Alan Scott: Green Lantern #1 - Comic Review

 

Alan Scott has been through some personal changes the last couple of years. In Infinite Frontier the Golden Age hero, Earth's first Green Lantern (of a sort), revealed to his son and daughter that he was gay, and always had been. Whilst there were some people at the time to decried this for 'wokeness', or changing the character, having a now openly gay man who has spent most of his life hiding his sexuality, and even pretending to be heterosexual to the point of marrying an having children, isn't exactly an unheard of or unrealistic thing. It is however, very rare in comics, and it made this almost 100 year old character a lot more interesting and important.

The seeds of this series were started in the DC Pride: Through the Years special, and whilst reading that issue isn't necessarily vital to this series, it absolutely adds more context to the story, and further builds upon the love story that's a central part of this tale.

Issue one begins in 1941, with Alan Scott an active super hero as Green Lantern, having recently moved from Gotham to New York. Whilst a member of the Justice Society of America, he's something of a rogue agent, preferring to work alone and tackle crimes by himself. This has been pissing off J. Edgar Hoover, who wants the JSA to not only work for him, but to project a certain image. Whilst Alan is at first reluctant to even consider changing his ways, Hoover produces a folder that contains his personal details, including old diaries, and photos of Alan and his first love, Johnny Ladd.

From here we get a series of flashbacks, that shows Alan and Johnny in love, and how they worked together on a top secret mission, The Crimson Flame, an attempt to travel to Soviet waters and capture a mystical red flame from beneath the sea (surely an origin in some way for the Red Lantern?). Over the course of these flashbacks we see how the two men are deeply in love, but fear for their careers and lives thanks to the rampant homophobia of the time. There's even a moment where Alan is reluctant to be with his lover because he thinks it 'a sin', yet despite this their love remains true, and at one point Johnny basically proposes to Alan, asking him to run away with him once the war is done.

Unfortunately, their mission is not the success they hope for, and whilst they capture a piece of the Crimson Flame, the powerful force rises out of the sea and attacks the ship, almost capsizing it. It's only by Alan releasing the piece they have that they survive. The flashbacks end with the Flame wrapping around Johnny and pulling him away as Alan frantically tries to grab him, being held back by members of the crew. This then transitions to a final page image of Alan being held down to a table in an Arkham jumps suit, with electroshock equipment strapped to him.

I've seen a few people online, both on social media and in reviews, saying that this ending feels cliched, and saying that the book is retreading ground we've all read before by doing a 'he's mad and none of it is real' reveal. Now, that might be what the series is doing, and this might all be some kind of psychological drama story where we're having to question what is and isn't real, and if Alan has gone mad. However, I think that there's an equally likely possibility that that final page presents, one that is even more horrifying. I think Alan might be being forced through conversion therapy to 'cure' him of his gayness. The electroshock equipment could be them torturing the queer out of him. I truly hope that this isn't the case, but considering the series is going to be exploring his past as a gay man, it's something that feels incredibly likely. The fact that the title for the next part is 'conversion' only strengthens that idea.

I've also seen people complaining about the book for a variety of reasons, some before it even came out and from nobody accounts that definitely weren't sent advance copies. Everything from 'bad writing' to 'retconning', to 'woke', you name it, any kind of complaint for the story is out there. And is it because this is a story so terrible that every facet of the writing is the worst thing ever? No. Absolutely not. It's not even the worst book out this week, let alone some kind of destruction of the comic industry as people are claiming. This book is getting hate for one very obvious reason. It's a queer love story about a queer hero. They will deny that, they will throw excuses around, but any reasonable person can see that this book is getting hate because it's daring to tell a queer narrative. 

And it tells this narrative beautifully. The very first scene we have between Alan and Johnny is such a tender and heartfelt one. You can see that these two men love each other, that they're good together, and that they're suffering because the world around them is telling them that there's something wrong with that love. Alan's comment of 'it's a sin' shows how even for queer people of the time who wanted desperately to be themselves and be with the people they loved that amount of hatred was so drummed into them that they couldn't help but feel fear and shame at their own emotions. But Johnny's response of 'If god himself didn't want me to love you, then how could I?' might not just be one of the best moments in the book, but one of the best responses to those who'd try to use god as a reason to keep love apart.

This book is one that's going to have a struggle, simply because of the story its trying to tell. The haters and the bigots are already harassing fan, they're making up lies about the creators, and they're attacking the quality of the series without even opening the book because they simply just hate the idea of queer people existing. Comics may once have been a club for cis het white boys, but times have changed. Comics are for everyone, and everyone deserves to see themselves represented in this medium. Comics are modern myths, most of these characters have existed for decades, and soon some of them will be hitting the century mark. They've existed before many of us, and will continue long after us. They're going to make a mark on history, and that mark must include everyone, it must represent the world in which we live, and the people that make it up.

There will be folks out there that want this series to fail, and if it does that will be a huge shame, as after reading just the first issue so far it's a series that I'm already in love with. The writing is excellent, the story and characters are compelling and engaging, the art, by Clan Tormey and Matt Herms is beautiful to look at. The New Golden Age books are all doing great things, they're all filled with fantastic art, great characters, and fun stories, and whilst I've been loving them all this is the one that I can't help but feel is the most important. So please, show it some support, help make it a success, and show DC that there's a huge demand not just for queer characters, but series headlined by them.

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