DC Comics Green Lantern relaunched as gay superhero
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.”
He ran his idea by the bosses at DC, “who signed off on it without hesitation.”
Robinson, a British writer who lives in San Francisco with his wife, is no stranger to gay characters - he wrote DC’s “Starman” comic in the 1990s, a groundbreaking title that starred a homosexual superhero. He said the only agenda he’s pushing is reality.
“It’s a realistic depiction of society,” he said. “You have to move with the times.”
He said he did hope the character - who’s the most powerful member of DC’s superteam, the Justice Society - would be an inspiration.
“He’s a type-A personality who doesn’t hide in the shadows,” Robinson said.
“I hope he’s a positive figure. If there’s some kind of kid out there who’s reading the comic and who’s worried about the person he is, maybe it will give him a positive sense of who he is. Or maybe a different kid will read it and decide I don’t need to bully some kind of kid in school,” Robinson said.
While a gay wedding in Archie Comics earlier this year and impending same-sex nuptials in a Marvel X-Men comic have recieved a small amount of backlash from angry parents, Robinson said he’s not worried about that because “that kind of negativity is stupid and outmoded.”
“We should be preaching love and tolerance,” he said.
“Earth 2” No. 2 goes on sale Wednesday.
The character is different than the more modern Green Lantern, ladies’ man Hal Jordan, who stars in his own comics and is a member of an extraterrestrial police force called the Green Lantern Corps. Jordan’s also part of DC’s Justice League with Wonder Woman, Batman, Superman, the Flash and Aquaman.
In the current “New 52” continuity, the Alan Scott Green Lantern and the Justice Society operate in a different universe than the Justice League. Robinson said in the “Earth 2” universe, Scott is the sole Green Lantern, and “the strongest, most important super-powered character” in the world.
Speculation in the comics community about which DC character would be revamped as gay was at a fever pitch in recent weeks, most notably at www.bleedingcool.com.
