was johns part in the jl and jlu animated series good for him?/for gl comics?

[TEN_RINGS]

I was thinking about this since obviously it helped Johns character out alot...very few mainstream people even knew about john before the jl animated series...the series put him to the forfront of mainstream gls....hal was evil or dead at this time ,and they even bypassed the then current gl kyle rayner in favor of having a minority as the green lantern. guy was warrior......so it was a very good thing for john.......but was it good for the green lantern franchise? that is my true question.

[irongreen2814]

I think it made the perception tha Green Lantern was only Black, and that others were not the real Green Lantern

[Dr. Naysay]

I think it helped his EXPOSURE... but I think it did harm to him as a character.

I don't think it's too outrageous a claim to say that he was included over Kyle or Hal in order to balance out the "diversity"... just like Hawkgirl was added over someone like Aquaman or Green Arrow.

Honestly... before that cartoon... who gave a shit about Hawkgirl? And that stupid Mace? What the fuck is it made out of? Kick-Ass-amantium? Fucking lame.

Anyway...

Putting John in that cartoon meant, according to the Transitive Property of DC Media, that he would have to start showing up in the comics.

But not as a character with any kind of interesting or controversial history... like being AFRICAN AMERICAN or having been a DEMI-GOD of sorts... but the dumbed down, multicultural pablum version from the cartoon.

Which made him boring. Completely and utterly boring.

[Showens]

I think it was good for the character as well as the title, Although I think it has caused quite a bit of confusion for casual fans, since now you'll see a lot of people complaining that the movie Green Lantern isn't black....

[Shingo Wol]

Originally Posted by Showens

I think it was good for the character as well as the title, Although I think it has caused quite a bit of confusion for casual fans, since now you'll see a lot of people complaining that the movie Green Lantern isn't black....

So True.

[W.West]

I think it was great for the popularity of GL overall, and his character. But for anything regarding the comics, it probably hurt it since DC has had nothing to take advantage of this surge of popularity outside of JohnnyDC titles. If DC put out a miniseries during that time, it would have sold whether the quality was there or not. Now, not so much.

[Mosaic]

Originally Posted by Showens

I think it was good for the character as well as the title, Although I think it has caused quite a bit of confusion for casual fans, since now you'll see a lot of people complaining that the movie Green Lantern isn't black....

I second that.

[TazzMission]

at first i thought gl was just a black hero but after knowing stewart is what the 3rd gl? i fell in love with the gl franchise no matter who wore the ring. i think if dc really wants to expose gl in a great way id love to see a gl animated series starting from alan scott and ending at guy gardner. that way people see the history of whos who and shit

[unclegnewman]

I think it was good exposure for GL in general but it did harm to the John Stewart character. Prior to the cartoon, John was portrayed as an intelligent man who struggled to deal with the racial sterotypes he felt from both the white and black community. He did not conform to either groups expectations of who he should be.

Englehart portrayed him with a streak of "anti-establisshment", which made the later retcon of him joining the armed services seem a bit out of character. Jones added to that by portraying him a highly cultured guy whose interests varied outside of conventional sterotypes. During Kyle's run he was often seen as being wise, funny, and level headed.

IMO the cartoon pigeon-holed him into a typical Shaft or Luke Cage wannabe; all tough guy and attitude with much less depth then we've seen in the past. Johns has basically run with this personality.

[Dave Cormier]

It was great for the character at the time. I loved the animatedshow, and the guy that voiced him (wasn't he the guy from In Living Color?) had a great voice for the role. They got the diversity they wanted, and the show worked.

For comics I think it wasn't so good because DC basically showhorned John into the JLA and didn't really make the most of him. Kind of a half hearted attempt. And who can blame them? They were about to relaunch the GL franchise with it's most associated character back at the helm. Why put that at risk?

I don't think you'll see any other GL than Hal as the focus in movies or cartoons for a few years now (Guy's appearance in B+B aside).

[ion.nai]

Originally Posted by Dr. Naysay

I think it helped his EXPOSURE... but I think it did harm to him as a character.

I don't think it's too outrageous a claim to say that he was included over Kyle or Hal in order to balance out the "diversity"... just like Hawkgirl was added over someone like Aquaman or Green Arrow.

Honestly... before that cartoon... who gave a shit about Hawkgirl? And that stupid Mace? What the fuck is it made out of? Kick-Ass-amantium? Fucking lame.

Anyway...

Putting John in that cartoon meant, according to the Transitive Property of DC Media, that he would have to start showing up in the comics.

But not as a character with any kind of interesting or controversial history... like being AFRICAN AMERICAN or having been a DEMI-GOD of sorts... but the dumbed down, multicultural pablum version from the cartoon.

Which made him boring. Completely and utterly boring.

Doc is right.
His character was included in the cartoon for a reason. And while he was enjoyable on the show I would have much rather had Hal or Kyle.

John was kinda just the token black dude who had a crush on Hawkgirl.

[Gray Lantern]

Originally Posted by ion.nai

Doc is right.
His character was included in the cartoon for a reason. And while he was enjoyable on the show I would have much rather had Hal or Kyle.

John was kinda just the token black dude who had a crush on Hawkgirl.

A couple of the early episodes, he acted like the token black dude. But they boosted his character up a lot. More episodes were devoted to his character than any other on the course of the two shows.

John was a breakout hit for the show. As for the question at hand, I think he did a lot to boost GL among non-comic book people. However, since the John of the comics is very different than the John of JL/JLU, I would say it was overall bad for his character in the comics.

[SmurfLantern]

I think any exposure in the mainstream media is a very positive thing. John was included for obvious demographic reasons in which I didn't necessarily agree with.To me JLU is beyond race and color and I think it caused more confusion than anything else. Johns character is still virtually unexploited in the comic book media and DC still has no idea on where they want to take the character. Green Lantern could have been handled better on the show as well. They could have used every single earth Lantern easily and avoided confusing those who were not familiar with the Green Lantern mythology. They would have avoided alienating the true fans as well.

[TEN_RINGS]

Originally Posted by SmurfLantern

I think any exposure in the mainstream media is a very positive thing. John was included for obvious demographic reasons in which I didn't necessarily agree with.To me JLU is beyond race and color and I think it caused more confusion than anything else. Johns character is still virtually unexploited in the comic book media and DC still has no idea on where they want to take the character. Green Lantern could have been handled better on the show as well. They could have used every single earth Lantern easily and avoided confusing those who were not familiar with the Green Lantern mythology. They would have avoided alienating the true fans as well.

I have to almost completely agree with your assessment,they did cause great confusion and failed to utilize some great characters as well as get some momentum for the character who was the one and only GL at the time so IMO it was a foolish move in the long run,even if HAL was still out of the picture.

[sylent_asassin]

Any exposure for GL's in general is a good thing... and I'm sick of hearing about John's nationality. Anyone that religiously followed the show would know that there's a diverse Corps and ALL GL's aren't Black. John is just one of many GL's as is Kilowog, Katma and Galius.

The only thing about John in the JLU that made me scratch my head was the relationship with Hawkgirl that never really went anywhere. I've always wanted to ask Geoff Johns, "WTF were you thinking, man?!?" That relationship didn't even exist in the books... and they even had a child together!

[Gene2814]

John is my favorite GL but to be honest i felt that Kyle should have have been on the show. He was the GL out at that time and John's appearance confused me. Kyle had Abin's ring so that made him the GL of 2814 so where did John's ring come from. He also admits to Static that he was crucial in taking down Sinestro. So while Sinestro is on earth running amoc where was John. I did like that they gave him a military back ground but he also seemed to bossy and some times negative on the show. Which he has never been before. As far as the comics it seems to me it would have been better to leave Kyle on earth with Hal as his partner since those two seem to be the most recognizable characters of the 4 with the whole debate of old school vs new school kinda like who was better Kirk or Picard. Also I think John with Guy would make for a great odd couple scene lol. Plus OA was once John's assignment and he was also the first and only mortal Guardian so that would have been a great plot twist too seeing him interact with the Guardians more with that always being in the back of his head

[Toriach]

Personally I think that anything that grew awareness of not merely GL but the concept of The Corps is a good thing, and I have to wonder how much of a part JL played in helping to popularize the idea that Green Lantern is a cosmic police force rather than one dude with a ring.

As to the "Casual Fan Confusion" meme, I personally don't buy it. I think there are essentially two types of extra sequential arts fans out there. Those who don't give two shits about continuity outside of what they are being presented with, and those who do. Those who don't will be more concerned that Green Lantern movie one, has continuity that matches with Green Lantern movie two etc. Most people who are not already into GL even if they've seen First Flight will view them as separate because of the difference in medium. Plus thanks to JL and FF the seed has been planted about the Corps etc, so people are used to the idea of more than one person with a GL ring. Now if a new Superman movie were to get filmed with Harry Johnston being the secret ID of Superman there'd be problems for both the casual viewer and the fans. Not such a big problem with GL. Plus let's not forget the power of Teh Intertubes! Now people who have questions will usually go online to get their answers. In fact when the movie comes out I hope the owners of this fine place have their servers backed up because I expect to see traffic explode like a twenty guy money shot.

[avakage]

I think it was great for him as well as the corps. Not only did it give John some publicity ,but it put him in the forefront as a potential leader of mainstream green lanterns. On episodes 4&5 of Justice league season 1, when john was taken to prison the show featured other green lanterns such as kilowog, argus, and galius so on numerous occasions more lanterns than just john were featured. Also on Justice League Unlimited when professor ivo's robot came back to kill lex luthor, almost 15 Green lanterns including catma, kilowog, john, and galius, came to take him out. Plus on another occasion the guardians rejected Johns plead to switch with Kyle rayner to return to Oa. In reality i believe the JL & JLU was the perfect fit for John b/c I was previously used to seeing Hal Jordan b/c he was on the Super Friends and I didn't really know John existed.