John Stewart: Green Lantern Appreciation 2022

[Mantis-Ray]

I was surprised by how much this new Green Lantern film borrows from the "Rann-Thanagar War" storyline, and how it seemed to appeal more to fans of the DCAU John Stewart than the character from the books. One thing I heard recently that I felt was a good way of putting it was that they "put a bunch of Green Lantern lore in a blender" and used the resulting concoction to prop up John instead of spotlighting the aspects of his story that are uniquely his. Overall I didn't enjoy it, because my three favorite characters - John, Hal, and Sinestro - were all portrayed the opposite of how I know them. John at least was portrayed the best of the three, I just wish he was in a better movie.

Every critique I've seen of that movie uniformly agrees that it tries to adapt a whole bunch of different storylines and ends up failing because it can't adapt any one story properly.

They should have just stuck to one base story instead of ending it on a half-assed Emerald Twilight.

[Sodam Yat]

In Sodam, I trust. It's great that John is back in animation again.

Hey, John once sat on a rock in space thinking about Hal's love life. I still want those two as allies in outside media. Hopefully, it will happen in the next reboot.

That's what it really comes down to. John is back in animation again, which that is a good thing by itself.

The Lethal Weapon vibe can still work out between the two. I'm unsure whether they would still go with that direction or not in a live-action film.

[Sodam Yat]

As of yesterday John Semper made a big deal about the sales of Green Lantern: Beware My Power and he seems pleased by it:

Well, this is a nice surprise! GREEN LANTERN: BEWARE MY POWER, co-written by me and Ernie Altbacker is now the "#1 Bestseller in Anime" on Amazon! Its rating is also up to a splendid Four-and-a-Half Stars��!

In fact, he was surprised by it. I wonder what was their expectations for this movie?

It was literally the #1 selling animated movie in the top anime section. It's currently #2 right now.

And the majority of the ratings for this movie is 5 stars. I'm kind of shocked by that, since there's a mixed reaction from comic fans.

So does this kind of prove on what was said a while back, regarding comic fans don't really make a big impact on sales of this movie?

[Johnny]

I think it's more of a reminder that social media in general rarely has an influence on any movie's performance. If you go to twitter for instance you'd think that a movie like The Last Jedi is the worst thing in Star Wars history, yet it grossed $1.3 billion worldwide.

When are the overall sales of those DTV animated movies come out anyway. I looked up the sales of the Catwoman: Hunted movie that came out before BMP, and it says that so far its Blu-ray sales did less than $400K, as opposed to something like Injustice that came out a few months prior and grossed north of $2.5M. Are the Amazon sales part of those sales as well, or just part of the digital sales.

[Anthony Shaw]

That's what it really comes down to. John is back in animation again, which that is a good thing by itself.

The Lethal Weapon vibe can still work out between the two. I'm unsure whether they would still go with that direction or not in a live-action film.

I can't help but feel that John went through a drought in outside media after the DCAU ended. At best, he had cameos.

His return is long overdue.

I'm feeling pretty hopeful John shows up in live action. Yeah, I'm not sure about the Lethal weapon in space concept being explored now.

As of yesterday John Semper made a big deal about the sales of Green Lantern: Beware My Power and he seems pleased by it:





In fact, he was surprised by it. I wonder what was their expectations for this movie?

It was literally the #1 selling animated movie in the top anime section. It's currently #2 right now.

And the majority of the ratings for this movie is 5 stars. I'm kind of shocked by that, since there's a mixed reaction from comic fans.

So does this kind of prove on what was said a while back, regarding comic fans don't really make a big impact on sales of this movie?

That's great the film is selling so well. It is a great reminder how popular some characters are to the general public, as opposed to the core genre audience.

It's great when core audience is in sync with the general audience, but that will not always be the case.

I just shut up, and read when RJ pops in and post. He insight he provides about the business is fantastic.

[Frontier]

If I remember right, didn't First Flight and Emerald Knights do well? Like GL:TAS, everything just got torpedoed because of the live-action film.

[HsssH]

I vaguely remember toys not selling being the reason for GL:TAS getting axed.

[Redjack]

I vaguely remember toys not selling being the reason for GL:TAS getting axed.

The business model has changed DRASTICALLY.

In the old days, most of the "kids animation" series were tied to toys that could be sold based on them. As a writer I found this endlessly frustrating as, sometimes, the toy company would "request" something be added or removed in order to service those sales.

The word "toy-etic" (shudder) was coined during this period and, for me, it can't die the true death soon enough.

Once cable and then streaming (oh, BOY, streaming!) became the baseline model (as opposed to ad-based, network tv) instead of toons having to service the product, the toon BECAME the product. This either massively diminished the connection between the show and the toy or, in some cases, severed it entirely.

GL: TAS toys didn't sell. Cancelled. It had nothing to do with ratings or the popularity or quality of the show. It didn't move the toys so it had to go. This was often the case with shows that were doing well with viewers and then got mysteriously cancelled. No mystery. They couldn't sell toys.

There are couple other factors that lead to cancellation but that is one of the BIG ones.

BEWARE MY POWER is doing well because the people who like animated super-hero movies are buying it. That's it. Some of those people are certainly comic book fans as well but almost certainly not enough to determine success or failure.

As it's not a show, it needs no toy connection but, if it became INSANELY popular, might generate toys.

[Sodam Yat]

I think it's more of a reminder that social media in general rarely has an influence on any movie's performance. If you go to twitter for instance you'd think that a movie like The Last Jedi is the worst thing in Star Wars history, yet it grossed $1.3 billion worldwide.

When are the overall sales of those DTV animated movies come out anyway. I looked up the sales of the Catwoman: Hunted movie that came out before BMP, and it says that so far its Blu-ray sales did less than $400K, as opposed to something like Injustice that came out a few months prior and grossed north of $2.5M. Are the Amazon sales part of those sales as well, or just part of the digital sales.

Yeah, that's pretty much what it proves. I personally didn't like The Last Jedi, but it didn't have an influence on the movie's performance, despite the outrage, disappointments, accusations, etc. in social media.

I didn't know that there's reported sales numbers for DTV movies. That's interesting.

Considering that John Semper is making a big deal about Amazon, it seems like it plays a really big part on the overall sales. So I'm pretty sure that those guys are looking very closely at Amazon. The digital sales on Amazon are different, since it only shows the Blu Ray and 4K Blue Ray editions as the top 10 sellers.

[Sodam Yat]

I can't help but feel that John went through a drought in outside media after the DCAU ended. At best, he had cameos.

His return is long overdue.

I'm feeling pretty hopeful John shows up in live action. Yeah, I'm not sure about the Lethal weapon in space concept being explored now.

John was often missing in media adaption after the Justice League cartoon, despite the huge success. Ernie Altbacker acknowledged this issue as well in an interview, which I was glad that he did. What surprised me a lot was when this project was in development between 4-5 years ago:

According to producer Butch Lukic, he and producer Jim Krieg pitched the project approximately 4-5 years ago. While things inevitability changed from the initial pitch, John Stewart was always intended to be the focus as opposed to Hal Jordan. An early concept of the project took cues from the “Hard-Traveling Heroes” storyline as part of the acclaimed Green Lantern/Green Arrow comic run from writer Dennis O’Neil and artist Neal Adams which saw Hal Jordan traveling the country with Green Arrow to face various social and political issues. The filmmakers ended up scrapping this idea with John Stewart as a “more of a street level vigilante rallying against the wrongs of landlords in the ghetto,” believing that Green Lantern thrives better in an outer space setting. However, they tried to retain some of the spirit of “Hard Traveling Heroes” in the film and the inclusion of Green Arrow as a supporting character.

So this was planned right before John's heavy push in the comics. You can read rest of the interview here.

That's great the film is selling so well. It is a great reminder how popular some characters are to the general public, as opposed to the core genre audience.

It's great when core audience is in sync with the general audience, but that will not always be the case.

I just shut up, and read when RJ pops in and post. He insight he provides about the business is fantastic.

Exactly, I agree 100%. I love his insights.

[Frontier]

I vaguely remember toys not selling being the reason for GL:TAS getting axed.

Which was partially because stores were still stuck with movie toys that didn't sell.

[Chubistian]

I really disliked Green Lantern: Beware My Power. If I watch an origin story, I want to know more about my protagonist's "ordinary world" before he gets pulled into adventure. And throughout the movie, I want to see him grow up as a character. Here, Jon Stewart has barely a character arc, and it's sidelined for an intrincate plot about an intergalactic war. If that was the story they wanted to tell, I think it works better to have the main Green Lantern already as a trained member of the Corps. spoilers:

And the end... what a way of rushing a twist.

end of spoilers

Definitely, too much stuff for a movie that is just 1 hour and 30 minutes long. On a positive note, I really liked the animation and its style. It flows really well and packs enough face expressions as to distinguish the character's feelings. The action sequences looked great and easy for the eye to follow. I expect DC to keep on this line (because it was also my favorite part of the Long Halloween movies)

[Anthony Shaw]

John was often missing in media adaption after the Justice League cartoon, despite the huge success. Ernie Altbacker acknowledged this issue as well in an interview, which I was glad that he did. What surprised me a lot was when this project was in development between 4-5 years ago:



So this was planned right before John's heavy push in the comics. You can read rest of the interview here.



Exactly, I agree 100%. I love his insights.

It's great to know stuff was in the pipeline for John for years now. Thanks for the link.

[Frontier]

I really disliked Green Lantern: Beware My Power. If I watch an origin story, I want to know more about my protagonist's "ordinary world" before he gets pulled into adventure. And throughout the movie, I want to see him grow up as a character. Here, Jon Stewart has barely a character arc, and it's sidelined for an intrincate plot about an intergalactic war. If that was the story they wanted to tell, I think it works better to have the main Green Lantern already as a trained member of the Corps. spoilers:

And the end... what a way of rushing a twist.

end of spoilers

Definitely, too much stuff for a movie that is just 1 hour and 30 minutes long. On a positive note, I really liked the animation and its style. It flows really well and packs enough face expressions as to distinguish the character's feelings. The action sequences looked great and easy for the eye to follow. I expect DC to keep on this line (because it was also my favorite part of the Long Halloween movies)

The animation definitely seems like the most universally praised aspect of the animated films. Barring the static pauses between characters talking.

[skyvolt2000]

Which was partially because stores were still stuck with movie toys that didn't sell.

At least it got toys unlike Static Shock.

Now note not every store got those toys.

I NEVER saw a single toy from that show and I check the toy isle every time I go to any store.

Same with the live action movie-I think I saw them ONCE in Wal-Mart and that was AFTER the movie left theaters.

Young Justice-while I saw the 5 inch figures the deluxe ones of Aqualad never saw them in my city and had to go to another city to get one. How bad was it Half Price Books somehow got 20 of them around 2017. They did not last half the day before 20 different folks bought them up.

I could list you toy lines and figures that I have rarely seen in stores. McFarlane John Stewarts don't last long nor did DC Universe Jessica Cruz figure.

That's great the film is selling so well. It is a great reminder how popular some characters are to the general public, as opposed to the core genre audience.

My copy got delayed because every Target in the Dallas/Fort Worth area kept selling out. Which says a LOT because those movies don't sell at least not since the either Young Justice dvd or First Flight or the last Wonder Woman animated movie.