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

[The Darknight Detective]

The original Alan Scott was actually in the closet the whole time - you just didn't know it.

Apparently he didn't know he was gay, either, based on his inner monologues in the ol comics.

[MajorHoy]

The original Alan Scott was actually in the closet the whole time - you just didn't know it.

Apparently he didn't know he was gay, either, based on his inner monologues in the ol comics.

I'm just going to blame it all on the naked blue guy . . .

[andersonh1]

There's no going back now.

Never say never. Hal Jordan was never going to be Green Lantern again after 1994. They did everything they could to make the change irreversible and the character irredeemable. But it's comics... in the vast majority of cases, the status quo reasserts itself sooner or later. Alan has been through status quo changes before... anyone remember when he was Sentinel rather than Green Lantern, and had been aged down into a much younger man? That lasted for a while, and then the long term status quo was reestablished.

Apparently he didn't know he was gay, either, based on his inner monologues in the ol comics.

There's an inner monologue in one of the GLC Quarterly issues where he's clearly sexually attracted to his wife and is having dreams about her. I remember being surprised at how overt the inner dialogue was. It's the issue where he becomes physically young again so maybe his newfound youth was affecting him.

I'm just going to blame it all on the naked blue guy . . .

Yep, blame Dr. Manhattan. First he kills Alan, then he brings him back but changes his orientation. It makes more sense than "hey, it was always this way... really!"

[j9ac9k]

Considering all the changes Alan Scott has undergone throughout his career, I'm happy that he's in his classic costume, wearing his ring and is bearer of the Green Flame, he was and is still the Big Gun of the JSA, is alive and active in present day as a respected hero, has his kids and is called Green Lantern. Being gay doesn't diminish any of that, and to me provides a lot of interesting story potential he hadn't had previously.

[Mantis-Ray]

I'll say making the strongest guy of the team, the big guy everyone rallies around and founder of a glorious legacy gay does make him a cool gay character.

Provided of course he remains the same cool character he is and its not a case like say Fitzmartin's handling of Tim Drake being bi.

[Bored at 3:00AM]

I think having Alan as a closeted gay man in the 40s is one of the more interesting retcons DC has made in recent years. It adds a lot to the character and allows creators to explore a lot of new ground that superhero comic haven't touched too often.

Unfortunately, this issue was pretty underwhelming for me. It wasn't bad, but it didn't do much to justify its existence. If you gender-swapped Alan's romantic interest, do you honestly think anyone would be excited about a superhero comic this middling?

But, I suppose that LGBTQ readers deserve superhero comfort food as much as straight readers have gotten for decades.

I was just hoping for something a little more inspired or ambitious.

[Refrax5]

Never say never. Hal Jordan was never going to be Green Lantern again after 1994. They did everything they could to make the change irreversible and the character irredeemable. But it's comics... in the vast majority of cases, the status quo reasserts itself sooner or later. Alan has been through status quo changes before... anyone remember when he was Sentinel rather than Green Lantern, and had been aged down into a much younger man? That lasted for a while, and then the long term status quo was reestablished.



There's an inner monologue in one of the GLC Quarterly issues where he's clearly sexually attracted to his wife and is having dreams about her. I remember being surprised at how overt the inner dialogue was. It's the issue where he becomes physically young again so maybe his newfound youth was affecting him.



Yep, blame Dr. Manhattan. First he kills Alan, then he brings him back but changes his orientation. It makes more sense than "hey, it was always this way... really!"

Its not the original Alan. It's not even the 90s era version. The timeline and universe has been messed with so many times since then. Obviously the original Alan and even the post-Crisis Alan was written as straight, but Hal Jordan also had a DUI and an abusive father back then, so there's no real sense in harping on how the character was written in a prior continuity.

[Refrax5]

I think having Alan as a closeted gay man in the 40s is one of the more interesting retcons DC has made in recent years. It adds a lot to the character and allows creators to explore a lot of new ground that superhero comic haven't touched too often.

Unfortunately, this issue was pretty underwhelming for me. It wasn't bad, but it didn't do much to justify its existence. If you gender-swapped Alan's romantic interest, do you honestly think anyone would be excited about a superhero comic this middling?

But, I suppose that LGBTQ readers deserve superhero comfort food as much as straight readers have gotten for decades.

I was just hoping for something a little more inspired or ambitious.

That's how I felt, too. I was a huge fan of Alan in Robinson's Earth 2 series because while Alan was gay, he still pretty much felt like Alan (albeit younger and more arrogant) and Robinson really sold you on what a tough, hard-headed badass the guy was and there was plenty of high flying heroics. This just made Alan feel like any generic character.

[j9ac9k]

I was just hoping for something a little more inspired or ambitious.

While not necessarily inspired or ambitious, the points of interest for me so far are seeing the Red Lantern and the hinted character arc of Alan going from a loner to embracing the JSA and having a place on a team.

[Jon Clark]

Its not the original Alan. It's not even the 90s era version. The timeline and universe has been messed with so many times since then. Obviously the original Alan and even the post-Crisis Alan was written as straight, but Hal Jordan also had a DUI and an abusive father back then, so there's no real sense in harping on how the character was written in a prior continuity.

Then I wish they just would have kept the New 52 bit and made him more distinctly a separate character. it's the "yes all those old stories happened to this character except..." stuff that causes all these problems. If this isn't the same Alan then just make him a totally different character. Don't reference All-Star Comics as if he is the same Alan that appeared there. Don't reference Infinity Inc as if this is the same Alan that fathered Jade and Obsidian there, You can't have it both ways. That has been DC's ongoing problem for at least 37 years.

[D.Z]

It's the original Alan rewritten to be gay.

Anyway the Multiverse and Hypertime combined are full of straight Alans.

[j9ac9k]

Then I wish they just would have kept the New 52 bit and made him more distinctly a separate character. it's the "yes all those old stories happened to this character except..." stuff that causes all these problems. If this isn't the same Alan then just make him a totally different character. Don't reference All-Star Comics as if he is the same Alan that appeared there. Don't reference Infinity Inc as if this is the same Alan that fathered Jade and Obsidian there, You can't have it both ways. That has been DC's ongoing problem for at least 37 years.

Yeah, inconsistencies and retcons have been happening longer than that because it's being made up as they go along. If you can't roll with it, then serialized comics from Marvel and DC may not be for you.

[Jon Clark]

Yeah, inconsistencies and retcons have been happening longer than that because it's being made up as they go along. If you can't roll with it, then serialized comics from Marvel and DC may not be for you.

Except it worked fine prior to Crisis. If a Weisinger story didn't fit with another story, then odds were they didn't reference each other. Same with Batman. You didn't get an attempt at connecting stories while simultaneously contradicting them.

There's a difference between inconsistencies in Alan's middle name, adding in All-Star Squadron adventures that occur in addition to 1940's stories, or revealing a connection to the Guardians that only the readers know about versus totally rewriting the character's past while claiming nothing changed (and at the same time claiming it was always different).

I could buy the idea of the Earth-Two Superman (for example) even with all it's flaws a lot easier than DC trying to claim that the same Superman both learned about Krypton and kryptonite as an adult but also had boyhood adventures involving Krypton and kryptonite. I accept that there are retcons in that take and remaining inconsistencies. But it is not on the level of claiming one single Alan Scott was both a closeted gay man unaware of his gayness at the same time he was having same sex relationships.

I'm not arguing for one or the other- just that they stop trying to claim both are equally true. If they are two separate characters as Refrax is stating- make them that. If this is the same Alan that we were reading before the New 52 then try to be consistent with what was on the page before that (i.e. no one he knew on panel was aware until after 2010 of his being closeted).

[Factor]

I don’t get why they didn’t make him bisexual. They could have told a very similar story without making him look bad for leading women on and getting one pregnant. If it was a case of him figuring out his sexuality later on in life, I’d be fine with it. But he apparently was in love with a guy before he met the mother of his children.

[Johnny]

Yeah no matter the justification, I don't think I can see a man with impeccable moral compass like Alan trapping two different women into a life of lies for the sake of keeping himself in the closet. That's not what Alan Scott would do. If the series reveals that he did in fact tell them and they chose to accept him for who he is, that could be a different story, but since Alan isn't supposed to be bisexual as mentioned above, I'm interested in seeing how they could pull this off without making him look bad.