So here goes. DC Comics is considering it a brave and bold move from the company, trying to keep it cutting edge. They consider it the first "major" gay superhero, since he's pretty far from the first. Green Lantern's major, right? He did just have a big budget movie release, right? Yes and no.
In DC Comics, Green Lantern is a major character, but that would be Hal Jordan or later, Kyle Rayner.
The character they made the first "major" gay superhero is indeed a Green Lantern, but it is Allan Scott, the gentleman on the left below, labeled as the Golden Age Green Lantern.
This was the first incarnation of a hero called Green Lantern, and this is not the same as the Hal Jordan iteration and the one the film's based upon. The Green Lantern Corp from the movie and both the Silver Age and Modern Age from above is an intergalactic police force that wield rechargeable rings that manifest will power.
Alan Scott was a train conductor who found a magical meteor and forged a magical ring from it. Whereas Hal Jordan used power from the central core, Alan Scott uses an entirely different source: magic.
Above it may seem odd that Hal Jordan occupies both the Silver Age and Modern Age spots. A few notes on that. One, this set is from 1992, and the major changes in both the industry as well as the DC Universe had yet to take place. At different times after 1959 many of the early comic book characters were updated and revamped for a more modern audience. 1959 is when the first updating occurred, when the Flash became the more recognizable hooded iteration named Barry Allen. Soon after all the major DC characters followed, and a real rival, Marvel Comics, entered the market with their stable of complex characters.
Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corp were created, and the Silver Age, as it's known, was in full bloom.
The main difference you'll see between the Silver and Modern Ages above will be the silver streaks in Hal's hair. That was a construct to show that Jordan had been updated for the modern times, hence, the Modern Age.
DC had big changes in store for Hal Jordan. It turned out the the silver in his hair was the sign of an evil having inhabited his body, and it has since been purged and Hal Jordan has returned as Earth's main Green Lantern. In the interim, though, he went crazy, blew up the central core, started a huge war, was killed, was then resurrected as the Spectre, and another (white) Earth Green Lantern was found and cultivated; this is Kyle Rayner. Check out the picture below.
The first spot is labeled "Green Lantern", even if you can't read it. That's Kyle Rayner. Next is Allen Scott; then a tool named Guy Gardner, who got himself a power ring; then Sinestro, an early ally of Hal Jordan who eventually became an enemy (in the 1970s); then Hal Jordan himself in one of his super-bad-guy outfits; and then the Guardians, the creators of the central battery core and forgers of the power rings.
These cards are from maybe 1994 or '95, so the entrance of Kyle Rayner has occurred, but not Jordan's final demise before becoming the Spectre.
Now Jordan's returned to the dark haired hero with no silver streaks, and then an announcement came along saying that a Green Lantern is coming out. So...I knew it wouldn't be Hal Jordan. That would have been bold, but they're trying to market and fund the second Ryan Reynolds GL movie, and I imagine his sexual orientation would be too hot of a potato. If it had been Guy Gardner or John Stewart, a black Green Lantern from Earth that doesn't get enough press, they wouldn't be able to say that it was a "major" character coming out.
I expected it to be Kyle Rayner. He didn't have the decades of love built up or new movies coming out. But, what he does have, or did get, is/was a promotion. He was bumped up, when Hal Jordan returned, to a character named Ion. His powers and abilities were enhanced and he's not so much a Lantern anymore. I think he might have changed again, but I haven't really found out.
So, since 1938, Alan Scott has been running around the DC Universe. First in the mainstream, but then for much longer around the edges, along the fringe. A cynical view would be that they're trying to drum up some attention to an archaic character, a nearly outdated title and premise.
But, who are we to say to what's a major character or not? I haven't really collected comics in many years and I don't know what has happened in the DC Universe since then. Maybe Allen Scott has become an important character besides just a "major" title.
In any case, good for him. Them. Eh, keep reaching for that rainbow!
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