Not too long ago, the cutting-edge post-modernist Animal Man and Doom Patrol writer Grant Morrison was working on Green Lantern and had an idea that fits right in with current DC creative standards: Hal Jordan being pansexual.
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In a Substack newsletter covering annotations to The Green Lantern Season Two, Morrison revealed Jordan was supposed to fall under a “pansexual persuasion.”
Pointing to a romantic history Hal had with a stereotypical space-creature nurse introduced in Season One #2, Leylo Olaqua, Morrison shared, “I wanted to suggest that a boho Lothario like Hal Jordan with a whole universe of worlds at his disposal would tend towards a pansexual persuasion…”
Morrison adds that the intent to explore this twist in Season Two was stymied by low sales and the proposed 5G relaunch that didn’t go anywhere either.
“This was one of a few stories I had planned from the outset for a potential Season 2 and as the title suggests it started as a vague Assault on Precinct 13 riff,” the writer said.
Reaching “a major milestone,” Morrison compared the journey to “a war of attrition” and cast doubt on readers’ collective stomach for the story.
“Arriving here felt like a major milestone on the way to getting through what now felt more like a war of attrition, what with disappointing sales and a shocking lack of serious engagement from the general comics readership,” Morrison continued.
Plans for The Green Lantern were cut short – if not short-circuited – by 5G, which Morrison called “a demoralising vote of no confidence for the work,” but then the reboot suffered its setback.
“5G suffered a terminal setback when DC publisher Dan DiDio left the company in 2020 but plans were very much in place to retire Hal Jordan in favour of a more diverse human member of the Green Lantern Corps,” Morrison recalled, confirming fears about the reboot.
The writer also conceded to supporting the injection of diversity into the Corps’s lead roster. “I was all in favour of the update – but wished it could have waited until we were done,” Morrison explained. “We’d done our best to give the character some dignity and authority. Now it appeared [Morrison and artist Liam Sharp] might be writing his swan song.”
The maxi-series Green Lantern Season Two completed its run at this time last year and gave way to the team title Green Lantern that stars a line-up of Corps ring slingers that includes John Stewart, Simon Baz, Jo Mullein, and Keli Quintela (Teen Lantern).
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