Green Lantern Alias John Stewart

While the Lanterns TV series is introducing us to their version of how John Stewart becomes Green Lantern, I thought I would do a post on John's comic book journey to wearing the power ring.

Here is the Neal Adams cover to Green Lantern#87 (on sale October 1971) where we meet John Stewart for the first time.

John Stewart is a college graduate, a trained architect who is unemployed because life sucks for black men in 1970's America.

In a story written by Denny O'Neil and drawn by Neal Adams & Dick Giordano, Hal Jordan is tasked with recruiting and training John Stewart as his back up. The Guardians of the Universe have selected John to be that person.

And Hal has problems with that.

Stewart is headstrong, anti-authority, and race-conscious, which Jordan's perspective sees Stewart has having a bad attitude,  disrespectful and angry.

The Guardian tells Hal, "He has all due qualifications! And we are not interested in your petty bigotries!"

There may be some inherent racism in Hal Jordan's assessment of Stewart but since Hal has spent the last year on the road with Green Arrow, I figure Hal knows about "attitude".

Hal Jordan and John Stewart go into action to stop an act of political assassination against a Presidential candidate who is racist as fuck.  

Jordan is unhappy that Stewart appears to have shirked his responsibility to protect the candidate due to his dislike for the person. Until Stewart reveals that the assassination they stopped was staged by the candidate and there was a real killer in the crowd ready to strike.  

Hal Jordan concedes that John Stewart will make an excellent Green Lantern.

So no, the story of Hal and John from GL#87 does NOT play out with the same crackling animosity Hal has for John in the Lanterns TV show.  

It's in the pages of Justice League of America#110 (on sale December 1973) by Len Wein, Dick Dillin and Dick Giordano that John gets his next go 'round as Green Lantern.  

Hal Jordan slips on a bar of soap in the shower and conks his noggin.

Sasha over on Casually Comics chats a bit about Hal Jordan being a klutz.  

The rings summons back up John Stewart to answer a summons by the JLA.  

When Stewart shows up at the JLA satellite HQ, there is some consternation of who the hell this guy is but Green Arrow says Hal told him about this new GL and we're all copacetic.

Long time JLA enemy the Key is up to some shit and John Stewart is more than capable of keeping pace with the League as they take on their nefarious for.

Stewart finds a loophole in the Green Lantern manual that allows him to rebuild housing for some poor people who lost their homes.  

Unless I'm missing an appearance elsewhere,  John Stewart next rings up as Green Lantern in Green Lantern#94 (on sale Janiuary 1977) by Denny O'Neil, Mike Grell, Terry Austin and Dick Giordano. 

Six years after his debut, John Stewart is making only his 3rd appearance.  

Hal Jordan has come down with some kind of space sickness so John Stewart takes him into space to see if the Guardians on Oa can fix him up.  

I assume that somewhere off panel, John's been practicing if he can just zip off into interstellar space and navigate his way to Oa.  I noticed he also has the updated power ring introduced in Green Lantern#90.  Did John go to Oa to get the upgrade or did the Guardians mail it to him? 

After a few more random appearances in the early 1980's, John Stewart would finally get his first real continuing shot at being Green Lantern in 1984. 

Len Wein who wrote John's 2nd appearance in 1973 in JLA#110 would take over as the regular writer of Green Lantern and cooked up a storyline where Hal Jordan gets pissy with the Guardians and decides to quit being Green Lantern.

The Guardians were all "Fine! Go do dat!" 

Hal Jordan was all "Nah! I was just mad for a moment..."

The Guardians are all "You Earth creatures are way too much trouble. Someone get John Stewart in the phone!"

A special promotional image by artist Dave Gibbons gave notice of some big changes coming to Green Lantern.

Apparently forgetting John "is a black man who let's it all hang out"?  He's wearing the mask.  

And those changes kicked in with Green Lantern#183 (on sale September 1984) by Len Wein and Dave Gibbons.   

After 13 years since his first appearance, this begins a long run with John Stewart as the Green Lantern of Earth and Sector 2814.  

Until as always the case in comics, some writer or editor decided on a "Let's get back to basics" approach and Hal got his ring back.  

But John Stewart as Green Lantern remains a fairly consistent presence in the DC universe.

In the Justice League animated series, the producers opted to use the John Stewart version of Green Lantern to add some diversity to the line up. It is arguable that because of the television exposure, more people know John Stewart as Green Lantern than they do Hal Jordan.  

SIDE NOTE:  Swapping out the white guy with the black guy has already been done a year or so before over at Marvel.   

Denny O'Neil (who co-created John Stewart) was writing Iron-Man and had Tony Stark relapse into alcoholism and turn over the Iron Man armor to Jim Rhodes (Rhodey).

Rhodey stayed on as Iron Man for a long time until some writer or editor decided on a "Let's get back to basics" approach so Tony got sober and got his amor back.  

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NEXT WEEK: What comic books did a young Dave-El buy in September 1976? Comic Book Retro 50 will address that burning question next week.