John and Hal

You knew that somehow, Hal was going to wrangle some time, even in John's very own homage week. But there is no getting around the fact, that no matter how you may feel about him, or who your own personal favorite may be, Hal Jordan does cast a fairly long shadow, and like it or not, the other Earth Lanterns always end up being compared or contrasted to him.

And it's funny, that ALL of the Earth Lanterns have had something of a love/hate relationship with Hal, at least part of the time. Hal and Alan clashed upon occasion, as Alan basically regarded him as a smart-assed whippersnapper. Even Kyle probably got a little tired of hearing about how fabulous Hal was, and he had a LOT to live up to. Guy of course certainly has the whole love/hate thing going on, but his present feelings aside, so did John Stewart.

In the comments to yesturday's blog, Duskdog, Sea of Green and GL2814E all had some very perspicacious comments on John's relationship with Hal, that I'd like to expand upon.

Duskdog said:

"Hal has a bad habit of marginalizing his partners, be they John, or Ollie or Barry, and John seems to be ok with that...John is the perfect partner for Hal right now, which ireally funny considering that they started of on the wrong foot all those years ago."

Boy howdy, did they ever. Hal was certainly not particularly thrilled when John was chosen...chosen personally by the Guardians, by the way...to be a Green Lantern. When John was picked to be his successor, he was even less thrilled...even though quitting the Corps was his own idea. Eventually, they managed to get along, but a lot of that was just teaming up in self-defense against Guy' shenanigans.

Then John married Katma Tui, and Hal and Arisia ended up moving in and mooching off of them, which must have lead to a certain amount of tension, finally capped by the most unfortunate slaughter of Katma by Hal's ex-girlfriend Carol Ferris, who had become Star Sapphire and turned EVILLLLLLL!!! That's the sort of thing that can really put stress on a friendship.

Then came the whole Mosaic thing. The mad Guardian, Appa Ali Apsa, had gone around collecting various bits and pieces of planets throughout the Universe, and assembled them in one place to play with. After his death and defeat, the Guardians decided that they rather liked having them around...rather like a giant ant-farm, I suppose, and put John in charge of watching over them. In the Mosaic series, written by Gerard Jones, which only lasted 18 issues...18 FABULOUS issues, John's character really began to blossam. If you haven't read Mosaic, then you SHOULD! Just ask GL2814E.

Sea of Green also has an excellent point to make:

"...Guy and Kyle would be too busy trying to compete with Hal...but John is the one who really knows how to handle him".

That's for sure. Guy loves Hal like a brother, but he simply cannot resist trying to one-up him. Kyle admires and respects Hal, but he's young and frankly a little cocky himself. John doesn't need to compete, or show off,or bask in the applause. He puts his head down, and he does his job. Efficiently. Competently. Without making a fuss about it. I honestly don't think that Hal can pour himself a glass of milk without making a production out of it, but John just isn't wired that way. He may not experience the highs that Hal does, but on the other hand, he won't experience the lows either, and quite frankly, with this stable of prima donnas, you practically HAVE to have someone without an ego, who can cope with all the histrionics.


That's John Stewart. A breath of fresh air.