They were all up in arms, apparently, because DC announced that one of their "beloved" and iconic existing super-heroes was going to be identified as gay. Eek!
Well, don't worry, Actually-few-thousand Moms — the DC hero coming out is not all that beloved, only vaguely iconic, and until last month didn't actually exist as such.
(At least, if we can believe the current all-but-confirmed buzz.)
Alan Scott is the "original" Green Lantern, dating back to 1940. The Green Lanterns that most folks are familiar with, and about which a movie was recently released, and a kid's show is currently running, has nothing to do with him. When DC restarted their heroes in the early 60s, they took some "iconic" names (Green Lantern, Flash, Atom) and rebooted them (and their cohorts Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman) into "modern" versions. Eventually they decided that the original "Justice Society of America" heroes lived on a parallel "Earth 2" — which they could occasionally cross over from and meeting their modern "Justice League of America" counterparts.
Universes lived, died, and merged, and eventually Alan Scott was still back around on Earth 1 as a hero emeritus. I'll skip a decade or three of comic book history here to note that …
… with the most recent DC "New 52" universe, Alan Scott is apparently squarely back on Earth 2 … which wasn't acknowledged to exist until a new set of comics came out last month showing that it did. Only it's not the Same Old Alan Scott, but a rebooted character that happens to be named Alan Scott, who has some parallels to him, and who (as far as we know) isn't Green Lantern (Old School) yet.
So DC's big announcement is about a character they are already fully rebooting anyway, whose "iconic" nature is solely because a version of him has been around (more or less) since 1940, and who is not really "beloved" by anyone except a subset of comic book fans.
Any kid that the MMM folks would be worried about becoming aware that there are [whisper]gay[/whisper] people in the world out there have, I am fairly certain, no idea who Alan Scott is. Though folks will still probably be confused between that Green Lantern and the Hal Jordan / John Stewart / Guy Gardner / Kilowogg / etc. Green Lanterns (who have nothing to do with him other than the name).
While I am pleased that DC isn't shying away from characters who happen to be gay, this is hardly a Huge, Revoutionary, or (for you Strangely-Angry Moms out there) Terrifying move on their part.
(For more on Alan Scott, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Scott)
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Great (Alan) Scott, Green Lantern Is Gay!
Alan Scott, the first of several D.C. Comics comic book characters all known as the superhero Green Lantern, will be revealed as gay in an upcoming issue.
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Meh.
I saw an image on George Takei's FB page that said that anyone who is bothered by their kids seeing 'this' (with an image of two male comic characters getting married) but not bothered that their kids see 'this' (showing a comic block with and a graphic depiction of a head being blown off) – has issues. I agree with it.
Bleh …..followed by yawn ….
Oh, I agree absolutely, +Sandy L.. But American culture has a high tolerance for violence.