I still say that Guardian was right about Hal.

The Green Lantern movie has stirred up a number of old issues in the fandom. I've been avoiding these, of course, but even I have run across the disdain for John Stewart shown by those who can't be bothered to pick up anything prior to Rebirth. (Philistines!)

This naturally has put me back in a defensive mode for my darling John, and had me rereading old books to put together a recommendation list. As I believe a strong first appearance is the foundation of any decent character, the first place I went to was "Beware My Power", the backup story in Green Lantern #87 that introduced John. (It's reprinted in the second Green Lantern/Green Arrow trade and has the distinct honor of being one of the few collected in Green Lantern: The Greatest Stories Ever Told that deserves the title.)

And that's where I got myself into trouble, because I found myself staring at that first page with John again.

Longtime readers will recall my extraordinary affection for this first page John appears on. It's a masterful set up of the character traits that will put Hal and John at odds in this story.

The first page of John actually establishes quite a bit about his character and the upcoming conflict with Hal. John first shows up confronting a possibly crooked cop. The cop's harassing a couple of domino players on the sidewalk, and John actually walks up behind the police officer, touches his shoulder, and tells him they aren't really bothering anyone. The cop threatens him with the nightstick, and John holds his ground.

On the rooftop above, Hal and a Guardian watch. John is being hand-picked by the Guardians as Hal's new backup now that Guy is on the injured list. Hal argues with the Guardian that John shouldn't be trusted with a power ring.

About four or five years ago I became obsessed with this page and started blogging it panel by panel. And I don't mean I posted a panel with a sentence or two. I mean I posted a panel with five to twelve paragraphs of text commenting on the symbolism in the panel. I was saved by the very last panel on the page.

It's a very simple panel, and follows the Guardian chastising Hal for racism. Once again, I remind you that the Guardians of Oa are telepathic, so there's some basis for this accusation. I added back then that Hal's defensiveness supported that.



Hal continues to question the Guardian's wisdom by pointing out that John questioning the policeman's wisdom means he has a chip on his shoulder.

Let me rephrase that again for emphasis, he's being insubordinate to an authority figure on the rooftop, and is justifying his insubordination by saying that John is being insubordinate to an authority figure on the street below. That's... that takes a special kind of denial.

Anyway, in addition to a sudden desire to actually finish out the page on this feature, I just wanted to point out the angle of Hal's head. His head is bowed so much at the moment that he's reaching into the next panel. He was leaning back before. The Guardian hit a nerve, and Hal realizes his own hypocrisy as he's stating it.

So he's bowing his head and acquiescing to the Guardian's wishes even as he voices his final concerns. Look at his eyes and his posture. He's wincing. He knows he doesn't have a leg to stand on, that in fact a guy who'd back off from a bullying policeman wouldn't be qualified at all. He knows that he'd probably butt in too, and that his friend Ollie would butt in and shake his finger in the cop's face while calling him a Nazi. (To be fair, I sure as hell wouldn't give Ollie a power ring but Hal should have a bit of perspective on John after dealing with the blonde idiot for so many issues.)

Not only that, my old commenter Steven points out that he's shaded in yellow by some odd chance. He goes on to make a yellow space-bug joke, but he's right that it "literally puts Hal's disingenuous response in an off-putting light." Likelier than not that's a coloring mistake, but it's a pretty cool one and supports the effect of the panel.

I love Hal, and I especially love him in the O'Neil run where he's a flawed human being learning to open his mind to the rest of humanity for the first time. Part of this story is about Hal overcoming prejudice, and it's right there in those last two panels on that page.

This Could Get Ugly

A recent disagreement has inspired me to resurrect an old feature.



Yes, there's analysis...Hal Jordan, love of my life (next to John Stewart, Sherlock Holmes, Sir Gawain and the guy who drew this panel), has been watching the commotion recorded here, here, here, and here. He's been watching from a bove.

Now that the situation's been resolved, Hal turns to his companion, the icy and removed Guardian, and complains. Look at the wording.

"That's the man you want to trust with a power ring -- the finest weapon every devised?"
"He has all due qualifications! And we are not interested in your petty bigotries!"

l've gotten some flak for describing Hal as racist, but my accusations are not unfounded.

Hal's definitely an elitist. In the whole series, he's put up as the conservative, the one who supports the establishment while Green Arrow wants to shake things up. It makes sense. Green Arrow's a self-made hero, Hal's a chosen hero. Everything about Hal is elitist. He was a test pilot, known for being the best. His girlfriend was none other than his boss (his former boss's daughter), the highest profile woman in the company. Green Lanterns are specifically picked for their job based on personal qualities. Picked by being the bravest and the most honest available.

The wording in this dialogue catches me. "The finest weapon" like "The finest wines," "The finest silks," "the finest homes" etc...

It's obvious he doesn't think John's good enough for the job.

It's not John's attitude, or he would have worded his objection differently. He wouldn't have added "finest weapon ever devised." He would have, if worried about misuse, said "most powerful" or "most versatile." But he said finest, emphasizing his elitism.

The art supports this. Hal's watching from above, a rooftop. He's perched in such a way that he's removed form the situation, but not from the reality. He's watching it, how it doesn't affect him. Nothing in the situation on John inside is anything he understands. Nor does he understand the "good cop" in this mess. He just sees the authority figure he's going to have to be, and placing himself in that figure's place. Nevermind that that figure was in the wrong, behaving in a clearly unjust way Hal wouldn't. Most likely in the situation below, we'd have seen Hal step in and tell the cop he was overstepping his bounds. But Hal's not putting himself in John's shoes, he wouldn't think to. He's first and foremost putting himself in the "bad cop's" shoes because that's the person in the situation he identifies with.

Since this is 1972 Green Lantern/Green Arrow, written by Denny O'Neill, drawn by Neal Adams, we know for a fact we're in for a social commentary, and in this panel it's obvious. Hal's allegorical, he's the power structure in society. John's the normal one. He's the everyday citizen. Hal's white, John's black. Hal standing so far above John, passing judgement from the viewpoint of the authority figure, shows the racial divide between blacks and whites. It's the Seventies. Hal, the white elitist is appealing to the Guardian, the highest authority, to keep John, the black achiever, out of his restricted, elitist club. And the Guardian says "No. He's qualified. Deal with it."

And once again, before you come after me for reading too much politics into it, I remind you, this is 1972 Green Lantern/Green Arrow. They did it on purpose.

This panel also convinces me that I'm not imagining the yellow thing. There it is again, John Stewart surrounded by yellow. Only, instead of encompassing the background, the sidewalk (previously brown) is yellow. Hal's weakness, yellow. A barrier between the two characters. A color associated with fear, anticipating difficulties when it comes time to train?

John has all the qualifications. Hell, he's arguably the only Lantern who was hand-picked by a Guardian (Guy was chosen when Hal was, and activated during ColE by the Guardians, and Kyle, if not actually random, was one of a limited set of choices for Ganthet). He's one of the elite choices that belong in Hal's club. Hal should accept him unquestioningly like he accepted Katma and Guy (this was prior to Guy's brain damage), but Hal disagrees.

Most of the colors in this panel -- reds, yellows, greens, browns -- are earth tones. Except for the Guardian, white and bright blue. The Guardian has the true bird's eye view of the situation, he has the real objectivity here. He's not a part of the scene, he's observing it. He doesn't even touch the ground.

It's notable that a Guardian is a high-level telepath, and Hal is an open book to him. (You could argue there's no indication of telepathy made, but seriously, when have the Guardians telegraphed when they were mindreading before? It's always been automatic insights, never untrue) When he says "petty bigotries" he's not making it up. He's throwing something in Hal's face that Hal's trying to bury. There are other possible reasons Hal could have for disagreeing with the choice, but the Guardian immediately puts it off as petty bigotry.

I suppose so, since in the next panel (which overlaps this one slightly, note the few locks of hair on the side) Hal cites John's "chip on his shoulder the size of the rock of Gibraltar" as the reason he was giving the Guardian such an attitude about his personal choice. Yes, Hal was defending his own insubordination of saying John was not fit for the Corps by saying John was insubordinate and therefore not fit for the Corps.

Please direct your "Green Lantern was not a racist comments" below.

Exit Page Left

(Because I haven't done a Neal Adams panel for a while now...)



Click to Read (Yes, it's that long)

I've been looking at this one for a while now. Initially, I noticed one thing. That Fred's partner, the Good Cop, is pulling Fred back to the spot underneath the halo.

There's also something suggestive about Fred's posture. The profile and the way his neck and head are situated as he says "They got no respect!" reminds me of the sort of villain that Green Arrow is constantly complaining about. The man who doesn't care about anyone but himself and who will step on the backs of the poor and the oppressed to climb into the next higher tax bracket. This guy shows up in nearly every storyline in the ONeil/Adams run. He's usually highly placed in some organization, with lots of underlings he can abuse. Usually, he's brought down because he arrogantly thinks he can manipulate, intimidate or overpower one of the heroes. He comes back within a storyline or two. Different name, slightly changed appearance, but his attitude and posture remain the same. This cop isn't him, but this cop is obviously training to be him unless his partner can keep him reigned in.

(I suspect, however, that he grew a moustache, let his hair go gray and showed up in Nextwave #3 this week, so his partner obviously couldn't handle him)

His partner's face is still shadowed, like it was in the first panel. Fred gets a name, but he doesn't. There are some good reasons to keep him anonymous, actually. Even if John did manage to beat the living daylights, unarmed, out of the armed cop (given that John is the Hero in the story, I wouldn't count this option out) he was still in for a boatload of trouble for it. That was the way of the day. The Good Cop helps him out of it (even though he was unwilling to intervene at the first injustice, when the threat of actual physical violence is present he has enough decency to step in). Keeping him anonymous lets John and the reader know not to expect a "return favor" claim on this act. I heard an adage once that the only true form of charity was done in secret, because that way there was no possible gain. This guy won't even claim a look or word of gratitude.

Two faceless, nameless policemen are symbolic of the police in any given Fictionopolis. In Gotham or Bludhaven, when you come across an unnamed cop (usually with a generic face), they tend to be a bad guy. The majority of cops in those two cities are corrupt. In Keystone, Metropolis, or Opal, an unnamed cop is there to help. By naming Fred and showing his face, he's singled out an individual. He no longer represents the police force in general. This lets you know that in John's hometown, despite the visible poverty, corruption on the police force is not overwhelming. By leaving the Good Cop anonymous, to the point where his face is even shadowed, he can represent every cop in the city. His actions here indicate that the majority of the cops are not guiltless -- they stand by in the face of many injustices -- but they still have it in them to stop a violent threat to the citizenry.

By obscuring the face and omitting the name of the cop, it also encourages reader identification with him. This is common in French Arthurian Romances, there are a number of female characters introduced to help the knight, btu they are never named. They did this because the majority of courtiers who read those romances were female, and a nameless hero's helper allowed them to project themselves into the story.

The last reason (and most likely) I can see to keep the Good Cop's face shrouded is to keep the overall focus on John. At this point in time, it was actually more likely that the Good Cop would end up being the hero than John. Not even showing us the guy's face keeps him in obscurity. There's no threat he'll be a major character or even return. He's a background character, through and through.

He takes the foreground here, though. He's leaning forward, expressing concern and interest. Like the madonna overlooking them in the mural, he's looking after his partner here. He's gently shepherding him out of a situation that will be bad for all involved.

Adams uses the normal artist technique of less detailed, less focused background so that the attention in the individual panel remains on the action. It saves him work, and it keeps the reader from getting lost in the details. As he does this, he manages to continue his characterization of John.

John stands steady, completely ready to defend himself. The lines on his face and arms take on a stony quality. You can tell this man is determined, firmly devoted to his ideals, and willing to stand up for himself. He's a very earthy, very steadfast, very solid person. John's special strength is just that, strength. Steady as a rock.

He's even positioned so that he's overlooking Fred. He's in the right, and winning.

Something about then character positioning and posture in this panel gives the impression of a moving foreground and still background. Part of it is John in relation to the cops. He's towering over them, more so than in the previous panels. It makes me think sidewalk is a downward slope in relation to where I'm standing, and that the cops are traveling down it. The lack of focus that gives John and the domino player such statue-like features helps by conveys stillness, compared to the policemen who are moving.

And how they are moving! To the left of the reader in a story that reads left to right. Fred backs reluctantly out of the panel. His partner is aggressively driving him back to the earlier pages. You can tell they won't be back, because they're not moving forward with the reader. This panel is in the bottom left of the page, there's nowhere else to follow them.

Yes, I do realize how silly that sounds, but it's an effective device. The reader gets the impression that following the cops would mean going back to the beginning of the story. John is the right-most character, the closest to the next sequential panel. He's the one to follow.

Professional Help May Be in Order...

Chris challenged me earlier tonight when he told me about my last post.

"If you keep this up," he remarked, "you'll have that entire John Stewart story up on your blog with a seven hundred word interpretation of each panel."

"I could easily do that," I answered, "but I'm not really so bad. For example, I can post the third panel tonight with just the sentence 'Never, ever say this to a cop.'"

And I fully intended to do exactly that.

Until I pulled the panel up and saw it separated from the rest of the story.



Then I noticed the threatening posture of the cop, and the size-proximity trick Adams does here, and the shadow falling on John's face. All tricks to make John seem more vulnerable in this situation, and emphasize his courage. There's also some trick with the emotions going on here. The background is suddenly stark white with blue word balloons. Having the word balloons darker than the picture here adds extra emphasize to the word. Tension is building, emotions are running high.

With all those beautiful techniques, who could simply go for the cop joke? I used to just go by the general feeling of an artist. I liked a certain soft cheesecake style, and took little interest outside of it. I grew to appreciate the non-traditional types, because a talent for fluid motion would catch my eyes, or an expressiveness in the characters. Now I'm becoming obsessed for the first time with artistic symbolism. I love it. So much can be conveyed with a few small shortcuts. It's amazing, and, like the writers, I'm not sure the artists realize they are doing this.

I think I may be infatuated with this penciller. I can't stop thinking his panels. His gorgeous, shadowy, symbolic panels. Fortunately for me, I have no address for my embarrassing love letters, so I'll be spared the same humiliation I felt when I realized how much time I'd wasted writing to that kid on Seaquest in elementary school.

Unfortunately for you, dear readers, it means I'll be using this blog as an outlet for my insane ramblings about this story until I find something else to distract me.

If I don't see this distraction today, I'd like to apologize in advance. This could get a lot worse before it gets better.

Our First Look at John Stewart

I wasn't going to keep doing this, but the yellow background is nagging at me. Anywhere else, I'd accept that it's a random color. But this is a panel found in Green Lantern. For 30 years, this was the sole weakness of Green Lantern. Their powers were unable to affect anything yellow (Please note the date on that linked post). Yellow is not cavalierly thrown around in this franchise. It's usually there as a means of hurting the main character. It's been there as a mistake, which made Superfriends interesting ("Everytime Green Lantern's ring affects yellow, take a shot").

Sometimes, though, its symbolic. It's the color of the ground on an alien planet, the background of choice for a villain, or the color of an ex-girlfriend's scarf. It can be representative of limitations, weaknesses, vulnerabilities, restrictions, or fears.




This is the first time we get to see John. He is about to be inducted into the Green Lantern Corps, and he is surrounded by yellow. I'm not sure what to make of it. I find it hard to believe that, for a new Lantern's first appearance, they would just arbitrarily pick a "Yellow Background."

There's other subtleties here.

This is the second panel of the page. Right away, any comic book reader knows to chuck the standard superhero image out the door in this setup. The standard would have shown up in the first panel, because why create even minor suspense for what's expected anyway? For a huge surprise, someone we've seen before and have reason not to expect, it's traditional to make the reader turn the page. Here, it's just a panel. O'Neil held off just long enough so that we'd pause and think about what we read and saw before we actually see the new guy. This is a new personed, but this will not be someone like Hal. Most likely, judging by the language of the first panel, this will be someone at odds with Hal.

I think the intended effect of that pause is lost on today's readers. We don't really have a good representation of the American population in regular DC comics yet, but it's a lot better than back then. At this point in time, 1972, it was probably unheard of to bring in a different race as a replacement. So, even with the previous panel, a reader was probably expecting a white man, even with second panel introduction. Probably an activist who'd be at odds with Green Lantern like Green Arrow was, but still with a certain look.

There's not much extra in the panel, they didn't want us to get distracted from John himself. We do learn a lot about him in the first glimpse. Nevertheless, we can learn quit a bit about the man here.

We learn he's a sarcastic smartass who doesn't automatically grant his respect to a scary uniform by his words alone. His sneer and the tilt of his head add a condescending dismissal to this.

We learn he's dumb enough to approach an armed policeman from behind, and touch his shoulder. You don't do that, even joking, without immediately hitting the pavement. (This was just a particularly crummy cop all-around)

He's man enough to wear pink.

He's got a sense of fairness, justice and the courage to step in when he sees an authority figure abusing their authority (again, refer back to the first panel, the sidewalk is not being blocked). Even when he is in all likelihood about to get in severe trouble for it. I can see how Katma Tui, a native of Korugar from when it was under Sinestro's Totalitarian Regime, would be so much more attacted to John than Hal. Hal's a "work with the system" type, his courage is physical. John's social courage is so much more impressive to a woman of Kat's background.

Yet, the yellow background still eludes me. Does it mean that he's leaving restrictions and limitations behind him now? Or does it represent a certain fear that accompanies his actions? He's doing a very brave, but very stupid thing here when he comes up behind a cop who's abusing his authority. Does the yellow in the background subtly tell us that John recognizes his actions, knows the consequences, and is leaving his fears behind him?

It could simply be foreshadowing the rocky start to his relationship with Hal. They start off fine as trainer and trainee, but there's a barrier created by unspoken feelings. The obvious cause for the barrier (particularly in this run of Green Lantern) is prejudice. I picked up this story expecting an After School Special about racism. But that level of characterization is actually quite subtle. It exists, and surfaces, but there is a much more overt character conflict that causes the barrier. Hal and John have separate values. Hal's worship of Authority is well-established by this point in O'Neil's run. John's attitude towards authority is immediately established in this panel. Hal is placed in authority over John as his trainer, and Hal is witnessing this scene as his first impression of John. Ther judgement is there on both appearance and character. The racial prejudice is a much more obvious problem. It's something both men want to avoid, they don't want to confront this attitude. As a result, the major disagreement, the dissenting values, goes unexplored and unresolved. This creates an undercurrent of tension between the two that lasts much of the John's initial training, until the plot of the story interferes and forces both conflicts to the surface.

Because most of the barrier on Hal's side is caused by this first impression, it's very sensible to introduce John surrounded by a color that presents a barrier to Hal's powers.

Stewart's First Words

I got my hands on the first John Stewart story -- Green Lantern #87 (Volume 2). To be honest I was expecting to hate it, but I wanted too badly to see John's creation. I think my low expectations may have been because of Winick's heavy-handed run on Green Lantern, but that's enough material for a whole other post.

Instead, I'm going to show first panel of the first page that featured John, and share two thoughts about it.



Notice the word Guardians is in strong text. Hal and Guy were both chosen by a desperate dying Green Lantern. So was Sinestro. John is the first character personally selected by the Guardians. The intention may have been to show that this was standard practice, but it's the first time we've seen it. I think this was a subtle characterization fo Hal. O'Neil essentially said that Hal would never have picked Hohn, even if the ring outright told him that john was the best choice. The higher-ups had to specifically step in and tell him "You will train this man."

I like how Adams subtly characterizes the "Good Cop" in this panel. He positions him directly beneath the halo. He's standing up straight, standing back from the wrong that's occuring and holding a book that resembles a Bible. Meanwhile, the "Bad Cop"stands on a darkened doorstop and shakes his weapon threateningly. These characters only appear for half a page, but he sets up the basic personalities very clearly.

Finally, I may be stretching a bit here, but it's funny that John's first words in print are "Good Advice." This is pretty much the role John plays as a Lantern now. He gives good advice. He was basically a mentor and advisor during Kyle's tenure. Now that he's back to active duty, John still only appears in the advisor role. He relays information from other heroes and spouts exposition to Hal, who then goes and deals with the action.

Hell, even in Mosaic John's personal story, John was there in an advisory capacity. He was there to try and get everyone to learn to communicate and live together, and keep problems under wraps -- but all John could really do was advise. The communication and learning of the Mosaic was in the hands of the residents. This may be because, from the very start, John tends to be portrayed as more intelligent, stable and thoughtful than the characters around him. He's generally not the person in need of advice, so writers use him to give it to the other characters. This probably contributes to his being shoved into the background.