John Stewart: Green Lantern Appreciation 2023

[j9ac9k]

NO because when John's comes out and lets say have lower numbers-some at DC will take that as no one wants to read about John because Hal's is higher.

That is not on Hal's creative team that is on DC COMICS. Trying to be slick.

So, DC is wasting the time and effort putting out a John book with the intention of proving that nobody wants a John book? I can see certain fans twisting the numbers to say that, but the idea that it's a DC plot doesn't seem reasonable. Once again, is there no way DC is trying to promote John's book? As I said, I'm not one to automatically buy a John book, but this backup is changing my mind.

[Vordan]

Interview with PKJ and Adams

PKJ: My story is getting down to basics. I feel like the emotional spectrum thing has been done very thoroughly. And yet there’s things that are different now that are really interesting, like The Source thing that Jeremy mentioned.

I kind of want to develop it in different ways. I want to make it more about who John is and what he means to our universe. Like, how important he is in the Dark Crisis universe in which we introduced the Radiant Dead, and how those two things impact each other. I want to see John kind of discovering who he is. I’ll say this, my influences on this story are not previous Green Lantern runs. My influences on this run primarily are ‘80s action movies. Usually I’m too heady for my own good, and I draw on things like…[translations] of Finn and Hengest; now it’s Predator and Terminator.

PKJ: One thing that Geoffrey Thorne told me about John is that he does not intend to be a Green Lantern forever. In Geoffrey’s mind, he’s going to do his time of service and someday it will end. And then he’s going to go on and do other things with his life. And I thought that was really interesting. Whenever I think about characters — like Justice League level — it’s hard to imagine Batman or Superman or Flash or Green Lantern or any of these guys in retirement. But that was Geoffrey’s vision for John. And that kind of gave me a whole other way of looking at that character. Like, what’s going to be next for John? What are his other responsibilities in life?

There are sometimes these little vague references to his mother who’s very involved in civil rights. Sometimes there’s a sister that comes up very vaguely usually. And I want to see more of that. So this is our chance to do it. His mother is, I’ll say, probably his primary influence in his life. And we’re going to see some of that on the page.

Lots of interesting stuff there. Both of them emphasize that Thorne’s run does “count” and they will be building off of various aspects of it, so that’s cool. Here’s another interview with Adams and PKJ and this was my favorite bit regarding John:

I recently went up to West Point [Military Academy] to teach a couple of things on writing to cadets. There was this guy who brought probably the cadet that was most excited to talk to the comic writer. He couldn't make all this stuff. I had a bunch of different engagements around. But this one guy couldn't make any of them because they are insanely busy all the time. They keep them jumping around the clock. But this guy finally made it ... He hauled ass over to the end of this one Q&A thing we did after dinner one night. He made it, and he brought some books for me to sign, and it was "Last God," something else.

But he was so excited, and he stuck around and kept asking questions until the guy who was taking me back to where I was staying was like, "Come on, Cadet, I could take you back to your barracks." He jumped in and got in the car with us and kept asking questions. He was a super nerd. Under the table, I was like, "Yo, here's my next thing." I'd just got the cover for "Dark Crisis: Green Lantern." He flipped s*** about it because his favorite character ended up being John Stewart, which I didn't know.

He lost his mind and went on at great length about why John Stewart was his favorite character. It's not because he looks like John Stewart, even though ... this guy did. His name is Monty Collins, I think, and he looks like John Stewart straight up. But that's not what he said. He loved that there was this guy in the Justice League who is also part of something bigger than the Justice League, bigger and older, and who's a part of something bigger. He went on about that. He talked about how West Point is where the concept of the class ring originated, which I didn't know, and how when he comes time to graduate, he's going to make his ring as close to the Green Lantern as he possibly can. Kid's a super fan, man, and he was trying to tell me why he loved John Stewart, but what he was really telling me is who he is, and why he is at West Point, and why he believes in the things he believes in.

[Sodam Yat]

So, DC is wasting the time and effort putting out a John book with the intention of proving that nobody wants a John book? I can see certain fans twisting the numbers to say that, but the idea that it's a DC plot doesn't seem reasonable. Once again, is there no way DC is trying to promote John's book? As I said, I'm not one to automatically buy a John book, but this backup is changing my mind.

Well DC is putting more effort in pushing Hal than John, though. Hence, their other popular GL being the backup of the book. According to PKJ, his book is also stated to be a limited series, not a full ongoing. I don't think minis usually sell as good as ongoings. And I'm sorry, but I think a talented writer like PKJ deserves better than that imo.

With that said, who knows. On a positive note, I have seen other readers and GL fans who isn't very fond of John read the backup and actually like what they read with John so far and has shown more interest into the character.

[HsssH]

I suppose this means that Dark Crisis one-shot will be collected in the upcoming collection of this mini. Hopefully that awful Hawkgirl story won't be included in it.

Anyway, enjoyed this short more than the main story with Hal.

[Sodam Yat]

I suppose this means that Dark Crisis one-shot will be collected in the upcoming collection of this mini. Hopefully that awful Hawkgirl story won't be included in it.

Anyway, enjoyed this short more than the main story with Hal.

It's nice to see good impressions with John's story.

I'm also most excited for John to have his own villains this time. Hopefully PKJ keeps up the good work with John. I'm more than sure he will. He's a good writer and I can see why so many readers are very fond of him. Redjack even endorsed the idea for him to be the new John Stewart writer.

I'm also happy that PKJ is not trying to reset Redjack's development on John. I think that's what the new creative team should always do, instead of scrapping everything. A character can't be properly developed if they keep hitting the reset button.

Another thing I like is that PKJ is acknowledging John's mother is a civil rights leader. Last time this was shown was back in Van Jensen's run.

I really hope that PKJ upcoming series with John will be an ongoing, rather than a limited series.

I think the Green Lantern franchise can even grow more if these two books start doing crossover events like it was back in the Johns' GL era.

[StarSpangledMan]

Interview with PKJ and Adams


Lots of interesting stuff there. Both of them emphasize that Thorne’s run does “count” and they will be building off of various aspects of it, so that’s cool. Here’s another interview with Adams and PKJ and this was my favorite bit regarding John:

So much good stuff here, I'm really interested in the idea of John's time as Green Lantern coming to an end one day and retiring.

This:

To me, John is the guy that was always supposed to be a Green Lantern. He's the obvious choice. Hal is cool for such a different reason. They're both equally cool, but they're so different. I love that John is, in his way, the chosen one of Lanterns and he's all about service. He's the brilliant tactician, warrior, leader, architect — he's all the pieces. His greatest influence is his mother, who's this great civil rights leader. He's all about justice, duty, service, and all this stuff. There's also this eyes-in-the-sky, head-in-the-clouds pursuit of the thing that's greater than himself that I admire.

And the Monty story was heart-warming.

I'm really keen in the character-focused push for Green Lantern at the moment.

[Redjack]

It's nice to see good impressions with John's story.

I'm also most excited for John to have his own villains this time. Hopefully PKJ keeps up the good work with John. I'm more than sure he will. He's a good writer and I can see why so many readers are very fond of him. Redjack even endorsed the idea for him to be the new John Stewart writer.

I'm also happy that PKJ is not trying to reset Redjack's development on John. I think that's what the new creative team should always do, instead of scrapping everything. A character can't be properly developed if they keep hitting the reset button.

I am also happy not everything from the previous run is being dumped, although I imagine some big spins away from what my plans were. It's why i held off continuing my annotations before i saw what they were doing as i didn't want to spoil things.

Yeah, PKJ is a damned fine writer; I think John's in good hands.

And, no, I still don't care about Hal, but, if his fans are happy, that's good for comics.

[Anthony Shaw]

I'm cool with the slow burn of GL content. I want Hal & John succeed, commercially.

I would totally open to a team up if Mother Stewart and Oliver Queen, lol.

[Sodam Yat]

I am also happy not everything from the previous run is being dumped, although I imagine some big spins away from what my plans were. It's why i held off continuing my annotations before i saw what they were doing as i didn't want to spoil things.

Yeah, PKJ is a damned fine writer; I think John's in good hands.

And, no, I still don't care about Hal, but, if his fans are happy, that's good for comics.

Ah, good explanation! That makes sense.

I'm very excited for when John's solo book to be released. I'm looking forward to see how he builds on top of your elements from that run.

[Sodam Yat]

I'm reading somewhere that John's comic is an ongoing title rather than a mini. I sure hope that's true. That would be excellent news if true. I still don't like the name War Journal, though. They should've sticked with John Stewart: Green Lantern as was originally planned.

[Vordan]

I'm reading somewhere that John's comic is an ongoing title rather than a mini. I sure hope that's true. That would be excellent news if true. I still don't like the name War Journal, though. They should've sticked with John Stewart: Green Lantern as was originally planned.

Apparently PKJ said it was not a mini in an interview with the Podcast of Oa. Haven’t listened to this myself but if someone else wants to confirm, here’s the link.

[j9ac9k]

So John, "Thought he was out?" Did John and Hal both resign? I really want to see that scene.

[Mantis-Ray]

So John, "Thought he was out?" Did John and Hal both resign? I really want to see that scene.

There's something amusing how Hal and John were able to at least tolerate the Guardians bullshit for years, but its the United Planets that apparently made them go "Okay fuck this I quit."

[Frontier]

So John, "Thought he was out?" Did John and Hal both resign? I really want to see that scene.

It sounded like John resigned in the backup when he was talking to his mom. Like he wasn't expecting to go back into space immediately.

[mrumsey]

Apparently PKJ said it was not a mini in an interview with the Podcast of Oa. Haven’t listened to this myself but if someone else wants to confirm, here’s the link.

Here's the video version from YouTube if anyone would like to see the interview.