A major change to the backstory of John Stewart in Lanterns could indicate trouble for another popular Green Lantern. The hit HBO Max series has already made several changes to the origin of John Stewart. However, this latest change suggests another hero has no future in the DCU.
The third episode of Lanterns, “OutKast”, is largely centered around the childhood and young adulthood of John Stewart. A flashback confirms that John’s father had been judged unworthy of joining the Green Lantern Corps in 1986. This leads him and John’s mother to start grooming their youngest son to someday replace Hal Jordan. This comes after one of the Guardians of the Universe visits John’s mother and tells her that their Power Rings scan a subject’s genetic makeup, in addition to testing their fearlessness.
The young John Stewart endures his parents efforts with relatively few complaints. One of the few blips occurs at his fifth birthday party, when he is given a Green Lantern costume and a rifle. He had hoped to get crayons and fails to hide his disappointment, even as his parents tell him of their plan for his life.
Later flashbacks reveal that John taught himself how to draw, but he tried to hide this from his parents. However, after he was discharged from the USMC, his mother encouraged him to apply to art school. Ironically, it is John’s ability to recreate what he looks at in detail that seems to win the Guardians over. Not the obedience, resilience and fearlessness his parents tried to instill in him. However, the fact that Lanterns’ John Stewart is a trained artist is bad news for another popular Green Lantern, Kyle Rayner.
Why John Stewart’s new role in Lanterns leaves no room for Kyle Rayner in DCU
In the original Green Lantern comics, John Stewart was introduced as an unemployed architect. His background as a US Marine was retconned in decades later. This was in response to the popularity of his more militaristic variant from the 2001 Justice League animated series. He was never portrayed as an artist until Lanterns.
Contrastingly, artist Kyle Rayner was introduced after a crazed Hal Jordan almost destroyed the Green Lanterns and the Guardians. Rayner represented a different kind of Lantern, whose imaginative use of the ring became his hallmark. Today, Rayner is still habitually identified as “the artist” or “the creative one” among the many Lanterns of Earth.
This difference was reflected in later Green Lantern stories, which discussed the contrast of how different wielders fashioned their constructs. Rayner’s constructs were “constantly being refined” like an artist sketching. By contrast, Stewart assembled his constructs like an architect, one piece at a time, in an orderly fashion.
This distinction takes on a new dimension at the end of “OutKast,” when John Stewart concludes his interview with a Guardian. It is made clear he is meant to replace Hal Jordan, but that they are billing him as his backup. This was exactly the role Kyle Rayner played in the comics, albeit under different circumstances.
Given all that, it seems that Kyle Rayner’s character is being folded into the DCU John Stewart. On one hand, this may be for the best, given the show is already hindered by questions of why Earth has multiple Lanterns. On the other hand, it would be a shame for Kyle Rayner to be denied a chance at appearing in the DCU.
