John Stewart: Green Lantern Appreciation 2022

[John Venus]

Neal had to fight to name the character John Stewart, and not the stereotypical name the PTB wanted to use.

Plus, I don't think DC had any black characters in the silver age. I know what Jim Shooter intended with Ferro Lad. Marvel had a handful (plus Wyatt Wingfoot) before the Bronze Age started.

With the current climate of division in America, I don't have time for dog whistle antics.

There was Mal Duncan who debuted in 1970. One year after Falcon's debut and four years after BP but still predates Black Panther and Blade but that was still at the tail end of the Silver Age depending on when you consider to be the end of the Silver Age. Him kissing Lillith was the first example of an interracial kiss in comic book history. But Mal was basically a glorified civilian and didn't suit up until 1976.

[MoneySpider]

Neal had to fight to name the character John Stewart, and not the stereotypical name the PTB wanted to use.

Plus, I don't think DC had any black characters in the silver age. I know what Jim Shooter intended with Ferro Lad. Marvel had a handful (plus Wyatt Wingfoot) before the Bronze Age started.

With the current climate of division in America, I don't have time for dog whistle antics.

Yeah, someone at DC originally wanted to name him "Lincoln Washington."

[Redjack]

There was Mal Duncan who debuted in 1970. One year after Falcon's debut and four years after BP but still predates Black Panther and Blade but that was still at the tail end of the Silver Age depending on when you consider to be the end of the Silver Age. Him kissing Lillith was the first example of an interracial kiss in comic book history. But Mal was basically a glorified civilian and didn't suit up until 1976.

Mal is a perfect reference. He was created and maintained a token black character for decades.

His powers were... wait... let me check my notes... I'M FROM THE STREETS! and I'M BLACK!

That's it. He was just there for DC to say, "see? we got one too."

John Stewart was and remains the opposite of Mal Duncan.

Anybody confused about the difference between a character and a token need look no further than John, the former, and Mal. the latter.

[skyvolt2000]

There was Mal Duncan who debuted in 1970. One year after Falcon's debut and four years after BP but still predates Black Panther and Blade but that was still at the tail end of the Silver Age depending on when you consider to be the end of the Silver Age. Him kissing Lillith was the first example of an interracial kiss in comic book history. But Mal was basically a glorified civilian and didn't suit up until 1976.

John Ridley's Other Side of DC, the Young Justice cartoon, DC Super Hero Girls and cartoon Teen Titans have done more for him than 52 years in comics.

I think it cost me more to buy Mal's first appearance than it did for Vixen, Black Lightning, Chuck Clayton and Flint (Inhumans) first appearances.

[John Venus]

Mal is a perfect reference. He was created and maintained a token black character for decades.

His powers were... wait... let me check my notes... I'M FROM THE STREETS! and I'M BLACK!

That's it. He was just there for DC to say, "see? we got one too."

John Stewart was and remains the opposite of Mal Duncan.

Anybody confused about the difference between a character and a token need look no further than John, the former, and Mal. the latter.

To add to that, Guy Gardner was already around when John debuted and even filled in for Hal. But John is still the token???

John Ridley's Other Side of DC, the Young Justice cartoon, DC Super Hero Girls and cartoon Teen Titans have done more for him than 52 years in comics.

I think it cost me more to buy Mal's first appearance than it did for Vixen, Black Lightning, Chuck Clayton and Flint (Inhumans) first appearances.

I remember really liking Mal when I first saw him in the 2k3 TT showing show then I checked out the comics and.......yeah.

The Other Side was the first time in years that someone tapped into Mal and Karen's potential as characters.

[lemonpeace]

Well, people who really didn't care for John Diggle being assumed to be John Stewart will be happy with this.

me! I'm people! lol

not gonna lie, it's somewhat bittersweet. while I always found the whole John is John theory/concept pretty insulting to both characters, i will say it's pretty messed up that they dragged it out this long, and got so many fans intrigued, just to literally throw the storyline away. good call in the end but that was a fan theory they shouldn't have been playing with in the first place.

[LukeCagefan]

Personally, I think it would be a great idea for John to have another writer. I do think Thorne likes and cares about John Stewart, which is great and something the character hasn't been fortunate enough to have much of the time. However, after reading his run, I don't believe he's a good choice to steer the character's direction for three main reasons.

a) Questionable creative decisions. Just one example would be thinking that including Teen Lantern in John Stewart stories would be a good idea. I've followed John Stewart's fanbase for several years, and I honestly don't think they would want something like that.

b) Questionable writing ability. Disregarding his preferences vs. mine (like apparently thinking Jo telling off the GLC was cool, I guess, while to me it just seemed like a textbook example of an aggressive, unlikable, hard to deal with black woman stereotype), I didn't feel his story was entertaining at all. It's true that the fault doesn't lay squarely at his feet. The run was severely hampered by surprisingly poor artwork (though the decision to bring in Tom Raney was his idea, so I guess that is his fault) and bad editorial decisions, but Thorne paced it very badly. I felt it was long and drawn out, the stories didn't intertwine well enough, and the conclusion wasn't interesting, and left too much up in the air but not in a compelling way that would make me want to return.

c) Can be extremely incendiary towards fans/readers/buyers on forums and social media.

Wait.... Thorne replaced Dexter Soy? The art was a huge reason I dropped the book.

[Johnny]

No, according to Redjack, Dexter Soy wasn't "replaced", he was always supposed to draw only the first few issues since the creative team wasn't that well known and DC wanted a more notable name on art early on in attempt to give the book more visibility. Tom Raney and Marco Santucci were always slated to take over from Soy.

[Frontier]

me! I'm people! lol

not gonna lie, it's somewhat bittersweet. while I always found the whole John is John theory/concept pretty insulting to both characters, i will say it's pretty messed up that they dragged it out this long, and got so many fans intrigued, just to literally throw the storyline away. good call in the end but that was a fan theory they shouldn't have been playing with in the first place.

Especially since it was more extensive than the references they did for Hal.

[Redjack]

No, according to Redjack, Dexter Soy wasn't "replaced", he was always supposed to draw only the first few issues since the creative team wasn't that well known and DC wanted a more notable name on art early on in attempt to give the book more visibility. Tom Raney and Marco Santucci were always slated to take over from Soy.

that's correct.

[LukeCagefan]

No, according to Redjack, Dexter Soy wasn't "replaced", he was always supposed to draw only the first few issues since the creative team wasn't that well known and DC wanted a more notable name on art early on in attempt to give the book more visibility. Tom Raney and Marco Santucci were always slated to take over from Soy.

Shame. I really wanted to read a John Stewart solo. Hopefully the next time he gets a shot we'll have good art and not have that other Teen Lantern around - or whatever they call her. I still wish we could get a solo series with John as an earth Lantern. That's one of the things I loved about Kyle Raynor was he wasn't always off in space. But I'm probably in the minority lol.

[Redjack]

Shame. I really wanted to read a John Stewart solo. Hopefully the next time he gets a shot we'll have good art and not have that other Teen Lantern around - or whatever they call her. I still wish we could get a solo series with John as an earth Lantern. That's one of the things I loved about Kyle Raynor was he wasn't always off in space. But I'm probably in the minority lol.

For the life of me I don't understand the hate and vitriol directed towards Keli. Like, just her mere presence in the story seemed to send some folks over the edge.

Which is weird because we make a point to show she's not a green lantern, she's WILDLY out of her depth, and, ultimately pays a pretty severe price for playing with the big kids before she was ready. And she's a 3rd tier character in the story.

People keep claiming they dropped the book because of her but she's barely in it.

We left her in a coma halfway through the story (she never comes out of it) and completely de-powered by the end (gauntlet gone/destroyed, beating one of the big bads).

Such an odd reaction from people I'm guessing didn't actually read the book at all as Keli's "downgrade" started in issue 1.

I guess some boys just hate girls.

Weird.

[Sodam Yat]

Shame. I really wanted to read a John Stewart solo. Hopefully the next time he gets a shot we'll have good art and not have that other Teen Lantern around - or whatever they call her. I still wish we could get a solo series with John as an earth Lantern. That's one of the things I loved about Kyle Raynor was he wasn't always off in space. But I'm probably in the minority lol.

To be honest, I expect more people to complain about Jo than Kelli. Kelli didn't contribute much of anything towards the end of the book. Her being in a coma and STILL in one after everything that went on in a book, just shows that she was written to be out of the way (almost like being in limbo). So her presence never really bothered me.

[SecretWarrior]

Shame. I really wanted to read a John Stewart solo. Hopefully the next time he gets a shot we'll have good art and not have that other Teen Lantern around - or whatever they call her. I still wish we could get a solo series with John as an earth Lantern. That's one of the things I loved about Kyle Raynor was he wasn't always off in space. But I'm probably in the minority lol.

You're not in the minority. He needs his personal life, family, and psychology filled out in a quality, stand alone Green Lantern series.

[Redjack]

You know, probably a lot of people did not read it, actually, because they were instantly turned off by things like this...



Many people don't like the idea of the character, they don't like the design, and they don't like what they know or what they think they know of the character.

But rather than blaming fans, I personally think it's more constructive and more graceful (i.e. a better look) to say something like, "Hey, I hear you. Sorry you didn't like it. Thanks for the feedback. We'll keep it in mind."

LOL. Wow, dude. Seriously, stop trying to paraphrase. You're crap at it.

No one's "blaming" anyone.

I'm calling into question the claims of people that say they dropped the book because it was "promoting Keli" when it did, y'know, sort of the exact opposite right from the jump. Not to put too fine a point on it, I think those people are liars.

I've been collecting comics for upwards of 40 years and, I'm sorry, the number of people who look at a cover and do not sample a book they're otherwise inclined to buy because of a "bad" cover, or the presence on it of a character they don't like is basically non-existent. Sorry, Charlie. That dog won't hunt.

If the mere presence of a character you don't like on the cover of a book causes you not to buy the book, without sampling it at all, it's a way to go, I guess, but it's a dumb way. And, again, a lie. People don't work that way. They almost always check for themselves, just to be sure.

You've done it yourself. Everyone has and does. It's a human being thing.

And your advice about how I should comport myself is adorable.