How Did DC’s Gay Green Lantern End Up On the Cover of Marvel #1000 Kissing His Boyfriend?

A very strange mistake, apparently owing to some language challenges on behalf of the art director of Marvel Comics #1000, resulted in the cover prominently featuring DC Comics’ Earth-2 version of Green Lantern, who happens to be gay, smooching his boo, in the massive collage cover.

The comic special one-shot is timed as part of Marvel Comic’s year long celebration of their 80th Anniversary.

Newsarama reported:

Newsarama has confirmed with Marvel Comics that the image from the Marvel Comics #1000 collage cover will be altered to remove the panel borrowed from DC’s Earth 2 #2. The publisher offered no comment on the matter.
 

Original Story from May 24, 2019 at 10:13 a.m. Eastern: One of the just-solicited variant covers for August’s Marvel Comics #1000 is a collage of art and covers from numerous Marvel Comics stories dating back to the 1930s – and apparently, one image that traces back to a DC comic book from just a few years ago.

Spotted by Twitter user, Symbiobro, the image, which appears in the collage in the middle right hand side of the image, depicts two men kissing. It seems to be ‘sampled’ from a page from DC Comics’ Earth 2 #2. The characters depicted in that scene are Alan Scott, the Green Lantern of Earth 2, and his partner.

Artist Nicola Scott, who penciled the image, responded to Marvel’s use of the page on Twitter, asking succinctly if she’d be compensated for its use by Marvel.

The cover’s designer, Mr. Garcin, responded to the discovery on Twitter. First apologizing to Scott.

Garcin explained that he found the image on the internet and he mistook its origin.

“Unfortunately, my mistake comes from here! (sorry, my English is bad).”

While it’s an interesting, high profile mistake, it also served as reminder of DC Comics’ disastrously executed re-imagining of DC’s Golden Age superhero team, and precursor to the Justice League, The Justice Society of America. The term JSA however, would never be used and the series dubbed Earth-2 was a nihilistic death march, with one bright star: Alan Scott, who was the original Green Lantern created in the 1940s, and who in Earth-2 would be a gay captain of industry.

Green Lantern debuted in All-American Comics #16 (July 1940)

Earth-2’s writer James Robinson in an interview with Entertainment Weekly in 2012 said of the character:

The original version of Alan Scott was an older man, and he had a superpowered son, Obsidian, who was gay. The fact that Scott was young now [thanks to a universe-wide reboot] meant Obsidian no longer existed. I thought it was a shame that DC was losing such a positive gay character. I said, “Why not make Alan Scott gay?” 

He’s a giant of the media industry. By getting involved in communication, the news, and the Internet, he’s become a billionaire. He’s kind of a cross between Mark Zuckerberg and David Geffen. The original Alan Scott owned a radio station in the ’40s and ’50s, so he was a media giant then. He was this bold, heroic, brave man who took control, who would risk his life for you and be this emerald knight that was always there to protect the world. The Alan Scott I’m doing now is that same dynamic, brave, honorable man. A man that you’d want guarding your welfare, your children, your life, your home. He’s willing to give his life for the world. He’s everything you want in a hero. And he happens to be gay. So really, apart from his sexuality, there isn’t that much of a difference.

There was a lot back patting about the decision to make Scott gay and many news outlets suggested that it fit the times, with then President Barack Obama, coming out in favor of Marriage Equality.

The Daily Beast said at the time, “Alan [Scott] looks happy. Images released from the coming-out issue show a smiling, off-duty Green Lantern kissing a man named Sam, who appears to be his partner. The couple makes plans to visit a ‘super exclusive, luxurious’ lodge hotel in the country and walk off toward their chauffeur-driven car, arms around each others’ waists.”

Except that by the end of the issue, Scott’s boyfriend Sam is murdered in a horrific accident that give Scott his Green Lantern abilities. It was a meaningless murder that I imagine was supposed to be part of the new GL’s motivation to be a hero, but in the end, DC dumped Earth-2 and its residents like so many refugees fleeing for the border.

Gay Alan Scott we hardly knew ye. But watch the video below and maybe all this Marvel #1000 business will renew interest in the character.