You should seek out the Luthor stories by Maggin. He did more for that character than anyone. His Luthor was a rounded, potentially-redeemable character, not the mustache-twirler from before and after. Johns' Luthor was a psychotic nutjob.

 

Out of all characters...why Alan Scott?!

 

Their explanation is that Obsidian had already been axed from the new universe, so they made GL their gay character in his place.

 

I was guessing that while Alan Scott is 'iconic' in the sense that those who are long time fans of the company or very well read in their comic history are familiar with him and the reasonably important role he plays in the history of DC comics and the Green Lanterns he isn't as world famous as Superman or Batman and thus they are unlikely loose fans over that or generate the extreme public controversy such a decision might entail.

Plus they'd be accused of even worse pandering to the male reader base if they did it someone like Wonder Woman or Supergirl.

 

Newsarama.com : ALAN SCOTT is Gay, and Other Gender, Race Changes Coming to DC

 

I have no doubt that was part of the editorial decision making process as well, although maybe more so in approving the idea than in coming up with it. From what the writer has said, it sounds like it was just something he wanted to do since Obsidian was gone, and then Didio decided to drop hints about it to the media afterwards.

 

Green Lantern was always gay  

:scnr:

 

Isn't his son gay? I'm so confused! Why? Isn't going to be bad on don't let gays raise kids thing in real life. I feel this is a really awful decision.

 

It's a dumb decision anyway. They're just going to make it worse with a very ham-handed treatment of the situation, and an eventual retcon.

They're just trying to drum up some controversy to sell books. I guess it worked for Archie.

 

Except Archie created a totally new character. They didn't pick a popular name, toss into an alternate universe and then say that character's gay.

 

True, but the motivation was the same. Use sexual orientation controversy to generate some extra change.

 

But why do that if they want to have a gay character? Why not just have Obsidian exist and not arbitrarily change an established character?

Oh wait, I forgot, Marvel and DC are obsessed with keeping their characters young and "hip", so they can't have characters get married and have kids. My bad.  

Aw hell, can you knock it off DC? Stop changing characters for no damn reason. Focus on telling great stories and not on publicity stunts.  

 

I love that DC announces him as gay, then on Facebook attempts to defend that by calling him also "rich and complex" like being gay needed to be vindicated somehow. Screw you DC.

 

I don't care that he's gay now. The part that bugs me most is that Jade and Obsidian may not exist anymore.

 

That bums me out, too. I was never a big fan of Obsidian past the cool design, but I loved Jade. It looks like one of the big downsides of Earth-2 is that we're losing a lot of the good second generation characters. We've got Helena Wayne, Kara Zor-L, and Kendra Saunders, but Jade and Obsidian are gone and I'll be really surprised if we see Rick Tyler, Jessie Quick, or any of the other younger JSA characters again. I will be really pissed if there's no Stargirl now.

I did like getting confirmation that this wasn't a publicity stunt. Robinson just made the character gay as kind of a tribute to his no-longer existent son and it only became a big deal because, in typical fashion, Dan Didio was all "ZOMG guyz, we has nu gay superheroez!" At least it's less embarrassing than when he did it with Batwoman and the whole "lipstick lesbian" kerfuffle.

 

Is it really this bad for DC to drum up some media controversy to sell some comics? With the exception of Batman, it's no wonder Marvel is horse whipping DC in every aspect in comics(printed,film,digital,ect).

I myself don't care if a person is gay or straight. But getting a long established character and changing their long history is a cheap and unimaginative way for sales. Change is good. But you have to add elements to the story line that affects the current flow of whats going on right now.

With the way DC is being run right now, I wonder how long will it be when they will do another "DC Universe" reboot?

 

Marvel isn't whipping DC creatively in the comics. Their books are no better than DC's, if not worse. Look at AvX. There's no story there. It's a one-shot at best yet they managed to stretch it out to 12 issues plus tie-ins, at $4 a pop. I'll take changing a character over meaningless fluff stories masquerading as "events" whose sole purpose is to sell comics.

The biggest problem I have with DCnU is their unwillingness to re-tread upon what Morrison's been doing with Batman the last few years. Lois and Clark can't be married (which I'm fine with, by the way) because it makes Superman difficult to relate to, but Batman can have a kid? The concept of Batman, Inc. is so far removed from who Batman is, it's crazy. I'm still of the opinion Batman shouldn't give a rat's ass about anything outside of Gotham. Sure, that negates his presence in the Justice League, but I don't really think he belongs there either.

 

IMO the difference is that Archie probably wanted a gay character anyway because they're an inclusive mass market publisher that has to move with the times and because they've been actively chasing new audiences since the current folks took over. Obviously the publicity is good because it drums up extra business, but I certainly don't think that they're taking part in the same oppertunistic tokenism that DC (or at least Dan Didio) seem to be up to.

The sad thing is that were all sitting here typing about it because society is still in a rediculous position where something being gay is actualy news and/or controversy.

 

I think it's not society. It's more like the media. I myself did not care or shocked when Ricky Martin went open. I don't think know anyone else that was either.

 

I don't really know what to say about this. I don't see it being a bad thing, but I would also think it might hurt their sales that were reliant on old school fans. I'm willing to bet there are more old school fans who drop the main GL title, than there are new fans who pick it up, but I could be totally off.

I think GL has enough different titles that it's an interesting story no matter what orientation the main characters are, I don't see any difference really.