Alan Ladd Wellington Scott is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, and the first character to bear the name Green Lantern.[2] He fights evil with the aid of his mystical ring, which grants him a variety of powers. He was created by Martin Nodell and Bill Finger, first appearing in the comic book All-American Comics #16, published on July 10, 1940.[3]
Alan Scott was created after Nodell became inspired by the characters from Greek, Norse, and Middle Eastern myths and tales, including Aladdin from One Thousand and One Nights, and sought to create a popular entertainment character who fought evil with the aid of a magic ring that grants him a variety of supernatural powers. After debuting in All-American Comics, Alan Scott soon became popular enough to sustain his own comic book, Green Lantern. Around this time DC also began experimenting with fictional crossovers between its characters, leading towards a shared universe of characters. As one of the publisher's most popular heroes, Alan became a founding member of the Justice Society of America, one of the first such teams of "mystery men" or superheroes in comic books.
Following World War II, the character's popularity began to fade along with the decline of the Golden Age of Comic Books, leading to cancellation. After eight years out of print, DC chose to reinvent Green Lantern as science fiction hero Hal Jordan in 1959. Later, DC revisited Alan Scott, establishing that Alan and Hal were Green Lanterns on two different parallel worlds, with Alan residing on Earth-Two and Hal on Earth-One. Later stories set on Earth-Two depicted Alan becoming the father to the superheroes Obsidian and Jade, each with powers somewhat like his own, through Alan's first wife Rose Canton. In 1985, DC chose to reboot its internal continuity, merging Earth-One and Earth-Two and re-establishing Alan as an elder statesman of the DC Universe, coexisting with the more science fiction-oriented heroes of the Green Lantern Corps.
In 2011, "The New 52" introduced a new Multiverse, depicting a young Earth-2 version of Alan who was an out gay man. The "original" version of Alan is brought back into the mainstream continuity following the 2016 "DC Rebirth" initiative, and in 2020, comes out to his children as gay, retroactively establishing this incarnation of Alan as the first gay superhero.
