After 72 years of tackling supervillains as a straight man, DC Comics's magical-ring-wearing superhero the Green Lantern, one of the publisher's oldest and most established characters, is set to be reintroduced as gay.
After DC's publisher Dan DiDio let slip at a comics convention last week that one of DC's major superheroes was to come out as gay, the comics world has been speculating wildly about who the superhero would be. Some believed Wonder Woman might have been hiding a secret under her tiara; others pointed at caped crusader Batman, who has long enjoyed a close relationship with his sidekick, Robin. But DC announced that Alan Scott, the original Green Lantern who made his debut in 1940, was to be reintroduced as gay next week.
The move follows the wedding of X-Man Northstar to his boyfriend, courtesy of Marvel Comics, this week, and the marriage of Archie Comics's first gay character, Kevin Keller, to his boyfriend earlier this year. Although DC's character Batwoman came out as gay in 2006, the Green Lantern will be the publisher's most prominent homosexual superhero.
The artist Nicola Scott said the brief she was given by DC when drawing the character was very clear. "He needed to be a big, strapping, handsome man that everyone would instinctively follow and love. No short order but right up my alley," she said. "Alan strikes me as an incredibly open, honest and warm man, a natural leader and absolutely the right choice to be Guardian of the Earth. His sexuality is incidental. Every time I draw him I love him even more."
The original Green Lantern character was Alan Scott, a railway engineer who discovers a magic lantern, turns it into a ring with superpowers and becomes a crime fighter. He also marries – twice – and has children. The character was rebooted as Hal Jordan – played in a recent film by Ryan Reynolds – in the 1960s.
But the original character has remained a prominent figure, appearing in the Justice Society of America team. He is appearing in DC Comics's parallel-Earth series Earth 2 in his original, Alan Scott incarnation – although with a contemporary update making him younger, with a new look as well as a new sexuality. A preview of the new issue of Earth 2, out next week, shows the Green Lantern embracing his male partner before setting off for a romantic retreat.
The character, said the writer James Robinson, is "still the same dynamic, heroic guy" he always was. "He's still the head of a media empire like he was in his prior version, but of course with the form of media changing and evolving with the times.
"Alan's sexuality is just one facet of him, along with his innate goodness, valour, charisma and skill at leadership."
The move is likely to enrage conservative elements of American society. Earlier this week the Christian mothers' group One Million Moms launched a letter-writing campaign calling on DC to cancel their plans to introduce a gay mainstream superhero. "This is ridiculous!" they wrote. "Why do adult gay men need comic superheroes as role models? They want to indoctrinate impressionable young minds by placing these gay characters on pedestals in a positive light," said the American Family Association-run organisation.
Robinson clearly hopes to persuade them otherwise, telling USA Today that "presenting that kind of a heroic role model hopefully will be a good thing and help to show gays in a positive light for people who might be a little more small-minded".
