Alan Scott (Prime Earth)

Alan Scott is a young engineer who later on became the world's first Green Lantern and a member of the Justice Society of America.

History

Early Career

Early Life

Born in 1912, Alan Scott was raised in a rural part of the Midwest. Even into adulthood, he had never even visited the big city and remained somewhat uninformed about the wider world. However, he did manage to become a talented engineer.

In 1936, Alan Scott was drafted into the United States Army Corps of Engineers and assigned to "Project Crimson," an important mission to locate and harness the semi-mythical Crimson Flame, believed to be somewhere beneath the sea in the North Pacific. While a member of this project, he developed romantic feelings for fellow engineer Corporal John Michael Ladd. Ladd helped him understand what he was going through, and the pair began a romantic relationship.

Late in the project, Ladd suggested Alan that they continue the relationship in a more real sense after the project completed. He put his own ring on Alan's finger and told him that he would like to stay with him after the mission and go off the radar, for good. Though he cared for Ladd, the idea scared Alan. The conversation was interrupted, however, by an eruption of crimson energy from beneath the sea.^[5] Johnny was seemingly killed by the Crimson Flame.^[6]

When Johnny died, the nature of their relationship was revealed. Alan was discharged from the military and checked himself in to Arkham Asylum, hoping to "cure" himself of his homosexuality. While he was in Arkham, he befriended a trans woman named Billie, who carved him a lantern as a gift. Billie was eventually lobotomized and, horrified, Alan lead a mass breakout of inmates from Arkham's "Deviancy Wing," taking Billie's lantern with him. He fled to Colorado and became a train engineer, falling in love with a conductor named Jimmy Henton.^[7]

Becoming Green Lantern

On July 16th, 1940,^[8] Alan Scott and Jimmy Henton were traveling aboard a train together.^[9] On this particular evening, their romantic encounter would end in tragedy, however. The train would pass over a bridge that Alan designed; he recently outbid a rival engineer named Albert Dekker for that bridge contract, but a bomb exploded beneath the bridge derailing the train. Everyone on board was killed in the explosion—everyone but Alan Scott. When Alan woke up, he found Jimmy and all the passengers dead. Alan was close to death himself, but a green light emerged from Billie's lantern, healed his wounds and granted him the power of the Green Lantern.^[7]

With this fantastic new power under his command, Alan set out to find Albert Dekker—the man responsible for blowing up the bridge and killing Jimmy. Glowing like a green phantom, he phased through the walls of Dekker's office and made him see justice.

After a revealing encounter with Jimmy's mother, Doris Henton, Alan promised her that he would continue to use that light, which she said was also in her son, to help people find their way through the darkness. Her words inspired the oath he would recite when he charged his ring on the Lantern.^[10]

Further Adventures

Alan was blackmailed by FBI director J. Edgar Hoover into joining the Justice Society of America, as Hoover had obtained his records from Arkham and compromising photos of him with Johnny.^[6] At some point he would be present for a battle against the Injustice Society, unknowingly fighting alongside the time-displaced consciousness' of the present-day Carter Hall and Shayera Thal.^[11]

Alan's prominence inspired the Russian military to attempt to replicate his powers. The Soviet Red Labs managed to tap into a mysterious and mystical Crimson Flame and imbued its power into a lantern and ring very much like Alan's. This ring was wielded by an agent known as "Red Lantern," who began murdering Alan's former lovers and leaving a trail of evidence to suggest he had killed them to keep his sexuality hidden. During his investigation to determine who was behind the killings, Alan found himself receive unwanted help from his JSA teammates the Flash and the Spectre, who each recognised his sexuality and to his surprise accepted him. The Spectre told Alan that someone involved in Project Crimson was the most likely suspect, and Alan had a sudden realisation: if the Crimson Flame was a counterpart to the Starheart, perhaps it had done to Johnny what the Starheart had done to him. Alan rushed home and found the Red Lantern waiting for him, who he recognised as Johnny. Red Lantern knocked Alan out and told him "Время историй [Story time] my love."^[12]

"Johnny" carried Alan to his hideout, and when he regained consciousness he told Alan his backstory. He revealed that his real name was Vladimir Sokov, and he was a Soviet agent sent to obtain the Crimson Flame for the glory of Russia. After he was pulled overboard he had drowned, but the Flame had restored him to life and he and it had been saved by the Soviet Navy. They had then returned to Russia where Soviet scientists had been able to fashion a lantern and ring for him to match Alan's. He also claimed that he had never loved Alan and their entire relationship had been a manipulation, revealing that he had put his ring on Alan's finger to distract him from a Soviet boat signaling at him.

Enraged, Alan attacked him and demanded to know why he had killed those men, but Red Lantern easily fended him off then phased through the wall. Although his ring was almost out of power, Alan gave chase and flew after him. He chased Red Lantern through the skies over New York, but his ring suddenly ran out of power and he fell to Earth. Red Lantern caught him in a sphere of energy, which Alan didn't know was possible, and safely carried him to a rooftop. Vladimir told Alan that he had barely scratched the surface of what he could do and that their powers were fueled by emotion, and that if Alan hadn't always suppressed his feelings Vladimir wouldn't have been able to defeat him so easily. Alan asked why, if all Red Lantern wanted to do was defeat him, he had killed his former lovers rather than just kill him. After a moment's silence Red Lantern claimed he hadn't wanted to kill anyone and Alan asked him if he had done it because he was jealous. Red Lantern angrily insisted that he was not gay and had a wife. Alan asked if his wife knew what he really was, and when Red Lantern asked what that was he responded "A spy."

Alan turned his back to Vlad and leaned up against the wall of the bubble. After a moment Vladimir did the same and they stood back-to-back with only the bubble between them. Alan revealed to Vladimir that he had bought a lakehouse where they had once stayed for two weeks at great expense despite hating it, because he felt like an echo of "Johnny" was still there. They turned to face each other and Alan put his hand on the bubble; after a moment's hesitation, Vladimir did the same. Suddenly Alan punched through the bubble and hit Vladimir in the face. He dropped the red lantern and Alan grabbed it. Vladimir shouted that it was too dangerous but Alan charged his ring with the red lantern, become imbued with the power of the Crimson Flame.^[13]

Alan attacked Vladimir, filled with rage and paranoia due to the effects to the Flame. The unstable energy started to poison him and Sokov told him he needed to get rid of it before it killed him. Fortunately Derby had discovered Alan's home ransacked heard the voice of the lantern telling him to carry it to the roof. When he got up there it released a burst of green energy that flew to Alan, purged the Crimson Flame from him and recharged his powers. The Starheart appeared to Alan in a vision, taking the form of Jimmy Henton, and told him that the Crimson Flame was a corrupted fragment of itself that needed to be stopped, and told him that he needed to convince Vladimir to join with him as something much worse was coming.

Alan awoke from the vision and Sokov tried to continue the fight, but Alan told him they were both in danger. He flew outside and they saw crimson energy blasts erupting into the sky. They were attacked by the Crimson Host, a Soviet team also empowered by the Crimson Flame, with orders to kill them both. They tried to fight the Host off but were outnumbered. To Alan's surprise, the JSA came to help him.^[1]

The JSA battled the Crimson Flame and initially held their own, but as the fight went on the Crimson Host gradually gained the upper hand. At Sokov's urging, Alan attempted to create an energy bubble to contain them, but he was unable to get the ring to work and Major Blaze tackled him to the ground. Vladimir tried to save Alan from Blaze, but Blaze easily overpowered Red Lantern and viciously beat him to death. Enraged, Alan was able to create an energy bubble around the Host, his first ever construct.

Trapped, the Crimson Host told Alan to just kill them, but Alan replied that wasn't how the JSA did things and they would face justice for their crimes. However, the Crimson Flame once again returned Vladimir to life, and he used the last charge in his ring to kill the Crimson Host in a single massive energy blast. Alan grabbed him and demanded to know why he had killed them when they posed no threat, to which Vlad sadly replied "I'm the villain." Alan took his ring and placed him under arrest.

Six weeks later, Hoover forced Alan to visit Vladimir in prison and find out where the remnants of the Crimson Flame were. Instead, Alan took the opportunity to tell Vladimir that, although he deserved to be punished for what he had done, he understood how his superiors had used him and that he forgave him. Hoover ordered him to go back in but Alan refused to follow his orders any further. When Hoover threatened to expose him Alan countered by saying that if his secret was ever revealed, he would no longer feel any reason to hold back from unleashing his full power on the homophobic establishment. He also revealed that he knew Hoover was himself secretly a crossdresser. The Flash and the Spectre showed up to support him and Alan told Hoover that the JSA would no longer accept any government control. After that Alan worked much more closely with his teammates because he knew he could trust them.^[14]

Unbeknownst to any of them at the time, Vlad's latest resurrection had made him a living vessel of the Crimson Flame, able to wield its power without a ring or lantern. He escaped from prison and went on to clash frequently with Alan Scott, to the extent that they were considered to be each other's arch-nemesis. The pair did, however, briefly team up against a group of Nazi agents that threatened both Russian and American interests. Despite an open offer of continued collaboration from Alan, Vladimir did not opt to continue this partnership. Red Lantern disappeared in 1951, presumed dead. He left behind an infant daughter, Ruby Sokov.^[15]

Scott was investigated under the campaign to root out suspected communists by Senator Joe McCarthy, but declared innocent. However, eventually mounting political pressure did force the disbanding of the Justice Society.^[2]

Over the years, he would remain closeted to all but a few close friends, primarily friend and assistant Charles "Derby" Dickles and fellow members of the Justice Society. He would occasionally visit a local bar frequented by, as he referred to them, 'confirmed bachelors', though he never worked up the confidence to flirt with the other patrons.^[9] Over time, Alan convinced himself that he was a straight man who had been confused by the power of the Green Lantern and its interactions with the Crimson Flame within Sokov, though, deep down, a part of him knew he was lying to himself. He also identified as bisexual for a time. During this period, he engaged in several relationships with women, even going so far as to marry Rose Canton and Molly Mayne, fathering two children with the former.^[2][14] Alan was unaware of the existence of these children, a pair of fraternal twins named Todd Rice and Jennifer-Lynn Hayden and did not meet them until they were fully grown and had formed Infinity, Inc.

DC Rebirth

Justice/Doom War

A version of Alan and the rest of the Society encountered John Stewart and Barry Allen during the Justice/Doom War, when the latter two had travelled to 1941 in search of a shard of the Totality. Scott restrained them when the JSA found them in their headquarters and learned that the Legion of Doom had already won in JSA's timeline two weeks ago.^[16] It was later revealed that this version of the Justice Society was isolated in Hypertime by Perpetua, who had split pieces of the past and future in order to avoid changes echoing from one era to the next.

Barry and John explained their mission to them and how they came into their timeline, also stating they were members of the Justice League. The JSA came to the realization that their existence must have been erased if the the two hadn't heard of them, with all of the team members then introducing themselves. Scott expressed surprise when John brings up the Green Lantern Corps and implores John to tell him more about it, but is stopped by Doctor Fate who states it will be dangerous for them to even interact as the timeline had been altered many times.^[17]

The JSA agreed to team up with Barry and John and headed to Pearl Harbor to find the Totality shard kept there^[17] but found that the Legion of Doom had taken over the minds of all soldiers present there. He battled the Japanese forces under their control alongside John and was impressed by his great willpower but remarked that he needed to be more truthful. After getting into the base, they were attacked by American soldiers under the Legion's thrall and eventually confronted their enemies. Aquaman however subdued the Legion and stated that they needed to get to Atlantis in order to get the Totality back to their time.^[18]

As they travel to Atlantis, Alan reminded him to be more open about his emotions. John remarked that he was dismayed at people siding with Doom in both their times, but Alan stated that it isn't about what they achieve but fighting for what they want. The JSA and the League members were however stopped by the Atlantean guards, realizing that Atlantis was now ruled by Vandal Savage of the past and his Legionnaires Club who demanded they hand over the Totality. They were however again confronted by the Legion of Doom and the god Poseidon.^[19]

John convinced Vandal to help them by stating that the real fight was always within them and that the fate of the universe depended on his decision. Impressed, Alan stated that he was worthy successor to the name of Green Lantern. As Alan and the JSA battled the Legion of Doom, Vandal opened a portal for them to travel to the League's timeline.^[20] After arriving in the timeline, Alan told John that the JSA will stay there to help them fight against the forces of Perpetua after she regained part of her former powers.^[21]

Doomsday Clock

Doctor Manhattan moved the lantern six inches out of Alan's reach so that Scott dies in the train accident and leaves no family behind, as the green lantern is passed through different locations thereafter.^[22][23][24]

His death caused the Justice Society of America to never exist, as he was a major cause behind it.^[25] Manhattan, however undid his alterations and moved the lantern back into Scott's reach after being inspired by Superman's words. This caused Scott to survive and the JSA to be restored to reality.^[8]

The JSA, including Alan, came to the aid of Superman in Washington, D.C. and helped him stop the ongoing battle between the metahumans. Scott later promised that JSA will investigate the role of the Department of Metahuman Affairs in the "Supermen theory," which alleged that the United States Government had been creating metahumans to act as its tools.^[8]

Manhattan's attempt at fixing the timeline and reality failed however, as they merely re-adjusted into a new version.^[26][27] Wonder Woman became the world's first superhero and her heroics and ability to see the greatness in every individual inspired Alan to become a superhero himself.^[28]

Infinite Frontier

Back in the present

Alan returned to the present timeline along with other Justice Society members when Wally West, having gained the powers of Dr. Manhattan and acquiring the Mobius Chair, attempted to fix time by merging the various timelines, but he was now significantly older. He guarded the Valhalla Cemetery alongside other surviving JSA members, after the Batman Who Laughs and the Dark Knights conquered the world.^[26][27][29]

When Alan was called to be the sentinel overlooking the Totality of their world, he decided to have a frank conversation with his twin children before he left. Having remained closeted for much of his life, inspired by his own son, openness, Alan came out as gay to his children. Todd and Jennie-Lynn accepted their father's truth, supporting him unconditionally.^[2]

Dawn of DC

The New Golden Age

Helena Wayne, the daughter of Batman and Catwoman from a possible future, travelled back in time to foil the villain Per Degaton. She defeated him but inadvertently erased her own timeline, leaving herself stranded in the present. She suggested that the Justice Society recruit her teammates from the future, most of whom were active villains in the present.^[30]

One of the people Helena wanted to recruit was Red Lantern's daughter Ruby Sokov, who was wanted for multiple murders in Russia. Alan insisted that Ruby should not be recruited and went to Moscow to try and convince her to face justice for the people she had killed. Ruby had been searching for her father and was convinced he was being held prisoner in the Red Labs. She fought her way into the Labs, killing multiple guards, but Alan stopped her and told her that her father was dead. He took her to a bar and asked her to turn herself in for the men she had killed searching for her father but she refused, saying that the Russian government would just hand her over to the Red Labs. Alan assured Ruby that he Vladimir was dead and he saw him die. He told her that her father wouldn't want her to have become a killer and she yelled at him that he had been her father's enemy and not to act like Vladimir was his friend. After a pause Alan agreed that they had been enemies, but Ruby sensed he was lying.

Alan admitted that he couldn't let the Russian government take Ruby and told her that Helena Wayne believed she had it in her to be a hero. Against his better judgement, he took her back to America with him to meet Helena.^[31]

Powers and Abilities

Abilities

• Indomitable Will: Alan possesses a truly indomitable willpower that made the Starheart choose him as its host.^[1]
• Intimidation: If the situation requires it Alan can project a really intimidating presence.^[10][14]
• Mechanical Engineering: Before becoming the Green Lantern, Alan was an upcoming mechanic.^[22]
• Military Protocol: Alan was a sapper in the Army Corps of Engineers.
• Multilingualism: Alan speaks Russian.^[31]

Weaknesses

• Wood Flaw^[17]: Due to a flaw in his Starheart Power Ring, Scott's power ring is vulnerable to wood.
  

Paraphernalia

Equipment

• Starheart Lantern: Alan possesses a lantern forged by Billie^[7] from a portion of the Starheart that he uses to recharge his ring every 24 hours.^[6]

Weapons

• Starheart Power Ring After being chosen by the Starheart Alan shaped it in a ring that he uses to focus his powers.^[10]
  • Chronokinesis: Alan has the ability to travel through the Fourth Dimension thanks to the Starheart's power.^[13] His mastery over this ability has evolved to the point where he can actually travel through time at will.^[14]
    • Phasing: Alan Scott can instinctively travel to a point in history when an obstacle did not or will not exist and instantly return after passing through the empty space, making him appear to walk through solid walls.^[10][13]
  • Decelerated Aging^[2]: Despite being more than a hundred years old Alan still looks like a middle-aged man.^[5]
  • Energy Construct Creation: Alan can create solid energy constructs powered by his will. These constructs are powerful enough to take out the likes of Extant with a single hit.^[32]
    • Force Field: Alan can generate defensive force fields.^[14]
  • Energy Projection: Alan can project powerful blasts of energy from his ring.^[6]
  • Hypnosis^[1]
  • Illusion Casting: Alan can use his ring to mask his and others appearance.^[31]
  • Flight: The Starheart allows Green Lantern to fly through the air at great speed.^[6]
  • Magic: Due to the Starheart being magical in nature Alan can manipulate the magical energies of the lantern that granted him his powers.^[33]
    • Eldritch Blast: Alan can release the mystical flame of the Starheart in a powerful beam of magical energy.^[33]
  • Molecular Reconstruction: Alan can use the Starheart to convert his civilian clothing into his costume and back at will.^[32]
  • Superhuman Durability: The ring enhances Alan's durability to superhuman levels and make him immune to small arms fire.^[10]

Notes

• Alan Scott/Green Lantern was created by Bill Finger and Martin Nodell, first appearing in All-American Comics #16. However, in the Prime Earth continuity, Alan Scott/Green Lantern first appeared as part of the New 52 DC Universe in Doomsday Clock #7 by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank.
  

Trivia

• Alan took his first love's last name, Johnny Ladd, and added it to his own in memory of him.^[5]
• Due to the fact that Alan was 24 years old in 1936 it can be calculated that he was born around 1912.^[5]

Related

• 122 Appearances of Alan Scott (Prime Earth)
• 105 Images featuring Alan Scott (Prime Earth)
• 11 Quotations by or about Alan Scott (Prime Earth)
• Character Gallery: Alan Scott (Prime Earth)

Footnotes

Justice Society of America member This character has been a primary member of the Justice Society of America in any of its various incarnations. This template will categorize articles that include it into the "Justice Society of America members" category.

Justice League member This character has been a member of the Justice League of America, or simply the Justice League in any of its various incarnations, sworn by a duty to act as guardians of America and the world by using their skills and/or superpowers to protect Earth from the clutches of both interstellar and domestic threats. This template will categorize articles that include it into the "Justice League of America members" category.

All-Star Squadron member This character is or was a member of the All-Star Squadron in any of its various incarnations. This template will categorize articles that include it into the "All-Star Squadron members" category.