I've always been on the fence about John Stewart ever since he was picked for the Justice League cartoon over Jordan. Are there any really good John Stewart stories in the comics that could help win me over?
You of course know that Star Sapphire murdered his wife. So John is grieving over her grave and tells his magic ring to fuck off. This whole space police thing has fucked up his life (Lethal Weapon a little?). Twelve seconds later South African Commandos (not from actually South Africa, just white supremacists from the South of Africa. An allegory. It was the 80s.) jump him, bag him, and air mail John back to "the South of Africa" where he is imprisoned and tortured (literally tortured, we see the beatings and simulated drownings.) for the Crimes of Green Lantern committed in the 1960s (our time). That's right, until they legally could prove that there was more than one Green Lantern, John was being locked away for shit Hal Jordan did. he had to steal a big diamond to save the world. Hal actually shows up in John's prison (walking through walls skiting about how cool it to be above the law) offering the convict a new ring so that John can escape "Justice" and the word "nigger criminal" can be put on posters with his face on it for the next 50 years in Post Offices across the planet. John took his beatings every morning and evening waiting for his day in court to prove that he is a good man and that these crackers are complete bastards so that he can be righteously vindicated and maybe they'll try to extricate Jordan if they can be bothered putting a white guy in jail. Where's the irony in locking up a white guy for crimes he actually committed?
A little heavy handed?
Jordan could have surrendered himself at any moment and fixed everything. Selfish deushbag too arrogant to accept the consequences of his actions. (But how would that have pushed the story along.) but after a month of being treated like punching bag butt monkey, I think they started to torture (innocent) people in front of him, thinking that that would break John and they'd have their very own pet Green Lantern who would go on television every night and assure the world that white people are better than black people.
"Ring! get the fuck back here now!" He says and it Zang! It was back.
John pulls the prison to pieces in seconds.
Joins a peaceful group of political dissidents.
The absolute worst thing he did was stack a dozen government cars, limos one on top of one another.
Hal Jordan shows up, pomposity personified, and orders Stewart that he can't show up a sovereign nation, of course Hal didn't kill John, so the South African's get Superman in on the act as well claiming that John is a terrorist and they demand that he's removed form their borders as harshly as possible and they can trust Superman to do the right thing because he's the whitest person on the planet.
Then some more stuff happens.
This was an 80s comic.
Before Warren Ellis had America falling to his superhero junta.
Almost as provocative as it was blunt.
Green Lantern Special.
Good read.
Mosaic (Johns very own series) was fabulous.
18 issues I think.
