As promised, one of DC’s “iconic” heroes has come out of the closet – and it’s not Aquaman.
A couple of weeks ago, DC Comics revealed that one of its big name heroes would be reintroduced as homosexual, as part of the DC universe “reboot.” The move angered conservative Christian group One Million Moms, which called on the publisher to kill the change, but to its credit DC stuck to its guns and today announced that the newly-gay superhero is none other than Green Lantern.
This being DC Comics, however, it’s not quite as simple as that. It’s not Hal Jordan, who I would say is probably the most popular (or at least best-known) Green Lantern and was portrayed by Ryan Reynolds in the 2011 big-screen train wreck, but Alan Scott, the original Green Lantern of Earth-2 who debuted in 1940 and served with the Justice Society of America, “retooled” as a younger, gay character.
And according to writer James Robinson, he’s not “newly gay,” either, at least not within the context of the book. “He doesn’t come out. He’s gay when we see him in issue two. He’s fearless and he’s honest to the point where he realized he was gay and he said ‘I’m gay’,” Robinson told AP. “It was just meant to be – Alan Scott being a gay member of the team, the Justice Society.”
Marvel did the same thing years ago with Northstar, but he’s hardly in the same class as Green Lantern, and turning a legitimate heavyweight – even an alternate universe heavyweight – into an openly gay character is a big move to make. But just like in real life, Scott’s sexuality will be just one aspect of the character, and it won’t define him. “This guy, he’s a media mogul, a hero, a dynamic type-A personality and he’s gay,” Robinson explained. “He’s a complex character.”
DC makes it all official in the second issue of Earth 2, which comes out (get it?) next week.
Source: Yahoo! News
