Green Lantern's History
John Stewart is one of Earth's Green Lanterns, the leader of the Green Lantern Corps and a member of its Honor Guard. He is noted for being an excellent sniper as well as a skilled architect.
Early life
Born in Detroit, Michigan, most of John's life was marked by poverty and clashes with police. His mother was a community organizer, who tried to make things better, and inspired John to try and make the world a better place. Once he finished high school, John felt it was time to leave home and joined the U.S. Marine Corps. His mother didn't like it, fearing John would be contributing to the American military industrial complex, but John felt it was the only way to pay his way to college and that protest without action is not enough. As a member of the USMC John excelled in full combat training and proved to be an exceptionally talented marksman. He did one tour of duty in the middle east and soon rose to Sergeant, before being deployed to a storm-stricken Gotham City to help evacuate civilian's taking refuge in Seaside Coliseum. The Coliseum's structural supports weren't built to withstand the storm's strong winds and the team found themselves in a tense confrontation with Anarky, who had been stirring up civil unrest among the evacuees. With the brash actions of his commanding officer, Lieutenant Tasker, who was willing to kill American citizens, escalating the the situation, John was forced to break rank and was able to defuse the conflict and swayed the crowd. He eventually took back control from Anarky and managed to save the day by keeping the peace. Tasker confronted John for insubordination, which disillusioned him to the Corps and resulted in a physical altercation. For laying hands on a superior officer John was court-martialed, but due to his heroics at the Coliseum he was given an honorable discharge. Becoming a Lantern
Wanting to build a better world, when John returned stateside he moved to California to study architecture in San Diego. After earning his degree, John was hired right out of school to oversee a project for Ferris Air. However, what he did not know was that since John was very young, the Guardians of the Universe had been keeping an eye him, believing he could be an invaluable member of the corps. They sent a Manhunter to the Ferris Air facility to test his worth. Without hesitation, John sprang into action to fight the Manhunter and his bravery earned him a Green Lantern Ring. He quickly mastered the ring and defeated the Manhunter. John was then brought to Oa, where he met the Guardians face-to-face, who lauded him for his desire for peace and his willingness to fight for it. However, the Guardians feared that if he had cause, he would even challenge the Guardians and the vowed to never reveal to John that they were the ones who sent the Manhunter to Earth.
Alpha War
After Hal's expulsion and Kyle's departure, John Stewart joined Guy Gardner and others in investigating recent attacks in a distant sector of space, which were revealed to be the result of an old Guardian experiment. After being captured, John was forced to kill another Lantern who was about to give in to torture and reveal the access codes to the Oan defense network. John was approached by the Alpha Lantern to arrest him for the murder of a Green Lantern member. He was found guilty of this crime and sentenced to death. However, Guy Gardner and other fellow lanterns freed him before the execution, resulting in the destruction of the Alpha Lanterns when the Green Lanterns refused to allow John to be executed. During the fight, the Alpha Lanterns (revealing to the reader that the Guardians set up these events as part of their plans to destroy the Corps) realized that their power had corrupted into judgment and killed themselves.
Rise of the Third Army
John was contacted by the Guardians who state that Mogo's remains appear to be moving and that they have come to the conclusion that Mogo is trying to reform, and assign him to track it. While tracking the Mogo fragment's destination, he is discovered by Fatality, who is seeking a sundered love danger.
Wrath of the First Lantern
Read Green Lantern: Wrath of the First Lantern for more info
Lights Out
When the being known as Relic arrived on Oa seeking to drain the power batteries, Hal Jordan and other lanterns including John were among the first to respond. However, after continuing the futile effort for a few moments, it was revealed as a ruse for the guardians to take Relic by surprise and attack. However, the plan backfired as Relic simply reflected the power back at his assailants and his robots managed to drain the Oan power core. Knowing that the planet would implode on itself without the power battery keeping it stable, John volunteered to lead the last stand against Relic hoping to buy his friends enough time to leave. He quickly gathered some veteran lanterns and any rookies willing to fight and they attacked Relic. Using the energies of their fellow Green Lanterns to boost themselves, they created battle armor to combat Relic and his robot army. However when the planet was about to explode, one of John's comrades decided to sacrifice himself in order to allow the others to flee, and under John's leadership, they managed to escape the dying planet.
Godhead
John was on the front lines during the Corps' conflict with the New Gods of New Genesis. When Highfather decided that mortals could not wield the power of the emotional spectrum and sent his armies to take one ring from each corps to try and complete the Life Equation. He and his fellow corps members attempted to fight back against the New God armies but were easily trounced in battle as their constructs were shattered by the might of the New Gods.
In an effort to find weapons that could defeat them, John, along with Kilowog and Sinestro went to Qward in order to see if one of the Qwardians could forge them weapons that could defeat the New Gods. After a short skirmish with a Thunderers of Qward, he managed to convince the Thunderer to forge him a blade of White Light that was said to match the weapons of the New Gods. However, when the New Gods caught up with them they were completely trounced and John was forced to reluctantly make use of a Star Sapphire Ring in order to teleport himself and some others out of the area. Thus becoming the first official male Star Sapphire in history.
However, it was not long before he and his fellow Green Lanterns found themselves trapped on New Genesis without their rings. John and his fellows later took part in the final battle on New Genesis and aided Hal Jordan in catching and holding up the flying city.
Lost Army
Following the corps' battle with the New Gods, John and every single corps member other than Hal Jordan were sucked through the source wall to the time before the beginning of the current universe. There John and his fellow Lanterns were attacked by the Light Smiths. Groups of emotion-spectrum wielding warriors who had drained the emotional spectrum's power in their universe, now they battle each other in order to obtain more emotional energy. After their first battle with the Light Smiths, they ran into a young Krona and Relic, a foe they faced a while ago.
DC Rebirth
Following their escape from the end of the last universe, the Green Lantern Corps found themselves stranded in unknown space, with low numbers, and no real knowledge of their current location and the state of intergalactic affairs. With John as their leader the corps began attempting to set up a real base on Mogo and reluctantly John allowed Guy Gardner to go off on a scouting mission alone, knowing he's dumb enough to go against orders regardless. However after around 24 hours with no contact from Gardner, on the urging of Kilowog, John mobilized the corps and they set off from Mogo to find their lost lantern.
Through their search, they came across a caravan of citizens who both explained the current state of the universe (wherein the Sinestro Corps now stand in the Green Lanterns' place) and declared their intention to fight back against the Sinestro Corps' oppression. However, John quickly declared that now that the Corps was back in action, that they could handle this and with that the Lantern's charge off towards the Warworld for battle. However, as they reached the planet and prepared for a battle they realized they were a bit late as they ran right into a group of now friendly Sinestro Corpsman led by Soranik Natu who seemed to have procured Guy Gardner.
With Hal and Kyle Rayner back in the corps and the threat of the Sinestro Corps now non-existent, John sets about consolidating the numbers they do have and returning the Lanterns' to their rightful place as defenders of the galaxy. However, after a dangerous run-in with the mad lantern of the Orange Lantern Corps Arkillo, the two corps decide to unite for the greater good an a Yellow Lantern Power Battery is built next to the Green Lantern Battery on Mogo to show solidarity. However after tension breaks out between the two corps and Guy Gardner of all people is forced to lecture them, John decides that from here on out, to get the two corps acquainted, that each Green Lantern will be paired with a Yellow Lantern in their sector.
The Prism of Time
This fused corps gets it's first taste of action when after two lanterns go missing in a far-off sector the time traveler Rip Hunter appears in the middle of the command center on Mogo from the future. After the initial surprise wears off Rip explains who he is and why he's there, it seems that in the future he and John become good friends and when the corps is beginning to slowly die out, gives him a ring containing a message so he may go back to the past and help prevent it. However, shortly after his arrival another traveler from the future, this one much more sinister, the future sun of Soranik and Kyle Zarko, arrives with an army of crystal creatures.After a short battle, they subdue the entirety of the corps excluding Hal who heads off to the world they seem to be coming from.Though John attempts to muster up a resistance alongside his fellow lanterns, he and the others are quickly incapacitated and Hal takes the future ring in order to find out Zarko's lineage. Eventually, Hal manages to destroy Krona's Power Gauntlet, thus finishing off the crystal army and saving the Corps.
Fracture
Shortly after the corps receives a distress call from the Vault, a neutral constructed bank world in the midst of being raided by space pirates. John mobilizes the Delta shift of the now consolidated corps and sends them out to help.After the raid is swiftly and effectively put down and John silently celebrates about how far his project has come, John and Hal Jordan head to the science cells to interrogate the leader of the raid Admiral Bolphunga. There while attempting to interrogate him he reveals that he will blackmail the corps if John and Hal don't let him go by revealing the fact that a Green Lantern murdered a member of the Sinestro Corps. While Hal doesn't believe it John realizes the importance of the situation and goes to confer with a few others on letting Bolphunga go before his blackmail broadcast goes out that night. Hal and John argue a bit about whether or not to believe the pirate but John states he has come too far for everything he has worked for to fall apart over something like this and he has to investigate the claim. John then sends Guy and Arkillo on a mission to destroy the base of Bolphunga's raiders before the broadcast can be sent.
Doomsday Clock
After Superman is framed and rendered comatose, John Stewart joined the group of heroes heading towards Mars to confront their mysterious enemy. The heroes meet and engage Doctor Manhattan, but they are easily defeated.
