Infinite Frontier #1 - Alan Scott FINALLY says it

[icon_uk]

Back when the New52 was launched a big deal was made about Alan Scott, Green Lantern, now being gay.

But the gay Alan Scott was not the one we had known since the 1940's, it was an entirely NEW Alan Scott, so whilst increased representation is a good thing, it felt a lot less significant because of the circumstances...



Infinite Frontiers is changing that




And oh, is it nice to see Alan abck with his kids Jade and Obsidian (already out and proud)

Comments

[crinos]

Okay, now this I like.

Like when they made New 52 Alan Scott Gay, I was ambivalent because A) Like you said it wasn't the same Alan Scott from the 40's, and B) they erased Obsidian and Jade, so we lost a character who had already been established as Gay for years, in order to make way for this brand new gay character who is the Golden Age GL but not really. That never sat well with me.

But this, loving this.

[nyadnar17]

100% agreed.

I have been pretty vocal in my dislike about some of the previous "orientation reveals". But this, this feels right.

[donnblake]

Aww, this is sweet. It's always nice to see coming out stories where everyone is wholesome and supporting.

[dragontail]

One of my proudest pop culture possessions is the very first sketch Nicola Scott, artist of Earth 2, did of that universe's Alan Scott. I'd innocently asked her to sketch Alan for me at a con, and that's what I got, with the explanation that it may yet change on the page because she had yet to finalise the design. I loved that Alan, almost as much as the original, so I treasure that sketch (which is framed and on display in our hallway) to this day.

This? This is even better again. Alan's been a treasured character of mine since I first started reading comics (black and white, Australian reprints of All-Star Squadron in the 1980s) and I know his history (histories) back-to-front. I'm so impressed that something this additive, this heartwarming, and this fulsome, can be achieved in such a short space of panels and dialogue. It's truly wonderful and feels just perfect.

I've a huge smile on my face today, seeing this.

[icon_uk]

What a terrific thing to have! :)

(I managed to get the second ever convention sketch of Tim Drake's Robin from Norm Breyfogle. It would have been the first one if it hadn't been for a pushy git who inserted himself in the queue and would not take a hint, but c'est la vie! :) )

[themajesticmoose]

That is such a wonderful sketch to own!

[dragontail]

Thank you!

[dragontail]

Oh wow! That's truly awesome. Breyfogle remains one of my all-time favourite artists, I'd love to have had the opportunity to purchase an original of his prior to his passing. Good stuff!

[iamrman]

I wonder if this means a new Justice Society series is on the way.

[dan_ingram]

Not the biggest fan of this change, but we got Jade and Obsidian, so I can't think of any meaningful objections.

Glad to finally have the JSA back, if they actually are

[scorntx]

Wait, whoa, hold the phone one minute here!
Since when has Alan's hair been silver?
He's blonde! Always has been!
Who do these jackasses think they are making Alan's hair different all of a sudden?

(Okay, admittedly, even with handwave "his powers are magic and slowing his aging", the man should be pushing somewhere around ninety, but still...
...
it just looks weird, yo. That's been his hair colour for always and ever.)

[victory_or_death]

Platinum Blondes have more fun?

[scorntx]

At the age of ninety-plus, he's probably lucky to have any kind of fun.

[juniper6]

Or any kind of hair... ;)

[icon_uk]

You beat me to it! :D

[bruinsfan]

Well, there is this from Infinity Inc. Annual #1...

[lieut_kettch]

Maybe he looks more his age when he's powered down, but becomes blond and younger looking when he charges his ring?

[zachbeacon]

I'm just happy the kids are back and Alan isn't an unlikable ass anymore. His sexuality was never the problem with the Nu52 52 guy.

[leahandillyana]

I understand the sentiment, but Scott here says that he did love the women he married, making him bisexual rather than gay. I do not enjoy sexuality being presented as binary this or that so often in the media. And, speaking of Earth-2 Alan Scott, what happened to him? If I remember correctly, he was moved out of focus when writers changed, and then what?

[icon_uk]

I think the writer is being fairly subtle (or possibly over-clever) here, as Alan says he loved them with all his mind, not his heart.

He genuinely believed that it was love, and it was, and they made each other happy, but in the end it wasn't the sort of love he he eventually realised he wanted.

I know a couple of people (male and female) who had each been contentedly hetero married until they came to the realisation that they were gay, not bi/pan but gay.

That realisation didn't annul the feelings they had had for their spouses in the past, but it put it in context. and in the case of one friend who had kids as well he remains as loving a father as he ever was.

Alan could have been bi or pan, and that would have been cool too, but he's gay. He's by no means the first person in that situation, and he won't be the last.

[bradygirl_12]

Alan could have been bi or pan, and that would have been cool too, but he's gay. He's by no means the first person in that situation, and he won't be the last.

Well said!

This was a great reveal. :)

[leahandillyana]

The idea that Scott's decades-long marriage was retroactively meaningless doesn't sit well with me though. It feels needlessly cruel to Molly. I would have preferred if the scene showed him coming out to her and her reaction, though it's logical that the creators prioritized showing that Jade and Obsidian are people that exist.

[icon_uk]

Except he's categorically NOT saying his past relationships were meaningless. He's stressing that they were important to him (especially as he's talking to the results of one of them, though IIRC his mentally unbalanced wife Rose/Thorn faked her death without telling him that she was pregnant)

He loved his wives when he married them, he cared for them, was a part of their lives as a husband. That doesn't mean he can't realise he was gay later on.

Plusit's not a case if being cruel to her, because his sexual identity is not a reflection on her, I'm honestly not even sure Molly is still alive, the way he says he was married suggests she might not be.

[luxshine]

My dad was gay and my mom is a lesbian. They got married because back then they thought they had no other choice as they both wanted children. They loved each other and had me and my brother. Their sexualites didn't make their relationship less meaningful, and I find it kinda iffy when people claim that men or women who were in a het marriage "make their relationship meaningless" by coming out.

[lizard_of_aus]

"Fully blame the men for"? I mean, that hardly seems fair. Certainly, it's a heart-wrenching situation, but I'd need further context than that to place the entire onus upon them. If they didn't care about their wife to begin with, then sure. If they were two-timing or even physically abusive, absolutely, If the man knew from the very beginning and was dishonest with his wife, as opposed to still figuring himself out or being dishonest with HIMSELF, then maybe. But without that further detail, I don't see how or why someone can be held to account for not doing something they are physically incapable of doing.

[zachbeacon]

"I understand the sentiment, but Scott here says that he did love the women he married, making him bisexual rather than gay. I do not enjoy sexuality being presented as binary this or that so often in the media. "

Still one of the bigger problems with the current treatment of Iceman.

[themajesticmoose]

I'm fine with Iceman being gay.

His "Relationships" with women in the comics were always absolute garbage so the "Reveal" that they were never actually real relationships and just him being in the closet and trying to hide who he was didn't come as any great shock to me.

Plus on a real world level one of the problems with making a character bisexual as opposed to gay at either Marvel or DC is that many of the cowards and bigots that run said publishers and write their comics will always be tempted to erase/ignore a bisexual characters bisexuality by exclusively having them dating the opposite sex

Just look at the pathetic way DC does all it can to pretend that Wonder Woman and Harley Quinn are boring straight women. Or the way that Marvel tried to hide/erase Mystique's sexuality for decades until Hickman came along and finally firmly put a stop to that garbage

I'm not denying that we deserve more bisexual representation. But I can see why writers working at DC and Marvel on the whole prefer to make a character gay or lesbian when adding queer representation to comics because they are likely under no illusions as to how likely it is when working in a shared universe where many of the people they're working with are at best weak cowards and at worst full on bigots a bisexual character will have their bisexuality ignored/obscured/erased

[zachbeacon]

The fundamental difference between a Golden (Alan Scott) or Silver Age (Iceman) character and a more recent creation like Harley Quinn is that they were introduced in an era where thought balloons were a thing so we've been aware of their inner monologues for decades. I can buy that we somehow missed all the moments where they thought about how much they were attracted to some guy but I'm not going to ignore all the bits where they talk about how much they love a female partner.

Also Harley has had the subtext baked in since the cartoon that introduced her and Mystique - like a LOT of CC's women - has always danced as close to the line as editorial will allow.

[themajesticmoose]

I'm happy to ignore every single one of those thought balloons for the simple reason that they were written in a time where characters being heterosexual was literally compulsory. They are a product of a worse, more ignorant, hateful and bigoted time where it was literally impossible for any character to be openly queer.

[themajesticmoose]

I think the intention here is that the women were just beards. He cared about them but he didn't feel any romantic or physical attraction to them. Which is the case with many gay men who lived in the time period Alan Scott originally grew up in, due to the fascistic and vile laws against homosexuality that forced many to hide their sexuality and pretend to be something they were not as well as the even greater levels of bigotry of the time causing many to feel internalised homophobia and shame over who they were

[shadowpsykie]

He loved them “with all my mind” not his heart. He could POSSIBLY be biromantic/homosexual.

But no, bisexual would be in accurate because he was never really sexually attracted to the women he was with.

[thanekos]

It's a good scene, but one's inclined to be cynical about it being part of the latest " here's the promo for the latest post-event stuff. "

[themajesticmoose]

I love this scene

It's wonderful that Alan Scott is now canonically gay and the coming out here is so adorable. It's also great to see Obsidian and Jade back and to know that Infinity Inc is back in continuity at last as that was a series I enjoyed greatly

[tcampbell1000]

I like the little nugget that he let "a few" of the boys in the Society know, back in the day... meaning he didn't feel safe telling all of them.

From that, the only one I'm absolutely sure he told is Jay Garrick; they were by far the closest. And the only one I feel absolutely positive that he didn't tell was the Spectre.

Jeez Louise, can you imagine being gay in the 1940s and working next to the literal Wrath of God? Most Society members didn't seem that religious, but most "regular guys" in the 1940s at least attended church...

[lieut_kettch]

Alan, Jay, and Ted were the JSA's Trinity, so it's possible Wildcat knew too.

Funny how the Trinities are almost always magic hero, sci-fi hero, and badass normal. Diana, Clark, Bruce. Thor, Tony, Steve.

[lieut_kettch]

This was how I imagined it when it was implied post-Rebirth that the JSA's Alan Scott lived most of the last century as a closeted gay man. Alan finding the courage to follow in Todd's footsteps and come out to his family.

I admit, I will miss old fart Alan who loves Todd unconditionally and has mentally accepted his son's orientation, but is still uncomfortable when Todd talks about his boyfriends, as well as Todd's using that discomfort to tease Alan about it.