So, DC Comics has accomplished its Big Gay Superhero Reveal:
Green Lantern, one of DC Comics’ oldest and most enduring heroes, is serving as a beacon for the publisher again, this time as a proud, mighty and openly gay hero.
The change is revealed in the pages of the second issue of “Earth 2” out next week, and comes on the heels of what has been an expansive year for gay and lesbian characters in the pages of comic books from Archie to Marvel and others.
But purists and fans note: This Green Lantern is not the emerald galactic space cop Hal Jordan who was, and is, part of the Justice League and has had a history rich in triumph and tragedy.
Instead, he’s a parallel earth Green Lantern. James Robinson, who writes the new series, said Alan Scott is the retooled version of the classic Lantern whose first appearance came in the pages of “All-American Comics” No. 16 in July 1940…
Green Lantern would be the highest-profile openly gay hero — even the parallel earth version…
“This guy, he’s a media mogul, a hero, a dynamic type-A personality and he’s gay,” Robinson said. “He’s a complex character.”
Well, good for Alan Scott, and James Robinson, and DC Comics. Anything that leads to the ‘One Million Moms’ Wildmon sockpuppets flouncing off Facebook in a huff (h/t Paul Constant) must be considered a blow for the greater good. On the other hand: Green Lantern, the world’s most infinitely replaceable superhero. To quote the WaPo’s officially funny punditista, “Rephrased, the announcement reads: Alan Scott, one of the 2600-odd Green Lanterns in the New 52 Reboot of DC Comics’ superheroes is now gay. Why the fuss?”
Even when I was a stone comix geek (late 1960s/early 1970s), Green Lantern seemed like the ultimate Superhero in the Grey Flannel Spandex Suit, a determinedly average Middle American Man granted “magical” abilities by a committee. Anybody wearing the committee’s magic ring could be a Green Lantern, and I had the vague impression that a string of anybodys already had been, so my first reaction to the Big Reveal was, hey, not exactly risking a marquee character, are we?
Or do I underrate Green Lantern’s appeal to anyone not Sheldon Cooper (who is, after all, another fictional character)?
Mnemosyne
Well, given that the actor who plays Sheldon just offically came out, I think Green Lantern may have more GLBT appeal than you thought.
(Though it’s not like Parsons was ever really “in.” IIRC, his date at awards shows was always his partner, and he never really made a secret of it. More like, until the show was successful, no one bothered to ask.)
Politically Lost
Because I love you.
Spaghetti Lee
Seems like pretty much a Non-Event, both in terms of gay rights and comic book continuity. I kind of don’t like the idea of retconning characters to give them some ‘controversial’ characteristic, even when I support the characteristic in question, but it seems like this is just a half-ass job of it.
Suffern ACE
@Politically Lost: I’m scarred for life now. Or at least until tomorrow morning.
Luthe
I don’t care what character DC makes gay these days. Between the reboot and what they’ve done to their female writers and characters, the whole company is dead to me. It’s so bad I might have to start buying Marvel ::shudder:: instead.
Yutsano
@Spaghetti Lee: That’s because the Green Lantern is the easy out for them. There have been numerous iterations of them (My favourite was the black Marine but I’m biased) so honestly by sheer odds one of them was bound to be gay. The ring doesn’t choose by mere personal characteristics, according to the mythos of the Lantern.
Brachiator
Seems like a good thing to me, and a relative big deal. Homophobes will be upset no matter what. None of them is going to say “we would have picketed you had you made Superman or Batman gay, but since it’s only Green Lantern, we will give you a pass.”
Also too, most retconning is capricious, arbitrary or an attempt to revive a brand or market a comic better, so I don’t see how anyone could make any issue over acceptable or spurious retconning.
We’ve come a long way since the white bread hypocrisy of the Comics Code. Enjoy the ride and mock the inevitable backlash.
BigSouthern
You really don’t underestimate his appeal at all, particularly at this moment in time.
DC recently relaunched all their continuity, so instead of Alan Scott being the decades old Green Lantern who held a rightfully important place in the canon – namely the original Green Lantern – he’s just some guy with the name Alan Scott who doesn’t even live in DC’s primary universe. Had they made the old version of Alan Scott gay, it would have at least had interesting storyline ramifications – the dude had two kids and was one of the first superheroes.
But now he’s just another guy who’s going to be another Green Lantern. And not even in the universe that matters.
Suffern ACE
Finally. I really did have a crush on Hal Jordan when I was in my early teens. It’s good that they introduced a new latern, though. That whole “Hal Jordan becomes a genocidal maniac” storyline kind of made him bad boyfriend material. Hard to get past that, actually. The question will be whether they give him some sort of relationship.
BigSouthern
Two more things…
I love James Robinson’s work on Starman from the 90s, but everything since then has been really iffy to completely shitty with Justice League: Cry For Justice being especially terrible. I wish I could say I was sure he’ll handle this well, but I really can’t.
If DC was going to make an established character gay it should have been Jimmy Olsen. Having him remain Superman’s best friend would have been a pretty powerful message.
S. cerevisiae
Next: Batman in Robin
Cacti
I always thought Batman was the clear choice.
There’s the obvious pederasty angle with Robin. And Bruce Wayne’s protege is named Dick, for crying out loud.
Suffern ACE
@Cacti: Ummm. Don’t you dare interfere. They need to come to that realization on their own.
redshirt
Green Lantern is lame. Make mine Marvel.
Bostondreams
The geek in me must clarify. Technically, the Alan Scott GL is NOT a member of the Corps. His emerald energy comes from a different but related source, and historically has been more magical in nature. I suppose the new 52 could be different.
Citizen Alan
This has the potential to be a bigger deal than you may realize. [puts on comic geek hat] As part of the New 52 project, my understanding is that DC is rebooting Earth 2 (originally the home of the old WW2 era heroes) as a new contemporary setting, specifically one in which that world’s Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman have all just died heroically saving that world from destruction. In the absence of the Big Three, the Alan Scott GL will probably be the most powerful and recognizable character in that setting and the one most likely to be the founder/leader of the revamped Justice Society. Also, the Earth 2 setting has a different origin for Green Lantern that does not involve “space cops” so the Alan Scott character is unique. It appears that the Earth 2 series is going to get a decent push by DC, which means that this version of Alan Scott is going to be very prominent going forward. Certainly more so than Marvel’s Northstar, who only shows up every other year or so to stand around and “be gay” for a few issues.
Shalimar
I realize that it isn’t the same character, but still, if you talk to an 80-year old and say “did you hear they made Green Lantern gay? No, not that one, Alan Scott”, they will think it is a huge deal. Just about every boy who grew up during WWII read comics.
NotMax
It’s the Earth-One Green Lantern(s) who are part of the 3600-sector (not 2600-member) Corps, not the Earth-2 Green Lantern.
Total nerdfail by WaPo. Apparently the “official funny pundista” doesn’t grok the concept of basic research.
And DC also totally got rid of Alan Scott’s gay son, as the ‘new’ Scott is too young to have kids that age.
As for any Earth-2 version of Alan Scott, if it doesn’t include Doiby Dickles and Goitrude the cab, I say it’s spinach and to hell with it.
moderateindy
It’s really hard not to mock adults debating characters in comic books I’m sorry………graphic novels. But it’s really just too trite to bother. Besides every time I want to make fun of people for the stupid crap they are into, I simply step back and remember all the stupid crap I like and that helps with perspective.
For instance it’s hard to criticize someone’s entertainment choices when I will actually watch multiple episodes of Swamp People. For those unfamiliar allow me to recount every episode. Remember to insert a cajun accent while reading.
Cajun Guy 1: We gonna get that gator
Cajun Guy 2: Oh yeah we gonna get him
Cajun Guy 1: I think the line’s down
Cajun Guy 2: I hope its a big gator
one guy grabs the line and drags the gator to the surface where it struggles.
Cajun Guy 1: Oh man he’s fighting…… get the gun
Cajun Guy 2: That’s a good size gator
Cajun Guy 1: Shoot him. shoot that gator….good shot
Cajun Guy 2: That’s a nice size gator
Cajun Guy 1: Oh yeah that’s a good gator…………..
Now you’ve seen every episode, and yet I still watch it, so I’ll give a pass to people that read comic books.
Frankensteinbeck
To remotely gay-friendly comic book readers, this will not seem like a big deal. But then, to reasonable people the existence of gay characters should always be a ‘Yes, and…?’
To non-gay-friendly people this is a very big deal, as you pointed out above. It doesn’t matter that it was a minor character, they took a public step, any step, defying bigotry. A step that is likely to infuriate a very large number of bigots. To DC, that makes even this little thing a very big deal.
Gay characters in their comics (lesbians don’t count because of the hur-hur-lesbians factor) should be an obvious non-issue in our culture. Unfortunately, it is very much an issue in our culture. This move has to be evaluated in that context.
Frankensteinbeck
Since establishing your geek cred seems to be a big part of this discussion, I haven’t read superhero comics since the late 80s, maybe early 90s. I was primarily a fan of The New Mutants at the time. Then Marvel decided it wasn’t sufficiently edgy. Within the span of a year three of my favorite characters were killed, and my absolute favorite character had her personality radically altered for no obvious reason. Well, no obvious reason other than they felt she needed to be making out a lot more, or indeed at all.
I put down superhero comics and picked up a copy of Beanworld and never looked back.
Hunter
@Suffern ACE: From the previews, he seems to have a boyfriend named Sam.
And all things considered, I wonder how long it’s going to be before they get married.
Hunter
I’m still taking it as DC playing catch-up. As far as I know, they haven’t had a gay male character since Midnighter in the Wildstorm Universe. Marvel, on the other hand, is littered with them.
Jay in Oregon
I suspect DC would love for everyone to forget who their first openly-gay male superhero really was. (Yes, he was a real character, in what was intended to be a front-line title. He was diagnosed as HIV positive after being attacked by an “AIDS vampire”… /wince)
And everyone seems to have forgotten that the modern version of Batwoman is also a lesbian. (The original Batwoman was intended as a semi-love interest for Batman and has little relation to Batgirl.)
Before the big “New 52” reboot, Alan Scott’s son Todd Rice (the superhero Obsidian) was revealed to be gay. They haven’t introduced the character into the rebooted continuity yet.
In the late 80’s, Metropolis police captain and Superman supporting character Maggie Sawyer was a lesbian (though that may have been “retconned” at some later point).
Still, they’re doing better than Marvel Comics, who once wrote an issue of The Incredible Hulk where Bruce Banner was nearly raped in a YMCA shower by two men…
Gwangung
@BigSouthern: Actually, his SHADE maxi series is a return to form, and it may be that EARTH 2 may be a part of that turnaround. He does his best work n STARMAN fleshing it the Knight legacy, which is just world building….and EARTH 2 is pretty much world building…
Jay in Oregon
@Citizen Alan:
I would agree with you about Northstar, although he’s been a regular character in the X-Men titles for a while now—which is why his marriage is taking place in the pages of an X-Men title.
He does show up for every failed attempt to reboot the Canadian superhero team Alpha Flight, though. The last one was amusing in that it was intended to be a 4-issue miniseries; was expanded into an ongoing title, presumably “by popular demand”; and cancelled with issue 8.
Cassidy
DC went chickenshit. They were trying to compete with Marvel’s big, gay wedding with Northstar. Northstar has been around for a while and, while not a major character, has never been a throw away minor character either. So DC decided they wanted a piece of that action, but didn’t want to risk a major character suddenly coming out of the closet. Northstar has been out for years, btw.
Jay in Oregon
@Hunter:
Technically, Midnighter’s teammate Apollo was also gay. Otherwise, that adds a whole new wrinkle to his getting married to Midnighter.
Cute aside: Originally, Apollo and Midnighter were introduced as the surviving members of a covert team of superheroes who corresponded to an incarnation of the Justice League; they were the Superman and Batman analogues. This was before the “New 52” reboot merged the Wildstorm continuity into mainstream DC continuity.
Frankensteinbeck
@Jay in Oregon:
Lesbians don’t count. I’m completely serious. Society’s assumption, no matter what the truth is, is that you’re pandering to teenage boys who think lesbians are hot. A gay male hero is read as approving, even timidly, of the existence of homosexuality. They’re received totally differently.
Cassidy
@Frankensteinbeck: True. They still had the big, spandex covered boobs and tiny waists and that seems to be all that matters, especially in DCNU.
jon
I wish they had been actually brave and make it someone like Lex Luthor. That could have been interesting, as it could then lead to some gay superheroes coming out in response to homophobia getting mixed with an idea of wrongness. Of course, that would have had to have been complex and risky.
jon
Step One: Lex Luthor outed by someone at the Daily Planet (not Clark or Lois, but someone trying to make a name for him/herself)
Outrage from gay groups in the real world.
Step Two: Outrage in Metropolis and elsewhere. Violence against gays. A pride parade is threatened.
Even more outrage from gay groups. Silence from wingnuts.
Step Three: Superheroes defend rights and lives of protesters and parade-goers and stop attack on parade.
Mild outrage from crazy wingnut websites. Religious groups condemn “protection of destructive lifestyle” but give lip-service to First Amendment.
Step Four: Some hero or heroes come out after Superman gives patriotic speech about defending the rights of minorities and such. It ends with a lot of the other superheroes saying variants of “It’s about time. And I’m happy for you.”
Wingnut heads explode.
Jay in Oregon
@Frankensteinbeck:
I would not disagree with that in the slightest. I once heard a comparison between male and female superheroes that I think is spot on. It went something like:
“Male superheroes are an idealized form of what teenage boys want to be; female superheroes are an idealized form of what teenage boys want to have.”
Jay in Oregon
@jon:
When the X-Men were first created, mutants were seen as a metaphor for puberty: they were teenagers whose bodies were going through changes they didn’t understand, and caused the people around them to treat them differently.
With the X-Men graphic novel “God Loves, Man Kills”, mutants became more of an analogy for homosexuality; the main character was Reverend Stryker, a fire-and-brimstone preacher who accused mutants of being the work of the devil.
This analogy because even more tortured as time went on: Marvel introduced the “Legacy Virus”, a lethal virus that affected primarily mutants (but crossed over into the normal population on occasion). There is a strong anti-mutant sentiment among non-mutants people in most Marvel comics, though the superhero community is generally more enlightened.
Recently, that analogy pretty much got blown out of the water when they had a reality-altering event that turned virtually every mutant on Earth into a normal human being; only 198 mutants were spared. Coincidentally, this included almost all of the X-Men and every other significant mutant you can think of; only a handful have since regained their powers.
Frankensteinbeck
@Jay in Oregon: And it doesn’t matter if it’s true, it’s what people THINK is true. It does tend to be true, because alas the comic companies believe it too.
middlewest
@Frankensteinbeck:
What gay men actually believe. Batwoman was a big deal for lesbians, and for many, many females who read comics in general, but none of that counts, because “society” only means people with cocks. Thanks for being straightforward about your casual sexism, at least.
BigSouthern
And, of course, Marvel and DC are just chasing Archie Comics when it comes to a positive portrayal and marriage for a gay character.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Keller
Cassidy
@middlewest: I think you misunderstood. Females in comics are higly sexualized and hot, lesbian characters fit into the internal pornography of the target demographic. Stating this is not an admission of personal sexism.
Frankensteinbeck
@middlewest: and @Cassidy:
On the contrary, it’s a discussion of the prevalence of sexism. The central issue here is that the elements of society that would object to a gay male superhero would object far less or not at all to a lesbian female superheroine. This in turn makes a big difference to the comic book company themselves. There’s much, much less risk.
I’m pleased to hear that you found that character portrayal affirming, but that’s not the point of my discussion. I’m talking about how the majority of society views the existence of such a character, and unfortunately the internal views of the GLTG community is not reflected in that. If anything, your assertion that the gay male community also dismisses this example (I wouldn’t know) just reinforces how ubiquitous the stereotype is.
I have no opinion on Batwoman’s sexual identity, and haven’t read it. Since I’m discussing the opinions of other people who haven’t read it, that’s not really required.
dj spellchecka
@Hunter:
just read the first 6 issues of the new52 stormwatch reboot, and the fact that midnighter and apollo meet and realize their mutual attraction is a big part of it…
best new52 book i’ve read by far, fwiw
Jay in Oregon
@dj spellchecka:
Martian Manhunter is a personal favorite of mine, so putting him in the book meant that I was all set to like it; but I could barely get through the first story arc. It reads like a poor imitiation of THE AUTHORITY.
The personalities of the existing characters have been replaced with that New 52/late 90’s Image comics persona of “angsty, sniping and petty”, and I’ve found no reason to care about the three new characters; they’ve already had one “shocking revelation” that will “change the team forever” in the first six issues.
The biggest problem I have with the New 52 relaunch is that it was a solution to the wrong problem. And if there was a problem, it was created by the people who were responsible for the solution. (You throw three big reality-altering crossovers at the readers in three years—”Final Crisis”, “Blackest Night”, and “Flashpoint”—and then have the gall to complain that the DC Universe continuity is too convoluted?)
Narcissus
Northstar has been out of the closet for what, twenty years now?
I like DC, but this is dumb.
Nina
Didn’t they out Joker a few years back? Is that carried on into the new continuity?
I always thought that that was a horrible choice, equating homosexuality with the most absolutely messed-up character in the DC Universe.
Jason
You do. I was never a big fan of Alan Scott’s Golden Age character (no good reason why, a perfectly good character), but Hal Jordan’s downfall/redemption arcs are two of the great epics of DC comics.
It’s not his innate strength that gives him power, like Superman. It’s not a weird conglomeration of ruthlessness and duty like Batman combined with unlimited resources. It’s because he’s a relatively normal guy that, because he can confront his fears better than others, was empowered by the ring.
In other words, ANYONE can be a Green Lantern, and that’s why I find him so appealing.
However, since they relaunched Alan Scott as a modern character (WHY, FOR CHRISSAKE?! Why do you hate Jade and Obsidian?), I can’t say how I’m going to feel about this character and new reboot.