Men's Lifestyle August 31, 2026 0 Comments

Unlock the Untold Story of John Stewart in Lanterns: The Raw, Gritty Journey You Can’t Miss!

Fear — it’s a beast that claws at all of us, whether it’s a spectral alien yanking you outta bed at 3 a.m. or, more hauntingly, the skeletons lurking in your own family closet. The Bible didn’t mince words when angels told awestruck shepherds, “Have no fear.” ‘Awestruck’ isn’t just starry-eyed amazement; it’s also the kind of dread that makes your heart pound like a war drum. That’s the kind of fear John Stewart Sr. felt when extraterrestrial forces confronted him — a fear that didn’t just vanish but echoed through generations. Now, these Green Lantern rings? They run on raw willpower — the exact flip of fear. You gotta be fearless to wield ’em. But guess what? As the latest episode of HBO’s Lanterns shows, sometimes the biggest monsters wear the faces of those closest to us. Dive deep with me into John Stewart’s grit-filled, painful origin story — a saga of familial strife, cosmic stakes, and the iron will to rise despite it all. Ready to challenge what fear really means? Let’s break it down. LEARN MORE

5 min read

When the angels of heaven came before awestruck shepherds in the Bible, they were told to have no fear. The dictionary definition of “awestruck” doesn’t just mean wonder and admiration. It also means dread.

So it makes sense why men might piss their pajamas when they’re suddenly woken up one night by aliens and asked if they’re afraid. That’s what happened to John Stewart Sr., whose affirmation of his fear haunts his family for the rest of their lives. The Green Lantern rings are powered by willpower, which, as far as DC Comics lore is concerned, is the inverse emotion of fear. To have no fear is to be worthy of the ring. But you need not fear blue-skinned aliens from space. As Lanterns this week shows, it’s your own family you oughta fear the most.

In Lanterns episode 3, the rich and complex “OutKast” (a nod to the episode’s end-credits needle drop, “Gasoline Dreams”), the life of Aaron Pierre’s John Stewart gets interrogated in impressive, even granular detail. Framed by an “interview” with the Guardians of Oa—represented by an unnamed Guardian played by Laura Linney (who is more than up to the task of saying mumbo-jumbo like “intergalactic species non-native to your Earth”)—we glimpse John’s life from his crib to the day he meets Hal Jordan. Lest you think John’s upbringing should be understood as peachy, as some folks online have, we see it for the ugly truth it is: John is a victim of abuse stemming from his own parents’ shortcomings.

It begins one night when the Guardians appear to John Stewart Sr. (J. Alphonse Nicholson) and ask him if he’s afraid. Naturally, he is. Wouldn’t you be if you were woken in the middle of the night by a green ghost with a deep voice? It’s why Hal Jordan was extraordinary when he wasn’t afraid, which made him Green Lantern.

And being passed over for the service of a lifetime did a real number on Mr. Stewart.

A man and a woman stand together in a room with floral wallpaper and a table of clothing items.

HBO

“OutKast” dives deep into John Stewart’s personal history, leading up to meeting Hal Jordan.

Later, when Laura Linney visits John’s mother Bernadette (Jasmine Cephas Jones), their lengthy but meaty exchange circles the square of being Black in a grand, cosmic universe. “Do you understand how unfair it is to ask a Black man in America if he’s afraid?” Bernadette challenges the Guardian. “Even in space, y’all don’t consider us.” (Before anyone bemoans “wokeness” poisoning another HBO show, Google search Green Lantern/Green Arrow #76 in another tab then come back here.) When the Guardian tells her that John Jr. has it in his genes to be worthy of future membership, she resolves with her drunk husband to sober up and make sure their son is too exceptional for the Guardians to overlook.

What follows is John’s childhood-by-fire where parental love is mixed up in a traumatic cocktail of ambition, protection, upward mobility, and proving one’s worth to an uncaring, judging universe. To say nothing of fear, or lack thereof. It was fear that disqualified John’s father from becoming a superhero. So his parents work to drive out any ounce of apprehension in him. The Guardians call it programming; John saw it as simply how he was raised.

Many of the—let’s call them tidbits—peppered in Lanterns’ first two episodes are given root in this show’s expansive third episode. It was, apparently, John Jr.’s idea for that horrific William Tell exercise of proving his lack of fear. And John very obviously manifested a bird with Jordan’s ring last week out of his memory association with birds, when he was supposedly observed by the Guardians through them. Even John’s pivot to veganism is worth noting. (I further theorize that he doesn’t actually have aversion to meat, but did so to avoid creating a Pavlov effect around beef and being almost shot by his own father.)

It’s not all Baby John we see this week. We also witness his last mission as a marine sniper, which ended his service with a dishonorable discharge, and his brief dalliance in art school that turns out to be the best practical training for his Green Lantern duties. (And my condolences to Kyle Rayner fans, whose potential appearance in a future season is now less certain.) It isn’t hard to follow: Tasked by his superiors to snipe a tango in Russia, John spends nine months meticulously studying his target’s patterns. That is, until Hal Jordan swoops in and finishes the job (leaving a massive geopolitical shitstorm in the process). The show is basically telling us in neon lights: No matter how much John Stewart prepares, Hal Jordan will find some way to show up and ruin it.

What Lanterns episode 3 sacrifices in progressing the Rushville plot, it makes up for in character study. It is a tremendous hour of television, especially given its premise as a detour into backstory that places John in stark focus while grappling with the gray areas of abusive homes. Lanterns is a show where Stewart is the main character, and a flashback probing what you can call his origin story is steeped in all the complexity it demands. (And how uncomfortably refreshing it is to see, in a genre overrun with orphans, the parents of a protagonist personally thrust superheroic responsibility onto their child.)

There’s no arguing that John grew up under wretched parents; no healthy family would let a child walk back through a bad neighborhood, at night, alone. “Training” looks like abuse in the morning light. What’s up for debate is how much John loves his family, and how much he’s being honest about it. As John himself says, “It’s human. We love the people who raise us. Even if it’s crazy.” It’s equally telling that when John insists he owes his family, the Guardian zeroes in on that word. “Owe.” As if raising a son is a transactional endeavor that accrues interest.

Ultimately, Stewart’s upbringing was worth it, whatever that might mean to you. The Guardians formally induct Stewart not only as a Green Lantern but as Hal Jordan’s incognito replacement. Turns out Jordan has become more unstable than the Guardians are comfortable with, and the Guardians plan to activate Stewart—their own “panic button,” if you will—when the time’s right. (Ironic how much the Guardians apparently fear Hal Jordan. It’s almost like he’s capable of villainy.) But Jordan knows his number is almost up. Before Stewart can tell his folks that their lifetime of anguish and hardship has paid off, Hal is already at the dinner table, schmoozing them before telling “Junior” to go kick rocks. Hal asserts that Stewart will only ever become a Green Lantern over his dead body. What Hal doesn’t know is that John Stewart knows how to wait.