Shining a Lantern on hate crimes: DC Comics' Green Lantern shows that even superheroes can be affected by gay bashing. (Media).

Over the years, comic book superheroes have confronted and done battle with numerous breeds of villainy: evil aliens, diabolical thieves, and mad scientists. Now, thanks to a daring story line in DC Comics' popular Green Lantern series, a trio of fag bashers who assault a gay teen can be added to that rogues' gallery.

"Comics have always stood up and said, `Here's an issue or subject that needs to be looked at,'" says DC editor Bob Schreck, 47, explaining why it was important to bring a Matthew Shepard-esque hate-crime scenario and its complicated aftermath to the all-ages medium. Antigay hate crimes have been depicted before in comics--in the first issue of Drawn & Quarterly's Palookaville, for instance--yet never before in such a mainstream iconic superhero-based title (DC is part of AOL Time Warner).

A hot seller these days, Green Lantern revolves around an interstellar legion of defenders bearing powerful rings emblazoned with an emerald lantern logo. The group's current leader is Kyle Rayner, a Manhattan comic strip artist by day. Green Lantern's issue 154 (on sale in September) kicks off the two-part "Hate Crime" story arc. In it, Terry Berg, Kyle's gay 17-year-old art assistant, is chased down, caught, and battered into a coma by a trio of bashers. Outraged and vengeful, Kyle suits up as Green Lantern and viciously confronts the homophobes--breaking the wrists of one during a visceral interrogation scene. With help from guest stars such as Batman and the Flash, he also learns lessons in undoing the past and combating intolerance, which Schreck hopes the comic itself will do.

Terry and "Hate Crime" had their genesis with writer Ron Marz, Green Lantern scribe from 1993 to 2000. Partly as tribute to Schreck, who is openly bisexual, Marz expressed the intention to tell a gay Lantern story, but he left the title before he could fulfill that aim. Schreck and subsequent writer Judd Winick, fueled by the hate crime-related deaths of Shepard and Brandon Teena and by the harassment all gay youth suffer, introduced Terry. Winick, of course, comes to the book experienced with gay issues--he was on MTV's Real World in San Francisco, and his friendship with gay housemate and AIDS activist Pedro Zamora inspired his GLAAD Award-winning graphic novel, Pedro and Me.

Last year, a Green Lantern issue devoted to Terry's coming out to and acceptance by Kyle--on whom Terry also professed a crush--resulted in a windfall of kudos and controversy. "Every bit of cliched crap," Winick recalls of the latter. "`It's inappropriate for children.' `Doesn't belong in a comic book.' `You're pushing a gay agenda.' And Bible verse--which, please, just keep to yourself. I was more pleased with the level of positive response, including one E-mail from a 15-year-old who wrote just three lines: `My name is Michael. I'm 15, and reading Green Lantern is the fast time I haven't been ashamed to be gay.' That's why we did it." Since Terry's coming-out, Schreck adds, sales of the title have risen.

Raised in Levittown, N.Y., Schreck was turned on to comic books at 13 by a neighborhood paperboy--they bonded making short horror films one weekend. Schreck went directly from high school to employment at a printing firm, and his comics-industry career has since included marketing, editorial, and administrative stints at Marvel Comics, Comico, Dark Horse Comics, and Oni Press, which he founded with Joe Nozemack. Having courted Schreck since 1987, DC Comics called again three years ago and offered group editorship of its flagship Batman titles, a tantalizing proposal to which he finally gave in.

But he's not necessarily giving in to fans' needling about Terry's future, including a rumor that the teen will soon get a power ring and bodysuit of his own. "`Always in motion is the future,' as a small green man once said," Schreck says coyly, referring to the always cryptic Yoda. "There are no plans for that right now, but anything is possible in the world of comic books."

Filmmaker and journalist Ferber's short films Birthday Time and Cruise Control are part of TLA Releasing's Two Brothers and Two Others video.

Find more about the gay story lines in current comic books and related links at www.advocate.com