Red Hood and Kyle Rayner are transformed in Worlds Without a Justice League - Green Lantern

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The latest Dark Crisis special reimagines John Stewart, Jason, and Kyle in a story that might be more real than DC is letting on

Dark Crisis: Worlds Without a Justice League - Green Lantern #1 cover art
Dark Crisis: Worlds Without a Justice League - Green Lantern #1 cover art (Image credit: DC)

John Stewart is an 'Emerald Knight of Justice' and hangs around with Green Lantern-powered Red Hood AKA Jason Todd and the blind prophet Kyle Rayner. 

But wait, isn't John Stewart dead? 

It's complicated...

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That's Stewart's post-Justice League #75 reality in the August Dark Crisis special, Worlds Without a Justice League – Green Lantern #1, one of five such specials featuring two stories a piece that star the 'dead' Justice League heroes on individual dream-like worlds.

Green Lantern, which features a backup story starring Hawkgirl, follows July's Dark Crisis: Worlds Without a Justice League - Superman #1 which features a main story starring the Man of Steel and a backup Aquaman story. 

WWJL - Green Lantern's main story is written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson and illustrated by Fernando Blanco, while the Hawkgirl story is written by Nadia Shammas and drawn by Jack Herbert.

Dark Crisis: Worlds Without a Justice League - Green Lantern #1 cover (Image credit: DC)

CBR debuted a variant cover for the issue by Mario Foccillo featuring alternative takes on the familiar DC heroes.

While initially interpreting the series of specials as post-death 'tribute' stories, Newsarama continues to suspect (and we go into greater detail here) that the Justice Leaguers felled by Pariah aren't actually dead, but were transported to these 'dream worlds' in the same manner Barry Allen was in 2021's Infinite Frontier #6. 

"Where there's life there's hope, and with that hope comes a deeper unraveling of the tapestry of the DCU's biggest event of 2022!" reads DC's description of the specials, which sure sounds like a potential laying of the groundwork to bring the superheroes back to us.

Here's the full line-up and schedule of the Worlds Without a Justice League special.:

  • Dark Crisis: Worlds Without a Justice League - Superman #1 (July) - by writer Tom King and artist Chris Burnham; Aquaman backup by writer Brandon Thomas and artist Fico Ossio
  • Dark Crisis: Worlds Without a Justice League - Green Lantern #1 (August) - by writer Phillip Kennedy Johnson and artist Fernando Blanco; Hawkgirl backup by writer Nadia Shammasand artist Jack Herbert
  • Dark Crisis: Worlds Without a Justice League - Wonder Woman #1 (September) - by writer Tini Howard and artist Leila Del Duca; Martian Manhunter backup by writer Dan Watters and artist Bandon Peterson
  • Dark Crisis: Worlds Without a Justice League - Green Arrow #1 (October) - by writer Stephanie Phillips and artist Clayton Henry; Black Canary backup by writer Dennis Culver and artist Nik Virella
  • Dark Crisis: Worlds Without a Justice League - Batman #1 (November) - by writer Si Spurrier and artist Ryan Sook; Zatanna backup by writer Meghan Fitzmartin and artist Dan Jurgens

How Death of Superman changed the rules for superhero death and set the stage for Death of the Justice League.

Michael Doran

I'm not just the Newsarama founder and editor-in-chief, I'm also a reader. And that reference is just a little bit older than the beginning of my Newsarama journey. I founded what would become the comic book news site in 1996, and except for a brief sojourn at Marvel Comics as its marketing and communications manager in 2003, I've been writing about new comic book titles, creative changes, and occasionally offering my perspective on important industry events and developments for the 25 years since. Despite many changes to Newsarama, my passion for the medium of comic books and the characters makes the last quarter-century (it's crazy to see that in writing) time spent doing what I love most.