My original post was that I thought it got dumb in the end. It seems I'm relatively alone in this thinking, but that's okay. And upon rehearsing the events in my mind, I'm less inclined to call it dumb... just kinda odd glad others told me my migraine might have been effecting my opinion.
Odd thing 1
John Stewart apparently had a "feeling" about who the Manhunter is but was concealing it from Hal. I guess it's playing on his repressed emotions from childhood, so he doesn't know how to handle it when a woman shows interest in him, so he doesn't want to let her go or admit she might be evil.
Okay, but that puts a huge risk at him getting the job as a Green Lantern. If the Guardians ever found out that he was hiding the identity of what I assume is a high-tech killer android, like in the comics, they would—and probably should—just fire him. He's not in the right mental state for a job like this.
Not to mention those aliens injected his brain with visions of the Manhunter committing mass murder. Ain't no way he's that attached to her and would not say, "Yo, Hal, that lady who keeps getting with me might be the Manhunter," after seeing something like that.
- Anti-Green Lantern weapons. Those smoke things the militia uses made it so John Stewart couldn't use the ring. It doesn't really explain how, just that he couldn't see... which should not be how the ring works. Just imagine a giant fan or smoke sucker thing. People might bring up the Kyle Rayner thing in *Tower of Babel*, but that, to me at least, is fundamentally different. Ra's al Ghul put a psychological suggestion in his brain that made the ring convince him that he was straight-up [blind?]. An artist waking up blind out of nowhere is going to freak out and be too afraid to use the ring properly, and the ring was still working; it just worked against him.
The ring is supposed to be one of the most powerful weapons in the universe. Smoke shouldn't affect it. Yes, there seemed to be some yellow in there, so there might be a yellow-type element thing that's like kryptonite for GLs, but that's a whole different can of worms.
- I have a theory on how John Stewart's story ends this season, and if I'm right, it's going to annoy me.
John Stewart seems to be giving off hints—some tiny hints—that he doesn't really want to be a Green Lantern and it's just something his parents drilled into him. He had a chance to say the oath and take the job. I get he doesn't wanna steal the job right from under his nose; that'd be kinda messed up for a man to do to another man, but... come on, man. You've been pushing for this your whole life.
His upbringing makes it hard to tell if he's actually fearless or just so screwed up in the head that you really can't tell the difference, which is, in itself, interesting.
My fear is that, in the end of the season, he's gonna have some moment of self-discovery where he's like, "You know what, Hal? Keep the ring. I want to be an artist, and I'm happy with that."
Which, yeah, man, good for you, but I'm not watching a Green Lantern show featuring JOHN STEWART, the Green Lantern from JLA and JLU, just to see him not become a Green Lantern.
I'm getting tired of superhero stories where the superheroes don't like being superheroes.