The latest episode of HBO’s Lanterns series, “OutKast,” written by Vanessa Baden Kelly, delves further into John Stewart’s (Aaron Pierre) past. It’s revealed that Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) wasn’t the first choice for Abin Sur’s Green Lantern ring. No, the ring reached out first to John’s father, John Stewart Sr. (J. Alphonse Nicholson). The interview process was unorthodox: Stewart Jr. was encased in a green bubble and asked one simple question: “Are you afraid?”
“Yes!” John Sr. admitted like a scaredy cat, and the ring moved on to Hal Jordan, who becomes Earth’s first Green Lantern .
Nicholson told The Wrap, “I’m just grateful that the writing room put this into the script. How can you expect this African American man in this world … to be fearless? It really raises a lot of questions on who has the privilege to move through life without thinking about those things, even in the fictional world.”
John’s mother, Bernadette (Jasmine Cephas Jones), later asks Laura Linney’s Guardian, “Do you understand how unfair it is to ask a Black man in America if he's afraid?”
Now, I don’t think the Guardians need mandatory DEI training because they asked John’s father their standard question. Fearlessness and will are the key traits of a Green Lantern. Yes, you can end up with jerks like Guy Gardner, but this isn’t a personality test. Obviously, Hal Jordan’s former mentor, Sinestro (Ulrich Thomsen), proves there are some flaws in the Guardians’ screening process — his name is Sinestro — but I’d argue that Sinestro succumbed to fear — fear of losing control.
Interestingly, Bernadette demonstrates the necessary traits for a Green Latnern — fearlessness and iron will — when she demands that Laura Linney’s Guardian “prove” that she’s actually an alien and not some “unfortunate white lady.” The Guardian hesitates because she’s found that her “natural appearance” is “upsetting to humans.” Bernadette defiantly says, “I don’t get upset. Show me.” (Watch below.)
The Guardians identify John as a future Lantern while he’s still an infant, and the Stewarts train him for his destiny like they’re Joe and Katherine Jackson. This “training” is straight-up child abuse: John’s father regularly fires a gun at an apple placed on John’s head. This is more likely to make John a serial killer than “fearless.” At best, he could become the star attraction at a traveling circus. This would seem to undermine the argument that existing as a Black person in America is to live with constant fear. John shouldn’t need impromptu William Tell sessions or his parents abandoning him in violent neighborhoods to master his fear. Richard Pryor joked in a 1974 routine that aliens in flying saucers could never scare Black people — “not after 400 years of this shit.” He said Black people would probably warn the aliens about what might happen if they stuck around.
Bernadette later tells John that Hal only has the ring because he was privileged enough in life never to have experienced true fear. But I think this misunderstands what the ring demands from a Lantern, and I disagree with the idea that fearlessness itself is a form of racial privilege. After all, Rosa Parks was fearless. Martin Luther King Jr. was fearless. Harriet Tubman was fearless. In Tubman’s case, while it was reasonable for someone escaping with her to fear capture and possibly try to turn back, she still had to treat that reasonable fear as a liability. I’d argue that fear is the true privilege. The Confederacy was not fearless. Segregationists during Jim Crow were consumed by fear. MAGA is itself a fear-based movement. Fox News is a perpetual fear-making machine.
During an interview, which infuriates John Stewart Sr., Hal Jordan explains how he passed the Guardians’ test. He claims after his father died when he was young, he felt like “there was nothing else to fear.” Hal’s fearlessness is thus the feeling that he has nothing left to lose. This mirrors his chosen career as a test pilot. It also recalls a classic line from Frank Miller’s Daredevil: Born Again. The Kingpin, after learning Daredevil’s true identity as Matt Murdock, systematically destroys his life and leaves him for dead. However, he later realizes to his horror that Murdock is now more of a threat to him than he ever was because “a man without hope is a man without fear.”
If John Stewart Sr. fears losing his son’s love, it doesn’t seem to bother him. He abuses his own power over John. Perhaps, like Sinestro in the beginning, he believes it’s for the right reasons. However, this is further evidence that the ring was right to reject him. You can’t trust that level of power to anyone who surrenders to fear — even if you might think it’s justified in their case.
The average white man would also freak out if encased in a green bubble, and they’d blame illegal aliens for their soiled pajamas. Fear is what causes us to put up walls and scapegoat others for our problems. Unreasoning fear is the biggest threat to the world. Perhaps I’ll sound like a Scientologist, but being afraid — just like getting upset — is a choice. A Green Lantern can’t control if they feel fear but they must choose, even within a split-second, not to be afraid. When Linney’s Guardian reveals her true form, you can see Bernadette control her fear. She says, “I don’t get upset,” but she means, “I make that choice every day.”
Writer John Broome and artist Gil Kane introduced Hal Jordan in 1956’s Showcase No. 22. Abin Sur’s power ring claims that Hal was “born without fear.” As the decades passed, this started to seem more like brain damage than a particularly heroic trait, so writer Peter David revealed in a 1988 storyline that the power ring messed around with Hal’s mind so he’d become truly “fearless.” (The ring was admittedly on a tight deadline.) Writer James Owsley would later revise the ring lobotomy reveal. Instead, Hal was chosen because he possessed the necessary will to overcome his fear. This makes sense, as someone who is literally “fearless” is literally psychotic. In the 1997 New Batman Adventures episode “Never Fear,” Batman is exposed to the Scarecrow’s gas that removes all fear. This make him extremely dangerous. As Robin points out, Batman is no longer afraid to kill. “Fear is the glue that holds society together,” Scarecrow explains. “It's what makes people suppress their worst impulses. Fear is power.”
Although I wouldn’t describe fear in those stark terms, I do agree that fear is necessary, but we must always muster the will to keep it in check. The most recent Lanterns episode shows that Hal himself was struggling with this. The Guardians planned to replace Hal with John, and while they’ve only told Hal that John is his “backup,” he sees through this ruse. He tells John point blank, “The only way you’re getting this ring is over my dead body.” That is not defiance in the face of the unknown. It is fear of losing not just his power but his purpose. That’s a universal fear for which privilege offers no protection.
Fear breeds hatred. Humans tend to hate what they fear.
Hence, the Republican Party.
Heroes experience fear but push through it to make a difference. I’d posit that Ms Tubman was fearful to the point of caution. But she was a fearless spy for the Union Army.
All I know about Lanterns is that I did a movie with Kyle Chandler and he was the sweetest guy. Lent me his MGB because I flew into the set whereas he drove. Glad that he’s made himself a great career.