Gay Character in Response to Marvel?

Marvel is releasing a comic with a marriage between two male heroes, it's apparently a big thing in Marvel next to AVX, taking the main priority to keep people to buy Marvel Comics; along with linking the movies with their ongoing Universe. DC promised a main DC character was going to come out of the closet. Yesterday, Earth Two came out with their second issue and revealed that Alan Scott from Earth Two is their gay response. Of Marvel does it, DC has to follow, right? I'll ask, what happened to DC? They use to pave the way for the superhero genre, now they're following the footsteps of their top competitor.

I'll be honest, I don't really know much about Alan Scott other than he was the first Lantern and he's not apart of the corps because it uses magic instead. Also this is Earth Two, and it's not Hal; I'll be more honest, I'm relieved. I'm sure if it had been someone more major like Superman, Batman, or Hal, it would have upset a lot of fans. So, DC makes an old character gay in a different Universe, doesn't seem like such a drastic move compared to Marvel's gay marriage.

Thoughts? Does it seem like DC is trying too hard to catch up to Marvel by making a character gay? Or they're not trying hard enough seeing how it's in a Seperate universe and it's not a character that fans will start getting on DC's case?

DC has really been following Marvel ever since Jack Kirby died. There's a reason Kirby was called the King of Comics. Even Stan Lee hasn't earned that title.

Marvel has really been more 'progressive' for a while. Iceman and Colossus of the X-men are two characters who I know have been openly gay for at least my recent memory, but I can't really think of any openly gay DC characters, at least not men. The new Question is supposed to be a lesbian, but she's really not been focused on until recently anyway.

And last I heard Alan Scott was immortal and had a daughter. I'll be a little annoyed if this is another one of their 'Hey this is how it used to be and now this is how it is' behavior, but if they do something smarter and say something like. "I've been around for a long time, I've been in a lot of relationships and it's become less about gender and more about the person for me." then go team DC.

It's funny, really. I've been asking a lot of people who watched The Avengers, what Superman's name is, they all say Clark Kent, I ask what Batman's real name is, they say Bruce Wayne, I ask what Green Lantern's real name is and they say Hal Jordon, I ask them what Captain America's real name is and they don't know. It's basic knowledge to know DC superhero's jobs, their love life's, and aliases, but when it comes to Marvel not everyone knows that Bruce Banner is the Hulk or that Steve Rogers is Captain America and and James Barns is his sidekick, Bucky or that Bucky turned into Wintersoldier. But we know Dick Grayson is Robin and turned into Nightwing. DC is way more widely known, I don't know why they don't set the trends in comics anymore.

DC has had openly lesbian characters before like Batwoman, so I think this is a first unless you want to count Crazy Quilt.. Which I do. But the way they have been exploiting Batwoman in the New 52 is honestly disgusting. It seems like the writers are trying to make it as gritty as possible. I thought Colossas had something with Kitty, but I haven't been keeping up with X-Men recently. I think I stopped after the original Astonishing X-Men stopped.

I haven't read the Earth Two comic, but I'm pretty sure it's just "Hey, this is how it use to be, this is how it is now." Just because I read the page and it looks like Alan has been in this relationship for a while. But technically since this is a different Universe, not the one the fans actually care about, the Alan Scott on Earth One is Straight as an Arrow. It was for basic shock value, but shock value is useless without purpose.

New 52 in general is pretty bad as far as I'm concerned. I mean, I can see what they're trying to do with it all and stuff, and I'm not going to doubt that it's upping their readership, but it really feels like they're just taking all these iconic characters that we've learned to love as we've watched them grow up from little wisecracking side-kicks into heroes in their own right and setting them back to square zero, or maybe square seven.

I get stuff like the fact that Bruce Wayne is and for all intents and purposes forever will be The Batman, and that in the same vane some characters will simply never be allowed to change by their fanbase, and that's something that Marvel has managed to stay away form for the most part. Steve Rogers was only The First Captain America, after that other people took up the mantle, and maybe people who were reading Captain America didn't even need to know that Steve Rogers was the one who started it, because they knew the origin story of the latest Captain America and got to watch him go on his own adventures and develop on his own, and so what if that meant that people who didn't follow him didn't know his name beneath the mask, that was sort of the point of having Captain America be multiple people in the first place.

DC's just been really disappointing lately. I mean, I had high hopes when they went and cleaned everything up with The Crisis and The Darkest Night/Brightest Day sagas. I thought they were going to use that to clean stuff up, make it easier to follow one hero without having to read nine different titles just to figure out what the heck was going on. But they didn't, instead they gave us the New 52, which in my humble opinion, was DC trying to play catch up to Marvels 'Ultimates' universe comics itself.

I mean, if they wanted to have some big gay wedding event in order to not be outdone by Marvel, there were much better choices than making Alan Scott gay, particularly given the fact that when Alan Scott was a primary character, homosexuality was a lot more frowned upon than it is today.

I mean; why not have Artemis(The Amazon not the YJ girl) marry some chick on Paradise Island? You have an entire island full of women who have, for the most part, been utterly cut off from male-kind for the past several hundred years, if anyone is going to be sensitive to the plight of the homosexual it's going to be the Greeks. Or why not have one of the younger teen heroes struggle with the realization that he/she isn't really attracted to the other gender. Tim Drake seems like a good candidate for that, if he weren't like thirty-five now, (seriously how old is Bruce, for that matter how old is Alfred?!) I guess he dated Spoiler for a little while, but I don't think they ever really got sexual and that whole relationship seemed more like a 'hey you're might age and fighting crime in Gotham!' thing more than a romantic thing anyway. I would have Loved to hear Bruce, or Dick for that matter, have a heart to heart talk with Tim about how they would love him regardless of his sexual orientation. Honestly it's not like Bruce would even care and I think that sort of indifference to sexual orientation would make a more powerful statement than flaunting it with some big showy event.

DC should just hire me to write comics.
and call me 'the Prince of Comics' or 'the second coming of Kirby' that would make me smile for YEARS

We were talking gay and DC and here's just something I found awhile back...

Isn't Kryptonite temporary?

Anyway, I think we can agree that DC hasn't been making the right moves, the only thing they're doing any good in is anything Batman. Batman: Arkham City, The 52 Batman series, The Dark Knight Rises, I feel that Batman doesn't even belong with DC. It reminds me of those videos from ItsJustSomeRandomGuy on YouTube where he does Marvel vs DC with his action figures.

"Hi, I'm Spider-Man, and I'm a Marvel."
"Hi, I'm Superman, and I'm a DC."
"I'm Batman."