Alan Scott is the gay Green Lantern in the title "Earth 2" that goes on sale this coming Wednesday, competing for attention with the Marvel comics character Northstar who is due to marry his boyfriend in an "Astonishing X-Men" issue due on comic book shelves on June 20.

"I'm sure there will be some controversy, but nothing like it might have been 20 years ago," said Gerry Gladston, the co-owner of Midtown Comics in New York. "Comic books, after all, are among the greatest of American art forms and great art reflects life, doesn't it?"

Most comic fans know the Green Lantern's alter ego to be Hal Jordan - a ladies' man played by Ryan Reynolds in the 2011 film - but "Earth 2" is an alternate universe in the DC world.

Alan Scott also was the name of the original Green Lantern introduced in 1940, and the character was named Hal Jordan when DC revived the Green Lantern in 1959.

The openly gay character Northstar, one of the X-Men mutants, proposed to boyfriend Kyle Jinadu in the last issue of "Astonishing X-Men," with the wedding being featured in the next issue.

(Reporting by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

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