As a heads up, while reading this entry, you'll see the acronym LGBTQ a few times. For those of you who do have never seen, it stands for: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer/Questioning. Though this acronym is by no means perfect or all-inclusive of the brilliantly complex and colorful world that is humankind, it's the one I'll be using for this particular blog entry.
The other day, a couple of friends and I were discussing the topic of gay superheroes. One friend seemed slightly irritated by the notion, claiming that gay people just want everything gay - gay heroes, gay celebrities, etc. but without any specific reason save for a fulfillment of fantasy. The timing was perfect (though it wasn't mentioned in our particular conversation), because recently, the actor who starred in Amazing Spider-Man, Andrew Garfield, had posed the question:
"Why can't he be gay?" in regards to the famous web-slinger. He later stated that he was raising a philosophical point and that he understood that it wouldn't really make sense to retcon a character's orientation mid-movie series, but it's not as if that kind of thing doesn't happen in real life - sexuality and orientation can be fluid things that do not necessarily have to be set in stone... but I digress.
Why can't the Amazing Spider-Man be gay? Could you
imagine how the world would react if a mainstream character suddenly came out of the closet? People may stop reading their books, people may refuse to watch the films, and though some comic-creators are in the business out of passion, publishers may not excitedly jump through hoops to risk money for the sake of societal revolution. But... notice I said
mainstream character. Many people have no idea that there are, in fact, LGBTQ characters in the superhero world. I don't mean comics that one has never seen in stores, either, or comics that one buys from the back rooms of certain kinds of shops or from darkly lit internet websites. There are LGBTQ characters both in mainstream continuity (comic stories that almost every one knows the stories to)
and alternate universes.
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| Rictor and Shatterstar |
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The first gay kiss in the Marvel Universe happened between Rictor and Shatterstar, in X-Factor v.3 #45 in August of 2009. Every Marvel comic reader can tell you they've at least
heard of X-Factor, but the truth is that the two characters are not exactly household names. This ended up being a good thing though, as it allowed the writers to continue to explore their relationship and sexuality without fearing censorship.
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| Wiccan and Hulkling |
There's also Wiccan and Hulkling from Young Avengers. This particular set of characters has been pretty open about their being in a relationship together. However, it took more than 5 years before there was ever an on-panel kiss between them.
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| The Wedding |
I'd say that Northstar and Kyle Jinadu are possibly the more well-known gay characters (at least Northstar, originally from Alpha Flight, is) of the mainstream Marvel universe. The two characters got to tie the not in Astonishing X-Men #51 in June of 2012.
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| Batwoman proposing |
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In the DC universe, Batwoman was retconned as a lesbian. This is slightly comical, as she was originally brought into being to show that campy Batman wasn't gay. I admittedly haven't read any of her comics, but have always heard amazing things. And she looks kickass.
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| Alan Scott, the very first Green Lantern |
Then we get into some
big names, but these characters felt like cop-outs. A short while back, DC hinted that a very well-known and already well-established character was going to come out of the closet. It was Green Lantern... however, it wasn't Hal Jordan, the Green Lantern that was portrayed by Ryan Reynolds in the recent film, or any of the Green Lanterns in the animated movies that have been released - it was Alan Scott, the very first Green Lantern from the Golden Era of comics. After the New 52 revamped the DC universe, Alan Scott was re-imagined as a part of Earth 2... which isn't the main universe of the DC line of comics. Interestingly, before the DC line of comics was revamped (which time, right?), Alan Scott had a son, named Obsidian, who was also gay.
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| Alan Scott's son, Obsidian |
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| Nightcrawler and Colossus |
Ultimate Comics is one of my favorite non-mainstream comic universes. I've thoroughly enjoyed the stories and was quite surprised when I learned that Colossus was gay. Before meeting and beginning to date Northstar (the go-to gay guy, I suppose), he'd felt an unrequited affection for this universe's Wolverine, going so far as to beating the snot out of Magneto for hurting our favorite canucklehead, once. It was awesome. The writers also introduced some interesting drama between Colossus and his very good friend Nightcrawler - the latter has always been
very old-school Catholic, so it wasn't surprising that he was rather disgusted by his friend's orientation. Colossus called him out on it and commented that he'd expected someone who had always been so different from the rest of humanity in appearance, who'd experienced so much ostracism and hatred for being different to understand him.
And then it turned out Wolverine was gay. No, not the Wolverine that you've wanted to dress up as for multiple Halloweens, silverware between your fingers; and not the Hugh Jackman-Wolverine that graced the big screen, but James Howlett - the Wolverine from the X-Treme X-Men universe. He was every bit as furry and gruff and kickass as the Wolverine that you instantly picture in your head when you hear the name (the yellow and blue), but he existed in another world, in another line of comics, and therefore out of the minds of people who may have needed him.
Yes,
needed him, because if there ever was an LGBTQ hero that I could've really looked up to growing up, it would've been him.
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| Hercules and James Howlett |
I've written before that I absolutely felt like the only gay guy in the world, but allow me to delve a little deeper into that. I knew, logically, that I wasn't alone - I wasn't so foolish to think that I was so different that I'd be the only one like me in a world populated by countless people. However, I never felt connected to anyone or anything, be it a character on TV, the guy who cut my mom's hair, or the stereotypical archetype that has been implanted in every brain as
the typical gay guy. I never felt the urge to dress up and sparkle as fabulously as Elton John, nor was I ever as magical or witty as Jack and Will (respectively), from Will & Grace. There was simply no character that I felt drawn to in the way that the people with S-shaped tattoos who looked up to the All-American hero that is Superman may have been.
Granted, aside from a healthy amount of back fur, I'm nothing like Wolverine. But I admire him. Yes, he's been known to chop things up and ask questions later, but he's also
really old, wise, and passionate. If I'd have known from a young age that a character like Wolverine could be gay, maybe I wouldn't have struggled so much. If
Wolverine can kiss
Hercules on-panel what could ever possibly
dare to intrude on my sense of self and cause me to question my very existence?!
Too many people have taken their lives, because they felt alone, because they couldn't shut out the onslaught of overwhelmingly hateful voices, and because they believed they were
sin itself. I'm not saying that having more LGBTQ characters in comic books will stop kids from committing suicide or getting bullied, but they sure as hell wouldn't hurt. Just as every turd-for-a-brain celebrity or politician that opens their shit-eating mouth and callously says things that have the possibility of completely debilitating an already unsure soul, every superhero, ever celebrity, every image that says "It's completely OK to be different" can do the opposite.
We need more mainstream heroes that are unabashedly different, even amongst their flying and teleporting teammates. We need mainstream questioning and transgender heroes that are not afraid to show that their sexuality or gender is not limited by the societal constructs that surround the culture into which they were written. Because the truth is that comic book characters are as sexual as real human beings; they don't have to have sex on-panel, they create meaningful relationships with other fictional characters and it's what we expect, because we want our heroes to be as realistic as possible. We absorb them as they are the magnificent ones we wish to emulate; they are the beautiful and the brave that we hold inside ourselves. These characters are taken into the human psyche and they have the potential to influence the real world as much as they do their fictional ones.
So when Wolverine says it's ok to be gay
, no one could ever take that away from me. Now imagine if the whole world could hear him say so.
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| <3 |
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| tossing this one in for comedic effect. they weren't bashful about it and that's awesome |
