I told you about the rumors last week. You’ve probably had your suspicions ever since the Ryan Reynolds movie, and now they’ve been confirmed. Sort of. Two caveats to start off:
- The following isn’t about the Green Lantern with brown hair and green-and-black costume, Hal Jordan, who you’ve been laughing at ever since his movie bombed. That guy, created in the late ’50s, was actually a revamp of the Green Lantern created in the ’40s, whose secret identity is Alan Scott. Scott has blond hair and a different costume and lives in a different universe than the Green Lantern from the movie. Well, sometimes. It’s pointlessly complicated.
- Actually, this isn’t even the Alan Scott from the ’40s. This character has the same name, but last year DC Comics revamped their entire superhero line, alternate universes and all. So now all the characters are just different enough to create the illusion of change — new costumes, new backstories, new sexual orientations — without becoming unmarketable.
Confused yet? Good. That means you’re not into comics, which you definitely should not be.
And now, for DC’s latest publicity stunt brave and sincere gesture of tolerance. NY Post:
One of DC Comics oldest heroes is super-coming out.
The original Green Lantern – a DC Comics mainstay for the past 70 years – will be revealed to be a gay man in next week’s issue of “Earth 2.”
Alan Scott – formerly a married father of two who first appeared in 1940 – tips readers off to his sexuality early on in the comic when he gives his boyfriend a welcome home kiss.
“He’s very much the character he was. He’s still the pinnacle of bravery and idealism. He’s also gay,” “Earth 2” writer James Robinson told The Post.
The Emerald Guardian’s sexuality was rebooted along with the rest of his fictional universe as part of DC’s “New 52” initiative aimed at rejuvenating their characters.
Robinson said he decided to make the change because making the character young again meant erasing Scott’s gay superhero son out of existence.
“The only downside of his being young was we lose his son, Obsidian, who’s gay. So I thought, ‘Why not make Alan Scott gay?'” Robinson recalled. “That was the seed that started it.”
See? Simple logic.
So now people who hate gays will have something new to hate, which will give bullies like Dan Savage another excuse to keep being bullies, and DC Comics can pat themselves on the back for their diversity while enjoying a brief sales jump. The character has enough name recognition that it’s considered news, but he’s just distant enough from their main line of characters to protect them from any potential fallout. It’s kind of brilliant, really.
As for whether the stories themselves are any good… who cares?
Oh yeah, and not to be outdone, Marvel Comics just had one of their superheroes propose to his boyfriend. Except that character, Northstar, has never been the title of a movie so nobody cares. Sorry, Marvel. Better luck next gay.
Update: This news is hardly surprising. It was right there all along…
