Race + Comics: On Green Lantern’s Near-Death Experience

[theenglish]

^
But that wasn't always true of John, it was added because of the animated show. Hal started out as a brash test pilot, Kyle was always the sensitive artist carrying the torch (long before the Guardians called him the "Torchbearer"), and Guy, after emerging from the coma, has always been a bit of a jerk.

It's still no less difficult to give John a one-sentence description than it is the others, though.

Care to give it a try?

 

[C.E. Evans]

^
But that wasn't always true of John, it was added because of the animated show. Hal started out as a brash test pilot, Kyle was always the sensitive artist carrying the torch (long before the Guardians called him the "Torchbearer"), and Guy, after emerging from the coma, has always been a bit of a jerk.

It's still no less difficult to give John a one-sentence description than it is the others, though.

Care to give it a try?

See post #18

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

Many of the artists that work for the Big 2 are hispanic or european or middle-east. The problem is simply none of the current fans are interested in reading about new characters unless there is a legacy aspect attached to it and even then it's dubious.

But they still do not know how to write a character like JS. To me, this could be read as a case of people with limited life experiences, where they do not really know any African Americans on an intimate level, so you get the aforementioned old Spike Lee nonsense, or worse, crap from Tarantino movies (or the caricature Sam Jackson has become in too many roles).

Writers have built on Hal Jordan from his Cold War, by-the-book adventurer days, to the Denny O'Neil period, and forward, all based on his modest, space opera origins, so why not JS?

His introduction was forceful, politically hot for its time, and provided an excellent template to use as the African American experience (in fiction), indeed, the comic book superhero experience both changed rapidly as the 1970s ran its course. But a significant level of growth simply did not occur then, or in the decades to follow, hence his fate today.

 

[theenglish]

It's still no less difficult to give John a one-sentence description than it is the others, though.

Care to give it a try?

See post #18

Got it, thanks.

 

[Shaka Zulu]

Many of the artists that work for the Big 2 are hispanic or european or middle-east. The problem is simply none of the current fans are interested in reading about new characters unless there is a legacy aspect attached to it and even then it's dubious.

But they still do not know how to write a character like JS. To me, this could be read as a case of people with limited life experiences, where they do not really know any African Americans on an intimate level, so you get the aforementioned old Spike Lee nonsense, or worse, crap from Tarantino movies (or the caricature Sam Jackson has become in too many roles).

Writers have built on Hal Jordan from his Cold War, by-the-book adventurer days, to the Denny O'Neil period, and forward, all based on his modest, space opera origins, so why not JS?

His introduction was forceful, politically hot for its time, and provided an excellent template to use as the African American experience (in fiction), indeed, the comic book superhero experience both changed rapidly as the 1970s ran its course. But a significant level of growth simply did not occur then, or in the decades to follow, hence his fate today.

The best way to depict John Stewart might be to base him on Will Smith, or Colin Powell; there are a lot of Afro-Americans to base John Stewart on. Or, they can simply write him like the writers on the Justice League show did, by studying the show and the episodes that he was featured.