In May of 2012, DC Comics’ co-publisher Dan DiDio attended Kapow! Comic Con in London, where he teased that an established DC character would be reimagined as gay in the New 52. A few weeks later, DC confirmed in a blog post that the character in question was the New 52 version of Green Lantern Alan Scott, who had already been introduced in Earth 2 #1, and who’s relationship with his boyfriend would receive the spotlight in issue #2, due to come out the following week.
This decision sparked a lot of controversy, but it also caused a lot of confusion. Why this character? Why not make a new character? Why right now? When I lay it all out, it looks to me like the decision to reimagine Alan Scott as gay came as a reaction to a number of similar events that, while not necessarily related directly to each other, still added up into something that DC couldn’t ignore.
Same-sex relationships in comics were starting to get the spotlight in 2012. In January of that year, Kevin Keller married his boyfriend in Life With Archie #16. Then in June, the wedding of Northstar and Kyle was held in Astonishing X-Men #51. This push to celebrate and normalize same-sex marriage in mainstream comics came right around the same time as President Barack Obama openly endorsing it on May 9th of 2012.
…and where is DC in all of this? Well they earned a lot of good will back in 2006 by introducing Kate Kane (Batwoman), who would go on to star in Detective Comics before getting her own self-titled ongoing series…and also propping up Rene Montoya by making her into The Question and giving her a leading role in the year-long event series “52”. It’s worth noting, though, that most of that good will would be thrown away in 2013 when DC editorial refused to allow Kate to marry her girlfriend Maggie, a move that led to both of the co-writers of the book quitting in protest.
But regardless, it had been six years since DC made major headlines because of their LGBTQI+ characters, and suddenly it was a major talking point for everyone in 2012. Obviously if you’re DC, if you’re Dan DiDio, you want your brand to be part of that incredibly popular and relevant conversation. And if you look at what DiDio said one year prior, you would expect great things. Dan DiDio said back in July of 2011 that, quote:
“One of the things we’re very focused on doing for these types of stories is rather than [change an existing] character, we want to make sure that this is the basis of who that character is right from the start. So if we’re going to introduce a gay character in Teen Titans, we want to make it a new character and make sure that is an integral part of who he is, or who she is, right from the start so we can really learn and grow with her or him.”
That would mirror the success other publishers had been having. Kevin Keller was introduced in 2010, and being gay was always a part of his identity. Northstar officially came out as gay in 1992 and had been dating Kyle since 2009. In both cases, a wedding was a good way to make headlines, but it also felt like a believable next step in the long-term exploration of these characters’ lives.
…and that’s the biggest problem facing DC and their decision regarding Alan Scott: it all feels like it happened way too fast. Listen to what James Robinson, writer of the Earth 2 series and co-creator of the new Alan Scott, had to say about the decision to take the character in this new direction:
“The original version of Alan Scott was an older man, and he had a superpowered son, Obsidian, who was gay. The fact that Scott was young now [thanks to a universe-wide reboot] meant Obsidian no longer existed. I thought it was a shame that DC was losing such a positive gay character. I said, “Why not make Alan Scott gay?” To Dan DiDio’s credit, when I suggested it to him, there wasn’t a moment’s hesitation.”
Dan DiDio first teased the existence of this new version of Alan Scott one week after President Obama endorsed same-sex marriage. The character would be seen embracing his boyfriend for the first time in Earth 2 #2, about a month and a half later. What Robinson said about coming up with the idea offhandedly, and then DiDio green lighting it without a second thought, makes it sound like this entire thing was fast tracked, to get the product out the door as quickly as possible, while the topic was still at the height of its relevance. Which isn’t automatically a bad thing, sometimes people can do genuinely great work in the face of an encroaching deadline…though in this case, it just seems like editorial’s biggest concern was getting out there and making headlines, which is reinforced by this official DC blog post from May 2012, talking about the whirlwind of media attention they’ve received just from saying that a new gay character would soon be revealed, including a big pile of links to all of the mainstream media coverage they’ve been getting. And it seems to me that the decision to announce a gay character, but withhold their identity until a later date, was purely to generate two separate waves of mainstream media attention instead of one.
So now that we have an idea of how and why this version of Alan Scott came to be, the big question is, how was the character handled now that we have him? And the unfortunate answer is very, very poorly.
After spending a few pages with Alan and his boyfriend Sam, watching them embrace each other lovingly and even propose, Sam is immediately killed in an explosion. Now I could spend and entire video on this moment alone, but suffice to say that not only is the death of a loved one an overused, lazy way to motivate your hero, it becomes an insulting slap in the face when it erases one of your only diverse characters. Sam’s introduction, and then immediate death, is probably the best indicator of DC’s intentions surrounding their new Alan Scott. They wanted the headlines and the sales bump that came from gay representation, but weren’t interested in actually writing him as a gay character in a relationship, so they got rid of it immediately.
What makes matters worse is that a detailed exploration of Alan Scott as a character was never going to happen, given the nature of the series he was created to be a part of. The reason this series is titled Earth 2 is because it’s the story of the entirety of Earth 2, involving every major character in this version of the DC Universe, in much the same way as series like Injustice or DCeased. The problem is that the scope of the series expanded far too quickly, and they were never able to properly juggle this massive cast of characters. The first arc kept things nice and simple, focusing on the origins of Green Lantern and the Flash, and their first team-up with Hawkgril and Atom as they all worked together to stop Grundy. That lead into a few issues that introduced some character conflicts, gave us the Earth 2 Doctor Fate, and set up a pretty clear arc that the rest of the book would follow. All of that would get dropped in favor of the main focus of the series becoming the entirety of Earth 2 defending itself in a war with the forces of Apocalypse. This war would dominate the entire series for almost two full years of issues, and exhaustingly try to maintain the energy and excitement of a summer blockbuster movie that entire time, without giving any of its characters enough room to properly grow. And for Alan Scott, that meant another layer of erasure. You could read this character for most of those two years and have no idea he’s gay, because the overarching plot was written in such a way that there was barely any room to develop his character.
When talking about normalizing representation, James Robinson had this to say:
“The Alan Scott I’m doing now is that same dynamic, brave, honorable man. A man that you’d want guarding your welfare, your children, your life, your home. He’s willing to give his life for the world. He’s everything you want in a hero. And he happens to be gay. So really, apart from his sexuality, there isn’t that much of a difference.
When I was first putting together this version of the team eight months ago, and was making the team diverse and interesting, adding in a gay character seemed like the natural thing to do. Quite honestly, it was an offhand comment that Dan made at a panel in England that got everybody suddenly aware and excited. I’m as surprised by it as you are. This was not ever meant to be sensational. It’s meant to be about a team that’s well-rounded, that shows the diversity of the world around us.”
Robinson has the right idea, he wants to make a gay character’s sexuality something that can just be part of them, without having to be constantly pointed at as being their defining trait. But that presupposes that the character will be written in situations where their sexuality can be expressed naturally, just like any other aspect of who they are. What they did with Alan was stop talking about it almost entirely, while also never allowing the character a moment to breath and exist as a person. Fighting the war completely dominated everything about Alan Scott, reducing him to a bland echo of the character he was promised to be. And the truly frustrating part is that you can tell, both from his interviews and from the text of the issues themselves, that’s not what James Robinson wanted.
In one of the only moments of downtime in the entire series, Alan visits Sam’s grave and speaks with Sam’s father. This whole time, Alan believed that the bomb on the train was meant for him, and Sam only died because of his relationship with Alan. But Sam’s father implies that, actually, it was Sam who was the target, and Alan was the collateral damage, launching Alan into a global search for the truth behind the bombing that he can’t complete without asking Hawkgirl for help.
Sam’s death has made Alan not want to let anyone get close, and he’s allowed himself to believe that having the power of the Green Lantern means he can handle everything by himself. Now suddenly his world view has been challenged in a way that pushed him to embrace the help of his allies, as the only way to find justice for Sam is to accept that he doesn’t have to be alone. This is the best character development Alan Scott receives in all of Earth 2. Unfortunately, the overarching plot of the series doesn’t have room for this storyline, and it gets abruptly dropped. We do eventually get a flashback that confirms Sam was targeted by the main Human antagonist of the series, but we’re never told why, and the characters never learn any of this, and the scene was a complete non sequitur that had nothing at all to do with the events around it…it honestly read like they just suddenly remembered that the Sam plot was never resolved, and shoved this scene into the next available issue.
But the most baffling decision made in this entire botched character arc…and I still can’t even begin to understand why this happened…they actually brought Sam back from the dead in a form that Alan could touch and talk to, and then did absolutely nothing with it. So, let me back up a little. If you don’t know, the Earth 2 version of Green Lantern has nothing to do with willpower or science fiction. Nature in the DC Universe is a collection of massively powerful elemental forces that permeate every aspect of the world…The Red, for example, is the power of all Human and animal life, anything with blood in its veins, and all of those life forms are inherently connected through The Red. Every elemental force chooses an Avatar to act on its behalf, maintaining balance and protecting the world from external threats. Alan Scott is the Avatar of The Green, the power of nature and plant life. The power of The Green flows directly from the Earth into Alan’s body, meaning he never has to recharge, but he can lose his connection if he tries to fly into space. Alan needed something to help focus the power, so he chose the ring he used to propose to Sam, turning it into a literal expression of the fact that a life of happiness with his loved one had turned into the mission of the Green Lantern. I actually really like the concept they went with for what a Green Lantern is in this world, it’s an interesting idea that successfully makes this version its own unique thing, while also laying some pretty obvious groundwork for an emotional character journey.
So Alan was chosen because the Earth needed a champion to protect itself from the coming war with Apocalypse, and all of the other elemental forces would eventually appoint their own champions to aid Alan in the fight. The White, the force representing the atmosphere, chose Sam. And this is where you’d think they were going to make good on everything that’d been left hanging, the weight of Sam’s loss, the importance of their relationship that’d been all but forgotten. Instead, Sam was written to have next to none of his original personality or memories, since becoming the Avatar of The White required him to give up the person he was in exchange for the power to eventually help Alan…which makes no sense to me, since Alan didn’t lose anything of himself when becoming the Avatar of The Green. I guess you could argue that he lost Sam, but Sam can’t be the sacrifice that facilitates two totally separate origin stories that just happen to take place near each other. But anyway, their reunion is happening in the middle of the war, which means we get precious few pages for Alan and Sam to interact, and almost all of their dialogue consists of Sam explaining and re-explaining to Alan that he isn’t Sam anymore, culminating in what I’m certain is meant to be a heartfelt goodbye, but by then it’s been mishandled to the point of being stripped of all meaning.
So the war finally, FINALLY ends, and we’re presented with the very interesting prospect of seeing what these characters and their world will become without the forces of Apocalypse constantly driving both the plot and the character arcs. And while most of the cast did get some pretty messy progression, at least it was progression…and I wish I cold tell you Alan got some too. See, to help end the war, Alan absorbed enough power to become a God, making him lose touch with Humanity, his personality fading away as he quickly grew more and more detatched. They made Alan as far removed from existing as a Human being as possible. But for a moment, it all seemed like it’d be worth it. Earth 2 was struggling with rapidly depleting natural resources, to the point that the Human population would no longer be sustainable. In a move nobody saw coming, Alan created permanent construct power planets with cables connecting to every major city, took off his ring, and placed it inside the reactor. Alan Scott gave up his power so that it would sustain Humanity for generations. Not only was this an incredible sacrifice for him to make, it also returned Alan Scott to being just a normal person again, completely removed from his old role, primed and ready to rediscover what it means to be Human…and maybe even have the kind of character exploration we’ve wanted to see from him this entire time.
…but no. Almost immediately, he’s mind-controlled by a telepathic villain, and made to summon the ring back onto his finger, so that the bad guy can have Green Lantern as his foot soldier. It’s around here that they also just forget what Alan’s powers are. While the mind-controlled Alan Scott is beating up his friends, he says that they’re no match for his “Oan weapon”…that’s not this version of Green Lantern. There are no Guardians, there is no Oa, that ring is a normal engagement ring infused with magic…a detail that was positioned to be incredibly important to the character early on, but became so inconsequential that nobody remembered, including the writer and editorial staff.
They went to the trouble of making the Green Lantern ring out of Sam’s wedding ring, showing Alan drowning himself in his work as Green Lantern in the wake of Sam’s passing, getting to the point that Alan was Green Lantern at the expense of everything else that made him who he is, and even gave us a moment where Alan realized that the best way forward for everyone was to let go. By giving up that ring, Alan was letting go of Sam, and I honestly don’t believe anyone involved with the creation of this book understood that.
The biggest insult came in the final pages of the entire series. After almost two yeas of not even acknowledging the character’s existence, Alan looks at a picture of Sam and smiles, as if to bring the entirety of Earth 2 full circle. All this did was remind us, one final time, of all the potential this series wasted. It reminded us that Alan and Sam were never characters, and their relationship never mattered.
So when all’s said and done…when we look at the circumstances leading up to the publication of Earth 2 #2, and how the characters were handled from that point up through the conclusion of the Earth 2 franchise, there is absolutely no question in my mind that, while James Robinson may have had the best of intentions, DC only cared about the short-term gains that would come from telling the world that a gay Green Lantern existed. They rushed the product out the door as quickly as possible to make sure they could ride the wave of popularity before it died down, and never had any intention or interest in following through in any meaningful way. And it’s hard to look at the incredibly botched handling of Alan and Sam in 2012 without thinking about DC’s refusal to allow Batwoman to marry her girlfriend in 2013, suggesting something very ugly about DC editorial at the time.
But the strangest thing about all of this is the fact that it’s not over. I don’t know if we’ll ever see New 52 Earth 2 Alan Scott again, outside of his incredibly brief cameo in Grant Morrison’s The Green Lantern series…but Alan Scott being gay is an idea that DC doesn’t want to give up on. The original version of Alan Scott is finally returning to the DC Universe after almost a decade of being gone, and there’ve already been multiple in-universe references to the character being gay. Nobody has explicitly said the words out loud, but they’ve been pretty blatant about it otherwise, and if what we’ve seen in the pages of Justice League and the Green Lantern 80th Anniversary Special were any indication, this time we’re getting a version that’s treated with thoughtful nuance instead of being used as an attention-grabbing spectacle. I don’t know why they decided to stick with Alan Scott for this, and who knows if they’ll do better this time around…all I know is it would be pretty had to do worse.
Interview with Dan Didio:
Comments
Post a Comment