John Stewart's First Fight as a Green Lantern

For many, John Stewart is the first Green Lantern they ever saw. When the Justice League animated series debuted, in 2001, John Stewart was the Green Lantern first introduced to those new to the DC Universe. Comic readers are aware that Hal Jordan became the first Green Lantern from Earth in 1959 with John making his debut in 1971's GREEN LANTERN #87.

As a Lantern, Jordan had fought many different threats but John Stewart introduced him to a different kind of danger.

Hal Jordan and the Guardians of the Universe were about to appoint an alternate Green Lantern on Earth. When an Earthquake struck, Guy Gardner was injured saving a child and would be in recovery for at least six months. The Guardians then directed towards their next choice--John Stewart.

Seeing John having a discussion with some police officers who were harassing a couple kids from the neighborhood, Hal had his doubts over their selection.

Hal's concern was over John's attitude and if he could keep it in check while having a Power Ring. With hesitation, he followed the Guardians' judgement and offered John the job. John was willing to accept it since, "...jobs aren't exactly plentiful for black architects in the Land of the Free these days..."

Hal took John to a secluded area to give him a crash course in using the power and teaching him the Green Lantern Oath.

John immediately decided he wouldn't wear a mask with his costume and has stuck with that decision over the years.

Hal and John eventually found themselves flying by the airport. There was a big crowd as they figured a "celebrity" must be landing. It turned out to be a senator that was running for President.

When a fuel truck went out of control and headed towards the crowd and Senator, the two Lanterns saved them but due to John's "carelessness," some oil got on the Senator's face. Hal was mad because it clearly wasn't an accident. John told Hal that the Senator was a major racist.

The fact that the Senator may or may not be a racist wasn't a concern of Hal's. After all, he didn't have a lot of experience with racism himself. To try to teach John a lesson, Hal told him he'd be guarding the Senator that evening at a rally.

During his speech, the Senator was shot by a black man who yelled out, "You'll die for your lies!" Hal and John witnessed this and Hal ordered John to move after the shooter. John refused, saying he was leaving.

This was the last straw for Hal. He caught the shooter but it turned out there was another shooter outside. That's where John went. It turned out the shooter that Hal caught had blanks in his gun. The one outside was about to shoot a police officer from behind. John had seen the two men with the Senator at the airport. It was all part of a trick to make it look like "...the blacks [were] on a rampage."

In all of this, Hal (and readers) learned a lesson. Racism was a problem and John was a better man than Hal gave him credit for.

It seems John didn't put on the ring for some time. After a few more issues, the GREEN LANTERN/GREEN ARROW series went on a four-year hiatus with the two appearing in the second half of issues of THE FLASH. The GREEN LANTERN series later returned in 1976 with John being called into action by Black Canary, of all people in GREEN LANTERN #94, when Hal had become injured.

John had a few more appearances but when Hal decided to quit the Corps in GREEN LANTERN #181, the Guardians appointed John as his full replacement. John has continued as a Green Lantern, becoming one of the greatest Lanterns the Corps has known.

As John Stewart is the Character of the Month here for February, be on the look out for more articles and features on the character some would argue is the best Green Lantern there is.

Imagine if his character was still like that........

Good to see John getting a little love.

Human Green Lanterns just aren't very interesting sadly.

Ah, the 70's. When no-nonsense guys like John Stewart & Blade were saying things like "can you dig it?"

John sort of sounds like a caricature at times.

"This Black Man lets it all hang out!"

I love it.

This is pretty deep. Hats off to dc for tackling this storyline

I like John's first appearance, but I'm glad writers built on his character so he didn't just turn into a sterotypcial angry black man. He went through a lot of change and that definitely made interesting and better as a character.

@rageex2 said:

I think it's time for the angry black man to make a come back! He does have a lot to be angry about recently.

Here is the story behind the story for those who haven't heard it:

Bruce Timm on the Mask:

Bruce Timm on Green Lantern’s design: “John Stewart was the one Green Lantern in the comic book continuity who never, ever wore a mask […] most of the Green Lanterns wore a little domino mask. So, he was the first Green Lantern to say, ‘No, forget it, I’m not wearing a mask. You know, I’m not ashamed to be a Green Lantern; I’m not ashamed of being John Stewart,' so we thought that was a really important part of the John Stewart version of Green Lantern. But, just purely for visual sake, we thought we needed to give him some kind of visual gimmick for his close-ups, so we came up with the idea that he’s been a Green Lantern for so long that the energy of the Green Lantern has kind of infused his entire being, so that it’s even in his bloodstream and it glows out of his eyes and it certainly makes an interesting visual (courtesy of Justice League: Justice on Trial DVD).”

Bruce Timm on John's Personality:

“One of the things we really wanted to avoid was having a group of characters who were all pretty much interchangeable. Going back and rereading a lot of the Silver Age Justice League comics, they really are all the same character—Batman [had] no different a voice than Superman or Flash. They’re all kind of the same character; the only thing that differentiates them is what colors they’re wearing and what powers they have. So we really wanted to make sure they had a much more interesting group dynamic than that and that they all had different personalities. Going back to the original version of John Stewart from Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams’ day, the thing that made him interesting to us was that he was quite a bit more of a badass. If you go back and read those, he comes across as a stereotypical, angry, young black man. We knew we didn’t want to do that exactly, but we still wanted to keep a little bit of that edge to him so that he would be one of the more strident of the characters. We hit upon the idea of the Green Lanterns being kind of a paramilitary force, so we said, ‘Ah, marine. Okay, Louis Gossett Jr., Samuel Jackson.’ So that became our take on him (courtesy of Modern Masters: Bruce Timm).”

Phil LaMarr on the addition of John's Marine background:

“In my mind, the John Stewart on Justice League [still] the [character created by Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams]; he just has gone through a military life as well. I think he is a little older, but he still has that level of energy. He suffers no fools and he’s still very no-nonsense, but he’s also a little tempered. This is also a different time, too. The social wounds aren’t as raw, so the anger is not as present (courtesy of Back Issue Magazine).”

http://jl.toonzone.net/lantern/lantern.htm

Thanks for the article @g_man! It's great to see John get such an awesome homecoming. :-)

@amazingwebhead said:

John Stewart is one of the most powerful human green lanter. After Hal Jordan but in some cases John would beat Hal

Thanks for the article, G-Man! Many would say it's pretty relevant right now.

John's mother taught him social activism, which often involved spy-networks and secret wars in the 1960s--a period of activism she would have been involved in. I wouldn't be surprised if John was familiar with COINTELPRO.

I say "can you dig it?" all the time. Actually, I shorten it to "dig it?" but really that's neither here nor there. Then again, I'm super old.

I say 'ya dig?' from time to time, i'm not super old......

Cool, never see his origin before

I can dig it. :)

He actually has a new one, as well as a prophecy surrounding his birth. I hope those are covered as well. :-)

Fair enough

My first exposure to John was when Hal fell in the tub and knocked himself out while showering in an issue of JLA (somewhere around 115).

John Stewart has been my favorite GL since he took the lead in the Green Lantern series for several issues years ago. The tweaks to the character for the animated series of JL only made the character stronger.

John Stewart - not Hal Jordan - deserves to be the GL in the upcoming JLA film!!

interesting origin. I do however prefer John's modern look over the 70's version.

My only argument with this article is that Hal Jordan was not the first Green Lantern, he was the first associated with the Oan's and the Green Lantern Corp but not the first. Alan Scott was the first Green Lantern with a completely different back story and power origin from an alternate Earth. His ring and Lantern were magically powered with different weaknesses and strengths. Costume was very different he was part of the Justice Society with the Original Wonder Woman, Batman, Superman, Flash and many others. They were set in the 1930's and 40's.

I was thinking the same thing, but I thought people would say I'm splitting hairs.

Pretty cool article. I can dig it!

You'd be correct. But I think we need to differentiate between Green Lantern, the super-hero (Alan) and Green Lantern, the para-military organization (Hal, Guy, John, Kyle & Simon).

@theamazingimmortalman: I dig it.

@vinomonster: Haha XD

Yea, we do needa differentiate them, but I don't think Super Hero and Para Military orginization are very good categories... I mean, I consider Hal, John, Guy, etc. "Super heroes" as well...

I'm I the only one weirded out by the fact that John is physically putting on his costume? I never read the super early GL stories so I assumed that the costume was always created by the ring as a construct.

@captain13: Interesting. Nice information

Yeah, all the GLs used to put on their costumes like that in the early days. The construct costumes are a step up.

We need to watch the articles. Yes, they are all super-heroes in their own right. But Hal, John, Guy, etc. are A Green Lantern. Alan was THE Green Lantern.

Even though I haven't read his origin story (thanks for the effort, btw), why did I get the feeling that this is going to have something to do with racism?.....

Because of the time period?

Don't worry, he has a new, modern origin.

Hellllllllllllll yeah John Stewart MY BOY!!!!

~MiB

Green Lantern V3 #015

@juanhdz: That's hilarious.

The only real comment I have for this is thank god he changed up his look later on. That suit just doesn't work well for him, not to mention the hair.