Green Lantern Special #1
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeGreen Lantern Special #1 stands as one of the most politically direct mainstream superhero comics of the Copper Age, casting John Stewart — DC's first Black superhero — inside a thinly veiled fictional analogue of apartheid-era South Africa and forcing him to confront the moral limits of power-ring justice. Written by James Owsley, who was himself the first Black writer-editor in mainstream American comics, the issue brings an unusual degree of personal and cultural weight to its subject matter at a moment when real-world South Africa dominated international headlines. The story also served as a structural bridge, closing out the John Stewart subplot that had run through the Green Lantern serial in Action Comics Weekly and delivering Stewart — ringless, humbled, and heading into space — directly into the events of Cosmic Odyssey (1988), making it a quiet but essential connective tissue in DC's late-1980s continuity.
In Green Lantern Special #1 (1988), John Stewart—stripped of his power ring and exiled to the oppressive regime of South Nambia—faces brutal interrogation after being framed by Hal Jordan. Written by James Owsley and illustrated by Tod Smith, with inks by Denis Rodier and colors by Anthony Tollin, this powerful story follows Stewart’s harrowing journey from prisoner to reluctant revolutionary, all while the cover by Tod Smith captures the weight of his struggle.
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Following the cancellation of Green Lantern Corps in 1988, DC moved the Green Lantern franchise into the weekly anthology Action Comics Weekly, where Owsley wrote the Green Lantern serial across issues #601–607. The Special was conceived to resolve the dangling John Stewart storyline from that run — specifically the plotline in which Stewart, stripped of his ring, faces extradition abroad for crimes actually committed by Hal Jordan. Owsley worked with penciler Tod Smith and inker Denis Rodier, the same artistic team from portions of the Action Comics Weekly serial, lending the issue a visual continuity with the stories it concluded.
Trivia · 7 facts
- Written by James Owsley (who later legally changed his name to Christopher Priest) with art by Tod Smith (pencils) and Denis Rodier (inks); cover also by Tod Smith.
- The story, titled 'With This Ring...!', resolves the John Stewart subplot from the Green Lantern serial in Action Comics Weekly (issues #601–607), making it a direct continuation of that run rather than a standalone special.
- John Stewart is extradited to a fictional African nation ('South Nambia'), a transparent stand-in for apartheid South Africa, where he is imprisoned and tortured before siding with anti-apartheid revolutionaries.
- Superman guest-stars, confronting Hal Jordan and urging him to intervene with the out-of-control Stewart — one of the more prominent crossover appearances in the issue.
- At the issue's conclusion, John Stewart chooses to surrender his power ring to Hal Jordan, believing he does not deserve it; Hal persuades him to keep it, and Stewart departs for space — a plot point the DC Database explicitly notes leads directly into Cosmic Odyssey (1988).
- James Owsley/Christopher Priest was the first Black writer-editor in mainstream American comics, a biographical fact that lends the apartheid-themed story an added layer of authorial significance.
- The series ran for two issues total (1988–1989); the second special, drawn by Mark Bright and Romeo Tanghal, concluded the remaining Action Comics Weekly plotlines.
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Reprinted in Os Novos Titãs #67 (1991)
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