the saga of Dead John Stewart

So. It's been quite a day.

Several weeks ago, it was announced that all the current creative teams are leaving as of the #20s in May. Joshua Hale Fialkov was announced to be the new writer for both Green Lantern Corps and Red Lanterns, touting that his two books would relate to eachother much in the same way that Mat Fraction's Fantastic Four and FF do, apparently with Guy Gardner being the connective tissue. Having never read any of Fialkov's work, I was actually pretty interested to see what GLC and RL would be like.

Yesterday, it got out that Fialkov apparently walked off both his books. No details given, beyond the fact that Red Lanterns would now be written by Charles Soule, and GLC would be co-written by Van Jensen & Robert Venditti (also the writer of GL).

This morning, on my way to work, Facebook shows me ample people posting and re-posting and re-re-posting THIS ARTICLE claiming that Fialkov left DC because they not only demanded he change his story last minute, but that he change it to kill off John Stewart.

Around my lunch break, Facebook tapped me on the shoulder again and showed me THIS OTHER ARTICLE where, apparently, DC got SO much bad press/fan reaction from this, piled on top of the fact that the writer chose to flat out leave instead of playing ball, that they decided to scrap the idea.




...now...first things first, I don't like stories that hinge on nameless "inside sources", so take absolutely all of this with a grain of salt. What I think is the interesting thing here are the "why's"....

Why would DC want to suddenly kill John Stewart? Tomasi's GLC run has been the most attention the character's been given in ten years. Was it just his turn to die?

Why would Fialkov walk off because of this editorial decision? John Stewart's one of my favorite characters, but even I wouldn't assume his death would last more than a few years, so killing him (or any superhero, really) isn't that big a deal these days. Is it that after the ORSON SCOTT CARD THING, Fialkov doesn't want to take the chance of being a creator associated with what could potentially be perceived as a racially motivated editorial move?

Why would fandom collectively react so strongly? As I said before, between Green Lantern Rebirth and the beginning of the New 52, John Stewart barely got used at all. My general feel is that his popularity with the masses still rests in JLU nostalgia. Is it just a reflection of SO many people having liked the character on cartoons? Is it that people like the IDEA of John Stewart, even if they don't read his book, and always want him to be there? Is it the general notion that he's a prominent black charcacter with a book NOT in danger of cancelation, that they're just randomly taking away?

You know what I think?

Karma's a bitch, man.

Why John Stewart is important = Denny O'Neil + Neal Adams + One of comics most prominent black characters + Green Lantern/Green Arrow run + JL/JLU series + DC is ACTIVELY trying to diversify their character line up (muslim GL, Gay heroes, etc.) so now they're going to KILL OFF one of their most SUCCESSFUL minority characters?

There's the equation. You may not agree, but it's still true.

gland wrote:Why would Fialkov walk off because of this editorial decision? John Stewart's one of my favorite characters, but even I wouldn't assume his death would last more than a few years, so killing him (or any superhero, really) isn't that big a deal these days. Is it that after the ORSON SCOTT CARD THING, Fialkov doesn't want to take the chance of being a creator associated with what could potentially be perceived as a racially motivated editorial move?

Why would fandom collectively react so strongly? As I said before, between Green Lantern Rebirth and the beginning of the New 52, John Stewart barely got used at all. My general feel is that his popularity with the masses still rests in JLU nostalgia. Is it just a reflection of SO many people having liked the character on cartoons? Is it that people like the IDEA of John Stewart, even if they don't read his book, and always want him to be there? Is it the general notion that he's a prominent black charcacter with a book NOT in danger of cancelation, that they're just randomly taking away?

I think you may have hit the nail on the head with the idea of him leaving rather than kill the most popular black superhero. But, you raise another idea with the Orson reference. Could it be that nowadays, quitting a book gets you more exposure than the actual book? Like think about it. Here's this dude, probably some rising star. He does GLC and Red Lanterns for a while, builds his name, then maybe moves on to something bigger or goes to Marvel. OR, he pulls a stunt like this, his name rockets to the top of every comics news website, now everybody knows who he is, the man who refused to kill John Stewart. He's got a name and a reputation for doing what he thinks is the right thing to do. Now he skips the part where he writes this for a while and moves right on to bigger stuff.

I'm not saying that's definitely what he was thinking, but isn't that kinda what's playing out regardless?

choanata wrote:I'm not saying that's definitely what he was thinking, but isn't that kinda what's playing out regardless?

I think that depends entirely on what he works on next.