It’s really unfortunate to live in a country that is still so tied up with racial issues that they have to manipulate a concept to account for as much diversity as possible. In the case of the upcoming Justice League of America movie, Rapper Common has been selected to play the JLA’s Green Lantern representative, John Stewart. Why is this an issue? There are four Green Lanterns that have been the center of the comic book line and John Stewart is on the bottom of the fan favorite list. Apparently the producers didn’t feel that other black DC superheroes like Black Lightning or Doctor Midnight would hold the same appeal.

It seems that few people actually understand that Green Lantern’s are an intergalactic police force, but I’ll spare you the nerdy details. What you need to understand is that there are three other Green Lanterns that have a developed and unique story line, while Stewart’s highlights involved voluntarily crippling himself out of guilt and bringing misplaced aliens back to their home world.  I wish I was kidding, but that’s all John Stewart is. What’s worse is that the Justice League cartoon decided to combine John Stewart’s history with Hal Jordan (by far the best Green Lantern ever) and pretend he never existed (until a later episode). Even in comparison to Kyle Rayner or Guy Gardner, Stewart is a dud.

If you want to make something diverse, then take the example of Nick Fury being played by Samuel l. Jackson in the upcoming Iron Man movie. Fury was already a bad ass and could easily be any ethnicity without losing anything character wise. But in this situation, it’s more like asking for Batman’s help and you get Robin instead.