The new HBO Max series Lanterns misses the mark in adapting the character of John Stewart. The first episode reveals enough of the character’s history in the DCU to confirm some common ground with the Green Lantern comics. Unfortunately, the show’s writers fail to capture the character’s soul and the personality traits that made him a DC Comics mainstay.
In the reality of Lanterns, Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) was the first Earthling chosen to wear the Power Ring of a Green Lantern in 1986. 30 years later, he was charged with training John Stewart Jr. (Aaron Pierre) as his successor. However, it was clear that Jordan was not yet ready to give up his ring. Indeed, in the two months they had trained, Stewart had not been allowed to wear the ring once.
However, Stewart tolerated Jordan’s disrespectful behavior, hoping that he could “stay the course” and get the job eventually. This was the advice of his father, John Stewart Sr. (J. Alphonse Nicholson), a US Marine. The younger Stewart was later confirmed to have followed in his father’s footsteps, becoming a sniper in the USMC.
However, the opening scene of Lanterns establishes the elder John Stewart as an abusive father. Most of his children live in fear of him, warning John Jr. against watching an interview with Hal Jordan against his orders. Stewart Sr. apparently “cured” his namesake of fear by shooting apples off his head to make him fearless. This implies that the elder Stewart has been grooming his son to become Green Lantern all his life. However, all of this is decidedly different from John Stewart’s family history and background in the comics.
Lanterns’ John Stewart lacks drive of the comics
Many DC Comics characters have undergone slight revisions to their histories over the years and John Stewart is no exception. Indeed, he has more conflicting backstories than most superheroes. Perhaps the most notable revamp is John having no history of military service in the comics before the 2001 Justice League animated series presented John Stewart as a Marine.
Beyond that, different histories have depicted John Stewart as being an only child, having one younger brother and one younger sister, or just having a younger sister. Another discrepancy is whether John’s abusive father, Henry Stewart, abandoned his family. This coincides with the question of whether John was subsequently raised by a single mother or his aunt Loretta. None of these histories resemble Lanterns, where John has two brothers and his mother is unmentioned.
However, the exact details of the history are irrelevant given the larger problem of how that history shaped John Stewart’s character. Regardless of the comic changes, the core of John Stewart has remained untouched. He has always been presented as a man of integrity, who walks his own path and speaks truth to power. John worked to help people as an activist, an architect, and a soldier. He also tried to atone for his mistakes, like when he stole his aunt’s car to go joyriding as a teen.
By contrast, the John Stewart of Lanterns is a passive figure. He goes along to get along and only followed in his father’s footsteps because it was easier than arguing. Not out of an active choice to empower himself. Granting this reasoned characterization does contrast more sharply with Hal Jordan’s chaotic cowboy cop, it is also totally at odds with John Stewart’s character in the comics.
