DC superhero "coming out"

[otakuryoga]

And then they'd see a picture of him and notice that he doesn't look a thing like the Green Lantern they're thinking of, and be quite confused on the whole thing.

Zevox

again though..this publicity stunt was aimed at non readers
DC announces that
"a GREEN LANTERN is gay!"
and all they see is "green lantern" and (theoretically) go "wow, good job DC making such a major hero gay"

IF they are interested enough to look up a picture and see Allan Scott then they will just chalk up the big difference in look to being something Hollywood did to make the movie more sellable

[Man on Fire]

In other words, DC is lying to people for PR points.

[otakuryoga]

no..highlight my post above
like this

"a GREEN LANTERN is gay!"

they say it is "a" green lantern (while trying hard to not let non readers know there are multiple GL's)
because they realize most non-readers neither know nor care about the difference between them
all they hear is "green lantern is gay" not 'one of many green lanterns is gay"..and think that DC made a major character gay
and then you start talking about alternate universes and their eyes glaze over and they tune you out

they aren't lying..they are just shouting part of the statement a LOT while whispering another part
and what do people hear? the shouted part

[TheEmerged]

In other words, DC is lying to people for PR points.

Give that man a cookie. Nearly every MSM site I trolled was showing either a picture of Hal Jordon or the guy from the film (*wink wink*) on the front page, then the proper character on the real article.

RE: People thinking it would be Batman or Robin. Nope, no chance whatsoever of this happening. None. Whatsoever. Period.

[Man on Fire]

they aren't lying..they are just shouting part of the statement a LOT while whispering another part

Potato/Poteto or something like that - DC is playing on people's exceptations to make them belive something that's not true, at the end of the day it's just a very clever way to lie.

[willpell]

Potato/Poteto or something like that - DC is playing on people's exceptations to make them belive something that's not true, at the end of the day it's just a very clever way to lie.

This. A thousand times this. Our society LOVES to technically tell the truth in very misleading ways - fine print on contracts, end-user license agreements, {Scrubbed} All tucked away in the hope that you won't notice them, and then mercilessly enforced in a court of law {Scrubbed} and if you complain they say something like "ignorance is not a defense". Pretty much the entirety of Western Civilization is founded on this kind of....I don't even know what I can call it other than something that would need to be censored.

[Psyren]

You know, part of me is annoyed that they took the least popular/well-known Green Lantern, yelled "still technically a Green Lantern!" and then shoved him out of his very vaguely-constructed closet for cheap PR points.

Part of me is. But that's honestly the smaller part; the larger part does see the positive in all this.

1) Like it or not, even *a* GL is more famous to the general public than, say, Northstar or Midnighter - so DC's godawful treatment of anything that isn't Batman aside, we might actually/eventually have a decent movie or game of an iconic gay superhero.

2) For all that he is lacking in notoriety among the other GLs, he at least has the undisputed fame of being first. (And, the nerd in me gushes, having a somewhat more primal power source than the others.)

3) His powers are cool. Like, really cool. A small part of me groaned inwardly that they made the guy with a "starheart ring" gay, but that didn't stop the damn thing from being badass. In addition to all the "think-it-build-it" powers the other GLs have, with a much cooler weakness (wood/plants instead of... yellow?) he's also displayed telepathy, power mimicry (including mimicking Flash), phasing, hypnosis, invisibility and eventually not needing the ring at all. Didn't he become DC's Dr. Strange at one point? He certainly has the cape-obsession.

So all in all, color me positive over the affair. (And rainbow.)

[Zevox]

1) Like it or not, even *a* GL is more famous to the general public than, say, Northstar or Midnighter - so DC's godawful treatment of anything that isn't Batman aside, we might actually/eventually have a decent movie or game of an iconic gay superhero.

I wouldn't bet on it. We barely got a movie about the actual iconic Green Lantern, and the only reason there's any GL games is because every superhero movie gets (poorly made) tie-in games now. I doubt we'll ever see either even for Kyle Rayner, much less Alan Scott.

2) For all that he is lacking in notoriety among the other GLs, he at least has the undisputed fame of being first.

When that makes him the least bit famous among non-comic fans (or even comic fans that don't care about the Green Lanterns, for that matter), feel free to let me know.

with a much cooler weakness (wood/plants instead of... yellow?)

The space cop GLs do not have a weakness anymore. That was done away with some time ago, almost certainly precisely because of how stupid it was. (I don't know whether Alan Scott still has his wood weakness or not.)

Zevox

[Psyren]

I wouldn't bet on it. We barely got a movie about the actual iconic Green Lantern, and the only reason there's any GL games is because every superhero movie gets (poorly made) tie-in games now. I doubt we'll ever see either even for Kyle Rayner, much less Alan Scott.

I guess it's the optimist in me, but being the "gay one" is likely to be a pretty decent shot in the arm to his notoriety in the long run. When you get right down to it, Raynor and even racial minority Stewart don't have as much going for them to differentiate from Hal (though the latter is likely next in line popularity-wise outside the comics thanks to the cartoons at least.)

But for Alan, there's a vacuum - both for an iconic LGBT superhero, and for a GL that isn't terrible. Played right, he could fill both gaps.

When that makes him the least bit famous among non-comic fans (or even comic fans that don't care about the Green Lanterns, for that matter), feel free to let me know.

Eh, it's not like Hal himself was that popular either. It's the ring and powers that non-comic-fans recognize, they could honestly care less who's behind the mask - particularly after the disastrous film.

The space cop GLs do not have a weakness anymore.

Fair enough, I wasn't keeping up with that bit of the mythos.

[bmosley45]

I was a little disappointed to hear that it was Green Lantern (Alan Scott) who was outed. Most people haven't even heard of Alan Scott nor do most understand or know about Earth 2. So DC takes an obscure character from an alternate dimension and makes him gay? So what? If they were really trying to make a statement, the choices for which character they should've picked are quite clear: Wonder Woman, Batman, or Superman. Most people think Batman is already gay because, unintentionally, DC has been laying the frame work for Bruce to come out ever since Robin was introduced.

I agree with a lot of the posters in that DC made a cheap PR move that, in the end, amounted to nothing because they were not willing to put their biggest characters on the line.

I wrote and drew a comic/blog about this here, starring my favorite B-List Marvel heroes, Luke Cage and Iron Fist. If posting links to my work in this discussion is in poor taste, please let me know. I will take it down.

[TheLaughingMan]

Welp. Saw this coming.

...

/yawn

This. A thousand times this. Our society LOVES to technically tell the truth in very misleading ways - fine print on contracts, end-user license agreements, {Scrubbed} All tucked away in the hope that you won't notice them, and then mercilessly enforced in a court of law {Scrubbed} and if you complain they say something like "ignorance is not a defense". Pretty much the entirety of Western Civilization is founded on this kind of....I don't even know what I can call it other than something that would need to be censored.

To be fair, most of Eastern society is screwed up a good deal more than we are, just in different ways.

[otakuryoga]

The space cop GLs do not have a weakness anymore. That was done away with some time ago, almost certainly precisely because of how stupid it was. (I don't know whether Alan Scott still has his wood weakness or not.)

Zevox

--insert snarky comment about him having a weakness FOR wood now--

[Devonix]

--insert snarky comment about him having a weakness FOR wood now--

Technically they still do have that weakness, its just something that they overcome. If a Green Lantern allows fear into their hearts during combat then their rings won't work against yellow. It just that the Vets have enough experience to overcome it. Rookies have a harder time.

Also the whole wood weakness has to do with his powers being connected to nature and its more that he can't harm the natural world with his powers. IE he can use his powers to turn an entire building to rubble but not a forest.

[Tyndmyr]

Technically they still do have that weakness, its just something that they overcome. If a Green Lantern allows fear into their hearts during combat then their rings won't work against yellow. It just that the Vets have enough experience to overcome it. Rookies have a harder time.

Also the whole wood weakness has to do with his powers being connected to nature and its more that he can't harm the natural world with his powers. IE he can use his powers to turn an entire building to rubble but not a forest.

Vulnerable to wood...let's make him gay.

I admit I'm not seeing this as a plus.

[Psyren]

--insert snarky comment about him having a weakness FOR wood now--

You have no idea how hard it was to avoid that

Vulnerable to wood...let's make him gay.

I admit I'm not seeing this as a plus.

Did that even come up during BN/BD? I think his weakness was dropped with the others, however tastelessly amusing the joke would have been to port over.

[Ravens_cry]

If done right, this is actually a fairly daring move.
After all Alan Scott, last time I checked, was in a series in a mid 20th century setting.
Coming out as gay at such a time would have repercussions.
That being said, Alan Scott is not iconic though by any stretch I am afraid.
The first but not foremost.

[otakuryoga]

You have no idea how hard it was to avoid that



Did that even come up during BN/BD? I think his weakness was dropped with the others, however tastelessly amusing the joke would have been to port over.

ahh, so your mind is often found in the gutter as well

[industrious]

If done right, this is actually a fairly daring move.
After all Alan Scott, last time I checked, was in a series in a mid 20th century setting.
Coming out as gay at such a time would have repercussions.
That being said, Alan Scott is not iconic though by any stretch I am afraid.
The first but not foremost.

Doesn't really seem to be mid-twentieth century in Earth-2 to me.

[Psyren]

That being said, Alan Scott is not iconic though by any stretch I am afraid.
The first but not foremost.

To that I say again - none of them are, really. I'd be extremely surprised if much more was known about Hal beyond "fighter pilot" among non-comic fans. Alan may be relatively obscure, but he could also be the first time the public might care about the man wearing the ring.

[Ravens_cry]

To that I say again - none of them are, really. I'd be extremely surprised if much more was known about Hal beyond "fighter pilot" among non-comic fans. Alan may be relatively obscure, but he could also be the first time the public might care about the man wearing the ring.

Hal Jordan was also the one in Super Friends and the recent film.
That says to me he counts as the closest to iconic, though John Stewart, thanks to the DCAU Justice League series, could also be in the running.

[Tyndmyr]

Did that even come up during BN/BD? I think his weakness was dropped with the others, however tastelessly amusing the joke would have been to port over.

I have no idea. I didn't read all of that series, as I got tired of having melted skittles poured into my eyes.

That said, I don't recall his weakness ever being explicitly mentioned as gone, just...ignored, as comic books so often do.

[Teln]

If done right, this is actually a fairly daring move.
After all Alan Scott, last time I checked, was in a series in a mid 20th century setting.
Coming out as gay at such a time would have repercussions.

Afraid not--from what I've heard, Earth-2 is now set in the present day.

[Psyren]

Hal Jordan was also the one in Super Friends and the recent film.
That says to me he counts as the closest to iconic, though John Stewart, thanks to the DCAU Justice League series, could also be in the running.

But that's my point - aside from the media they've appeared in (and their skin color) what really differentiates those two in the eyes of the public? Or if you asked a non-comics-fan what the difference is between Raynor and Hal, what would he or she say?

I believe the answer is - not much. You could pour almost anyone with generic hero characteristics (brave, creative, rebellious etc.) into green tights and few would notice the difference. Alan is the first time that the man behind the ring might get real attention, precisely because of the niche he represents.

It's like asking a non-comics-fan the difference between Tim Drake and Jason Todd, or the difference between Wally West and Barry Allen.

And if I may rant briefly for a moment, this is a general problem with DC characters. They start with the suit and then develop the man, whereas Marvel starts with the man and thrusts them into the suit. People care about Peter Parker/Tony Stark/Bruce Banner/Steve Rogers just as much as they care about Spider Man/Iron Man/Hulk/Cap, because Marvel makes characters first and heroes second.

[Tyndmyr]

Or if you asked a non-comics-fan what the difference is between Raynor and Hal, what would he or she say?

Raynor who?

[The Glyphstone]

Raynor who?

The only Raynor I'm familiar with is named Jim.

[Psyren]

Yes, thank you both for focusing on my typo and ignoring the rest

[Tyndmyr]

Wasn't actually a focus on the typo. It was what I anticipated the response of the average non-comic fan would be.

[Psyren]

Wasn't actually a focus on the typo. It was what I anticipated the response of the average non-comic fan would be.

Then I apologize, though in my defense your response was ambiguous.

Anyway, for all that Rayner isn't well-known, do people know that much more about Jordan or Stewart? That's what I'm getting at. Alan isn't as far behind the rest in notoriety as this thread makes him seem; it's the ring that's famous moreso than the man.

[Man on Fire]

Don't forget that Guy Gardner was in Batman: Brave And Bold, he might be now more known to general public than Kyle and probably as much as Stewart (if not more, B:BaB is much younger show than JL/JLU). And non-comics fan could probably name difference between Stewart and Jordan pretty easily - Jordan is white and has mask, Stewart is black and doesn't hide his idientity.

[TheEmerged]

Example: a link off of CNN's site as of today is still showing Hal's picture from JLA #1 next to the headline about this.