Illustration: Earth 2 issue #2
Something that I realized as I read through numerous New 52 books, is that characters can't have happiness. Because so far throughout this reboot there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of good happy moments. Case in point, in this scene above from Earth 2, Alan Scott (Green Lantern) was about to propose to his boyfriend Sam but was cut short when the train exploded. That of course left Sam dead.
Killing off Sam just feels like another over used motivating plot device for the hero (or hero to be in this case), especially since the engagement ring would later become Alan's power ring. Why introduce the character just to kill him off? So Alan can feel pain and anguish over his lost love throughout the series until they either create a new love interest or somehow bring back Sam (it's a comic book, it can happen).
It's a bit disturbing that Sam was created just to die. As well as they didn't even care enough to give the poor guy a last name. DC Comics keep stressing they are trying to create more diversity in their books but why create a gay person of color (Sam was Asian) just to kill him off? I guess that character added a huge double check to their diversity list.
Anyway, I don't want to get off topic of no happiness in the new 52.
So, I think it would have been more interesting and different if they had kept Sam alive. As a comic book reader it's so tiring seeing the same old kill-off-the-love-interest-to-motivate-the-hero plot. Not everything has to be dark and grim, there has to be room for a little happiness somewhere in the new 52. Why make the characters so miserable all the time? Bring on the happy times, I'm sure the readers would love to see them.
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