DC Comics has revealed who their openly gay superhero is: Green Lantern.
After announcing that one of their heroes would “come out” in a future issue, Green Lantern makes his debut as an openly gay superhero in the second issue of “Earth 2,” out next week. DC Comics joins Archie, Marvel and others in bringing gay and lesbian characters to the pages of comics.
It is worth noting that this Green Lantern is not going to be the Justice League’s own Hal Jordan. Instead, DC retooled the original parallel earth Green Lantern, Alan Scott, who first made an appearance in 1940s All American Comics, issue No. 16. In the original storyline, Scott was married.
Writer of the series James Robinson told USA Today that Scott also had a gay son. Just like Marvel’s introduction of a multiracial Spider-Man, this Green Lantern will inhabit an alternate universe from that of his straight namesake, Hal Jordan. In the alternate universe, Scott is now too young to have had a son. The series also features retooled and rebooted characters.
Robinson also compared Scott in an Entertainment Weekly interview as “kind of a cross between Mark Zuckerberg and David Geffen.”
“He’s everything you want in a hero,” he said. “And he happens to be gay.”
This isn’t DC’s first introduction of a gay character in its comics. In 1988, Manhunter No. 18 featured a kiss between a character named Obsidian, who was the gay son of Scott, and a recurring character, Damon Matthews.
Green Lantern, even the parallel earth version, will be the highest-profile openly gay hero, following in the footsteps of several other gay, lesbian or transgender comic book heroes and villains. Despite some groups protesting the inclusion of gay characters, Robinson stands by his character, noting that there is more to Scott than just being gay.
“It was just meant to be — Alan Scott being a gay member of the team, the Justice Society, which I’ll be forming in the pages of ‘Earth 2,’” Robinson told the Associated Press. “He’s just meant to be part of this big tapestry of characters.”
