Good Morning POU!
Today’s features are two Justice Leaguers.
The Green Lantern (John Stewart)
Publisher: DC Comics
1st appearance: Green Lantern vol. 2 #87 (December 1971)
Team Affiliations: American Military, Darkstars, Green Lantern Corps, Justice League
Notes: Green Lantern John Stewart made his debut in 1971 making him the first black superhero for D.C comics and the 3rd Black superhero ever created (First being Black Panther, 1966)! He’s most popular as the Green Lantern on Justice league which once aired on cartoon network. He’s grown from an angry black man to a pillar of the D.C comics superhero community.
Powers: Trained by the military in unarmed and armed combat. The Green lantern Ring allows him to create anything he desires or needs for a particular task.
Background: In the early 1970s, John Stewart, an architect from Detroit MI, was selected by the Guardians to replace a comatose Guy Gardner as the backup Green Lantern for Hal Jordan. When Jordan resigned from the Corps for an extended period of time, Stewart served as the regular Lantern, coming into his own as he battled numerous Green Lantern villains and played a key role during the Crisis on Infinite Earths. During that time the Guardians of the Universe assigned Katma Tui to train Stewart, and the two developed romantic feelings for each other. They married, but Katma was soon murdered by longtime Green Lantern villain, Star Sapphire. Stewart was crushed by this, and his life began to unravel. He reached his lowest point when he failed to save the planet Xanshi from destruction during the Cosmic Odyssey.
John Stewart redeemed himself during the Mosaic crisis, when an insane Guardian abducted cities from all over the universe and placed them together on Oa. When the Guardian was defeated, the cities remained, as the other Guardians claimed to not have enough energy in the Central Power Battery to send them home. While they gathered the resources, John Stewart was assigned to oversee the jammed together communities. Using his intellect and unconventional thinking, he formed the warring communities into a cohesive society. He was aided by Rose Hardin, a farmer from West Virginia who was trapped on Oa, due to her town being abducted. Stewart once again found love with Rose, and the two of them came to feel more comfortable on their new world than they did back on Earth.
Stewart eventually deduced that the Guardians had the energy to send the cities home whenever they wanted, and that they let them remain on Oa as an experiment in cosmic integration, and also as a test for John Stewart. Stewart passed the test, and discovered that he was a figure in Oan prophecy. That was why the Guardians directly chose him instead of allowing a Power Ring to do it, as is standard procedure. John Stewart rose to a new level of awareness and became the first mortal Guardian of the Universe. He was also rewarded with the resurrection of Katma Tui, which caused him to break up with Rose.
Publisher: DC Comics
1st appearance: Action Comics #521, (July 1981)
Real Name: Mari Jiwe McCabe
Skills and Abilities: Trained Psychiatrist, model, fashion designer and hand to hand combatant.
Powers: Vixen has innate animal mimicry powers which are further enhanced by her necklace the “Tantu Totem”. A drawback to her power is that she is occasionally overwhelmed by the feral nature of the animals she mimics.
Background: As a child Mari grew up in a rural village in the fictional African province of Zambesi where she always felt like an outsider. Her father was a reverend in the christian church who eventually came into possession of the Tantu Totem, a voodoo relic said to contain the power of the god Anansi. Tragedy struck when her mother was killed reportedly by poachers, though in reality by Aku Kwesi [Vixen: Return of the Lion #1]. Her father was killed by her uncle who took possession of the totem.
She managed to make her way to America where she became a successful super model and went on to study Psychiatry. Using her new-found wealth she could now travel the world. Upon returning to Africa she retrieved the totem from her uncle and became the superhero Vixen. As Vixen she battled poachers in India [Action Comics #521] and went on to join the Justice League of America [Justice League of America Annual #2]. While a member of the team her uncle re-entered her life and stole the totem back. His impure heart however caused him to be transformed into a hideous monster. Unfortunately for Mari her uncle died while in battle [Justice League of America #234-235]. When the team faced Amazo they found themselves defeated and chained. Vixen with her powers and quick thinking managed to save the day [Justice League of America #242].
