John Stewart

**John Stewart** is a former United States soldier and the current only member and leader of the Green Lantern Corps.

## Biography

### Stationed in Afghanistan

John Stewart, a honorable soldier in the United States Marine Corps, was sent to serve in Afghanistan. On one of his missions there, John and his partner Jimbo took sniping positions and took out many enemy soldiers. During this mission, Jimbo was killed and John was ambushed by two locals. One of which tried to stab him with a knife, only for John to block it with his bare hand. Though his hand was impaled, he was able to survive this encounter, but he now carried both physical and mental scars with him. After his return to the States, John rented a small house in Detroit and tried to regain a normal, civillian life.

### Meeting a Guardian and becoming a Green Lantern

One night, John was out and as he tried to get home, after accidentally assaulting someone he thought to be an enemy, he vitnessd two men trying to burn a seemingly mad homeless man alive. He tried to reason with them, but was unsuccessful and got engaged in a fight with them. While it seemed that he was winning, the police soon showed up and, becuase it looked like John was beating the other two up, they tazed him and let the actual criminals escape. After he regained consciousness, the police officers, one of whom claimed to have also served in the Iraq, didn’t want to arrest him, due to his medal of honor, and the bad publicity his arrest could potentially bring. They let him go with a warning and sent him home. There, John saw a spaceship fall from the sky and crash in his garden. He ran towards it and helped the pilot, an alien and a Guardian of the Universe named Ganthet, out of it. As he awoke, Ganthet tried to say something to him, but soon died because of wounds inflicted to him prior. As his body burnt away, a green ring came flying out of the robes he had left behind and fused itself to John's finger and created a uniform for him. He tried to get it off but was unsuccessful. After the ring begann speaking to him, John thought that he had turned crazy and after the ring would not stop, he accidentally created a hammer out of his imagination, which hit the ground. Trying to remain calm and in control of this situation, John asked the ring whether there was someone, anyone, who could help him and explain to him what was going on. The ring then flew into space, dragging John with him.

### Fighting the Justice League and journey to Oa

Having found someone to better explain thhe ring and its capabilities than itself could, it brought John into space and onboard of the Justice League Watchtower. There, he walked rigt into a strategy meeting of some of the League's members. He tried to explain the situation to them, but due to his sudden appearance, they immediately attacked him. The Martian Manhunter tried to restrain John, while Vixen used her Totem to attack him. Though he was able to fight both of them off, he was eventually captured by the Martian. Before he was able to cut off his head with a sword he projected from his ring though, he was shot with an arrow by Green Arrow and incapacitated. After they all calmed themselves down, John explained why he came to them and asked them for help. Trying to better understand the situation, they asked the ring who its previous owner was, to which it responded Hal Jordan, who had been the Green Lantern of Earth. Enraged because the ring claimed his best friend was dead, Green Arrow became aggressive and interrogated John, but in the end, they all came to the conclusion that it would be best to use the crashed ship of Ganthet to travel to Oa, home of the corps and ask the Guardians themselves. So Arrow and John, still trying to get the ring off his finger, went to the crashsite and found the previously damaged ship had repaired itself with the help of Nanites. They then used the ring to set the coordinates for Oa and their journey began.

### Searching Oa's ruins

While they were traveling to Oa, John used bis ring to tell him about the history of the Corps, showing him projections of notable Lanterns such as Thaal Sinestro, Soranik Natu, Abin Sur and Tomar-Re. As they arrived at their destination, John and Olliver were met with an unbelievable sight: The entire planet was in ruins, destroyed by an unknown foe. They came across the body of a Green Lantern which turned out to be Tomar-Re and after verifying his status, they found the corpses of others, namely Hannu, Kreon, Laira Omoto, Salakk and Boodikka, as well as several other burnt robes from other former Guardians of the Universe. They then realized that most of the buildings originated from one central building with a giant Green Lantern logo on it and went to search for anyone alive inside. This was in fact the Hall of Famous Lanterns, in which many statues of the most notable and important Lanterns in the history of the Corps were standing, though now partially damaged. Oliver, as was Green Arrow's real name, explained to him that one of them, Sinestro had trained Hal Jordan to be the greatest Lantern in the entire Universe, to which John replied that while he had indeed heard of him, he couldn’t have been that great. He then turned around and saw that Hal's statue was significantly larger than the other ones and he was slightly taken aback. John was then given a Green Lantern Power Battery, and was told that he should use it to recharge his ring. But as he then noticed, his ring's programming, which had instructed it to return to Oa, now allowed him to take it off, and so he did, before placing it aside. Though this could have been done at a more convenient moment, seeing as a Thanagarian warrior then came out of the shadows and attacked him. Without his ring, John was left defenseless, so he quickly grabbed it and put it on again and created energy constructs to protect himself from his attackers mace. Luckily, Green Arrow came to his aide and shot an explosive arrow at the Thanagarian, preventing her from harming John. He then used this distraction in order to create another construct to push his attacker against a wall, nearly suffocating her. While both the ring, as well as Arrow told him to stop, John was painfully remembering the time that he was in a similar situation and then realized he was going too far and stopped. The Thanagarian introduced herself as Shayera Hol of Thanagar and explained to them why she had attacked. Some time ago, Hal Jordan was assigned to oversee an experiment involving her planet and Rann. Because this experiment had failed and many Thanagarians as well as Hal Jordan had died, she sought help from the Guardians in their renewed war against Rann, but only found their remains. Because her ship had been destroyed and she had video evidence involving a ship from Rann, she thought that the Rannians were behind the Corps' destruction and now wanted vengance for her people and the Green Lanterns. John and Olliver explained to her that they would take her with them, though only if she promised not to harm them, to the next Rannian outpost to ask the Rannians whether they were responsible for it or not, to which she agreed.

### Following the Rannian trail

During their travel to the next Rannian Outpost, John started to practice creating energy constructs with his ring, using a video game-like interface to learn. While he did in fact still want to get rid of it, he also wanted to learn how to properly use the ring in order to better defend himself against the enemies they would inevitably face. Green Arrow also explained to him how to recharge the ring, using the power battery they had found on Oa earlier. So John held his ring against it and said the Green Lantern oath, loud and proud, and his ring was fully charged again. As they arrived on the Rannian planet, they found that both the Rannians as well as Thanagarians, who seemingly attacked, them were dead. Shortly after, a giant energy beam came out of the sky and nearly vaporized them. As the dust settled, the group saw a man at the bottom of the Beam's crater. He first seemed confused but as soon as he recognized Shayera as a Thanagarian, he attecked her, who likewise did the same to him. After a short lived battle, John managed to restrain Shayera in a construct, while Olliver shot a rope arrow at the attacker, incapacitating him too. They then questioned him and after Shayera accused him and his people, the Rannians, of being responsible for the Guardians' demise, he started talking. He introduced himself as Adam Strange, former Rannian hero, who had vanished years ago during the first Rann-Thanagarian war. He deemed it impossible for his race to do what they were accused of and wanted to proove it, suggesting to go to the Rannian High Command to look for answers, which they then did. They came across a battle between Rannian and Thanagarian ships and used this situation, in order to gain information. The captain of one of the destroyed Rannian ships, who said his name was Kantus, first refused to give them access to the Rannian database, but after seeing Adam Strange allive and well, he promised to comply, if they helped repair his ship. After John used his ring to stabilize the ship's engines, he gave them access, but instead of saving himself by exiting the battle, he proceeded to attack the Thanagarians in a suicide run, ramming them with his ship, resulting in his and the Thanagarians' Deaths. Having gained new information, the team was able to identify that the Rannian ship that had attacked the Green Lanterns had the same energy signature as that of a Thanagarian ship that had attacked the United Galactic Council headquarters long ago and prevented peace talks between the two peoples from ever happening. Connecting the movements of the ship throughout the galaxy, including several other vital attacks on both sides, they could identify the place it always returned to and knew that they would find the answers they were looking for there.

### Encounter with the Sinestro Corps

Upon their arrival in an asteroid field, the ship was immediately shot at with rockets, which were luckily destroyed by Shayera using the ship's weapons. This meant that they were in the right place and soon, they found an asteroid base and entered it. As they looked for anyone to explain things to them, John was attacked by a blue skinned woman using what seemed to be a yellow version of his own ring. After she and another attacker were dealt with, several more foes appeared and joined the fight. John was then telepathically attacked by a floating three eyed man, who also wielded a yellow ring. He almost succeeded in stabbing the defenseless John with a yellow energy sword, but the new Green Lantern quickly overcame the mind control and created a shield, before knocking Despero out with another construct. With his enemy down, he prepared to finish him off by stabbing him, but stopped himself, saying that there had been too much death already. A figure then appeared from behind and threatened him with an energy construct of a gun and said that he funnily enjoyed death very much. He then threatened to kill John if the others would not surrender themselves, which they did and after dropping their weapons to the ground, they were all taken out by a bright light otiginating from the leader's yellow ring, who John had now realized, was Sinestro, his predecessor's former mentor. As they all regained consciousness, they saw that they had been trapped by Sinestro, who claimed he might still have use for them, before leaving. They were then approached by another prisoner, who revealed himself to be none other than Hal Jordan, still allive, but also imprisoned. He explanied to them that he was not killed during the failed experiment, which had been sabotaged by Sinestro as he claimed, and had merely been teleported to the planet's surface, where he sent his ring away before passing out and that since then, he had been trapped there. The group then explained to him that the Rannian scientist Sardath, who had overseen the sabotaged experiment, was now working on turning their Zeta beams into a weapon of mass destruction, as they had learnt from Kantus earlier, and that they would need to go to Rann in order to stop him. Then, they were surprised by Sinestro, who had used his ring to make himself invisible in order to spy on them and find out about the weapon. After he was gone though, Jordan revealed that he had been working on finding a way out of their cell and, after borrowing an Nth Metal knife from Shayera, he was able to cut open the wall and destroy the lasers holding them in their cell. As they escaped, and after Jordan had murdered Arkillo, a member of the Sinestro Corps, who was guarding Shayera's mace, John summoned his ring and used it to bring all their other weapons and equipment to them in their ship. After the ring had arrived with their weapons, the group flew away in the ship on their quest to warn Rann of Sinestro’s earlier involvement and coming arrival.

### Defense of Sardath's lab

As they arrived over the surface of Rann, Sinestro had followed them with his ship and tried to annihilate them. Luckily, the team could get behind the planetary shield which protected Rann from attcks, due to Adam having convinced an officer he had known previously of his idenity. On the planet, they contacted Sardath, who then teleported them to his lab in space, using a Zeta Beam. There, he explained to the group that he had used Adam Strange's Meta gene in order to create his super weapon, with which he planned to destroy Thanagar and all of its inhabitants. They tried to convince him of Sinestro’s part in all of it, before realizing that he had followed them again somehow. Having convinced Sardath not to use his weapon prematurely, they all took their battle positions, with John using his military experience and knowledge to command the Rannian guards. As the Sinestro Corps attacked, they all fought bravely and seemed to come out victoriously. Sinestro though had decided to directly attack John and was able to overpower him without much effort, taking his ring away and throwing it away. As he prepared to finish John off with a swift strike, John remembered the capabilities of the ring and called it to him, which it successfully did, flying directly through Sinestro’s chest, an injury which proved to be fatal. Shortly before dying, Sinestro used his last words to inform John that his "Master" would kill each of them and then passed away. John felt guilty about not having had any choice but to kill him, but then saw that one of the attackers, whose name was Kanjar Ro, was getting away and follwed him. He saw him running away in a hallway with dead Rannian soldiers and quickly incapacitated him with a constuct. He then noticed that the soliders had been shot from behind and decided to follow the trail their killer had left behind.

### Facing Hal Jordan and Rebuilding the Green Lantern Corps

Having arrived at the command station, John witnessed Hal pointing a gun at his fellow teammates and Sardath's corpse next to him. It was then that he realized that Hal was in fact Sinestro’s master and had only acted as his prisoner before. He acted quickly and shot him multiple times with the construct of a rifle, but it had no effect on Jordan. Hal then took off the gloves covering his hands, only to reveal that he had several Lantern rings on his fingers. He explained to them that after passing out, Sinestro had infected him with something called the Parallax entity and that they had destroyed Oa together, before he took his dead comrades rings. He claimed to have been shown how bad the Guardians had let the Universe become and that he intended to take their place, by using the Zeta Beam to destroy the universe, before recreating it in his superior vision. John, Arrow, Adam and Shayera tried to stop him, but he defeated them fairly easily. After he had gone to activate the weapon in order to destroy Thanagar and Rann by transporting them into a super nova, John stood up again and followed him. As he was once again defeated by the corrupted Lantern, Oliver saved him and tried to reason with Hal, though he was too far gone to be reasoned with, even calling himself a god. John then took his chance and attacked him again, while the others tried to stop the Zeta Beam. Hal wanted to poison John's mind with the idea that he would do the same thing if he were in his position, but John refused. As the fight continued, John realized that he was the only one left who could stop Hal before he became too powerful and finally embraced being chosen as a Lantern. He repeated the oath again to give himself more strength and then called the rings Hal was wearing to him. Having both the necessary willpower, as well as being more worthy of them, due to not being corrupted, he was able to take them all off of Hal and held a dagger against his chest. But, remembering his days as a soldier and his new responsibilities, he chose not to kill Hal but rather only knock him unconscious, claiming that killing him would not be the right way. Unfortunately, he had missed one last ring Hal was wearing, who them attacked him from behind and tried to stab him. Being caught in a similar position as in Afghanistan, with a knife right through his hand, John was unable to do anything. Luckily for him, Green Arrow had decided to intervene and shot and arrow right through his former best friend's heart, killing him and saving John. After everything was over, and Adam had sacrificed himself by using his connection to the Zeta Beam to move it away from the two planets, with him being send into a supernova instead, John, Olliver and Shayera used Ganthet's ship to return home to Earth. There, John released his rings, only keeping his own, to find other worthy beings, in order to rebuild the Green Lantern Corps. Shayera said that she hoped that Thanagar could count on a Green Lantern like him, before using the ship to fly away into space again. John and Olliver then went off to eat something and mourn their lost friend, and to wait for the possible new Lanterns to appear. After that, John was also made a new member of the Justice League, replacing Hal as the Green Lantern of the team.

## Abilities

* **Marksmanship**
* **Hand-to-hand-combat**

## Equipment

* **Green Lantern Power Ring**: The ring grants john a protective energy field of willpower, granting him the ability to breathe in space and enhanced durability, and also creates a formfitting Uniform around his body. It is powered by his willpower and he can either project that energy as a blast or form into hard constructs.
	+ **Green Lantern Uniform**

## Weaknesses

* **Post traumatic stress disorder (formerly)**
* **Yellow**

## Gallery

John as a soldier in AfghanistanJohn fighting for his life.John defending the old man.John finding Ganthet.John fighting the Vixen.John and Green Arrow trying to get the ship to work.John searching Oa's remains for survivors.The group interrogating Adam Strange.John using his Ring.John almost killing Despero.The group finding Hal Jordan.John vs Sinestro.John after killing Sinestro.Hal trying to stab John.Back on Earth.John rebuilding the Green Lantern Corps.
## Trivia

* **John Stewart** was created by Dennis O'Neil and Neil Adams and first appeared in DC comics in Green Lantern Vol 2 #87 in January 1972.
* His actor Aldis Hodge played Hawkman in the DCEU movie *Black Adam*.
* Due to John being the only Green Lantern left and rebuilding the Corps from scratch, it could be argued that he takes a similar role to that of the Guardians of the Universe prior to their destruction. In the comics, he was also made a Guardian once.
* In the comics, it is not John Stewart who is sought out by Ganthet after Parallax attacked Oa, but rather Kyle Rayner. Furthermore, he doesn’t crash on Earth, which seems to be an allusion to Hal Jordan's origin, in which Abin Sur crashes and gives Jordan his Ring before dying.
* After having escaped Sinestro's prison and while hiding from him, John can shortly be seen wearing his Uniform, even though his Ring was not in his posession at that time, which poses a continuity/animation error.