Spoilers for Green Lantern: Season Two #10 ahead!
The Green Lantern comic is currently doing gender-swapped heroes the right way. In recent issues of Green Lantern: Season Two, Hal Jordan has traveled to Earth-11, home to many gender-flipped heroes, and in issue ten we get to see more of this fantastic world. Written by Grant Morrison with art by Liam Sharp, the issue is in stores now.
Gender-flipping characters is an old tradition in comics; one could argue that characters such as Batgirl and Supergirl were an early form of this. More often than not, it is accomplished by putting a female character in a male role. This move is criticized by several different fronts: more conservative fans who scoff at “forced diversity” and more liberal elements claiming the characters are over-sexualized. There is merit to the last argument, especially given comics’ long track record with oversexualizing women. Recent years have helped correct this problem, but there is still room to grow, and male creators can look to Morrison and Sharp on how it’s done.
In the DC Multiverse, Earth-11 is home to many gender-swapped characters, including a version of Batwoman, a Star Sapphire and Sister Terrific, a gender-flipped Mister Terrific, among others. All of the female characters are drawn in a realistic, not-over-sexualized fashion; not a scantily clad body in sight. There are male heroes on this world too, but they are the exact opposite: boorish, muscular men who do not respect boundaries; when the (male) Green Lantern of Earth-11 forces a kiss on our Star Sapphire, a fight between the two breaks out.
The issue works as a commentary on how women characters are depicted in American comics. The heroines of Earth-11 are powerful, realistic women and the men are sexist oafs. It is also a powerful commentary on the state of toxic masculinity, represented in Earth-11’s Green Lantern. He forced Star Sapphire to kiss him, and when she (rightfully) retaliated, he could not understand why she was upset—he did not respect her boundaries, but the toxic mindset he has stewed in will not allow him to see otherwise.
Grant Morrison has a reputation as a forward-thinking writer, and his and Sharp’s portrayal of Earth-11 (an Earth Morrison had a hand in creating) shows this. The heroines of Earth-11 are realistic looking and apparently more capable than their male counterparts. Hopefully, DC will revisit Earth-11 (with Morrison and Sharp in tow) so readers can explore this world outside of Green Lantern, where gender-flipped heroes are done right.
