DC Comics’ New Gay Character Is Green Lantern Alan Scott
DC Comics has been teasing the reveal of a major gay character for some time, and they’ve finally revealed who it will be: Alan Scott, known as Green Lantern, a media mogul, will be revealed to be gay in a story that resets his character. When this news came out, I said it would be best if the supposedly-iconic character DC was going to have come out was someone for whom the revelation that he or she was gay helped tie together things we’d always known about the character and their personality, much as J.K. Rowling did with Albus Dumbledore. I’m not sure if a pure reset of an existing character quite does that. And over at Topless Robot, Rob Bricken explains that the move isn’t as bold as DC insisted it would be, in part because Scott is not even the most prominent Green Lantern in comics today, and in part because his arc as a gay man will be taking place in an alternate DC Comics universe, rather than altering our sense of the core universe, where a straight Alan Scott presumably is still going about his business.
DC Comics was never going to turn one of their genuinely iconic characters gay. An out and proud Batman would have been a great joke on moralists like Frederic Wertham, the psychiatrist who saw sexual perversion everywhere he looked in comic books. A gay Superman would have been a fascinating exploration of what it means to feel like an alien in human society. But it’s hard to imagine that DC would have done something so bold simply to demonstrate its commitment to diversity, or to compete in a market where Marvel Comics, and even Archie Comics, are directly selling themselves both to gay readers and to straight readers who live among and love the gay people in their lives.
Checking the box and including a gay character in your universe, whether you frame them as a stereotype or develop them well or not, isn’t really enough to earn a company points anymore. And I actually think the somewhat disappointed reaction to this revelation is a good thing because it suggests that our expectations are getting more ambitious. If companies want credit for doing something different and genuinely brave, rather than simply meeting their basic obligations to represent the world around them, they need to tell stories or highlight kinds of characters that no one else has the courage to represent. The L.A. Complex gets points for portraying gay characters who aren’t white and male, the standard television default. Happy Endings gets credit for showing us a gay man who’s chubby, romantic, semi-downwardly mobile. Maybe DC Comics will do something genuinely exciting with Alan Scott, but it’s fine not to shower the company with gratitude for simply nodding towards a diversity quota, and doing so with the same kind of gay person who’s been acceptable in pop culture for years: rich and white.
Getting rather tired of all the dudebro comments saying it should have Wonder Woman or Power Girl...
source: http://thinkprogress.org/alyssa/201
DC Comics has been teasing the reveal of a major gay character for some time, and they’ve finally revealed who it will be: Alan Scott, known as Green Lantern, a media mogul, will be revealed to be gay in a story that resets his character. When this news came out, I said it would be best if the supposedly-iconic character DC was going to have come out was someone for whom the revelation that he or she was gay helped tie together things we’d always known about the character and their personality, much as J.K. Rowling did with Albus Dumbledore. I’m not sure if a pure reset of an existing character quite does that. And over at Topless Robot, Rob Bricken explains that the move isn’t as bold as DC insisted it would be, in part because Scott is not even the most prominent Green Lantern in comics today, and in part because his arc as a gay man will be taking place in an alternate DC Comics universe, rather than altering our sense of the core universe, where a straight Alan Scott presumably is still going about his business.
DC Comics was never going to turn one of their genuinely iconic characters gay. An out and proud Batman would have been a great joke on moralists like Frederic Wertham, the psychiatrist who saw sexual perversion everywhere he looked in comic books. A gay Superman would have been a fascinating exploration of what it means to feel like an alien in human society. But it’s hard to imagine that DC would have done something so bold simply to demonstrate its commitment to diversity, or to compete in a market where Marvel Comics, and even Archie Comics, are directly selling themselves both to gay readers and to straight readers who live among and love the gay people in their lives.
Checking the box and including a gay character in your universe, whether you frame them as a stereotype or develop them well or not, isn’t really enough to earn a company points anymore. And I actually think the somewhat disappointed reaction to this revelation is a good thing because it suggests that our expectations are getting more ambitious. If companies want credit for doing something different and genuinely brave, rather than simply meeting their basic obligations to represent the world around them, they need to tell stories or highlight kinds of characters that no one else has the courage to represent. The L.A. Complex gets points for portraying gay characters who aren’t white and male, the standard television default. Happy Endings gets credit for showing us a gay man who’s chubby, romantic, semi-downwardly mobile. Maybe DC Comics will do something genuinely exciting with Alan Scott, but it’s fine not to shower the company with gratitude for simply nodding towards a diversity quota, and doing so with the same kind of gay person who’s been acceptable in pop culture for years: rich and white.
Getting rather tired of all the dudebro comments saying it should have Wonder Woman or Power Girl...
source: http://thinkprogress.org/alyssa/201
Wait, they have him in the 'Elseworlds' universe? Wow.
On one hand, good on DC for 'evolving' and embracing diversity. On the other hand, smh at them for going with a relatively minor character in (literally) another universe.
I hear their Batwoman comic is good, so... they win at that.
Edited at 2012-06-02 07:52 am (UTC)
I'm also not at all surprised by the dude bro crap, or the "Oh my stars, think of the children!" routines. Annoying, as always.
A relatively obscure character who happens to be gay just puts queer characters on the sidelines, which is where they've been all along.
yeah, I think that's exactly what they're going for. I've never read a single comic in my life and I'm very lukewarm on superhero movies, even, so to my untrained ears, it sounded impressive when I heard that they'd made the Green Lantern gay. Then I read this article and I'm like, ".... third version AU Green Lantern is gay? -_-"
Also lol at the fact that comics are apparently as ridiculously confusing as my RPG threads with my friends when we decide LET'S MAKE AN AU TO PLAY WITH FOR FUN.
God, just imagine that.
Really, if they were going to go the "straight gay" route and have being homosexual just another part of Scott's character, why all the hoopla?
The reboot also seems to have disappeared the original Alan Scott's gay son, Obsidian.
It seems a shame that they're going to introduce a "major" gay character and they do that by picking a much more obscure Green lantern than the one most people know
and then shoving him in an alternate world. it's like "here's some MAJOR INCLUSION" buuut not really
This was what I was wondering about, and it seems really sketch.
The first Green Lantern costume.
Alan Scott - you have to be deep into your DC cups to know who he is. I only know who he happens to be because my library has some old graphic novels lying about.
far superior imho.
superiormore psychotic imho.Fixed. ;p
Because it's all well and good to have a gay character, but not if said gay character never gets a long term, stable partner. Though I realize Marvel is doing somewhat better in this category.
Dakken and Bobbi aren't with partners right now because of ~reasons~.
I mean the first Green Lanterns that come to mind is Hal Jordan and Jon Stewart.
I'm more of a Marvel fan anyways.
Cause, y'know. There's been no evidence of their ridiculous love for each other before this.
If DC wanted to actually do something they should've finally, finally let Tim Drake, Robin #3 be gay. Because, lord. Boy is gay-seal gay. He became Robin because of a childhood obsession with Dick Grayson (Robin #1, owner of the best ass in the DC universe). The writers occasionally try and pair him up with women but it always feels awkward. Because Tim has a massive crush on first Dick (the puns never end with this, it's glorious) then Conner (Superboy). When Kon died (he got better) Tim kind of lost it. Like, his grief never ended and be then tried to find a way to bring Kon back. He became more obsessed about it than Kon's girlfriend did, which is saying something. Tim also made out with said girlfriend and afterwards kept trying to justify it by saying he was thinking about Kon the entire time.
Yeah. Tim will never actually come out because the fanboy shitstorm alone would be ridiculous. Ugh. But that's an entirely different overlong comment about fictional characters.
I have a lot of feelings about DC and its queer characters. As my dog-eared copies of Batwoman: Elegy and The Question: Pipeline attest to.
Edited at 2012-06-02 05:53 pm (UTC)
WTF at Alan Scott - no1curr who he be.
Missed chances, DC. Missed chances.
Edited at 2012-06-02 07:10 pm (UTC)
I'm going to really miss Jade and Obsidian were being in continuity through.
Edited at 2012-06-02 08:44 pm (UTC)