#GUYS I CANT SAY THIS ENOUGH. PLEASE READ THE BOOK OF FATE (1997) ITS ONE OF MY ALL TIME FAVES

[ufonaut]

i’ve talked before about how alan scott has been gaycoded since his literal first appearance in the 40s and how dc has honoured that by actually making him canonically gay in present day comics but tonight i’m also Thinking about the way alan is gaycoded in keith giffen’s book of fate (1997) -- a recently discovered favourite miniseries -- and the fact that it’s so obvious in hindsight that once you realise it, this reading of his characterisation genuinely changes everything about his role in the series

giffen’s alan is a personal favourite generally because he understands that in the context of a cosmic war between order & chaos, alan would be aligned with chaos for the obvious reasons (which is the kind of perfect characterisation we lost when geoff johns came along later on but that’s a whole other conversation) but it becomes instantly more interesting when you realise the chaos entity in book of fate is consistently drawn as a man in drag being especially touchy feely with alan

yes, this is a very nineties move bordering on the same problematic discourse you’d find with, say, HIM from powerpuff girls & other similar content (despite chaos here not being a villain as much as just a fact of life) but what the art & writing are telling us is both clear and meant to portray alan in a certain light

(”if order’s essence defined your nature, you’d not have dreamt of me” says chaos entity very obviously meant to be read as flamboyant and camp)

similarly interesting is the sequence we get in the final issue when dr occult, who has made it his business to look into alan after he sues jared stevens/fate for the artefacts of fate, says this:

(”what skeletons might emerge from your cupboards if a guy like me was to start rummaging around?”)

as far as we know, alan’s not hiding anything! at no point is there any hint that there might be some Big Secret in his life other than, well, what becomes self evident when you catch up to the gaycoding. in fact, what dr occult is implying here quite frankly doesn’t make sense without alan being gay

so while possibly veering into slightly harmful stereotypes (i wouldn’t say that but i can see it being understandably perceived that way), book of fate offers some of the most compelling alan characterisation in an era where writers generally chose to define alan’s personal life through molly & the kids, of which there is notably no mention in the series

#alan scott #green lantern #sentinel #the book of fate #book of fate #dc #dc comics #u can reblog #GUYS I CANT SAY THIS ENOUGH. PLEASE READ THE BOOK OF FATE (1997) ITS ONE OF MY ALL TIME FAVES