Early years John Stewart is an architect, later "
retconned" into a veteran
U.S. Marine from Detroit, Michigan, who was selected by the
Guardians as a backup Green Lantern to then-current Green Lantern Hal Jordan after the previous backup,
Guy Gardner, was seriously injured after getting hit by a car while trying to save a civilian. Although Jordan objected to the decision after seeing that Stewart had a belligerent attitude to authority figures, the Guardians stood by their decision and chided Jordan for his supposed bigoted outlook on the issue. Jordan explained that he just felt that even though Stewart might have the integrity for the task, he "obviously would have a chip on his shoulder bigger than the
rock of Gibraltar." Jordan's opinion was that Stewart's first mission began badly. His assignment was to protect a racist politician, and Stewart, while averting an accident, took advantage of the situation to embarrass Jordan in the process. When an assassin shoots at the politician, Stewart does not intervene with Jordan in response to the attack, which initially makes Stewart seem suspect. However, it turns out Stewart had good reasons for this apparent dereliction of duty because he was stopping a gunman from killing a
police officer in the outside parking lot at the event while Jordan was pursuing a decoy. When Jordan confronts Stewart about his actions, Stewart explains that the politician had staged the attack for political advantage. Jordan then concludes that Stewart was an excellent recruit and has proven his worth. For some time, Stewart occasionally filled in as
Green Lantern when Jordan was unavailable, including for some missions of the
Justice League. After Jordan gave up being Green Lantern in the 1980s, the Guardians selected Stewart for full-time duty. Stewart filled that role for some years. During that period he worked as an architect at Ferris Aircraft Company, battled many Green Lantern villains, and fought against the
Anti-Monitor's forces during the
Crisis on Infinite Earths. John was trained in usage of his power ring by
Katma Tui, the Green Lantern of the planet
Korugar. The duo went on many adventures together and eventually fell in love. Katma and John went on to serve within the Green Lantern Corps of Earth alongside Hal Jordan,
Arisia Rrab,
Kilowog,
Salaak, and other alien Green Lanterns, during which time they were married. After John's ring was rendered powerless through the schemes of
Sinestro, and Katma Tui was murdered by
Star Sapphire, Stewart's life began to unravel. However, tragedy struck once again and Hal Jordan, possessed by
Parallax, destroyed both the Guardians and the Central Power Battery, robbing John of his newfound powers and his resurrected wife.
Darkstars and beyond Following "
Emerald Twilight" and the collapse of the Green Lantern Corps, Stewart was recruited by the
Controllers to command the
Darkstars, another interstellar peacekeeping force.
New Green Lantern Corps With the return of Hal Jordan and the Guardians, the Corps has been reorganized. Each sector of space now has two Green Lanterns assigned to it, and Stewart and Jordan now share regular duty for Earth's sector, 2814. After the dissolution of the Justice League in the aftermath of the 2004 miniseries
Identity Crisis, and the destruction of their
Watchtower headquarters on the
moon, Stewart has begun playing a larger role in
metahuman affairs, working with many former Justice Leaguers. During the opening
One Year Later storyline of
Green Lantern, Hal Jordan tells
Green Arrow that John Stewart is on an off-world undercover mission. The details John Stewart disguised himself as the bounty hunter "Hunger Dog" to undercover in
Europe. When John hears that Hal Jordan is being held captive by
Amon Sur and Loragg, he goes off to rescue him. This led to a confrontation with Amon Sur, who turns out to be the son of their predecessor,
Abin Sur. During the fight, Amon receives a ring from the
Sinestro Corps and vanishes. In
Justice League of America vol. 2, #7, he and
Wonder Woman designed one of the League's new headquarters,
The Hall. John later resumes his role as the League's resident Green Lantern upon Hal Jordan's request.
Sinestro Corps War In the
Green Lantern: Sinestro Corps Special, the
Green Lantern Corps are attacked by
Bedovian, the sniper of the Sinestro Corps, who is capable of taking out a target from three sectors away, all from the inside of a red Sun-Eater. After Bedovian takes out several Green Lanterns, John Stewart uses his power ring as a scoped sniper rifle to track the nearby sectors. He eventually discovers Bedovian's hiding spot and shoots him. As Green Lantern Corps member were forbidden from killing sentient beings at that time, Bedovian survived the attack, as recently seen in the "
Blackest Night" crossover. John and
Guy Gardner are captured by
Lyssa Drak and taken back to
Qward, where the two Lanterns are held captive. Hal manages to defeat Lyssa and free John and Guy from their nightmares, while the Lost Lanterns recover
Ion. The earth-based Lanterns then return home, only to find that New Earth, as the center of the Multiverse, is the Sinestro Corps' next target. The Sinestro Corps and the
Manhunters invade Earth.
Cyborg Superman and
Superboy-Prime attack Superman, while Hal confronts Parallax, who has possessed Kyle Rayner, just before the latter is about to kill Hal's family. John orders Guy to retrieve a painting by Kyle Rayner's mother. When Parallax absorbs Hal inside himself, John looks on with sudden shock. Guy returns and shoves the painting into Parallax's eyesight, allowing Hal to use it to help Kyle overcome his fears and expel Parallax. Now in its original form, Parallax is then contained by
Ganthet and
Sayd within the Power Batteries of Hal, John, Guy, and Kyle. Ganthet and Sayd then reveal that they are no longer Guardians. Ganthet gives Kyle a new power ring and asks Kyle to become a Green Lantern again, to which he agrees. The four then race off to finish the fight. At Guy Gardner's suggestion, John and the other Lanterns use
Warworld as a gigantic grenade, badly wounding the
Anti-Monitor, who is then thrown into space by Superboy-Prime. John Stewart witnessed Guy being infected by the Sinestro Corps member who is a living virus, named
Despotellis, and asked
Soranik Natu to help Guy. Soranik used the Green Lantern Corps smallpox virus named
Leezle Pon, who stops Despotellis. John Stewart was later approached by the Guardians to become one of the
Alpha Lanterns, a new division of the Corps devoted to the internal affairs of the Corps. Stewart, desiring more information about the secrecy of the Alpha Lantern program, declined the offer, to the extreme disappointment of the Guardians. It has also been revealed that John served in the Marine Corps as a sniper prior to becoming an architect. While the idea of John being a Marine veteran was taken from
Justice League, him being a sniper is a new addition to the character's background. During his time in the Marines, John met a young Hal Jordan when he was in the Air Force before they both join the Green Lantern Corps. During the "Rage of the Red Lanterns" story arc, John Stewart is one of the guards assigned to escort Sinestro to Korugar to face execution. However, the Green Lanterns are ambushed by the Sinestro Corps and then the
Red Lantern Corps under
Atrocitus. The Green Lanterns are left to die in space after Atrocitus captures Sinestro, but they are saved by
Saint Walker. John, however, is infected with the Red Lanterns' rage. Saint Walker conjures up a blue energy construct of Katma Tui, who heals John and calms him by showing him a vision of flying with Katma. John later tells Kilowog that he is going to see Katma again, saying that "the universe said so". In that same issue, Fatality is converted into a
Star Sapphire, and orders her ring to locate John Stewart. When she tracks down John, she tells him she forgives him, and kisses him. Before departing, she encourages John to forgive himself for what happened to Xanshi.
Trinity Stewart appears in the
Trinity series. He is the one to first attack the alien creature Konvikt, but when he's on the verge of defeating him, his concentration suddenly snaps, and starts muttering incoherently in binary code. A moment later, he spontaneously generates complex weapons from his body, by means unrelated to his ring. Later, he attempts to overexert himself to know how he generated those weapons by running a brutal training session against holographic Qwardian Thunderers, which does not work. He later shows
Firestorm the machinery used to monitor the Cosmic Egg imprisoning
Krona, but as he leaves again, he suffers from a relapse and start generating knives from his uniform, and it is revealed the entire system is broken. Later, on board the Antimatter Earth Crime Syndicate satellite, he again loses control and nearly brings down the satellite with his blasts. It is revealed these discharges are brought about due to John's absorption of a Qwardian superweapon, the Void Hound, which has been trying to escape its containment, or at least seize control of Stewart. After the sweeping, devastating effects of the spell engineered by
Morgaine le Fey and
Enigma, he is seen in an Earth under the control of a totalitarian Justice Society, where all Green Lanterns are forbidden to be. He eventually starts breaking down, and with the Void Hound gaining enough hold on him to force him to create a black hole which forces him back to Earth, he has no choice but to comply. The Void Hound is later revealed to be a servant of Krona, and its hold over John is broken when Krona is defeated.
Worlds Collide After a massive battle between the JLA and the
Shadow Cabinet, John chooses to stay with the League despite many of its members choosing to leave. After
Kimiyo Hoshi goes missing while tracking down
Shadow Thief, John blackmails the armored vigilante
Hardware into helping the team track her down. The League arrives in the
Himalayas, discovering Kimiyo and Superman's friend
Icon engaged in a fierce battle with
Starbreaker. The JLA defeats Starbreaker, and John takes a leave of absence to go to Xanshi.
Blackest Night When John visits the grave of planet Xanshi, thousands of
black rings fly into the planetary debris, and reconstitute the entire planet. Xanshi itself then speaks to John, telling him "I can help you save them." Against his better judgment, John descends to the planet's surface. Once reaching the surface, John finds himself confronted by Katma Tui and the entire population of Xanshi as Black Lanterns. While battling them all, Katma tries to weaken John by claiming that he caused the planet's destruction. However, John, spurred on by Fatality's words, says that he was not the cause of it all and successfully fights off the Black Lanterns. After escaping Xanshi's atmosphere, John realises that the planet is headed for Earth, along with every Black Lantern in the universe, and contacts Hal, warning him of the impending threat. Later, John is saved by combined efforts of the various Lanterns corps, who had just arrived to battle the Black Lanterns.
Brightest Day In the events of Brightest Day, John is seen on Oa, supervising the demolition of the buildings left in ruins after the Black Lanterns attack, and planning the reconstruction. Suddenly, he is called to the Guardians' chamber, where they order him to join Alpha Lantern
Boodikka in a mission to Grenda,
Stel's homeworld, where communications ceased abruptly without explanation, and Lantern Stel and the population are missing. John agrees and departs with Boodikka. After arriving on the planet, the two confirmed the Guardians report: the entire population has mysteriously disappeared. John asks Boodikka if something of her older self remains despite being turned into an Alpha Lantern, after she asks him why he refused to join the Alpha Lanterns. Boodikka responds that her changes are only physical, and she still has her former personality; John doubts this affirmation. The two discover what seems to be a Green Lantern House Sector, that, according to Boodikka, is not registered. After entering inside, they discovered Green Lanterns Horoq Nnot and Stel; the last one tells John he must flee from the planet immediately. Suddenly, Boodikka turns against John and attacks him; John fights back, but he's surrounded by more rogue Alpha Lanterns and is defeated. It is revealed that the Alpha Lanterns have begun a revolt against the rest of the Corps, and have allied themselves with the
Cyborg Superman (now with an Alpha Lantern battery), taking control of Grenda to use the planet as their hidden base to turn Green Lanterns into Alpha Lanterns. John Stewart is last seen wounded and bleeding, being taken to Henshaw by Boodikka. Cyborg Superman then begins the cosmetic surgery to turn John into another Alpha Lantern. Before starting the operation, however, Henshaw connects Stewart's brain to his memories to see why he was turned into a cyborg. He also reveals to John, that, after being resurrected by the Manhunters after the Sinestro Corps War, he returned to Earth in the middle of the "Blackest Night", and pleaded to the Black Lanterns (among them are the former crew of his space shuttle) and Nekron to kill him, only to discover that because he did not have a physical heart, he was invisible to them. Angered for being ignored by death itself, the Cyborg Superman encountered the mysterious hooded stranger who abducted the entities of the Emotional Spectrum. He convinced him that Ganthet has the power and knowledge to turn Alpha Lanterns into normal beings again. John realizes that Henshaw organized the revolt of the Alpha Lanterns with the sole purpose to attract Ganthet to the planet Grenda and forced him to turn Henshaw into a mortal being again. Kyle and Soranik burst into the lab and manage to rescue John, but Ganthet is captured. They hide in a cave, where John informs them about the Cyborg Superman's true plan. They also discover the missing robot inhabitants of the planet, trapped in the depths of the cave by Henshaw. Mounting a defense, they battle against Henshaw and his forces, destroying the cyborg's body. Henshaw leaps into Boodikka's body, but her consciousness manages to defeat his, seemingly destroying him. John later joins Kyle Rayner and Ganthet in a mission to the anti-matter universe to save Soranik Natu.
War of the Green Lanterns On their return to the matter universe, John and the others are affected by the return of Parallax to the Central Power Battery by Krona. Their previous experience with Parallax allows John, Kyle and Ganthet to escape its control, but they are forced to fight their fellow Green Lanterns. Affected by Parallax's fear powers, John and Kyle are forced to remove their rings and escape through Oa's underground. They then meet up with Guy and Hal, who has the rings of the other corps' leaders. John initially chooses
Larfleeze's orange ring, but is convinced by Hal to use Indigo-1's ring instead due to the debilitating effects of the orange ring on the wearer's psyche. When the corrupted Green Lanterns attack, John has difficulty channeling the various corps powers through his ring. Things are made worse when
Mogo joins the attack. While Hal and Guy go to remove Parallax from the Central Power Battery, John and Kyle attempt to free Mogo from Krona's control. On the way, John attempts to stop the flow of tainted rings sent by Mogo, but fails. As he and Kyle head for Mogo's core instead, they discover residual Black Lantern energy around it. John absorbs the Black Lantern energy, along with all the Green Lantern energy, and regretfully uses it to destroy Mogo, knowing that they lack the time to heal Mogo before Krona uses it to 'recruit' a wave of reinforcement Green Lanterns. In the fallout, the two regroup with Hal, Guy and Ganthet, using the full power of the emotional spectrum to crack open the Battery and release Parallax. Their job done, the Lanterns regain their original green rings, in preparation for the final confrontation with Krona. Following the War's conclusion, John assists a new Green Lantern from Sector 282 'selected' during the period when Mogo was under Krona's control in adjusting to the power of her ring despite the possibility that she will not be allowed to keep it by assisting her in halting a war taking place in her sector, the original Lantern for that sector having died during the war. When John is able to help the two sides find a peaceful resolution to their conflict, his new student reflects that, despite John's reputation after destroying two worlds, she now knows that nobody could regret that action more than John himself.
The New 52 After Hal's expulsion and Kyle's departure in
The New 52, John joins Guy Gardner and others in investigating recent attacks in a distant sector of space, which are revealed to be the result of an old Guardian experiment. At one point, John is forced to kill Kirrt Kallak, another Lantern who was about to give in to torture and reveal the access codes to the Oan defence network. John is approached by the Alpha Lantern to arrest him for that murder. He is found guilty for this crime and sentenced to death. However,
Guy Gardner and other fellow Lanterns free him before the execution, resulting in the destruction of the Alpha Lanterns when the Green Lanterns refuse to allow John to be executed. During the fights, the Alpha Lanterns (revealing to the reader that the Guardians set up these events as part of their plans to destroy the Corps) realize that all the Alpha Lanterns had become dangerously mentally unstable. Alpha Lantern Varix caused a reaction which killed all the Alpha Lanterns, including himself. During the "Rise of the Third Army" storyline, the Guardians contact John and state that Mogo's remains appear to be moving, The Guardians have come to the conclusion that Mogo is trying to reform and assign John to track it. While tracking the Mogo fragment's destination, he is discovered by Fatality, who is seeking a sundered love in danger. After they find Mogo's pieces – realizing that the endangered love is the male and female elements of Mogo's personality trying to come back together- John figures out that the Guardians want to use Mogo. After the villainous First Lantern is destroyed and the unemotional Guardians are killed off by Sinestro, John begins a relationship with Fatality in-between on Mogo. After the invasion of
Durlans, John discovered that a Durlan impersonated Fatality delectably throughout the months. John defeats the imposter and vows to search for the real Fatality. When John locates and reunites with her on the Durlan prison planet, Fatality attacks him. She revealed to him that the Zamarons had influenced her into becoming a Star Sapphire, forcing her to love him when she actually hated him. After John refuses to fight, Fatality leaves, telling John that he and the Star Sapphires are her enemies leaving John in sorrow.
DC Rebirth Following the events of
Green Lantern: Lost Army and
Green Lantern Corps: Edge of Oblivion leading to
DC Rebirth, John and the rest of the Green Lantern Corps return to their universe and are about to attack Warworld when it is destroyed by Hal Jordan. After meeting up with a previously captured Guy Gardner and newly turned Sinestro Corp leader Soranik Natu and saving the
Xudarian homeworld from a joint invasion from
Brainiac and Larfleeze, the remains of both corps join forces.
Infinite Frontier During an intergalactic summit between the Guardians of the Universe and the
United Planets, the Green Lantern Corps is recalled to Oa. After terrorists disrupt the event, killing one of the Guardians, John Stewart along with one thousand Green Lanterns, is dispatched to investigate the Dark Sectors where he comes into conflict with the apocalyptic schemes of the New God, Esak.
Dawn of DC When the United Planets take control of the Green Lantern Corps and quarantine Sector 2814, reassigning all of its Lanterns to elsewhere in the galaxy, John retires and chooses to remain on Earth with his mother, who is suffering from dementia. To protect her from grief, he creates a hard light construct of his deceased younger sister Ellie. When John is attacked and infected by the Radiant Dead, a necropathic group of corrupted Lanterns and constructs serving the Revenant Queen, he is forced to leave Earth to cure himself and stop the zombie-like horde from destroying the galaxy, teaming up with Caolán Shepherd, a Green Lantern from an alternate universe. John would later take on a starring role in Jeremy Adams' and Morgan Hampton's run on
Green Lantern Corps (2025-present). In this run, John was notably reunited with his once long-deceased wife Katma Tui, with a version of Katma from Hypertime returning to the main DC Universe alive . In Geoffrey Thorne's mini-series, John had previously been split into two versions of himself, with one returning to the Green Lantern Corps and the other going off into the Dark Sectors to look for Katma. During Hampton's run, the John that had returned to the Green Lanterns died after sacrificing re-power the Source Battery on Oa, with his ring finding the other John having successfully found and living with Katma Tui. ==Powers and abilities==