Warning: Green Lantern: War Journal is a direct sequel to events in Green Lantern (Infinite Frontier), Dark Crisis, and Green Lantern (2023), so Late Arrival Spoilers for those comics may be unmarked on this page.
Green Lantern: War Journal is an September 2023 ongoing comic from DC Comics and part of the Dawn of DC publishing initiative.
The book features John Stewart as its eponymous Green Lantern and is written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson, and with art by Osvaldo Montos.
Spinning out of Jeremy Adams' Green Lantern (2023), it is a continuation of Johnson and Montos' John Stewart: The Good Soldier backup narrative. It will continue chronicling John's retirement from the GLC and super-heroics in the wake of Dark Crisis — and his inevitable, if involuntary, return to active duty.
Green Lantern: War Journal provides examples of:
- A Day in the Limelight: John Stewart, which is part of what makes it distinct. While John was the central Lantern of the Infinite Frontier run, he was still ultimately part of an ensemble cast (which was also the case going back to the GLC runs by Peter Tomasi, Tony Bedard, and Van Jensen). War Journal thus marks the very first John Stewart solo series since Green Lantern: Mosaic in the 1990s.
- The Dutiful Son: John is living at home with his mother, taking care of her as she appears to be in the early stages of dementia.
- Infection Scene: At the end of issue 2, John can see the infection of the Revenant Queen on his arm, after being stabbed by one of her Radiant Dead.
- Retirony: The premise (and continuing from the Good Soldier backups) shows John Stewart having retired from superbheroics and the GLC for a peaceful life on Earth. It won't last.
- Sequel Series: War Journal continues the John Stewart storyline Johnson and Montos began in the backup feature of the current Green Lantern run, as well as the Dark Crisis: Worlds Without a Justice League - Green Lantern one-shot, which introduced the alternate reality where John founded the GL Corps.
- Scatterbrained Senior: John's mother is suffering from dementia and still believes that her abusive husband hasn't left her and that her daughter Ellie Rose is still alive. John is torn between enabling her delusions to keep her happy or trying to keep her tethered to reality.
- Sketchy Successor: The United Planets Green Lantern who comes to arrest John Stewart for supposedly having a power ring is unreasonable, headstrong, takes no time to listen to John before trying to make the arrest, and gives up very quickly when John fights back. John is disgusted at how pathetic a Green Lantern this guy is (especially since he gave up so easily in spite of the rings operating on willpower, meaning he wasn't worthy of it in the first place) and easily sends him packing. He comes back in issue 2 with two others to back him up, and displays a bigoted attitude towards "lower classes" than he's used to being with, and towards humans as well, viewing them as little more than primitive savages.
- Spinoff: Of Jermey Adams' Green Lantern (2023).
- Sudden Name Change: It was actually established that John had a deceased younger sister all the way back in Judd Winick's Green Lantern run during the early 2000s, with the character subsequently being referenced again in an issue of Joe Kelly's JLA. However, John's sister was named Rose in those appearances, while here, she's called Ellie. Later issues split the difference and have her name be "Ellie Rose Stewart".
- Tulpa: After seeing his dementia-addled mother break down in tears over Ellie Rose, John decides to address this by using a Power Ring to create a replica of Ellie that acts as an extension of his will. Although she's made of the same green light used by the Green Lanterns in their Hard Light constructs, she lives, breathes, and talks like the original Ellie Rose from John's memories. But this also means that she's a "Child of Oa" and will do anything to keep her "mama" safe and happy, even if it means entertaining her dementia-induced delusions.
- Variant Cover: Taj Tenfold, Mirko Colak, Dave Wilkins, John Giang and Ken Lashley will be contributing alternate covers for War Journal.
