Well, on the bright side, they left Wally alone. I was pretty worried for a moment there.

Now Wally just has to show up!

I may get stoned for saying this, but bringing Wally back and having it be him would have been preferable. And he would have been in the main DCU. It would have accomplished all their goals, had a bigger "impact" and most importantly - and this is KEY -

it wouldn't have aggravated ME. That's the main thing here that you all should be focusing on.

Let he who is without sin cast the first stone... eh screw it... ready... aim...

FIRE!!!!

I don't get this whole Alan Scott thing.
I remember the writer that developed Obsidian saying that he didn't want to just "throw darts at pictures" and then say "that ones gay".
But that kinda seems what they have done here.
Yeah, he is a Green Lantern. But he is a GL that only comic book and superhero geeks would know about.
If they had made Hal Jordan, or even Wally West gay, that would have been something.
Besides, how are we going to get Jade and Obsidian (the actual gay superhero the DCU) now?
Just kinda seems like DC is pandering. Having a gay superhero to have a gay superhero.

Well just because he's gay doesn't mean he can't be married to a woman or even have children at some point. That happens everyday... and frankly that would make him a more complex homosexual character in my mind than the shock value publicity stunt he is now. The name Green Lantern has enough gay from the movie does it really need more?

The worst part about this is that most people will just think GL is gay, and not realize that there are thousands of them. I asked my students about Green Lantern earlier this school year and they thought "the black guy" aka John Stewart was the only one.

Yeah I find that's common thanks to JLU... I even had some people tell me they didn't like the movie because they replaced the black guy for a white guy and 'white washed' the film. I just hang my head and shake it.

Just gonna come out and say it...

DC. You want a gay character...
EITHER

1. Push one of the gay characters you already have...
Obsidian, The Authority. You were doing really good with the Batwoman. Follow that example.

or

2. You have all these talented writers and illustrators...
Just CREATE ONE!!!
Look at how much success Archie has had with its Kevin Keller character.
And they didn't have to turn Jughead gay to get a gay character.

Don't just take a character and say "Oh, and hes gay now".

It's funny that you keep mentioning Obsidian. Here's the writer on why he thought this up for Alan Scott:

on a slightly different tack ...

I saw a pic of the new Hawkgirl in the previews solicits, I'm really digging on the costume!
and it also says the issue will debut the new Atom Smasher (but no pic)

... so maybe something good will still come out of this regardless of the Alan fiasco.

Well, many of you called it. Yahoo lead story over the weekend: "DC/WB makes Green Lantern gay"

That's it exactly. Now if you went into the article, it explained. But how many people actually went in to the article?

What I love is how most of the articles say GL "came out".
He didn't come out. Coming out suggests there was a build up.
He was magically turned gay.

I have no problem with the change to Alan Scott's sexual orientation. Frankly, I think there should be more gay characters. I love that One Million Moms got so much pro-Alan commentary on their Facebook page after they called for another boycott (because their JC Penney boycott over Ellen Degeneres worked out SO very well for them) that they had to take the page down.

I'm 60, straight (but not narrow) and been a fan of GL since 1962. Good on DC for going with a character whose name is recognized. I always thought that going with Obsidian was the cop-out, deciding that some second-tier C-list character is gay. I was happy about the new Batwoman, and I think I'm going to be happy about Alan. In fact I'm liking the reboot for the most part and I think the new Earth-2 stuff is interesting as hell. I don't care about the "lost" continuity. It's comic books. Tell me an interesting story with good artwork and I'm happy. Good for Marvel, DC, Archie and everybody else for including gay characters. It's part of life. And I think gay rights are going to be the next big civil rights battle. My grandkids already don't get what the big deal is about gay families, just like I never got why back in my day interracial marriage was such a big deal. So what? Like I posted on One Million Moms before they took it down -- you don't like gay marriage? Don't marry within your own gender. Please feel free to live your beliefs as you see fit. But don't shove your beliefs down everybody else's throat.

Oh, and frankly, I'm not going to miss Alan's red puffy shirt and purple cape, either.

I don't mind that they want to have more diversity within their character pantheon.

I don't care that they want to change race, gender, or sexual preference.

What I do care about, and why this bothers me so much, is that "making him gay" shouldn't be the selling point. It shouldn't be what the marketing is about.

You are right, if they tell a good story with good art, I'll keep coming back for more

As it stands now though, this is just a bad excuse for a PR stunt and that disturbs me

Yeah, that bothers me, too. I would have accused the media of jumping on it and blowing it out of proportion, but DC/WB is such a marketing juggernaut that I can't imagine that this particular push came from anywhere but within. They shouldn't have blown their own horns quite so loudly. I wish they'd just DONE it, like they did with Batwoman, and let nature take its course, so to speak.