Green Lantern John Stewart has an epic new role to play in the cosmos, as hinted at in recent developments in Green Lantern #8.
A preview for the issue shows the New Genesis god of journeys, Lonar, telling John that he has "ascended," transformed into something similar to a deity and will need to come to terms with his new destiny sooner or later. Before John can get a true explanation, he is caught up in a conflict on the planet Anacitus that he insists on seeing out, despite Lonar's protests that the planet is already lost.
GREEN LANTERN #8
- Written by GEOFFREY THORNE
- Art by TOM RANEY and MARCO SANTUCCI
- Cover by BERNARD CHANG
- Variant cover by JULIET NNEKA
- $4.99 US | 40 PGS | $5.99 US Variant (Card stock)
- ON SALE 11/16/21
- Will the Dark Sector die? With trillions of lives in peril, John battles the DEISTORM and the challenge of its FUTURE STATES! Meanwhile, Jo Mullein solves the mystery of the Battery’s destruction in time to see the rise of a new and ancient enemy. Is this the final end of Oa and the Green Lanterns?!
Previously, in Green Lantern #7, John went on a time-traveling trip to the past with Lonar and witnessed an early battle in the never-ending conflict between New Genesis and Apokolips. There, the Green Lantern learned that the Oans -- future Guardians of the Universe and the creators of the Green Lantern rings and power battery -- attempted to intercede in this war to wipe out all of the New Gods. John intervened, screaming out the name of the Guardians in an act that may have caused an inadvertent repercussion through time, inspiring the Oans to later name themselves as such. He also absorbed a blast from Uxas, the young Apokolips prince who would eventually grow into the intergalactic tyrant Darkseid. The blast turned John into a mass of green energy that Lonar described as "the next fork in your path."
Lonar then teleported John back to his current time, where the Green Lantern was clad in a sparkling new suit. The god of journeys described this transformation as "evolution," and while its true capabilities remain unknown, it bears a resemblance to Ion, the sentient embodiment of willpower that previously inhabited the body of Kyle Rayner in the 2005-2006 event Infinite Crisis. Ion gave Kyle god-like abilities until the entity was forcibly extracted from him by the Sinestro Corps and bonded with the Green Lantern Sodam Yat, who in turn lost control of the sentience in the Brightest Day event of 2010 and 2011.
This is far from the first time John Stewart has been blessed with tremendous power. The recent Future State: Green Lantern series teased a possible alternate future where John served as the right hand of the New God Orion, who had evolved into the god of soldiers.
From writer Geoffrey Thorne, artists Chriscross and Marco Santucci, colorist Michael Atiyeh, and letterer Rob Leigh with cover art by Bernard Chang and Alex Sinclair and a variant cover by Alan Quah, Green Lantern #8 is out now from DC.
Source: DC