DC Comics has released the solicits for their comics line for January, 2015. There are a few big things that will interest fans of Green Lantern John Stewart. First is Green Lantern Corps #38. Check out the cover and sales pitch below.

GREEN LANTERN CORPS #38
Written by VAN JENSEN
Art and cover by BERNARD CHANG
THE FLASH 75 Variant cover by BILL SIENKIEWICZ
On sale JANUARY 14 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
Retailers: This issue will ship with two covers. Please see the order form for details.
The devastated Corps returns to a universe that has grown much different – and much more dangerous – in their absence. John Stewart must lead the weakened Green Lanterns against a truly demonic threat’s expanding its dark reach across the cosmos.

I imagine this is when the Shadow Empire story begins. It sounds like John is the full blown leader of the Green Lantern Corps. That’s great! It was a long time coming.

Fans have been asking for a John Stewart Secret Origins story, and they finally get their wish with Secret Origins #9.

SECRET ORIGINS #9
Written by CHARLES SOULE, PAUL LEVITZ and VAN JENSEN
Art by JAVI PINA, ALISSON BORGES and PAT BRODERICK
Cover by BRYAN HITCH
On sale JANUARY 28 • 48 pg, FC, $4.99 US • RATED T
Swamp Thing is in the spotlight in this new set of origin tales in a story written by Charles Soule with art by Javi Pina. Also in this issue: the origins of Power Girl by Paul Levitz and Alisson Borges, and Green Lantern John Stewart by Van Jensen and Pat Broderick.

This is really great, and everything, but I have a complaint about Swamp Thing being billed over John Stewart. I mean, really, Swamp Thing!? A character starring in a comic selling around cancellation levels? It strikes me as DC Comics not appreciating John Stewart as well as they should, which is a feeling they’ve given me for a long time. John Stewart is their most popular minority character, and one of the few Black characters in current mainstream comics who is the star of his own book, which sells respectably, and without the aid of a superstar creative team. They just do not seem to appreciate what a huge accomplishment the character is. This is why I am excited about the company moving to California where Warner Bros. will be able to exert more direct control over them. I honestly don’t believe WB has anything against the John Stewart character. I believe it is certain people at DC Comics who do.

Anyway, I’m happy to see Pat Broderick make a return to working on John. He was the artist on Green Lantern in the very early ’90s, when the Mosaic arc was first being set up and when readers were introduced to Rose Hardin. That being the case, I hope that period in John’s history is touched upon in this issue. As the solicit says, John’s segment of the issue will be written by Van Jensen, the regular writer on Green Lantern Corps. He certainly knows John’s history.

There are a couple other things I’m hoping for. First is that Jensen removes Hal Jordan from John’s origin, in order to make John a more independent character. The second is that Jensen uses this rare opportunity to make it so the Xanshi incident was not John’s fault. I would like to see it depicted as something that he was not able to prevent. It would really go a long way in repairing the character. I have a lot of faith in Van Jensen. I don’t believe he’ll let us down.

Moving on, John is also on the variant cover for Sinestro #9, which was done by Ethan Van Sciver. He rendered an excellent John Stewart.

That’s it for now. Be back soon for more content!

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Categories: News

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