No More Speculation: Earth-2 Green Lantern Alan Scott is Gay

Wow, I did not see this coming. In interviews with multiple news outlets today, DC's Earth-2 writer James Robinson has confirmed that Alan Scott, the alternate reality Green Lantern, will be re-imagined as a gay hero. This comes a week or two after DC announced that one of their previously-established character would be coming out of the closet. When asked specifics about the decision, Robinson responded:

It came about 8 months ago when I was first putting the team together. One of the things that bothered me about the reboot and about the Justice Society being young again was that there were some characters that would no longer exist. One of those characters is Obsidian, Alan Scott's gay son. So from then on I started to think about it and it seemed like a logical leap to make Alan Scott gay. And the idea that the leader of the Justice Society, the most honorable, dynamic and gallant hero on Earth 2 would be a gay man just seemed like a really cool and interesting direction for the character.

So it was my idea, but to be fair Dan DiDio, when he heard about the idea, there wasn't a moment of hesitation on his part. He thought it was a great idea

For those of you who are not aware, Alan Scott was originally the first Green Lantern, first appearing July 1940 in All American Comics #16, was a major part of the super-team the Justice Society of America, and has been a very prominent second-tier character since WWII. His character history is a little too convoluted to get into here, but as stated above, he did at one time have two children, one of which, Obsidian, was a long-standing gay character.

As stated above, Earth-2's Green Lantern didn't pop up on my radar as the character that was going to be re-imagined as gay, as evidenced on an upcoming episode of the Pizzacast! that we recorded last week. However, I personally am OK with the decision to make Alan Scott gay- this will make for a refreshing and interesting take a classic character, and I'm glad to see that Robinson is the one writing this change, seeing as how his mid-90s run on the amazing comic series Starman featured the first on-panel  kiss shared by two men. If anyone can ensure that the coming out of the Golden Age Green Lantern doesn't turn into just another gimmick, it's Robinson.

Via Comic Vine