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Green Lantern (1990) (Single Issues) #74, 156
Green Lantern: John Stewart - A Celebration of 50 Years
Five decades after his first appearance, this volume collects the greatest moments of the ground-breaking, fan-favorite Green Lantern, John Stewart!
Created by comic book legends Dennis O'Neil and Neal Adams, John Stewart changed both DC's fictional universe and the comics industry itself. Introduced as a substitute for Hal Jordan, DC's primary Green Lantern, John Stewart was DC's first Black superhero, and over the years grew from a back-up player to a main character and arguably the most recognizable Green Lantern. Stewart starred in the Green Lantern series for a time and later his own series, Green Lantern: Mosaic, and was featured in other media adaptations including the beloved Justice League cartoon.
Fifty years following John Stewart's debut, this collection highlights the character's greatest moments over the decades--both space-faring and Earth-bound--from his first appearance in the legendary O'Neil/Adams Green Lantern run, to taking over from Hal Jordan as Earth's Green Lantern, and being rechristened as the first mortal Guardian of the Universe.
This volume includes Green Lantern Vol. 2 #87, #182, #185, Green Lantern Vol. 3 #74, #156, Green Lantern Vol. 4 #49, Green Lantern: Mosaic #18, and Justice League of America #110.
Created by comic book legends Dennis O'Neil and Neal Adams, John Stewart changed both DC's fictional universe and the comics industry itself. Introduced as a substitute for Hal Jordan, DC's primary Green Lantern, John Stewart was DC's first Black superhero, and over the years grew from a back-up player to a main character and arguably the most recognizable Green Lantern. Stewart starred in the Green Lantern series for a time and later his own series, Green Lantern: Mosaic, and was featured in other media adaptations including the beloved Justice League cartoon.
Fifty years following John Stewart's debut, this collection highlights the character's greatest moments over the decades--both space-faring and Earth-bound--from his first appearance in the legendary O'Neil/Adams Green Lantern run, to taking over from Hal Jordan as Earth's Green Lantern, and being rechristened as the first mortal Guardian of the Universe.
This volume includes Green Lantern Vol. 2 #87, #182, #185, Green Lantern Vol. 3 #74, #156, Green Lantern Vol. 4 #49, Green Lantern: Mosaic #18, and Justice League of America #110.
344 pages, Hardcover
Published June 22, 2021
About the author
Len Wein
1,595 books161 followersLen Wein was an American comic book writer and editor best known for co-creating DC Comics' Swamp Thing and Marvel Comics' Wolverine, and for helping revive the Marvel superhero team the X-Men (including the co-creation of Nightcrawler, Storm, and Colossus). Additionally, he was the editor for writer Alan Moore and illustrator Dave Gibbons' influential DC miniseries Watchmen.
Wein was inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2008.
Wein was inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2008.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
December 18, 2021
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.
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.
August 29, 2021
For a lot of fans today, John Stewart is Green Lantern, thanks to the Justice League cartoon at the turn of the millennium. As a longtime fan, I was never one of them. “My” Green Lantern, the one I read in the ‘90s, was Kyle Rayner, with whom John shared adventures and character growth during that time. I knew all about Alan Scott, the original, and of course Hal Jordan, and Guy Gardner. Those were all human Green Lanterns in a vast galactic cast of ringslingers bursting with rich tradition. So every time I hear the argument, because of the cartoon, that John “should” be Green Lantern, I kind of have to laugh.
And the funny thing is, the ‘90s Green Lantern comic I most want to revisit is Green Lantern: Mosaic, which because it was written by a creator later disgraced due to his involvement with child pornography, is represented in Green Lantern: John Stewart - A Celebration of 50 Years by a single page of artwork. Mosaic has the distinction of being John’s only solo comic book series to date (not counting the current Green Lantern comic, in which he’s depicted as the lead character). Mosaic was created specifically to showcase John in a mainstream DC comic that felt, looked, and read like a Vertigo comic of that era, and was cancelled mostly because of “Emerald Twilight” (and because a lot of people had no idea what to make of it, hence why it was never reprinted even while its writer was in good repute).
The material that is here is what you would expect from collections like this, and serves as a broad introduction to John’s publishing history, including comics based on the cartoon, which are integral to his legacy regardless of how warped I think it made fan perceptions. John still has a distant legacy to the other human Green Lanterns (Guy Gardner had a long-running solo book that wasn’t cancelled after “Emerald Twilight”, and even Kyle got an extended miniseries following his tenure as sole Green Lantern; even Jessica Cruz and Simon Baz had a long-running team-up series). Hopefully acknowledging what exists helps expand that legacy further.
And the funny thing is, the ‘90s Green Lantern comic I most want to revisit is Green Lantern: Mosaic, which because it was written by a creator later disgraced due to his involvement with child pornography, is represented in Green Lantern: John Stewart - A Celebration of 50 Years by a single page of artwork. Mosaic has the distinction of being John’s only solo comic book series to date (not counting the current Green Lantern comic, in which he’s depicted as the lead character). Mosaic was created specifically to showcase John in a mainstream DC comic that felt, looked, and read like a Vertigo comic of that era, and was cancelled mostly because of “Emerald Twilight” (and because a lot of people had no idea what to make of it, hence why it was never reprinted even while its writer was in good repute).
The material that is here is what you would expect from collections like this, and serves as a broad introduction to John’s publishing history, including comics based on the cartoon, which are integral to his legacy regardless of how warped I think it made fan perceptions. John still has a distant legacy to the other human Green Lanterns (Guy Gardner had a long-running solo book that wasn’t cancelled after “Emerald Twilight”, and even Kyle got an extended miniseries following his tenure as sole Green Lantern; even Jessica Cruz and Simon Baz had a long-running team-up series). Hopefully acknowledging what exists helps expand that legacy further.
January 8, 2022
This rating is not so much a reflection of the individual issues within it (though I do wonder why some were included) as it is this book as an anthology specifically.
My frustration with this book comes from two main points:
*The order of the chosen stories is fundamentally incorrect;
*God, I wish Dwayne McDuffie was still alive.
I've been a Green Lantern fan for most of my 38 years, and the vast majority of people to compliment my GL merch when I'm out and about (indeed, the vast majority of people who recognize it at all) have been Black men.
If John Stewart is your Green Lantern, the guy who defines the franchise for you - do you really want to first read more than half of a 360+ page book with him playing second fiddle to three different white guy Green Lanterns before you get to the good stuff?
And if you're unfamiliar with the name Dwayne McDuffie, he is one of the main writers and producers of Justice League Unlimited, the animated series most responsible for getting John Stewart out of the shadow of the white dudes who wore the ring before him. (McDuffie, not coincidentally, is a Black man, and also founded Milestone Media, a comic imprint owned by and produced for BIPOC comic fans. He's the man behind Static Shock, too.) He tragically died in 2011 after complications from surgery, and the comics industry is still feeling the loss.
Nearly everything about the modern depiction of Stewart in the comics can be laid at McDuffie's feet: his past as an Army sniper, his militarized aesthetic, the methodical approach to his powers. This is the version of Stewart that Green Lantern fans (which again, in my experience, is a lot of Black dudes) get excited about.
And that version gets left to the very last bit of a sizeable anthology -- and you've got to slog past a lot of frankly cringey depictions of Stewart to get there.
I'm not saying that the pre-JLU Stewart of the 70s and 80s shouldn't have been included -- but man, DC really buried the lede on this one. What should have been a celebration ended up being a chore to read.
My frustration with this book comes from two main points:
*The order of the chosen stories is fundamentally incorrect;
*God, I wish Dwayne McDuffie was still alive.
I've been a Green Lantern fan for most of my 38 years, and the vast majority of people to compliment my GL merch when I'm out and about (indeed, the vast majority of people who recognize it at all) have been Black men.
If John Stewart is your Green Lantern, the guy who defines the franchise for you - do you really want to first read more than half of a 360+ page book with him playing second fiddle to three different white guy Green Lanterns before you get to the good stuff?
And if you're unfamiliar with the name Dwayne McDuffie, he is one of the main writers and producers of Justice League Unlimited, the animated series most responsible for getting John Stewart out of the shadow of the white dudes who wore the ring before him. (McDuffie, not coincidentally, is a Black man, and also founded Milestone Media, a comic imprint owned by and produced for BIPOC comic fans. He's the man behind Static Shock, too.) He tragically died in 2011 after complications from surgery, and the comics industry is still feeling the loss.
Nearly everything about the modern depiction of Stewart in the comics can be laid at McDuffie's feet: his past as an Army sniper, his militarized aesthetic, the methodical approach to his powers. This is the version of Stewart that Green Lantern fans (which again, in my experience, is a lot of Black dudes) get excited about.
And that version gets left to the very last bit of a sizeable anthology -- and you've got to slog past a lot of frankly cringey depictions of Stewart to get there.
I'm not saying that the pre-JLU Stewart of the 70s and 80s shouldn't have been included -- but man, DC really buried the lede on this one. What should have been a celebration ended up being a chore to read.
February 18, 2022
It's by no means a complete recollection of a character. They've gone for the broad stroke approach and chosen a few stories to represent the character in that era. The problem with that is that you're never going to have a rounded view of the character if you're picking so few stories.
The stories aren't BAD. The history behind them is actually really interesting. I would almost prefer that if they do this type of thing for a character, that they break it into multiple books. Pick an era, talk to the writers or colleagues, and give EACH ERA its own facet. This collection could have been so amazing if they'd just decided to push a little harder and spend a little more.
Bonus: the shift from 70's Stewart and his ascot to 2000's Stewart and his tight fade. Style maketh the man, John. ;)
The stories aren't BAD. The history behind them is actually really interesting. I would almost prefer that if they do this type of thing for a character, that they break it into multiple books. Pick an era, talk to the writers or colleagues, and give EACH ERA its own facet. This collection could have been so amazing if they'd just decided to push a little harder and spend a little more.
Bonus: the shift from 70's Stewart and his ascot to 2000's Stewart and his tight fade. Style maketh the man, John. ;)
November 18, 2022
It was fine? It was interesting to learn John's origin and the story behind it but as usual with anthologies the quality of the writing/art varied wildly and some of the stories were truly dull. The closer it got to the end of the book (and the more modern the stories got) the more interesting they tended to be, though I wouldn't say that any were truly exceptional. Honestly the commentary sections held my attention more than any of the actual stories.
July 24, 2026
The Best
John Stewart has always been my favorite lantern. His Christmas story was my first exposure to the alternate but way better Green Lantern. A Marine who is an architect is a much better choice and his willpower is strong. All the authors and artists did a great job bringing his stories to life. Great collection.
John Stewart has always been my favorite lantern. His Christmas story was my first exposure to the alternate but way better Green Lantern. A Marine who is an architect is a much better choice and his willpower is strong. All the authors and artists did a great job bringing his stories to life. Great collection.
January 31, 2023
Well put together historical archive of John Stewart’s origin and arcs
January 15, 2026
I think there were too many stories where John was a secondary character. Not something you want in a book to celebrate the character.
February 8, 2022
Wonderful and Scintillating collection of John Stewart Green Lantern stories!!!
This brilliant collection of John Stewart Green Lantern stories chart the history of how John Stewart became Green Lantern as DC's first black superhero. It shows the diversity of DC comics and the storytelling capacity of a hero of different origin from the norm. It was entertaining and innovative. It was informative and fascinating to read. Congratulations, DC comics!!
This brilliant collection of John Stewart Green Lantern stories chart the history of how John Stewart became Green Lantern as DC's first black superhero. It shows the diversity of DC comics and the storytelling capacity of a hero of different origin from the norm. It was entertaining and innovative. It was informative and fascinating to read. Congratulations, DC comics!!
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews