No, it’s not Superman. But DC Comics said Friday that Alan Scott, the original Green Lantern — a superhero first introduced in 1940 — will be reintroduced as gay in “Earth 2” issue two, hitting stores next Wednesday.
The storyline was born out of the publisher’s reboot of their whole fictional universe last year, which reintroduces the heroes as younger versions of themselves again.
The reboot effectively wrote out of existence Scott’s openly gay adult son, the superhero Obsidian.
“I was sort of putting the team together and I realized one of the only downsides to relaunching the Justice Society as young, vibrant heroes again was that Alan Scott’s son was no longer going to exist in the reboot,” says “Earth 2” series writer James Robinson, who wrote a 1998 storyline about Obsidian that featured the first gay superhero kiss in comics.
“I thought that was a shame and then it occurred to me, why not just make Alan Scott gay.”
The revelation comes at a boon time in the industry for rainbow pride. In the pages of Marvel’s “Astonishing X-Men” last week, superhero Northstar proposed to his longtime boyfriend — setting up next issue’s superpowered same-sex wedding. DC Comics also has a lesbian superhero, Batwoman, patrolling the streets of Gotham City in her own comic.
“When I was growing up, I’d read comics or watch TV and I wished there were characters who I could relate to, who I knew had gone through what I was going through,” says GLAAD spokesman Rich Ferraro.
“Today’s LGBT young people can see gay characters in comics, movies and many TV shows who show them that they too can grow up to be parents, leaders, or even superheroes.”
But not everyone is thrilled.
The group One Million Moms Thursday called for a boycott of comic books featuring gay superheroes.
“Children mimic superhero actions and even dress up in costumes to resemble these characters as much as possible,” the conservative group said in a statement. “Can you imagine little boys saying, ‘I want a boyfriend or husband like X-Men?’
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