The irony of someone who started reading DC in 1988 saying that will never get old for me, since you came in only 2 short years after they did the exact same thing to a whole other generation of readers.

I knew a lot of people back in 1988 who said pretty much the same thing you are saying now.

 

Hence the "I still had hope" statement. That's gone now. And with only the names being the same, I'm not even going to attempt to care. I'll be dropping this book with my next monthly order.

 

I don't really mind that they chose Alan Scott. He's not a favorite character of mine and there are other green lanterns to turn to if some people don't like this change.

 

Oddly enough those are some of my favorite runs.

 

Eh, it's not even all about Alan. I don't care for the redesigns, and Robinson said there are more character changes, such as gender and/or ethnicity switching on the way. I'm just not interested in this. For me, the JSA is gone.
And the JLA. And the Teen Titans. And so on...  

 

So how long will it be when DC does another reboot. Or better yet, do another epic event with the the word "CRISIS" in the title.

 

*shrug* I've been through this before, back when the original Crisis hit. And with all the massive changes and needless alterations and characters (and entire worlds) wastefully wiped out back then, I still found a lot to read and enjoy in the replacement universe. I'm sure it will be the same this time.

I liked the pre-Crisis JSA. All-Star Squadron was one of my favorite DC books back in the early to mid-1980s. All that got junked by the Crisis. DC spent the next decade trying to erase the characters from comics completely and pretend they never existed, because one of the people in charge felt it was too confusing to have alternate characters with the same names and that kids wouldn't like characters who were old. Then, eventually, the Robinson/Goyer/Johns JSA series came around, and although it was very different and they clearly weren't the same characters I used to enjoy, that JSA series became one of my favorite DC books ever.

Now that version is done, too. All things end. I don't need it back, and I don't need them to go back to the pre-Crisis version either. Bring on the new one. I don't care how different it is as long as they make it interesting. Maybe this one won't be, but it's still too soon to tell, imo.

 

Because character relationships have been a major part of super-hero comics since the 1960s? You take out the relationships, and it's just a bunch of punching.

 

Not being gay I can only speak based on others' experiences, but I have a lot of LGBT friends who are comic fans who love having LGBT characters in comics, as long as they're written well. They're especially pissed when those characters die or are just poorly written, not because them being gay was ever made a big deal.

 

Sexual orientation *is* brought up in comic books all the time. Superman has Lois Lane, Hal Jordan has Carol Ferris, Barry Allen has Iris, and so on. You don't notice it, of course, because there's nothing that strikes you as odd about it - it's just there.

From the pages of next week's Earth 2, it doesn't seem as if there's anything especially different about the way Alan's relationship is being portrayed to any other romantic pairing (the one possible exception being that his partner seems to actually like him, which admittedly is a tad unusual for a DC superhero these days.) In-story, they don't appear to be making any more of a big deal out of it than they do with any other romantic entanglement, so unless you're arguing no superhero should be depicted as having a personal life, I'm not sure what you're getting at.

It is a big deal for gay youth, though. The thing that organisations like One Million Moms most stridently object to - the idea that gay men and women can be portrayed in a positive light - is actually something that makes the biggest difference when you're growing up in a culture which overwhelmingly caters to heterosexual tastes. This isn't going to be a popular thing to say here, but straight men, especially white men, have a plethora of positive role models to choose from, in every form of popular fiction available. Gay men not so much, and you notice the ones that are around precisely because they're so damn rare.

Obsidian was one of the very few out gay heroes in the DC universe, the reboot took him away and James Robinson saw the opportunity to redress the balance a little with the reinvented Earth 2 Alan Scott.

The "hype" seems odd, I'll give you that. But at this point I'd question how much of the hype is DC's work and how much is every geeky news website, blog and message board repeating the story. Because now that I think about it I haven't actually read anything from DC apart from a very short statement a few days ago. Fans did a lot of shouting about it and a mainstream media outlet or two picked up on it.

Sure, DC teased us with exactly who it would be, but they tease us about virtually everything. This is because comic book publishers are, by nature, media tarts. They will shamelessly promote, tease, tantalise and sometimes blatantly slut it up as much as they possibly can, in order to sell more comics. This is not new nor is it morally suspect in itself. The trouble comes where the need for hype determines the creative direction of the comic book itself.

But that's not what's happening in this case because the creative decision was made by the writer. James Robinson decided the new Earth 2 Alan Scott would be gay. If sexuality shouldn't matter, then you shouldn't care whether he's gay or not. If it does matter, then that's just another reason why more gay superheroes are needed.

 

Would just a bunch of punching necessarily be bad? What about comics where the romantic relationships are mostly a bunch of punching anyway?

 

 

Speaking of One Million Hate Mongers, I mean Moms, it looks like they've fled Facebook.

WE WIN! Comic Book Fans Chase One Million Moms Off Facebook

 

Hold on hold on, following that link then looking up Astonishing X-men 51 I find North star marrying his boyfriend this month, no surprise as Northstar has been out for years, but the pic of Gay Marvel characters features... Mystique? Zounds. :O

 

I think it's been implied for years that she had a relationship with fellow Brotherhood/Freedom Force member Destiny.

 

I'm sure, and the irony isn't lost on me. But no one can say I haven't given the new DC a chance. I was willing to be hopeful, just like MagnusPrimal, but I"ve been disappointed at every turn. Not that there aren't a few books that are good, but by and large I've lost interest in all of these "in name only" versions of characters I used to like.

 

I think that's mostly the case for a lot of people. It's true that they managed to get a lot of new readers, but for an old DC fan like me, I just follow Batman these days, because at least he's still written closely to the Batman I know, and it helps that he's written by a great writer. Other titles like JL have just been disappointing and show just how different these characters are. They're written more like jerks than heroes they're supposed to be.

 

I have no problem that this Green Lantern character is gay because if he fights for justice against the forces of evil than thats cool. I know that sounds corny, but I'm being open-minded about the idea.

 

Worst offender for this, is easily Billy Batson.

 

Agreed. They've absolutely ruined that character, and I used to really enjoy reading anything that Captain Marvel appeared in.