If you were planning on reading Earth-2 but hadn't gotten to it yet, you might want to hold off on reading this article because there's one big spoiler in it. And if you weren't planning on reading it, well...I would recommend that you do, because I'm enjoying it quite a bit. And then you can participate in the conversation below...
A very big thanks goes to Scarlet Betch for this article discussing the death of Alan Scott's five-minute fiancee, Sam, in Earth-2. I went to lookup Sam's last name as I was writing this and...suprise! He has no last name. That's how long he lasted. We didn't even get time to figure out who was the top and who was the bottom in the relationship. It's as if a gay wedding proposal was so shocking that it derailed their train.
This has a fair number of people a little upset. While kudos definitely goes to James Robinson for bringing gay characters into the world of Earth-2, it's a little sad that Alan Scott's lover was killed so very, very quickly.
This is all discussed rather eloquently at the Scarlet Betch website:
But we know this story. We've seen it splashed on the pages of comics countless times before.The only difference is that this trope in comics is usually reserved for the female lovers of male protagonists. The significant others of superheroes brutally killed and shoved into refrigerators, raped, mutilated, or otherwise thrown into the chipper to advance the male hero's story line is by no means novel or unexpected. Alex deWitt wasn't the first and Sam (We don't even know his last name) won't be the last. But what the very "women in refrigerators" (WIR) treatment of Sam reveals is a larger trend in comics: the heterosexist portrayals of gay male characters and their partners.
I encourage you to read the whole article.
I'm personally very torn, because I do appreciate James Robinson's efforts to expand the world of gay heroes in DC. And I'm really enjoying Earth-2. Here's hoping that Sam makes a return - because it's a comic. And we all know that death never lasts for long.
