Green Lantern #87 (1971)
(DC Comics, 1971)
“No Evil Shall Escape My Sight!,” story by Dennis O’Neil, art by Neal Adams and Dick Giordano; When Hal Jordan is suddenly unavailable, the Guardians of the Universe activate their emergency protocol — selecting a backup Lantern from Earth. Their choice is John Stewart, a young Black architect from Detroit who refuses to wear a mask, challenges a racist politician during his first mission, and makes immediately clear that he answers to his own conscience as much as to the Corps.
John Stewart was created by writer Denny O’Neil and artist Neal Adams, debuting in the backup story of Green Lantern #87, cover-dated December 1971. He was the first prominent Black superhero at DC Comics and one of the first in mainstream American comics. O’Neil and Adams were already reshaping the Green Lantern title with socially conscious storytelling — the era that introduced drug addiction, poverty, and racism as superhero comic subject matter. John Stewart arrived as the logical extension of that project: a hero who didn’t just fight abstract evil but confronted the specific, structural realities of American racism.
The mask refusal is the defining character moment. Hal Jordan assumes Stewart will want to conceal his identity. Stewart declines — if he’s going to do this, he’s going to do it as himself, face visible, no apologies. The detail is small. The statement is not.
Stewart spent most of the next three decades as a supporting character — an alternate Lantern called into service when Jordan was unavailable. That changed in 2001 when the Justice League animated series on Cartoon Network chose Stewart as their Green Lantern over Hal Jordan. An entire generation grew up watching John Stewart as the Green Lantern. The argument over which Lantern is “the real one” is generational and it is not close among anyone who came of age during that era.
On August 16, 2026, HBO premieres Lanterns — an eight-episode True Detective-style thriller starring Aaron Pierre as John Stewart alongside Kyle Chandler as Hal Jordan. Co-created by Chris Mundy, Damon Lindelof, and Tom King, the series marks John Stewart’s first live-action lead role in DC history. Pierre, who broke through in Netflix’s Rebel Ridge (2024), has drawn early praise for a portrayal that tracks closely with O’Neil’s original characterization — direct, fearless, and unbothered by anyone’s expectations.
Collector Value — Green Lantern #87
This is an actively traded Bronze Age key with meaningful grade sensitivity. The CGC census is thin above 9.0 — this book does not turn up in high grade with regularity.
Raw copies in solid Fine condition are findable in the $150–$300 range. Mid-grade graded copies (CGC 6.0–7.0) have sold in the $420–$525 range. A CGC 9.8 sold at Heritage Auctions in January 2024 for $10,500. White or off-white pages command a premium — cream or tanned pages suppress the grade meaningfully on a book of this age.
Historical precedent from the Netflix Luke Cage announcement and the MCU Black Panther rollout suggests 40–60% price appreciation on related keys in the weeks surrounding a major media premiere. The Lanterns premiere is August 16, 2026. The window on pre-premiere pricing is measured in weeks.
Green Lantern #87 is a tracked key in the BCU Index (Category 1: Mainstream). Download the free BCU Index Inaugural Report at blackcomixuniverse.com/bcu-index.
References
O’Neil, Dennis (w), Adams, Neal (p), Giordano, Dick (i). “No Evil Shall Escape My Sight!” Green Lantern #87. DC Comics, December 1971.
“John Stewart.” DC Comics Official Character Page. dc.com/characters/john-stewart.
“John Stewart (character).” Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Stewart_(character).
“Green Lantern #87 Value.” GoCollect. gocollect.com/comic/green-lantern-87.
“Green Lantern #87.” Heritage Auctions Comics Index. comics.ha.com.
“Aaron Pierre as John Stewart in Lanterns.” HBO. hbo.com/lanterns.