John Stewart Retro Action

[megalomaniac001]

I like it, my only wish would be no mask. That is only because I was reading Green Lantern back in the day when John took off the mask. I will get all four of the GL exclusives. Looks like we are getting a mix of era's for these GL's. John is in the standard 70's GL suit, Guy is in his 80's suit, Sinestro is in his current suit. I saw AFI mention Kyle as the fourth GL. I hope they use his 'crab' mask 90's version, as I think he wore it the longest.

[MegoNutt]

john stewart! awesome! I can't wait to get mine.!!

[drogge]

Awesome

This figure is great, he does not need a new costume. It makes perfect sense he is wearing the same uniform as Hal. This figure is AWESOME!

[Random Axe]

pretty cool figure. I would have liked to have seen the new costume, but I understand the reasons for the first appearance suit too. As long as the body issues have been addressed, I'm down for one.

I'm in the extreme minority here, but I like Stewart a lot as GL. He's a military man(marine), an expert sniper and an architect. He also carries a lot of baggage being responsible for the accidental death of a planet. I don't know that he's ever been written to his full potential hence the apathy he is usually met with.

Scott

[LOU]

WOW! What knowledge! Just amazing you can zing this info out there off the top of your head Anthony! Makes sense then that I wouldn't remember those characters in light of that info. I may have to seek out these back issues and pick them up to read. I really loved those 70's comics and Super Heroes!

[jimsmegos]

To not really be all that impressed with Darkseid as a character make me a prude? For me Lex Luthor will always be Superman's biggest and best villain. Even with Smallville, I'm actually a little disappointed that Darkseid is appearing to be the "big showdown" to wrap the whole thing up. I'd rather have a Power Suit clad Luthor slugging it out with the Man of Steel.

Sorry for the hijacking (or adding to)

[The Toyroom]

Of course I wondered where the staples of Green Lantern (Hal) and Flash were in the Mego line but I certainly wasn't wondering where Darkseid, John Stewart, or the other Green Lanterns were because I simply don't recall reading their exploits in any of the comics I used to read.

Unless you read Kirby's 4th World titles in the early 70s you would have missed Darkseid. Kirby's epic saga of the New Gods was pretty much confined to "Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen", "New Gods", "Mr. Miracle" and "Forever People".

It wasn't until Kirby left DC that other writers, primarily Gerry Conway started to incorporate these characters into other titles like "Secret Society of Super-Villains", "Return of the New Gods" and of course the classic cross-over with the JLA/JSA.

But again, appearances were sporadic. In fact, during the "Crisis on Infinite Earths", Darkseid's appearance was nothing more than a cameo. He wasn't even part of the enormous group of villains attempting to take control of the 5 Earths.

When Kirby returned to DC and worked on the Super Powers line of toys and comics is when Darkseid began to become a threat to the DC Universe. And then John Byrne picked up the ball and had Superman go up against Darkseid very early on in his revamp run, cementing Darkseid as a big-gun foe of the Man of Steel.

And since then, everyone and their grandmother (or is it Granny Goodness? ) has tried to use Darskeid when it comes to big company cross-overs...most recently Grant Morrison in "Final Crisis".

[The Toyroom]

Perhaps it's because in 1976, I was one of the few who never heard of John Stewart before. I simply never knew he was that big of a character in the DC Universe as it was in the 70's.

He WASN'T a big character in the DCU back then....just a minor plot point.

[The Toyroom]

Really Anthony? That character is that old? I have absolutely no recollection of any other GL than Hal in the 70's.

At the time, John had a one-off appearance as Hal Jordan's back-up in case he was every incapcitated...It wasn't til the 80s where he became more of a character in the mythos.

Same thing for Guy Gardner...his first appearance was a one-shot and it wasn't really 'til the 80s when he became a true part of the Corps.

So Hal WOULD be all you saw back then in the 70s because he WAS the GL for Sector 2814. It wasn't til later on when a sector was allowed more than one GL.

[Meule]

Not bad, but I'll pass. Don't like exclusives and it's just an easy way to rehash an existing suit

[samurainoir]

No worries. I'm stuck at home today as well, and it's been pretty darn cold lately too.

I think it's understandable that for many older folks, Superheroes began and ended with the ones they were most familiar with as kids. I'm probably just a few years younger than you, so that is how I remember John Stewart taking over the GL title as a kid and Darkseid via the Super Powers.

Often a character (even one created by Kirby) can be relatively obscure until outside media like toys, movies, TV or video games brings them to a higher prominence... which is definitely the case with John Stewart and Darkseid (who's also the villain in the Supeman cartoon from the nineties and this season's Smallville). Arguably the Wally West Flash as well, who was also featured in JLU, but no one really cares about the difference in character really because he's more or less got the same costume as Barry.

[LOU]

Wow samurainoir! You know your stuff when it comes to the comics! I'm really surprised with my ignorance actually. I've always considered myself a fairly avid comic reader as a kid but I immersed myself in all things Super Hero (non-comic too) when I was a boy. I guess I was too selective in what I chose to read back then. Since every Mego Super Hero that was made back then was a character incarnation that I was very familiar with in the comics I read at that time, I never really explored any other characters. Of course I wondered where the staples of Green Lantern (Hal) and Flash were in the Mego line but I certainly wasn't wondering where Darkseid, John Stewart, or the other Green Lanterns were because I simply don't recall reading their exploits in any of the comics I used to read. So essentially I grew up with Hal Jordan as THE Green Lantern in the way that Clark Kent is Superman. To me, that's just who they were. There were no other Green Lanterns and there were no other Supermans. That's probably why I can't get my head around these lesser-known characters being made before the many more obvious ones that should be. Perhaps it's because in 1976, I was one of the few who never heard of John Stewart before. I simply never knew he was that big of a character in the DC Universe as it was in the 70's.
I must say your comic knowledge is MOST impressive! This has really been entertaining for me to read all this today! I'm trapped indoors due to a snowstorm/ice storm here in MA and I am finding myself in the mood to go dig out and read some of my childhood comics again! I am most impressed with your knowledge samurainoir!

[Mego Milk]

buying two.

[samurainoir]

But I get what Lou is saying... Sinestro in his Corps outfit is definitely Modern Age, and Guy Gardner is Copper Age. I'm looking forward to seeing DC characters from all eras get the 1/9th cloth outfit translation.

Kudos to Matty for their choices... after all there are already a billion JLU John Stewart's available. I am really delighted that they pulled out the plugs for Guy Gardner and opted to make his Crisis/GL Corps/JLI look, since that is arguably the most popular incarnation.

[samurainoir]

Really??!!! Very interesting! So technically Darkseid is a Mego era character then? So that would mean that this GL line is the first Retro assortment to stray from the Bronze Age characters (unless you count Wonder Woman's "W" on her chest.) correct?

If we really want to get technical with out comic-age terms, I think the toy industry back in the day stayed fairly conservative when it came to the characters translated into action figures...

Most of DC Superheroes were characters originating from the Golden and Silver age for the most part, with the exception of Green Arrow and Wondergirl, who wore their Bronze age costumes. I think Green Arrow's bearded look might have been included because of his Superfriend's appearance? I'm not going to count Isis.

Marvel had Conan and Falcon as Bronze age reps.

It wasn't until Super Powers that they tapped the Bronze age satellite era Justice League, including the missing Silver Age trio of Flash, Green Lantern and Martain Manhunter. So you've got seventies guys like Firestorm and Red Tornado (as his earth 1 version), the New Gods like Mister Miracle, Orion et al, and arguably the one Copper Age (eighties) character included was Cyborg.