DC Comics have announced that the OGL, Original Green Lantern Alan Scott, is now gay – which is great first and foremost for the increased visibility of queer characters and positive gay role models in comic books and popular culture, but perhaps not so great because: a) the Ryan Reynolds screen adaptation of the film focussed on Hal Jordan’s turn as the Green Lantern – so don’t expect any film franchise/merchandise threatening changes to take place in that larger pantheon of popular culture, Hollywood – and b) the revelation doesn’t bode well for other men fond of green tights and flaming rings in pop culture history. I’m looking at you, Peter Pan and Frodo.
A rebooted version of the comic books set to launch next week, Earth 2, will see the character re-imagined as a younger version of himself by writer James Robinson, who said that he saw a chance to introduce a character whose sexuality is “a part of who he is and not to be the one identifying aspect of him. And have his humor and his bravery be as much or more a part of him as his sexuality.”
Scott, whose previous incarnation proudly fathered a gay son Obsidian, joins Batwoman as the only openly gay superman in the DC universe. The announcement comes in the wake of news last week that Marvel’s first gay character, Northstar, would wed his partner Kyle in the Astonishing X-Men universe in a small, tasteful ceremony consisting of close family and mutants (mother-in-laws amirite?) in New York.
Photo via DC Comics
