DC Just Introduced Its Own Version of an MCU Staple

The pages of DC’s comics are filled with no shortage of twists and turns, as the publisher’s heroes and villains get thrown into unexpected scenarios. One of DC’s latest curveballs furthered the mythos of Alan Scott: The Green Lantern — and coincidentally has some similarities to something Marvel Cinematic Universe fans will recognize. Spoilers for Alan Scott: The Green Lantern #5 from Tim Sheridan, Cian Tormey, Hi-Fi, Matt Herms, and Lucas Gattoni below! Only look if you want to know!

The issue chronicles the fight between Alan Scott / Green Lantern and Vladimir Sokov / Red Lantern, who are still grappling with their pasts as lovers and accidental superpowered beings. Eventually, amid their confrontation, random bursts of crimson energy begin to be seen throughout the city. Alan suggests that, after Vlad was presumed dead, the Russian government might have given the Crimson Flame to other people (not unlike the way that Bucky Barnes learns that he is far from Marvel’s only Winter Soldier). Alan’s point is soon proven to be true with the arrival of The Crimson Host, a group of various other Russian supervillains who also have the Flame.

What Is Alan Scott: The Green Lantern About?

Through a twist in the timeline, Alan Scott: The Green Lantern revisits and recontextualizes the origins of the first Green Lantern through the lens of our modern understanding of the man. The story, which begins in the 1930s, is about an old flame – the kind that burns eternal – and the sometimes head-on, single-track collision of our personal and professional lives. This is Alan’s coming-of-age, in which he must embrace the man he is, to become the hero he’s meant to be. In the end, he’ll have gained a greater understanding of himself and his gifts – as he unlocks a new, previously unknown ability that could make him the most powerful Green Lantern in existence!

“It’s interesting how much the current political situation with Russia can invoke feelings of what we’ve read about like the Red Scare,” Sheridan previously explained to Comics Beat. “There are similarities we might draw but that’s not something I’m focused on in terms of the writing. What I’m focused on are these two character—Alan Scott, The Green Lantern and Vladimir Sokov, The Red Lantern. What do they as archnemeses mean to each other but also what do their powers mean to each other? Are they related at all? Alan’s at a point where he’s just starting out and there have been no Green Lanterns before him. There’s no one to explain it to him. He’s figuring it out as he’s going along. There’s a lot for him to learn. If you’ve ever read classic Golden Age Alan Scott, his powers were weird. It didn’t look like Hal Jordan’s powers. When he started, the energy constructs were done in a weird way. He could walk through walls! So why is that and what does it mean for the entire Green Lantern Corps? We’re going to throw out some interesting ideas.”

What do you think of the latest twist in Alan Scott: The Green Lantern? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!