Warning: Spoilers for Green Lantern: War Journal #5!A fan-favorite Green Lantern just reached god status in the darkest way possible. John Stewart’s motto, “A Green Lantern can do anything,” has always been a term of endearment, existing to uplift anyone who hears it. However, John’s latest development put a far more ominous, haunting spin on the phrase.
With a twist on the phrase comes a darker twist on godhood in Green Lantern: War Journal #5 by Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Montos, Adriano Lucas, Christopher Sotomayor, and Dave Sharpe. John has pulled off specific feats throughout the series that show just how a Green Lantern can truly do anything. But the bigger question is: should they be able to do anything?
This time, John perfects previous constructs of his dead sister in a way that makes the construct actually sentient. The fact that John is shown to do such a thing could be the beginning of a dark turn.
Green Lantern Can Create Sentient Constructs Now
Since the start of the series, John Stewart has been caring for his senile mother. Due to dementia, she forgets that John’s little sister died decades ago, even waiting hours into the night for the girl to come home. Rather than remind his mother of painful memories, John satisfies her for a moment by using his ring to cast a construct of Ellie. This version of Ellie is an imperfect hologram as it clearly sprouts a green overcast. But perhaps due to her memory problems, or just because it makes her happy, John’s mother doesn’t notice or care.
As John prepares to head off to stop the Radiant Dead, he learns that his mother has awoken after sustaining injuries in issue #2. She’s starting to hallucinate, thinking she’s talking to John when he’s not there, his father, and Ellie. When John goes to visit her, rather than face how delicate this situation is, he keeps saying the same phrase over and over again to himself: “A Green Lantern can do anything.” While he does this, he repeatedly slams his fist into the ground to create a perfect construct of his dead sister. Gone is the green aura, and now the hyperrealistic portrait has her own thoughts and memories.
John Risks Going Where No Green Lantern Has Gone Before, Or Should
To quote the hook of a famous song, “No one man should have all that power.” It’s clear that John’s intentions are good, but readers have seen too many stories of what happens to good men with too much power. What’s all the more concerning is how he uses his classic phrase as a crux, or better yet, a justification for using his ring in questionable ways. It’s very easy for superheroes to develop god complexes, and John Stewart is no exception. If a Green Lantern is capable of doing this, then where will John draw the line, if he can?
