The solicitation for Green Lantern: Lost Army #4 is out, and I am very upset to say that it confirms something I have feared ever since learning of the title and that is John Stewart is going to share his book with another Earth Green Lantern once again.

GREEN LANTERN: LOST ARMY #4
Written by CULLEN BUNN
Art by JAVI PINA
Cover by GUILLEM MARCH
On sale SEPTEMBER 16 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
Things are looking grim for the lost Corps members! With tensions running high, the brewing distrust between Kilowog and Guy Gardner comes to a head!

My excitement for this series has gone considerably down. It looks like DC is once again robbing John Stewart of his well-deserved due by sticking another Earth Green Lantern in his title to eat up his spotlight. It’s especially upsetting because John’s prior series–Green Lantern Corps, written by Van Jensen with art from Bernard Chang–was selling fine. It was the highest selling title DC culled before the Convergence event, which is made even more impressive for having a minority lead. Similar to what happened with Green Lantern: Mosaic, John Stewart’s healthy book was taken away from him for no good reason. Now, DC is launching this Lost Army book with John and putting him with a considerably less famous White male character that wasn’t able to sustain decent sales for his own series, all while preaching about how the new DC line is all about diversity.

Yes, DC’s new DCYou marketing campaign is supposed to promote diversity. I personally find that difficult to take seriously when DC cancelled their only popular minority led book just to start a book with a White male lead. One of the reasons I’m writing this article is to show DC what we John Stewart fans will and will not accept. At this stage, I will not accept John Stewart sharing a book with Guy Gardner. If DC wants the John Stewart fanbase, it needs to start treating the character and his fans with respect and put out content that John Stewart fans will enjoy. John Stewart fans have no interest in reading about Guy Gardner at John’s expense.

Sometimes I wonder why I even bother being a fan of any of this. There are times when it seems more frustrating than it is enjoyable. The complete travesty of a celebration of Green Lantern’s 75th Anniversary was bad enough, but this latest issue is really coming close to getting me to abandon DC Comics altogether, and if it comes to that, I will encourage all other John Stewart fans to do the same, or at least not support the Green Lantern: Lost Army title. DC just does not seem interested in having us as fans or giving us what we want. No real John Stewart fan I’ve ever encountered wants John behind Guy Gardner or any other Green Lantern.

I will hold out until Geoff Johns’ Justice League storyline “Darkseid War” concludes, since John Stewart is confirmed to have a role in that. If things do not improve regarding John Stewart’s showcase and treatment, I’m gone.

We’re not asking for much, DC. Make John Stewart the focus of Lost Army as he is in the eight page preview released in May, and stop ignoring him, leaving him out of everything, and acting like he’s not worth anything. If you cannot meet those requests, then perhaps John Stewart fans ought to end our relationship with you and move on to other publishers.

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This September, DC Comics will be celebrating 75 years of Green Lantern’s existence by releasing twenty five variant covers with a Green Lantern theme. Out of those twenty five, John Stewart is featured on a whopping two. And on one of those two, he is positioned rather peripherally. You John Stewart fans can decide whether you feel two is better than nothing, or if this is a travesty. In any event, this is rather par the course for DC Comics.

The two variant covers John Stewart is on are for Action Comics #44 (along with Arisia, yay!), with art from Neil Edwards and Jay Leisten, and The Flash #44, illustrated by Wes Craig. You can take a look at them below.

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In preparation for Green Lantern: The Lost Army, the first issue of which will be released this coming Wednesday, June 17, Comixology.Com is running a sale on the entire New 52 Green Lantern Corps series. This is a great opportunity to get caught up with John Stewart in cased you missed these stories earlier.

Comixology.Com Green Lantern Corps Sale.

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Hey there, John Stewart fans! There have been two additions to the GreenLantern.Co Notable Creators section, and they are Dwayne McDuffie…

“McDuffie’s sentiments explain why DC Comics and Warner Bros. completely failed to capitalize on the success of Green Lantern John Stewart on television, and decided to shunt him off to the side in favor of the numerous White iterations. Certain industry professionals clearly did not care for or about the progressive leaps that were made by Timm, McDuffie, and others working on the Justice League cartoons, and made an effort to put things back to the White status quo.”

Read more.

and Len Wein!

“I honestly believe that had Len Wein not done this, John wouldn’t have the success he enjoys today. Had John not had his notable run as Earth’s Green Lantern in the 1980s, I don’t think he would have been selected for the Justice League cartoon show, which led to him becoming the Green Lantern for a whole generation of fans. Additionally, John Stewart was also featured in the milestone Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover because he just happened to be the Green Lantern at the time of its publication.”

Read more.

Head over to the Notable Creators section to read more about the luminaries who have worked on Green Lantern John Stewart over the years, and be back soon for more content from GreenLantern.Co!

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