In an interview with the New York Post (and many other outlets) Earth 2 writer James Robinson confirmed the growing rumours that the new Earth 2 version of Alan Scott (their Green Lantern) will indeed be a gay character.

The original version of Alan Scott was an elder statesman of the DCU who’d been married twice and had a pair of grown-up super-powered children called Jade and Obsidian. It was his Obsidian who was original the gay character. However, the revamp of the New 52 wiped out Scott’s history and the existence of his children. It was the loss of one of DC’s few gay characters which prompted James Robinson to suggest a change:

“The only downside of his being young was we lose his son, Obsidian, who’s gay. So I thought, ‘Why not make Alan Scott gay?’” Robinson recalled. “That was the seed that started it.”

He ran his idea by the bosses at DC, “who signed off on it without hesitation.”

I was rather hearten to see James describe the homophobic comments from conservative groups as “stupid and outmoded”.

Robinson also talked to Comic Book Resources and gave a bit more background on Alan’s character and how the old engineer secret identity has had to be updated for the modern age.

When I was first trying to work out who he was in terms of the archetype, I saw him as part Mark Zuckerberg and part David Geffen. David Geffen is a very openly gay man who’s a very, very successful billionaire. Since Alan is out there in the internet and new media, he’s been able to achieve a lot of that wealth and that public attention at a younger age. But in terms of his sexuality, I’ve been asked if people know he’s gay. And Alan Scott is a very forthright, type-A personality. When we discover that he’s gay in issue #2, it’s not like he’s coming out. He’s gay. I imagine that at whatever age, he realized, “Oh, I’m gay. Now I’m going to get on with my life and do what I want.” He accepts it, so the fact that he’s openly gay in the world is something the world accepts since he’s such a dynamic and likable guy as Alan Scott.

Robinson is no stranger to writing gay characters. He turned the one-shot 1970s Starman Mikal Tomas into a cult favourite character in his 1990s Starman series and later brought the character into his Justice League of America run.

[via: Bleeding Cool]