Alan Scott...?
Well, the cat is out of the bag apparently. Recently DC had announced that one of its iconic characters was going to be reintroduced in the new 52 Universe as being gay. Immediately all manner of speculation began to reign. All kinds of characters were raised as possibilities. The odds were shortened, when it was revealed that the newly-outed character would be someone who hadn't already been reintroduced, which cut down on the number of people eligible considerably.
Still...Alan Scott?
Well, I don't care what some people say, Alan IS Iconic! He's the original Green Lantern for one thing. He's a pround member of the Justice Society of America. He's fought Nazis, ran a business, and was one of the elder statesmen of the DC Universe. He was also one of the few people actually able to command respect from both Batman AND Hal Jordan.
I don't mind in the least that Alan is now gay. What I DO mind...is that they have made him young. This is the new Earth 2 Alan Scott by the way, and not only is Alan young, but so is Jay Garrett. It is the callowness that annoys the piss out of me. DC could make the entire JSA gay, for all I care...but dammit...I LOVED those old farts! The key word being...OLD.
Comicbookdom is littered with young whippersnappers. EVERYONE has been reset as being much much younger, with the only exception oddly enough, being the actual YOUNG characters, such as Nightwing and Tim and Jason and such. It's a little odd. Not to mention that a whole passel of younger characters have been neatly swept onto a shelf and completely forgotten, such as Donna Troy, Wally and Conner Hawke.
I also am not happy that they have given him a snazzy new costume that is much more Green Lanterny looking. As in the Corps. Alan is NOT a member of the Corps. The Corps would only slow him down! I miss his puffy sleeves and his giant collar and cape. It was a completely ridiculous looking outfit...on anyone else that is. Alan had so much dignity and gravitas that he could make it work.
I assume this means we won't be having Jade or Obsidian around either. I don't miss Jade in the least. In fact I can't STAND Jade...but I did like Obsidian. A lot.
But man...I will regret Alan's puffy sleeves. And his standing as a Senior Statesman in the Universe. Now he's just another young punk.
I so wanted it to be Geo-Force.
posted by SallyP @ 2:18 PM
12 Comments:
I'm ok with Alan being gay. Have they made it official though? I haven't heard anything yet. My brother and I were discussing this recently and he favored the idea of Batman being gay. I don't think DC would ever consider it just because it would (wrongly) give some validity to all those theories of why he keeps young boys who wear spandex around. I like Kilowog for the character personally, as he meets NONE of the stereotypes. DC would find him acceptable in that role as well as he's not a "main" character but is popular so is less likely to be controversial.
The thing is, though--if Alan Scott is gay... then they are adding by subtracting, since that means no more Obsidian.
I'm going to wait for an official announcement, myself.
Have I jumped the gun? I still want Alan and Jay and Wildcat and the others in the JSA to be crabby old guys.
But yes, Mac, taking out Obsidian and adding Alan doesn't make much of a difference.
Really, though, as amusing as it would be for Batman...they can't...they just can't.
I don't mind either although I wish they kept the JSA as older team members with kids. I mean that was the point of the JSA right? Teaching a new generation to uphold legacies?
As for his kids, he can still have them. He could:
1. Have them from a previous relationship before he was sure of his sexuality. (He didn't know about them for YEARS when he was straight.)
2. Adopt.
3. Have a surrogate mother.
4. And well, I hate to mention this one but this is Robinson. He did this one method in Starman. If I remember right the twins mother was a super villain.
instead making Alan Gay, how about...keeping Obsidian??? He was awesome and so committed with the LGTB cause.
sdkfhsdkjf I don't now what the hell are you thinking DC, not anymore ;_;
I just find the cynicism that drove this promotional campaign overwhelming. After all this time, I find it impossible to accept the thoughtless reimaginings of characters older than those making such changes. But then, as will be this case, the changes end up temporary (remember when Superman 'died'? Can you name all the incarnations of Robin?) so no doubt this Green Lantern will be replaced by yet another when DC finds the curiosity-driven sales dry up.
This is Earth Two, The JSA could still be a bunch of old guys in any number of other Earth's including Earth One considering I don't think any of them have made an appearence yet.
I know I'm late for this as I hardly keep up with comics or posts because my interest in comics were dwindling because of the reboot, but I will say this.
Alan Scott was and will be my favorite character, but I hated his twins and by de-aging him I'm glad they are gone. Further more hopefully now that Alan can choose to have kids in the future I hope they'd be different and he'd raise them and not have The Thorn involved as she's to good of a potential villain to waste as a dead baby-mama.
With that said I like Alan gay. I don't approve of the trading one gay for another, but it was going to be anyone since Obsidian couldn't be born.
I think what I'm most mad about all of this than de-aging and reinvention is that it's all done on another Earth that can be cancelled any minute with inconvenient crossovers (love my Jay/Alan/Hal/Barry/Wally/Kyle relationships and it's not the same affect with parallel worlds in the way) and that it's written by James Robinson who never got Alan's personality. He plays him like a rich human Superman and that's it. Alan was a self-made man of humble beginnings, a dead-pan snarker, a playboy, reckless, impulsive, street tough, even a little twisted (see origin). He experienced survivor's guilt, he enacted vengeance when his lapse in sanity over took him. He then kept his insanity in check. He was interesting, but most writers never tried because by inserting Jade and Obsidian they just didn't care.
If James can write this good, great, but he hasn't done so before and now that I think about Hal has stolen some of Alan's golden-age traits through the years. I mean it figures like father like metaphorical son. Hal seamed more like Alan's screw-up son than Obsidian ever did. To bad they won't explore that to good effect like the Mark Waid Flash/Green Lantern Brave And The Bold miniseries did so well. Alan could have been the mentor-father/brother figure he needs losing Martin and frankly his bio brothers are boring and can't relate to his heroics. Same for Jay and Barry since Barry's dad is still dead and he had no siblings to speak of. Wally being like a younger brother. Damn I miss that family.
I won't miss Jade in the least, because I simply can't stand her...but I am fond of Todd.
I like Alan. I'll miss his interaction with Jay and Ted, and all the other old farts. I really LOVE those old farts!
And his puffy sleeves.
Sorry, late to the conversation too. (I was busy making fun of how hard it is to explain exactly what the "Nu52 Earth 2" version of a character means to non comic readers.)
As a fellow fan of the "old farts" your post made me realize something that's getting lost in the hoopla. The change to Alan probably won't have a radical effect on what's important about the character, and seeing a younger version, while different, will still be esentially true to Alan Scott.
What really worries me is: Are we only going to have a young version of Ted now? That makes me really sad. I don't think Wildcat could ever work as well as he does as the crusty, cranky old fart with a heart of gold who trained darn near everyone worth while in the DCU. (as he was used well on both the JLU and Brave and Bold cartoons)
Him I'm really going to miss.
Just saw this conversation here and couldn't agree more with you all.
And I really hope Tony is right, and there is still the old JSA on Earth #1.
I loved all the connections between the old guys and the younger ones. And even if Jade wasn't very nice, Kyle still loved her.
So come on DC, don't destroy all that history but rather connect it all instead!
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