This is a comment by Jacobtk on the post “Golden Age Green Lantern Gay Now“.
I see this as a cop out. The average person does not know who Alan Scott is. I do not know how DC can call him icon when he is not even the Green Lantern people tend to think of. This was really a way for DC to play liberal politics to shut up one side and to play to the fanbase by not PC-retconning a character most fans love.
If DC really wanted to make waves, they would have made Hal Jordan or even Guy Gardner (a better choice) gay. Or they could have just made Aquaman gay since everyone already thinks he is.
On a side note, let us hope that DC changes Alan Scott’s weakness from wood.
Photo credit: Flickr / JD Hancock
I disagree, you are disgusted with him turning out to be gay, and are using ‘bawwwww the PC police don’t let us have fun!” as a cop-out excuse, there are genuine reasons for objecting to a character being suddenly made gay, ‘bawwwww PC police!” isn’t one of them.
The main reason for making Alan gay is because the reboot made him younger, and thus wiped his gay son out of existence. This is just a way of rebalancing that. Also, DC already have a married gay couple in Apollo and Midniter, this isn’t really a big groundbreaking political move for them – It’s just something the writer of Earth 2 wanted to do.
They aren’t trying to be groundbreaking, they are trying to hit the gay money when its the hot thing
So it would be better if they just made all of their characters White Anglo-Saxon Protestant Heterosexuals? Perhaps, the national conversation concerning sexuality/gender politics has inspired DC to make a statement. To think that print comic books are making any significant amount of money (let alone from some mythical monolithic homosexual reader base) is asinine. If the business model at DC Comics is to bank on homosexual readership then they need to fire just about everybody on the board. Comic books have a history of commenting on social issues. Green Lantern got mixed up in race riots a few times… Read more »
No, it was the constant complaining from liberals about the lack politically correct diversity that prompted DC to play politics. Progressives in the comic book community have been beating that drum lately. They run many of the popular comic book websites, so their voices are the loudest, even if the majority of fans could not care less about these topics. The irony is that most of the people pushing for these changes do not buy the books. They may buy the first issue, but few stick around. Most of these books never solicit, let alone sell, in the top 25… Read more »
Equal representation is not niche.
Maybe Focus on the Family will start printing comics.
Okay, last post, I promise. Then I’ll be done beating a dead thread. I don’t know if you have either a) never been 8 years old or b) never felt ‘other’, but you’re missing something important- kids are the driving force behind superhero stories. So I don’t know if you never read them as a kid or if you never felt left out of them but it’s important. When I was eight years old, a friend of mine told me that I couldn’t be Superman because Superman is white. I can only think of a few instances since then that… Read more »
Equal representation is not storytelling, and it is not what comics are about nor should it be. Equal representation is simply playing identity politics, and that only appeals to a niche audience that rarely buys comics, including comics featuring the politically correct characters they demanded. I can appreciate people wanting characters to look like them, but that argument works in the reverse. If you cannot identify with characters who do not reflect your life or experiences, how can you expect other people to care about or identify with characters who do not reflect their lives or experiences, let alone expect… Read more »
Fair enough. Perhaps new characters (the diverse cast of Batman Inc. comes to mind) is the answer. Or independent comics.
High five for having an internet disagreement that remained civil. *Slap*
Right on. DC have lost serious credibility by showing such weakness. It’s as hollow as the “Dubledore is Gay” thing from J.K Rowling.
Check out my article on the whole, shameless debacle
http://fundividedattention.wordpress.com/2012/06/03/great-scotts-dcs-closet-come-out-cop-out/
The average person doesn’t read comic books. They don’t know Guy Gardner, either. Or even Hal Jordan, for that matter, unless you mention that he was played by Ryan Reynolds. Alan Scott is an icon, as is his daughter Jade. Sure, he’s not a top tier DC character but he’s also one who’s pliable enough to be transformed. Hal Jordan can’t be re-written as a homosexual because that messes with his relationship with Carol Ferris which is an impetus for a large portion of his story. It’s not about liberal or conservative (even though it’s so tempting to make everything… Read more »
p.s. I agree. That wood nonsense is just silly.
Yeah, because “the color yellow” makes SO much more sense.