The mystery is over, DC Comics has announced that Alan Scott, the Green Lantern (and only Green Lantern) of Earth 2, is the gay character that was first hinted at at KAPOW! a few weeks ago.
Alan’s storyline is a direct result of DC COMICS-THE NEW 52 and DC’s commitment to taking a fresh look at its characters. Originally a Golden Age character whose previous continuity spanned from the 1940s through modern times, Alan was a charter member of the Justice Society. As a character, Alan is one of the oldest within DC Comics’ pantheon (being created in 1940). In EARTH 2, he is getting an update for contemporary times to reflect the world we live in. He is younger, has an updated costume and is being introduced to DC COMICS-THE NEW 52 for the very first time. It is also important to note that while Alan is a gay man, his sexuality is merely only one part of his multi-layered character.
“I’m very proud to be introducing Alan Scott into DC COMICS-THE NEW 52,” said series writer James Robinson. “He was my favorite Golden Age character and one I’m very familiar with so I’m really excited to be updating him for a contemporary readership. However, I think old-time readers will be pleasantly surprised by how, in some ways, I’m trying to show the ‘classic’ Alan Scott at the same time. He’s still the same dynamic, heroic guy he was. He’s still the head of a media empire like he was in his prior version, but of course with the form of media changing and evolving with the times. And in many ways, his origin mirrors the original one also. Oh, and on Earth 2 there is only one Green Lantern, so Alan’s title is The Green Lantern. Alan’s sexuality is just one facet of him, along with his innate goodness, valor, charisma and skill at leadership that makes him the perfect man to wield the power of the green light in the world of Earth 2.”
“Before starting work on #1, the first document I had to work from was the character breakdowns for our primary players,” continued EARTH 2 artist Nicola Scott. “With Alan the brief was very clear. He needed to be a big, strapping, handsome man that everyone would instinctively follow and love. No short order but right up my alley. Alan strikes me as an incredibly open, honest and warm man, a natural leader and absolutely the right choice to be Guardian of the Earth. His sexuality is incidental. Every time I draw him I love him even more.”
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a fourth string,alternate universe green lantern is not a main or iconic character.
Alan Scott is a pretty iconic character in my mind. The fact that he’s on Earth Two does sideline him a bit from the “main” part of things.
Honestly, I think the fact that this whole thing actually matters to anyone is what is a bit sad. I’m disappointed that we as a society haven’t reached a point where we realize that someone else’s sexual preference doesn’t really matter to us (well, unless we want their preference to be us… but that’s another story).
I think that’s why I loved Matthew’s article about how awesome Northstar is. It showcased that comic characters, like people, aren’t defined by who they’re attracted to.
IMO, it’s absurd to say that orientation is irrelevant. If it’s not a part of a person’s whole self, their identity as a whole, then what is it? It’s a stronger part of an identity than a hobby or their job. Would you say those don’t factor in either? If the alter ego’s private identity is irrelevant, then why is so much page space dedicated to their private lives?
Are we supposed to treat superheroes the way we do sports–that we root no matter who’s inside the uniform? Are we really just watching LAUNDRY go across the page? Sorry, but that’s not gonna fly. Just ask fans of Hal Jordan, Barry Allen, Arthur Curry, and Ray Palmer if personal traits under the cowl “shouldn’t matter.” It DOES. And intolerance or bigotry have NOTHING to do with it.
Funny how any criticism is turned into intolerance. Why is there no room for insisting a character not be altered by editors? How well did that plan work out after Crisis in Infinite Earths? A MESS. After Zero Hour? One Year Later? How many revamp episodes must fans endure? (I present Hawkman as my evidence. One jacked up, almost unusable character.) Didio wanted a high profile homosexual, just as he wants more ethnic/minority variation. Fine by me. Make a million of them. But create them as NEW. Don’t mine pre-existing characters because you have no imagination. Case in point: Blue Beetle. The new BB is a really good character. But he bears no resemblance to the original except being blue and having the name–and that name’s the problem. DC created an almost totally new character and then copped out by reusing an established name. It’s clearly not the old Blue Beetle, and by use of his name, fans of the previous Blue Beetle have no chance of enjoying their character again. In my mind, this was completely unnecessary–except for the fact that Didio’s DC has no capacity to create new character names.
Don’t blame fans of the Golden and Silver Age that their childhood heroes were all white males. That’s what they made and what we bought. It’s not our fault that era wasn’t populated with minorities. AS far as those characters go, most of us want them to remain unaltered.
I loathe ANY permanent alteration to an established character in this manner. (This event was not character growth. This isn’t a 74 year old character coming out of the closet. This is a new iteration of the GA Green Lantern.) If DC wants a new character, then MAKE A NEW CHARACTER.
I feel the same about this entire Earth 2 concept of the New 52. It’s utterly pointless. The only people who cared about Earth 2 in any way cared about the original Golden Age characters–not endless derivatives and stand-ins. This should be titled “Earth-5” or something that properly identifies it as all-new.
To restart Earth 2 is to officially KILL the very first universe in this industry. And THAT is the most unacceptable of all. No respect for what DC was built upon. (I don’t know why this isn’t the big headline on every webpage = Didio kills Golden Age with new “Earth 2.”)
If nobody at DC cares about the Golden Age characters and their continuity (besides Geoff Johns), then they should just put it all on a big shelf and leave it alone.
This replacement method is also deceitful. Didio wants rid of DC’s old dinosaur fans. People like me who prefer older characters. Didio wants a different customer base. That’s fine. But if he wants new readers, then create new characters. It’s lazy and sleazy to take the position of not wanting to continue those old characters, and then keep using those characters in altered form. There’s nothing universal about Alan Scott. He speaks only to old fogeys, not young kids. Let’s face it, the name “Green Lantern” is very dated. It’s not a naming convention current audiences relate to. So by re-using it, Didio is trying to have it both ways–he wants a “new” character but doesn’t want to risk using a new name. He still wants us old fogeys to buy DC’s books without having an iota of respect for us.
Huh, okay this isn’t bad or anything. I still don’t see why the publishers had to make this a big deal. Part of me now kind of wishes it was Ted Grant, just because it would be more interesting contrast of American image of big macho man boxer type.
We knew it wasn’t going to be a hugely popular mainstream character. Alan Scott is iconic, just not popular right now. I will be interested in seeing what they do with him. Basically the ball is still in DC’s court…promote the character despite initial sales then they have done a good and progressive thing, cancel him after 6 issues like Static Shock and it was a crappy publicity stunt.
DC tells us for days its a ICONIC character and makes a big presentation of it, then says its only a small part of the character. DC did it for shock value only. DC has been a follower of Marvel and they have been very quick to go for the quick and easy push instead of trying to come up better writing. Look at the Justice League series. It took one scene 6 issues to complete. They turn a good idea into a money push. They are more interested in “making their mark” then writing good stories. Their only goal is to try to get their name in USA Today for 1 day.
A permanent solution to a temporary problem.
I don’t know what this says about me if I’m more concerned about the demise of the orignal Earth-2 JSA than I am about any of this. I wouldn’t care if they made the original Alan Scott gay as long as I could have him back!
It sounds like they’re playing this well, so I’m all for it.
Yep, the Golden Age universe and continuity is officially DEAD.
This new “Earth 2” is a completely different Earth than the original Earth 2.
And these characters are also completely new. But Didio doesn’t want to say that, because of his dishonest strategy = use enough of the old characters’ traits to fool old fans into buying the book.
Superman to be revealed to be a woman, Batman discovered to be a robot, Wonder Woman really a talking monkey, Aquaman discovered to be afraid of the water.. see I could write for DC right now.
Why are they changing his costume then?
My only issue with this is that they put out a press release on it. Why should his sexual preference be news?
Seriously? So Jade and Obsidian will never happen in the new universe unless Alan is kidnapped and raped at bat-point? That is so lame. Might as well make Ted Grant and Kent Nelson gay while you’re at it. In fact, just cut to the chase and make all of Earth Two gay. Everyone will co-parent to raise their kids. That way Superman and Wonder Woman CAN have a child and still not have to marry each other!
Being gay does not mean that you do not or cannot have children…
I, for one, was kind of excited to see him eventually have a relationship with not 1, but 2 of his villains… Okay, Molly aka Harlequinn was more of a Catwoman-esque villain than a true villain… But still!! She did bad things… And also helped the good guys once in awhile… Rose Canton on the other hand…………..
As I said, his pre-reboot children will not come to be, unless he decides to “switch” or is coerced into conceiving them. Sure he can biologically produce kids, and he can adopt, but Jade and Obsidian were conceived in a consensual uncounter with Harlequin. That’s not something that is likely to happen in this incarnation of his character.
Robinson stated in an interview that the folks at DC were surprised when DiDio’s comment about it, which Robinson describes as having been offhand, became such a big story. Maybe the publishers weren’t pushing it as much as the media were.
But I am very worried that Sam won’t survive issue #3. Please let’s not go there!
Considering we are seeing the origin of the Green Lantern… I hope not either, as that could be a real train wreck…
Wasn’t Alan Scott’s origin an ACTUAL trainwreck? I see what you did there, Steve…
heh… wondering who would catch that first…
So this retcon means Obsidian is not gay anymore?
Has Obsidian appeared in the New 52 or on Earth-2 yet?
I still think Jade and Obsidian should be Alan Scott’s long lost twin siblings… Since they obviously can’t do the whole kids aspect unless they want them to come from the future or an alternate realty/earth… It might be cool to have them show up on Earth-2 at some point… But who knows what (if any) plans exist for those two? I’m sure someone will decide it would be a cool idea to make them incestuous or conjoined or something equally as ridiculous in the future… Or maybe they’ll have no ties to Alan whatsoever…
It seems clear that new52 Alan Scott is too young to have a 20something year old son, so it was just a flippant way to point out that, for all the press releases and big announcements, DC had to erase an old gay character to make room for this newsworthy plot point.
I don’t have any problems with DC making an established superhero gay, but personally I think they chose the wrong Green Lantern. The whole de-aging of Alan Scott and retconning away his family and World War II history bothers me far more than his being gay (especially since it got rid of an already established gay character, his son Obsidian). I think Kyle Rayner would have been a better Green Lantern to portray as homosexual. There’s already a precedent there for dealing with the subject matter of gay characters and the issues they face (his one time assistant Terry). The New 52 has already retconned away his two biggest heterosexual superhero relationships (neither Donna Troy nor Jade appear to exist anymore). And if there’s one event I think we could all agree would be well removed from continuity it’s the fate of Alexandra DeWitt.
I’m not sure that Kyle would be any more iconic than Alan, but he’s certainly more popular and well known. Even non comics readers might remember him from the Superman cartoon. No one outside of comics know who Alan Scott is. And at least Kyle exists on the “main DCU Earth” or whatever they’re calling it now.
I think Kyle would have been a decent choice, except that you might create a situation where people think of “Green Lantern, the jerk Green Lantern, the black Green Lantern, and the gay Green Lantern.”
Alan Scott can avoid this because he is neither in the corps nor the main continuity.
But fans will do that anyway.
Hasn’t Robinson said that since the JSA folks are now young again, there is no Obsidian or Jade or any other of the JSA Jr. characters. Part of his reason for making Scott gay was *because* Obsidian had been lost in the reboot.
This can all be easily resolved by creating an Earth 3 book.
Well I ended my collecting of comics once I heard this reboot was happening. Now I am glad that I did. I will relive my memories with old stories. This is awfull and shows no new ideas at DC. Besides seeing the pages and the scripting. Come on as a gay male that writing is so bad and cheesy I am offended by it.
I hate this duplicitous argument.
If orientation doesn’t matter, then why change it?
There’s no answer that doesn’t make Didio two-faced. He makes the change to get media attention–but defends it by saying we’re not supposed to pay attention to it.
I’d like to be in charge of Didio’s personal universe. I would change his father into a woman. And when he complained, I would say “why do you care, are you a mysogynist? Do you hate women? Are you an Ovary-phobe?”
He would say, “No! But my dad’s a man!”
I would say, “Why do you hate change?”
And he would hold his head in frustration and confusion at how I didn’t understand why he would insist his father remain a woman as she had been all his life.