Alan Scott: The Green Lantern by Tim Sheridan and Cian Tormey (New Golden Age)

[The Darknight Detective]

Yes, it is an interesting idea. But why not create anew hero to fill that role.
Instead, he uses an established hero, one with 80+ years of history and trashes it to tell his story
The original creators never intended this for their character. And this meant to be the original not a10 year old
version

If you're going to create a new character, then 1) that new character will take up considerable amount of space from the other GA superheroes without a codename to draw people to the comic or 2) it's Gay Token Man! making a cameo every now and then. So DC did what they did because of Alan's familiar codename, while Alan Scott himself was deemed expendable for this experiment because he hasn't been a sales draw for a very long time.

[MajorHoy]

If you're going to create a new character, then 1) that new character will take up considerable amount of space from the other GA superheroes without a codename to draw people to the comic or 2) it's Gay Token Man! making a cameo every now and then. So DC did what they did because of Alan's familiar codename, while Alan Scott himself was deemed expendable for this experiment because he hasn't been a sales draw for a very long time.

When was the last time DC gave Alan a legitimate chance to become "a sales draw"?

[The Darknight Detective]

When was the last time DC gave Alan a legitimate chance to become "a sales draw"?

Well, that could be said of a lot of different characters, right? Having multiple other GLs out there with much larger fanbases is a negative, too, regarding Alan's marketability.

[j9ac9k]

It's hilarious - I'm buying this series because I'm excited to read about Alan during the old days where he's back in his classic costume and called "Green Lantern." The "experiment" was when he was de-aged, called Sentinel and wore that updated green and red costume. Those changes didn't interest me and I didn't buy comics where that incarnation of him was featured. To me, this is more a return to form than that other version.

[The Darknight Detective]

It's hilarious - I'm buying this series because I'm excited to read about Alan during the old days where he's back in his classic costume and called "Green Lantern." The "experiment" was when he was de-aged, called Sentinel and wore that updated green and red costume. Those changes didn't interest me and I didn't buy comics where that incarnation of him was featured. To me, this is more a return to form than that other version.

Sentinel was indeed an experiment, too, but a different type. The new version is an experiment to see if there are enough readers out there who are willing to read the exploits of a gay male superhero who once wasn't (regardless of how close he is to the original version otherwise).

[Refrax5]

Yes, it is an interesting idea. But why not create anew hero to fill that role.
Instead, he uses an established hero, one with 80+ years of history and trashes it to tell his story
The original creators never intended this for their character. And this meant to be the original not a10 year old
version

Not exactly. Again, most characters were changed pretty drastically in continuity and characterization after COIE. Alan and the rest of the DC universe have had their reality warped and history altered countless times. This is fairly minor in comparison to a lot of characters.

My only concern is that every story with Alan is going to revolve around his sexuality now, instead of focusing on him being this tough old badass. What I liked about the Earth 2 version Robinson did was that being gay was just one aspect of Alan's character. They didn't shy away from it but they didn't dwell on it much either. The focus was still on this guy's heroic journey and making him cool and him being gay was just a detail about him.

I think that there's storytelling potential with an old JSA-er coming out and they shouldn't shy away from that. But I hope that we still get all the other aspects of Alan that made me a fan in the first place.

[Skytten]

People always complaining about how they should make a new character or how they would like it if it was a new one instead. But then never gives it a chance or just attacking it because it's "woke".

[Johnny]

I think the issue is the loud echo chamber that you talked about earlier tends to drown out everyone else.

I'd say that's just the only type of echo chamber always being acknowledged, often simply because it's the easy thing to do.

[andersonh1]

So DC did what they did because of Alan's familiar codename, while Alan Scott himself was deemed expendable for this experiment because he hasn't been a sales draw for a very long time.

They've done something similar with all the characters whose orientation has been altered. They publish a bi-Superman, but not "the" Superman, it's his son instead. They change Robin, but not the most well-known Robin, they pick the third version. They change Green Lantern, but use the more obscure version from the 1940s. DC is trying to play it safe by having it both ways here, with the codename getting the headlines while the most well-known and marketable version of the character behind the codename remains safely unaltered (and yes I know Dick Grayson is Nightwing now, but I guarantee you the general public who has any idea who Robin is will think of Dick Grayson before any of the others). It's the codename that's important for generating the publicity more than the character behind it. There certainly seems to be very little concern given for how well a particular character's history and characteristics make sense when it comes to altering a character's orientation.

[The Darknight Detective]

They've done something similar with all the characters whose orientation has been altered. They publish a bi-Superman, but not "the" Superman, it's his son instead. They change Robin, but not the most well-known Robin, they pick the third version. They change Green Lantern, but use the more obscure version from the 1940s. DC is trying to play it safe by having it both ways here, with the codename getting the headlines while the most well-known and marketable version of the character behind the codename remains safely unaltered (and yes I know Dick Grayson is Nightwing now, but I guarantee you the general public who has any idea who Robin is will think of Dick Grayson before any of the others). It's the codename that's important for generating the publicity more than the character behind it. There certainly seems to be very little concern given for how well a particular character's history and characteristics make sense when it comes to altering a character's orientation.

I agree with everything you said. Now if DC changes the sexual orientation of a popular male character headlining a title, I will be more than surprised.

[j9ac9k]

They've done something similar with all the characters whose orientation has been altered. They publish a bi-Superman, but not "the" Superman, it's his son instead. They change Robin, but not the most well-known Robin, they pick the third version. They change Green Lantern, but use the more obscure version from the 1940s...

Considering the ages of Superson and Robin, it's believable that they're discovering themselves rather than declaring that they've been "altered."

[andersonh1]

Considering the ages of Superson and Robin, it's believable that they're discovering themselves rather than declaring that they've been "altered."

If a character was envisioned as straight when created, and written that way for any length of time (and all of these characters were to varying extents) I think it's fair to describe their orientation as "altered" by DC. Jon's romantic history is short enough that it makes the least impact on the character (he had a girlfriend while the Legion of Superheroes book, but that book didn't last long), but Tim Drake and Alan Scott have a lot of history that has to be retconned and explained away to make the new status quo make sense. Like I said, the codename was key in both instances, the character was secondary.

As an aside, with Jon I think aging him up was a mistake. There was a lot of mileage left in telling stories about Jon as a kid, being a sidekick to his dad and hanging out with Damien. But that's another topic altogether.

[Noodle]

Tim Drake and Alan Scott have a lot of history that has to be retconned and explained away to make the new status quo make sense.

Nothing of Tim's had to be retconned. He's bi, not gay. None of his prior relationships were altered in any way.

[amerigo178]

Thing is, it will never change back when next creators come alon. No one will have the will to do so.
S. This how he will be going forward. Even if the title doesn't sell well.

[skyvolt2000]

I might be misunderstanding you here, but what other issues does it cause? Because I don't see any.

The characters are often not actually being showcased to people who would be receptive to them, but rather to a group of people who aren't interested in them.

Lets go to Amazon where the Kindle section has this book.

Alan Scott: The Green Lantern (2023-) #1 Kindle & comiXology
4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 92 ratings
4.2 on Goodreads 31 ratings

3 one star reviews.
One suggest read Jupiter Circle.
One says go read the classic
The last one

Avoid this book, the character has been ruined and his nearly 80 years of published history ignored, presumably for the sake of "diversity." It's not worth your time or money.

Tim Drake's run 4-5 stars every single issue.
Bendis Legion's run 4 stars.
Aqualad 4 stars.
Adventures of Superman: Jon Kent 4 stars

When you bypass the Tuesday/Wednesday comic book store warrior- nobody seems to have an issue with the book existing and can discuss issues they had with art or story beats.

What behavior got removed? The blame game that rarely focuses on actual story content.
The blame game of this POC or LGBTQA+ person is the reason this book is unreadable. When in reality you remove them and guess what that book is still unreadable.