Lanterns by The Upstairs Lounge
Aug 22, 2026 · 13 min · 7 segments
What does John Stewart actually need to learn before he can become Green Lantern? In this episode, I take a deep dive into one of the most revealing stages of John Stewart’s uneasy apprenticeship…
Jon is smart, observant, disciplined, and probably only a few afternoons away from becoming dangerously proficient with the ring itself.
The thing he does not yet understand is what Hal refers to as the job.
Hal hears the coded message, launches himself into the sky with a sonic boom and is in Nebraska in minutes.
Hal calls it a test.
I assume Hal can chuck John in a sleek-looking glowing green jet and fly him there, but I think he does this just to lose him for a bit, as this ain't a test.
There is nothing impressive about John managing to get himself there.
Hell, I'm completely useless at travelling and I could manage it easy enough.
Hal is screwing with him.
His apparent replacement spends most of the afternoon trying to remember whether the rental comes with unlimited mileage.
By the time John arrives, Hal has already been sitting at the football ground for six hours, and that detail immediately complicates something I have been wondering about him.
Up until now he's appeared apathetic, but whatever has happened to Hal Jordan, we now see he has not stopped caring about being Green Lantern.
I mean, he may have been itching to ditch John anyway, but he had just been handed what looked like a basket of fresh churros.
He flies straight there and spends most of the day patiently watching a crime scene that he is not legally allowed to enter.
The man may be neglectful about training John, openly contemptuous of the Guardians and ten years behind on whatever the cosmic equivalent of backing up your laptop is, but put this alien mystery in front of him and suddenly he is very much on the job.
Hal plainly still loves the work.
He later describes it possessively because, at this point in his life, being Green Lantern may be less a job he performs than the central fact of who he is.
Jon is smart, observant, disciplined, and probably only a few afternoons away from becoming dangerously proficient with the ring itself.
The thing he does not yet understand is what Hal refers to as the job.
Hal hears the coded message, launches himself into the sky with a sonic boom and is in Nebraska in minutes.
Hal calls it a test.
I assume Hal can chuck John in a sleek-looking glowing green jet and fly him there, but I think he does this just to lose him for a bit, as this ain't a test.
There is nothing impressive about John managing to get himself there.
Hell, I'm completely useless at travelling and I could manage it easy enough.
Hal is screwing with him.
His apparent replacement spends most of the afternoon trying to remember whether the rental comes with unlimited mileage.
By the time John arrives, Hal has already been sitting at the football ground for six hours, and that detail immediately complicates something I have been wondering about him.
Up until now he's appeared apathetic, but whatever has happened to Hal Jordan, we now see he has not stopped caring about being Green Lantern.
I mean, he may have been itching to ditch John anyway, but he had just been handed what looked like a basket of fresh churros.
He flies straight there and spends most of the day patiently watching a crime scene that he is not legally allowed to enter.
The man may be neglectful about training John, openly contemptuous of the Guardians and ten years behind on whatever the cosmic equivalent of backing up your laptop is, but put this alien mystery in front of him and suddenly he is very much on the job.
Hal plainly still loves the work.
He later describes it possessively because, at this point in his life, being Green Lantern may be less a job he performs than the central fact of who he is.
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