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The majority of the issue follows Alan inside of Arkham Asylum, back when it was used to “convert” people of different sexualities and gender identities. Alan, who entered the asylum by choice following the death of his lover, forms a friendship with a transgender woman named Billie. While eating at the asylum’s mess hall, Billie presents Alan with a present — a green railroad lantern, which she built during her time in metal shop. Soon after, Billie is taken by asylum staff and lobotomized, in an attempt to turn her into “Mr. Billings.” This traumatic act inspires Alan to break out of the asylum, using Billie’s lantern as a guide.
Who Is DC’s Billie?
In a roundabout way, this new origin story for Alan’s lantern pays tribute to a portion of Golden Age history. An old asylum patient named “Old Billings” very briefly appears in All American Comics #16, Alan’s very first comic story. In that story, working on the lantern essentially helps Billings achieve personal enlightenment and restore his memories — a heartbreaking opposite of Billie’s fate in this new story.
What Is Alan Scott: The Green Lantern About?
Through a twist in the timeline, Alan Scott: The Green Lantern revisits and recontextualizes the origins of the first Green Lantern through the lens of our modern understanding of the man. The story, which begins in the 1930s, is about an old flame – the kind that burns eternal – and the sometimes head-on, single-track collision of our personal and professional lives. This is Alan’s coming-of-age, in which he must embrace the man he is, to become the hero he’s meant to be. In the end, he’ll have gained a greater understanding of himself and his gifts – as he unlocks a new, previously unknown ability that could make him the most powerful Green Lantern in existence!
What do you think of Alan Scott’s Green Lantern getting a new origin in Alan Scott: The Green Lantern #2? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!
