Green Lantern comes out of the closet

He might be Green Lantern, but one of America's most enduring comic book characters is turning rainbow colored as the latest superhero to come out as gay, DC Comics announced recently.

Starting this week Alan Scott reappears as Green Lantern, a team leader with a Type-A personality and an appetite for justice, the publisher says in a statement. "Alan also happens to be homosexual."

"Originally a Golden Age character whose previous continuity spanned from the 1940s through modern times, Alan ... is getting an update for contemporary times to reflect the world we live in."

Series writer James Robinson says that despite the revamp, "old-time readers will be pleasantly surprised by how, in some ways, I'm trying to show the 'classic' Alan Scott at the same time. He's still the same dynamic, heroic guy he was".