Exactly, and how many people got upset about it? The world has changed for the better in a lot of ways, even if it feels like we're stuck in a dumpster most of the time.
Exploring Alan's struggles in the 1940s, when thing were far different for gay men, is what makes this an interesting choice for me.
Um, lots of Gay men married women and had kids due to society. My father is one. He was gay, married my mother, had 2 kids and then said F it, he's tired of living in the closet, got divorced, got custody of the kids and move to South Carolina with his partner and his partners kids, who had the same story. So, it's very plausible that a gay man/woman can have biological kids via sex with someone of the other sex...
Like I said, that cat has been out of the bag since '45, then again in '49, and '56 and '62, and so on. There's only a handful of years in DC's entire history when the stories haven't been built upon stories that had rewritten, contradicted, or recontexualized older stories. DC's continuity never has and never will be like Marvel's.
Obviously the continuity of DC Comics has been perfect. However, it seems Post Flashpoint any attempt to enforce some sort of coherent universe has been thrown out the window.
Post Crisis on Infinite Earths, an attempt was made to not contradict stories from Earth One cotinuity, with some clearly defined exceptions such as the Wonder Woman mythos and the integration of characters from Earth C, Earth F, Earth X, and Earth 2.
Also, if you want to appeal to modern audiences, don't tinker with what doesn't need to be fixed, create new legacy characters who are a more effective way of embodying contemporary values.
Last edited by Timothy Hunter; 06-23-2020 at 06:53 PM.
I liked it. I think it adds an interesting wrinkle when done to the 30s/40s more pulp type character rather than the reinvention of the character from the New 52 era.
But if the idea is to explore Alan's life as a closeted gay man in the 1940s, you can't do that with a new legacy character.
You could retroactively create a new 1940s gay character to be a member of the JSA, but wouldn't that feel like a bigger cheat than exploring that one of their previously established members was in the closet?
Agreed. There's already gay characters in the modern day that you can tell stories with, so New 52 Alan didn't really interest me, whereas this does. It's the dichotomy of the classic '40s superhero being a closeted gay man that makes this something new we haven't really seen before.