/1.webp "Alan Scott: The Green Lantern #1")
A POWERFUL TALE OF ALAN SCOTT'S EARLY DAYS AS GREEN LANTERN! Alan Scott's early days as the Green Lantern are seen in a new light! The Green Lantern is the most powerful member of the JSA, beloved by all of America, but his personal life is a well-kept secret. This is a story about love, about fear, and most of all about courage to stand up to that fear. Alan Scott's past is the key to his future when the Red Lantern appears, ready to strike down the mighty Green Lantern!
I can't with good conscious recommend this comic. If we looked at it on the merit of a "comic book" it's not the most interesting comic. Opens with the usual relationship bit, you know two bros just hanging out half naked under bed sheets, afterall, we have to really hammer home that Mr. Scott is gay now (or has been for a better part of a decade if you remember Earth-2 but let's be honest, who does?).
Light on action, heavy on the melodrama. I can see why Tim Sheridan didn't go over any basic plot points in his video fan baiting about the comic--if he did, he would give the whole comic away. However, where there were action pages, they were well illustrated. Coloring work looks competent also, paneling too, but those are strengths from the art team. The cliffhanger was almost expected, I didn't hate it but the fact that I had hunch it would happen makes me feel the author should have made a different choice for the next major plot point.
Here's the thing, let's put aside the queer bending of an 80 year old character (of which the creator was a devout Catholic, hmm), would you really hand this comic over to a gay friend? Like really? I appreciate Sheridan's effort to bring gay voices to the forefront and he seems like genuinely nice guy, but he's not the only one who has been doing so for the past 5 years at Marvel and DC. Here's my advice; start with writing a comic about a hero who happens to be gay, normal people aren't defined by their preference. Unfortunately, DC and Marvel's creatives who write these LGBTQ stories aren't strong enough to draft up a book on gay heroes without making it feel close to parody. Comics are already a niche genre as it is, leading with "he's a gay hero, buy this book to own the chuds or ELSE--!" screams of desperation.
I'll be back for the next issue to see how this rolls into the Red Lantern.
© 2025
I think that unless your preference is standard heterosexuality, your preference does, in fact, inform who you are. It's not seen as the norm by society, and that surely leaves an indelible impression on who you are and how you see things.