thorne...

I'm somewhat surprised by the responses here to the run

Because it is notably different in other communities

CBR Forums aren't necessarily reflective of all online geek forums. There's a lot less goobers and trolls.

This isn't to say we are without goobers, but we have somewhat less than you'll find on Twitter, Reddit, Facebook, and the rest.

[Bored at 3:00AM]

Well that was before the military background retcon. Johns never written him much after that. So he came off as stoic and John even said that he was stoic in one of those issues.

John was firmly in the "Black Best Friend" role during Kyle's era, unfortunately. In the comics, John's real time to shine was the 80s and early 90s. Everything after that has been slim pickings from my perspective. If it hadn't been for McDuffie, I don't think John would have stuck around as long as he has. Thankfully, that perfect combination between creator and character paid off and John Stewart is in a much better situation today.

[SecretWarrior]

Seeing more of John when he’s off the clock would add dimension to his character. One of the reasons I think he should have at least one primarily Earth-based enemy.