Mike Gold: Truth, Justice, and Spinelessness
Just as life is drifting into a lull, I can always count on Fox News to provide entertainment by going disproportionately apeshit. Case in point:
DC Comics made a big whoopdeedoo about one of their top characters coming out of the closet. Immediately, our friends at Fox said “It’s the end of the world! Superman is gay! Superman is gay!”
They were subsequently told Superman is not gay. Don’t tell Rick Santorum, but that caped dude Lois Lane’s been sleeping with is actually a strange visitor from another planet.
So Fox thought about it for a nanosecond and started braying “It’s the end of the world! Batman is gay! Batman is gay!”
They were subsequently told Batman is not gay. Perhaps they were also informed that psychiatrist Fredric Wertham beat them to that bullshit story over 60 years ago.
DC finally came clean and, as you undoubtedly know – particularly those of you who have been to your friendly neighborhood comic shop today – it’s Green Lantern who is gay. No, not the guy from last year’s unwatchable movie or the guy from this year’s better-than-expected CGI teevee series, not the black guy who was in the Justice League teevee show and has his own comic book and has been around for several decades, and not the guy with the Moe Howard reject haircut who was in the Brave and the Bold teevee show and also has his own comic book. Nor is it one of the hundred thousand or so space alien Greens Lantern. Nope. None of them.
It’s Alan Scott. The original Green Lantern. So original he predated the Green Lantern Corps by almost 20 years. The old dude who was ret-conned out of existence last year. Now he’s been reintroduced as a gay man.
The story received some press, much of it just shy of ridicule. Each piece I read was careful to point out that Alan Scott was not the guy in the comic books or in the movie. Each piece I read tried to justify its newsworthiness but came short. For good reason.
Showing the fourth-string (at best) Green Lantern to be gay is less than no big deal. Hal Jordan, yes. That would be a big deal. Barry (Flash) Allen, certainly. Wonder Woman, absolutely. Any one of what Warner Bros. refers to as the “family jewels” would have been newsworthy.
Gay characters in comics are no big deal. We introduced an ongoing, major gay character in Jon Sable Freelance in the early 1980s; having super-macho Sable deal with the revelation was unique for its time. A few years later, Marvel’s Northstar came out. Not a household name (nor was Alpha Flight – but the X-Men were), but a big deal for the time. Last week, Northstar got engaged, which was pretty cool. Over at Archie Comics, they introduced a gay character that Veronica Lodge fell for. That was an amazing story, a very courageous move for Archie because it is almost totally dependent upon newsstand sales and therefore was taking a risk of tainting its brand. Quite the opposite happened: Kevin Keller graduated from supporting character to mini-series star to his own title, all within a year.
In the face of growing acceptance of same-sex relationships, DC revealed its spinelessness by outing a character few people have heard of (you’d have to have been collecting social security for years for you to have been a reader of All-American Comics) and even fewer people care about. There was no risk of an Alan Scott movie or television series, no action figures at Toys R Us or Wal-Mart, no ancillary revenues put in jeopardy.
This is not a knock on the creative talent involved: James Robinson has been one of the best writers practicing the craft today and he’s held that status in my fanboy brainpan for quite a while. I don’t know if Alan Scott’s still got those kids; there’s no reason why he shouldn’t but that would show more guts than DC has offered thus far.
It is not DC Comics’ job to bring truth and justice to the American way. But making such a big deal over such a small event is just pandering.
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As soon as I saw it was the original Green Lantern, I imagined DC parading him around for a few issues and then having whomever they intend to be the “real” Green Lantern of the New 52 show up and get rid of him somehow.
Pre new-52 his son Todd was gay. Now we know why. It’s not biological or a lifestyle choice. If your Father is gay in an alternate re-boot universe you’ll inherit his gayness. Maybe that’s why his daughter has green skin too. ;^)
Todd, you might have spent a bit too much time reading quantum physics textbooks. She-Hulk has green skin, ergo, the Ultimate Bruce Banner is gay?
Well, maybe.
Well, the bits of Ultimate Hulk I’ve read certainly make it sound like he’s compensating for something…
I presume the reboot Alan Scott will have a different costume, though – there is absolutely no way any self-respecting gay man is going to be running around in a red shirt, green pants, and a yellow-and-purple cape…
Hmmm. I’ll bet you’re off on that one. Drop by Manhattan’s Greenwich Village this Halloween. I wouldn’t be surprised to see several Alan Scotts.
So I have to ask…if Green Lantern Alan Scott is gay, will his ring still be powerless against wood?
That would be a problem either way, Bob. Although, if the ring could work up a big hammer…
An online friend of mine thinks that a variant cover of “The Astonishing X-Men” with Northstar and Kyle about to kiss with all of the X-Men standing around teary-eyed was basically one step above hardcore porn.
I don’t understand his “logic” (and I use the word logic very loosely here) on that. I think he’s a just another closeted homophobe.
I guess there’s two ways to look at this. Perhaps your online friend is really into hardcore porn and he wishes Marvel took it further.
Or perhaps your online friend is just a creep.
Doesn’t sound very closeted to me if he’s sharing that opinion.
Is a heterosexual coupling kissing “one step above hardcore porn”?
Sooner or later, I suspect that “original” Alan Scott and “New52” Alan Scott will have a canon-sanctioned meeting. That will be entertaining.
Good thing Martin Nodell passed away before GL went the Gay Way…..cause this would have killed that cretor even earlier !
I’m not sure that would have been the case. I knew Marty pretty well, and I think he probably would have been confused by the whole “alternate universe” thing. As opposed to the last alternate universe thing.
Marty’s wife, though, probably would have had a harder time.