Adam Graham's Blog: Christians and Superheroes - Posts Tagged "john-stewart"

Green Lantern: John Stewart - A Celebration of 50 Years by Geoff Johns

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


I love John Stewart...but for the most part, this book doesn't really do him justice. To be fair, maybe this reflects DC Comics treatment of him.

There are two big issues that I run into:

1) Stories not really about John Stewart...There are several stories where John Stewart is in the story but is not the lead character that make their way into the book. Having most of the stories from the Bronze Age and the early 1980s be stories where John Stewart has the "B" or "C" plot in stories where Hal Jordan or Guy Gardener are really the lead seems stupid.

2) Incomplete Stories: In an ideal world, these books are going to feature complete stories so fans can enjoy reading about this character and what he did. That's not what we get. In defense of the compilers, in modern comics, it can be very hard to find a one or two issue story that's really good and so you have to take a part or two out of a much bigger story and event. That said. it's not even defensible in all occasions. One example is we get the first part of the transition story from the Bronze Age where Hal stepped down as Green Lantern, we get to see John responding as the new Green Lantern to a supervillain but the fight is in the next issue which is not reprinted. Instead, we get another issue from another storyline that's not completed. A little of this is understandable, but it happened way too much, and again some of these decisions really hurt the book. One example is that an entire extra-large issue of the Cosmic Odyssey is included which is maybe 1/6th about John and part of a much larger event.

Are there good parts? Sure. There was a nice one-shot when John takes over for Kyle Rayner. It's not Eisner-award winning stuff, but at least it features John Stewart and has a beginning, middle, and end. The Future's End tie-in is pretty good, but enjoyment of that is probably enhanced by understanding Future's End and many readers might not even know what that's about.

The best part of the book are two comics from the DC Animated Universe. One was a story from Justice League Adventures, and the other explained how he left the Justice League and the origin for his son. They're actually both very good stories, proving the DC AU has typically done the character justice...while so many creators have not.

While most of the comics were fine, they didn't really fit what I expected of the book and really this book makes me hesitant about looking at another 50 year collection from DC. I think in a 75 year collection, they can put in another material to be worth it, but this book shows a lack of respect for both the character and the fans.



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