WARNING: The following contains spoilers for the story "Dark Things Cannot Stand the Light" in the Green Lantern 80th Anniversary 100-Page Super Spectacular #1, by James Tynion IV, Gary Frank, Steve Oliff and Tom Napolitano, on sale now.
Of all the targets selected by Doctor Manhattan to change the course of history for the entire DC Universe in Geoff Johns and Gary Frank's Doomsday Clock, the Golden Age Green Lantern Alan Scott was the first and most prominent. In denying Alan his superhero destiny and causing his untimely death, the Justice Society of America was never founded. With their glaring absence, no longer inspiring subsequent generations of heroes, including a young Clark Kent, who failed to save his parents as Superboy. By the end of the story, Manhattan had a change of heart, influenced by Superman, to restore history, including Alan's 1940s destiny to become the original, Earth-based Green Lantern.
The lead-off short story in the Green Lantern 80th Anniversary special, by Frank and writer James Tynion IV, serves as the perfect coda to Doomsday Clock, with Frank's artwork providing a seamless visual continuity between the two stories. However, this story is far more than an epilogue just focused on the Golden Age Green Lantern. The story honors the complete history of Alan Scott, including a subtle nod to his reinvention during the New 52 era that saw him as a younger superhero on the modern-day Earth-2.
The story has Alan visit Doris Henton, the mother of a man who was killed in the sabotaged train crash that led to Alan claiming the mystical Green Lantern to become a superhero. As Alan shares the details of Jimmy's last moments and the final fate of his killers to his mother, familiar elements of the character's extensive history surface, reflecting a vision of the superhero's role within the DCU that restores his Golden Age history while incorporating and embracing newer details introduced to the character, hinting at Alan's place in a post-Doomsday Clock world.
Alan is driven to his destination by Charles "Derby" Dickles, who often comedically referred to himself as "Doiby" with his thick accent. Alan's longtime sidekick and driver was created by Bill Finger and Irwin Hasen in 1941's All-American Comics #27 as the kind of comic relief character that became a hallmark for the superhero genre throughout the Golden Age. The character has largely been absent since the early 2000s, when he was revealed to have been taken to an alien world called Myrg which he rules as its king and models after his beloved hometown of 1940s Brooklyn.
The other element of Alan's history that receives a more subtle nod is his reinvention as a homosexual man during the New 52. The pre-Flashpoint Alan Scott had been heterosexual, marrying Rose & Thorn and fathering two children, Obsidian and Jade, who went on to become superheroes and Justice Society members themselves. However, the New 52 Alan lost his same-sex partner Sam in an accident. While the short story does not directly reveal this character revision, Alan loses Jimmy in a similar manner and achieves revenge against his killer. Throughout the scene, Alan and Jimmy's mother insinuate that both men held a secret about themselves from the public, which is strongly alluded to be homosexuality.
After being absent from the main DCU for years and lacking his Golden Age history, Alan Scott is now firmly back in the DC Universe after the events of Doomsday Clock. Just as DC Rebirth folded together elements of the pre-Flashpoint DCU with the New 52 era, the Green Lantern 80th Anniversary special suggests than Manhattan's actions provide a more fully-rounded incarnation of the Golden Age superhero that honors his history while incorporating the New 52-era Alan Scott's sexuality in a fitting epilogue for one of Doomsday Clock's most pivotal figures.