Green Lanterns have a long lineage of honorable, brave individuals who have protected planets all over the galaxy. John Stewart, an architect and US Marine veteran from Boston, Massachusetts joined the time in 1971. The DC Comics hero was created by Dennis O’Neil and Neal Adams and made his first appearance in Green Lantern #87 (December 1971).

Stewart was chosen by the Guardians to be Hal Jordan’s backup Green Lantern after Guy Gardner, the previous backup, was seriously injured. Hal was not a fan of the choice, citing that Stewart was belligerent, had a problem with authority, and had a chip on his shoulder. The Guardians disagreed with Hal and stood by their choice.

Hal thought that John’s first mission started poorly when he was assigned to protect a racist politician. While stopping an accident from happening, John embarrassed Hal. An assassin tried to shoot the politician and John did not intervene with Hal, making him look suspicious. But, it turned out that John was stopping a gunman from killing a cop in the parking lot as Hal pursued a decoy. Hal confronted John, thinking the new Green Lantern had abandoned his duty, until John explained that the politician had staged the attack to gain political advantage. Based on this, Hal concluded that John was in fact an excellent choice to be a Green Lantern.

For a while John would fill in for Hal as the Green Lantern, which included missions with the Justice League. Hal retired as a Green Lantern in the 1980s so the Guardians promoted John to be the full time Green Lantern. He also worked as an architect at Ferris Aircraft Company and fought Green Lantern villains and the Anti-Monitor in the Crisis on Infinite Earths storyline.

Katma Tui, the Green Lantern from the planet Korugar, taught John how to use the powerful ring. Together the pair went on many missions and fell in love. They got married and served in the Green Lantern Corps of Earth with Hal, Arisia, Kilowog, Salaak, as well as other alien Green Lanterns.

Sinestro attacked John taking the power from his ring, then Star Sapphire was killed by Kat and his life spiraled out of control. He was falsely accused of killing Carol Ferris/Star Sapphire and falsely accused of theft by South Nambia. He was put in jail and tortured in South Nambia for weeks, but was able to free himself using his old ring, which was repowered by Hal. While escaping, John inadvertently freed a serial killer and a terrorist. Hal confronted John and they got into a fight. Then John realized that the people he freed were planning to kill innocent people.

John left Earth and joined the Cosmic Odyssey miniseries, but failed to prevent the planet Xanshi from being destroyed by the avatar of the Anti-Life Equation. This upset the Martian Manhunter, putting the two at odds. Because of the tragedies he’d been through, John was on the brink of suicide and created a villainess called Fatality.

He was able to forgive himself and became a stronger hero after becoming the caretaker of the Mosaic World – a community of multiple planets. He was able to use his intelligence and unconventional thinking to turn Mosaic into a new society. John became the first mortal Guardian of the Universe, known as the Master Builder. As a reward for what he did, John was reunited with Kat. Tragically when Hal was possessed by Parallax he destroyed the Guardians and the Central Power Battery, robbed John of his new powers, and his resurrected wife.