Green Lantern: Coming Out of the Closet

The super hero movies have always been a huge hit, especially now since DC Comics and Marvel have been making remakes or releasing new films involving the superheroes. For instance Thor: Dark World was released about a week ago (11/8/2013) and is the #1 film in theaters right now. In the domestic box office sales have reached $104,964,877 and international box office is $240,900,000, totaling $345,864,877 worldwide. It still has not surpassed the worldwide box earns for the first Thor movie, totaling $449,326,619 but it is still in theaters so it is likely earn more.

However, this post is not about the box office earnings for the popular Thor movies or any of the other superhero movies. Rather it is to talk about the recent announcement that DC Comics has will be releasing an old iconic superhero character in a new story, but as a gay man. Who is this? It is none other than the Green Lantern (although most of you could have guessed because the picture up above gives it away).

I have chosen to talk about this under the lens of queer analysis. After learning what this analysis is about it got me thinking about superheroes in general. I thought about how the superheroes are portrayed in the the typical stereotypes of men and women (more so the men being manly), and they are always heterosexual. I thought about the hetero/homosexual binary that these characters create. The typical superhero is a strong man who is very masculine and every girls' dream guy. Any superhero who does not fulfill the stereotype of being a superhero is an "other." Although this could mean that the "other" is a civilian, but for most people (whether they realize it or not) this means that a superhero could not be a homosexual, transgender, or bisexual person. So how does this change the outlook for the Green Lantern?

Most people are concerned that Ryan Reynolds will have to change his character and become a homosexual Green Lantern. They are also wondering if it will change the sales of the series. Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters did not do well in the box office compared to Thor. It received $231,201,172 worldwide in the box office and in domestic DVD sales it earns $19,644,793 weekly. However, there is no need for a panic for the homophobic superhero fans because this is not going to happen. Ryan Reynolds plays the Hal Jordan Green Lantern and DC has made the Scott Alan Green Lantern gay in the new series Earth 2.

Although this got me thinking about what it would be like to release another version of the Green Lantern starring this new Scott Alan. The homosexual version of Scott Alan has already been dubbed as "coming out of the closet" by the public, deeming his sexual preferences are something to keep hidden. Also as I have already stated, superheroes are not seen as having any homosexual tendencies or desires so this new superhero is likely to be stigmatized if DC considered releasing this version of the Green Lantern to cinema.

Below I have posted a video of an interview of two people talking about the new Green Lantern in Earth 2. It may seem a little long but there is so much material that could be illuminated by using queer analysis. I encourage you to watch it and notice how even though DC is releasing a gay Green Lantern it is still does not give the equality that the LGBT community deserves.