John Stewart (character)

• 1. Introduction

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  John Stewart, a Green Lantern published by DC Comics, exists because of one blunt argument between an artist and an editor. Artist Neal Adams told editor Julius Schwartz that, given the racial makeup of the world's population, "we ought to have a black Green Lantern, not because we're liberals, but because it just makes sense." Adams pictured a substitute for the main Green Lantern, and writer Dennis O'Neil scripted the debut. The character first appeared in Green Lantern, volume 2, issue 87, dated December 1971 and January 1972. That made him one of the first African-American superheroes at DC. Three questions run through his story. What did his creators fight over before the book reached readers? What happens to a hero's politics when later writers decide he should be someone else? And how does a backup character grow into a lead who carries whole series?

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• 2. A Name And A Shade

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  The first script gave the new hero the name Lincoln Washington, a choice made by Schwartz. Adams objected that it was a slave name. Schwartz told him to pick a replacement, and Adams chose John Stewart. The same conversation shaped who the man would be. Adams wanted "a college graduate who has a profession." He rejected the usual portrayals of black people at the time, such as gangbangers, which he said "don't represent the aspirations of every Black person in America." O'Neil wrote the script to match, making Stewart an architect. He was unemployed, reflecting the high rate of unemployment among black people in America in those years.

  Sol Harrison, DC's production manager, was the one who questioned the coloring. Adams had painted Stewart a darker brown instead of the lighter, khaki-like tone that comics of the day gave black characters. Adams answered, "Most Black people I know are pretty dark. There are some very light-skinned people, but not John Stewart." Schwartz and Harrison hesitated for fear of offending black readers. They went ahead after Adams said he did not think anyone would be offended by a dark-skinned black character. Adams based Stewart's look on the actor Sidney Poitier. Stewart became DC's third superhero of African ancestry, and his first story carried the title "Beware My Power!"

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• 3. Beware My Power

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  In the debut story, one of the Guardians of the Universe tells Hal Jordan that he is appointing Stewart as his substitute. The previous backup, Guy Gardner, had been seriously injured after being hit by a car while trying to save a civilian. Jordan, then the primary Green Lantern and a white man, is not pleased. He has watched Stewart stand up to two white policemen who were hassling black men, and he decides the newcomer is disrespectful. Jordan predicts a man who "obviously would have a chip on his shoulder bigger than the rock of Gibraltar." The Guardian answers, "He has all due qualifications! And we are not interested in your petty bigotries!"

  Stewart's first mission looks like a failure. Jordan assigns him to protect a racist politician, and Stewart accepts unwillingly. While averting an accident, he takes the chance to embarrass Jordan. Then an assassin fires at the politician, and Stewart does not join Jordan in responding, which makes him look suspect. In truth, Stewart was in the outside parking lot, stopping a gunman from killing a police officer, while Jordan chased a decoy. Stewart explains that the politician staged the attack for political advantage. He later exposes the politician's scheme to instigate a race riot, and Jordan decides the recruit has proven his worth.

  Stewart also refuses to wear a mask. He feels no need to hide his identity, and the choice breaks superhero tradition. The story presents him as headstrong, anti-authority and race-conscious, a symbol of Black Power politics. After that issue he made only scarce appearances, and a full-time job as Green Lantern was still years away.

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• 4. The Cartoon Effect

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  In 2001, Bruce Timm chose John Stewart as the Green Lantern of the Justice League television cartoon. As the series creator, Timm turned him into a "no-nonsense" former U.S. Marine. Timm had no interest in the militant, Black Panther Party-style characterization from the early 1970s, which he viewed as irrelevant by then. He also wanted the hero's ring to produce only beams instead of constructs. Phil LaMarr voiced the character. In 2007, Geoff Johns wrote the Marine background into the comics, in Green Lantern, volume 4, issue 26. Later comics added that Stewart had been a sniper before becoming an architect, and that he had met a young Hal Jordan, then in the Air Force, during his service.

  Until that cartoon, Stewart had a relatively low profile in mainstream popular culture, even though he had starred in Green Lantern comics since the 1970s. The shift came with Justice League and Justice League Unlimited. His comic profile rose, including a starring role in Justice League comics, and DC toys and merchandise expanded massively. IGN later ranked him the 55th greatest comic book hero of all time. It said he had gone from "semi-obscurity in the mainstream to absolute recognition" thanks to his starring role in the animated universe.

  The cartoon version had its own details. His eyes glow green as a side effect of prolonged exposure to his ring's energy. He forms a relationship with teammate Hawkgirl, though a rift develops after the three-part finale "Starcrossed." In Justice League Unlimited he is dating Vixen, and he meets his and Hawkgirl's future son, Rex Stewart, who is called Warhawk. The comic version works differently. He is semi-invulnerable, flies, and projects hard-light constructions limited only by imagination and willpower. Unlike other Green Lanterns, he wears no physical ring. His body acts as the ring and his heart as the battery.

  Live action proved harder. He was meant to appear in Justice League: Mortal, with the role first offered to Columbus Short before Common was cast. George Miller was to direct from a script by Michele and Kieran Mulroney. The film was canceled two years into production, after the 2007-08 Writers Guild of America strike and a dispute with the Australian Film Commission over tax incentives. In 2021, Wayne T. Carr was cast in Zack Snyder's Justice League, but his role was cut. Aaron Pierre is set to play the character in the DC Universe, beginning with the series Lanterns in 2026.

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• 5. Xanshi And Guilt

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  Katma Tui, the Green Lantern of the planet Korugar, trained Stewart in the use of his power ring. The two went on many adventures, fell in love and married, serving alongside Hal Jordan, Arisia Rrab, Kilowog and Salaak. Then Sinestro's schemes left Stewart's ring powerless, and Star Sapphire murdered Katma. His life unraveled. He was falsely accused of killing Carol Ferris, who was Star Sapphire's alter ego. He was then falsely accused of theft by South Nambia, a fictional nation similar to apartheid-era South Africa. Jailed and tortured there for weeks, he freed himself with his old ring, re-powered through Jordan's efforts. In escaping, he inadvertently freed a serial killer and a terrorist. Jordan confronted him, and the friends came to blows until Stewart realized the "revolutionaries" he had aided meant to murder innocent civilians.

  The heaviest blow came in the Cosmic Odyssey miniseries. Stewart failed to prevent the destruction of the planet Xanshi by an avatar of the Anti-Life Equation. Martian Manhunter, who was with him, blamed him for it. The failure left Stewart shattered and on the brink of suicide. It also created the villainess Fatality, the sole survivor of Xanshi. Martian Manhunter has since forgiven him, at least civilly.

  Forgiveness from Fatality arrived in an unlikely form. In the "Rage of the Red Lanterns" arc, Fatality is converted into a Star Sapphire, and her ring directs her to John Stewart. She tells him she forgives him, kisses him, and urges him to forgive himself for Xanshi. In Blackest Night, thousands of black rings rebuild the dead planet, and it speaks to him: "I can help you save them." Katma and the entire population of Xanshi confront him as Black Lanterns. Katma claims he caused the destruction. Spurred on by Fatality's words, Stewart says he was not the cause, and he fights them off.

  Mogo is the other world on his conscience. During the War of the Green Lanterns, Krona controls Mogo and uses it to send out tainted rings. Stewart finds residual Black Lantern energy around Mogo's core and absorbs it, along with all the Green Lantern energy. Knowing there is no time to heal Mogo before Krona recruits reinforcements, he regretfully destroys it. Afterward, a new Green Lantern from Sector 282 reflects that, despite his reputation for destroying two worlds, nobody could regret that action more than John himself.

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• 6. The Alpha Lanterns

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  During the Sinestro Corps War, the Guardians approached Stewart to become one of the Alpha Lanterns, a new division devoted to the internal affairs of the Corps. He wanted more information about the secrecy of the Alpha Lantern program and declined. The Guardians were extremely disappointed.

  That refusal came back to him in Brightest Day. Stewart was on Oa, supervising demolition after the Black Lanterns attack, when the Guardians ordered him to join Alpha Lantern Boodikka on a mission to Grenda, the homeworld of Lantern Stel. Communications had ceased, and the whole population had vanished. Stewart asked Boodikka whether anything of her older self remained. She said her changes were only physical, and he doubted her. Soon she turned on him, and rogue Alpha Lanterns defeated him. They had revolted against the Corps and allied with the Cyborg Superman, Henshaw, using Grenda as a hidden base to turn Green Lanterns into Alpha Lanterns.

  Henshaw's goal was personal. He wanted to lure Ganthet to Grenda and force him to make Henshaw mortal again. Before operating on Stewart, he linked the Lantern's brain to his own memories to explain why he had been turned into a cyborg. Kyle Rayner and Soranik Natu burst into the lab and rescued Stewart. They destroyed the cyborg's body, and Henshaw leapt into Boodikka's, but her consciousness defeated his.

  In The New 52, the Alpha Lanterns became Stewart's accusers. He was forced to kill Kirrt Kallak, a Lantern about to give in to torture and reveal the access codes to the Oan defence network. An Alpha Lantern arrested him for the killing, and he was found guilty and sentenced to death. Guy Gardner and other Lanterns freed him before the execution. The Alpha Lanterns were destroyed in the fighting, after they realized they had all become dangerously mentally unstable. Alpha Lantern Varix caused a reaction that killed all of them, himself included. The Guardians had set up these events as part of their plans to destroy the Corps, though the unemotional Guardians were soon killed off by Sinestro.

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• 7. Building A World

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  The Mosaic World was a patchwork of communities from multiple planets, brought to Oa by an insane Guardian who had invaded Stewart's mind. Stewart became its caretaker, bitter and sullen about the assignment at first. He overcame that, and used his formidable intellect and talent for unconventional thinking to forge the Mosaic into a new society. He eventually became the first mortal Guardian of the Universe, known as the Master Builder. His reward was a reunion with his late wife, Katma Tui. Then Hal Jordan, possessed by Parallax, destroyed both the Guardians and the Central Power Battery. That robbed Stewart of his new powers and his resurrected wife.

  The Mosaic idea also gave Stewart his own comic. DC spun Green Lantern: Mosaic out of Green Lantern, volume 3, after a four-part storyline called "Mosaic" in issues 14 through 17. The ongoing series ran 18 issues between June 1992 and November 1993.

  After "Emerald Twilight" and the collapse of the Green Lantern Corps, the Controllers recruited Stewart to command the Darkstars, another interstellar peacekeeping force. He used their resources to evacuate the Mosaic cities from Oa before its destruction. He served with distinction until he was crippled in battle with Grayven on the planet Rann. During the 1996 storyline "The Final Night," Jordan healed him as a parting gift before sacrificing himself to destroy the Sun-Eater. The healing left Stewart with random bursts of energy from his hands, which he discharged on three occasions. He had refused a new ring months earlier, but he finally accepted one entrusted to Kyle Rayner by a time-lost Hal Jordan. He then joined the Justice League to fill in for Rayner. With the Corps reorganized, Stewart and Jordan would share regular duty for Earth's sector, 2814.

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• 8. Leading Man

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  From issue 182 through issue 200, spanning 1984 to 1986, John Stewart was the primary character of Green Lantern, volume 2. Hal Jordan had relinquished his place in the Green Lantern Corps. The title became The Green Lantern Corps from issue 201 through issue 224, between 1986 and 1988, and Stewart kept starring. After that cancellation he made key appearances in Action Comics Weekly. During that period he worked as an architect at Ferris Aircraft Company and fought Green Lantern villains. He also fought the Anti-Monitor's forces during the Crisis on Infinite Earths.

  In 2011, Stewart starred in the New 52 relaunch of Green Lantern Corps alongside Guy Gardner. From 2013 until the series ended in 2015, he was its sole lead. Green Lantern: The Lost Army replaced it, and he led that book too. In November 2022, as part of the Dawn of DC relaunch, DC announced the miniseries Green Lantern: War Journal. Phillip Kennedy Johnson wrote it and Osvaldo Montos illustrated it.

  Other universes have given him other roles. Power Ring, his counterpart from the antimatter universe, belongs to the Crime Syndicate of America. In Flashpoint, he is a member of Team 7, led by Grifter, until he is killed during a botched attack on a terrorist base. In Absolute Green Lantern, he is an architect living in Evergreen, Nevada, granted the Gold Flame of Enlightenment by Abin Sur.

  In Dawn of DC, the United Planets took control of the Green Lantern Corps and quarantined Sector 2814. Stewart retired to stay on Earth with his mother, who was suffering from dementia. To protect her from grief, he created a hard light construct of his deceased younger sister, Ellie. Then the Radiant Dead, a necropathic group of corrupted Lanterns and constructs serving the Revenant Queen, attacked and infected him. He had to leave Earth to cure himself, teaming up with Caolán Shepherd, a Green Lantern from an alternate universe.

  Jeremy Adams and Morgan Hampton's run on Green Lantern Corps, from 2025 onward, reunited him with Katma Tui. A version of Katma from Hypertime returned to the main DC Universe alive. In a Geoffrey Thorne miniseries, Stewart had been split into two versions. One returned to the Corps, and the other went into the Dark Sectors to search for Katma. In Hampton's run, the Stewart who rejoined the Corps died sacrificing himself to re-power the Source Battery on Oa. His ring then found the other John, who had found Katma Tui and was living with her.

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