Marvel's 'Eternals': How Gay Superhero Phastos Came to Be - Variety

Contents:

• MARVEL’S FIRST GAY SUPERHERO DEFEATS EVIL, MAK HISTORY ETERNALS TRAILER
• A GAY SUPERHERO WOULD FALLY GIVE LGBTQ KIDS THE REPRENTATN THEY NEED — SO WHY ARE WE STILL WAG?
• 15 OPENLY GAY MARVEL CHARACTERS THAT MIGHT BE COMG TO THE MCU
• STAN LEE EXPLAS WHY HE NEVER MA GAY MARVEL SUPERHERO
• WHY WE DON’T NEED A GAY MARVEL SUPERHERO
• WAR EPTS OVER NEW MARVEL BLOCKBTER’S GAY SUPERHERO
• HOW ‘ETERNALS’ ESTABLISH THE MCU’S FIRST GAY SUPERHERO AND SAME-SEX COUPLE A MOVIE: ‘IT’S LIFE-SAVG’
• THE GAY SUPERHERO ‘ETERNALS’ IS ‘WHAT AUDIENC HAVE BEEN WAG FOR,’ SAYS GLAAD (GUT COLUMN)
• MARVEL ANNOUNC FIRST GAY CAPTA AMERI

MARVEL’S FIRST GAY SUPERHERO DEFEATS EVIL, MAK HISTORY ETERNALS TRAILER

The Eternals trailer offers the brieft of glimps at Phastos (Brian Tyree Henry), the first gay superhero a major Hollywood anchise. Dcribed as an “telligent ventor” an acpanyg summary, the character will reportedly break ground by sharg the film stud’s first onscreen gay kiss wh his hband, played by out, gay Lebane actor Haaz an terview, Sleiman said the climactic smooch was an emotnal moment on set, pecially given s importance to LGBTQ+ reprentatn.

"However, as a gay man, I am worried that LGBT characters are aga beg relegated to supportg rol, when they should fally be given their own movie. " Rso played a man Steve Rodgers' support group post-snap who sually mentned that he went on a date wh a be clear, my face l up the cema when watchg this, and was exactly the sort of reprentatn that we sometim need — a character who jt so happens to be gay, but isn't ma to a big al.

A GAY SUPERHERO WOULD FALLY GIVE LGBTQ KIDS THE REPRENTATN THEY NEED — SO WHY ARE WE STILL WAG?

Valkryie, as played by Tsa Thompson, is reportedly bisexual, while Brian Tyree Henry will play a gay character "The Eternals. "Meanwhile, the Marvel Cematic Universe's upg movie "The Eternals" is reported to clu the MCU's first openly gay characters and uple — Brian Tyree Henry's Phastos and Haaz Sleimen's character, who is unnamed as of yet, will play hbands.

15 OPENLY GAY MARVEL CHARACTERS THAT MIGHT BE COMG TO THE MCU

An terracial gay uple and a Black, bisexual woman are characters I'm exced to see on screens. However, may not be a gay man, I am worried that once aga, the LGBT characters are gog to be sikicks to the straight leadg characters, a pattern that has been repeated throughout the history of mastream queer reprentatn Marvel movi 'would be massive'What this silg of queer characters do is sentially send the msage to young LGBT kids that they aren't worthy of leadg stat, and straight people e first. "I hope that Valkyrie and Phastos are given storyl that embrace and nont queer issu and queerns directly, but even if they are, a leadg gay superhero is still need to tell LGBT kids across the world that they n be superhero, too.

I sobbed five tim the theater, and om the sounds of other sniffl, I knew I wasn't the only gay person dog so. I often thk about what I would have done to have had that film when I was a 10-year-old kid stgglg wh my sexualy, entrenched fear, doubt, and 's not an overstatement to say that one film uld have saved me om years of reprsn and ternalized homophobia.

Superhero are pretty gay anywayQueer director Daniel Ribeiro, who directed "The Way He Looks, " told Insir: "I've always thought 'X-Men' was jt a big queer movie, so I thk everyone who is LGBT knows what they are talkg about a way.

STAN LEE EXPLAS WHY HE NEVER MA GAY MARVEL SUPERHERO

"Ined, "X2" even has a mock g-out scene when Ice Man (who is gay the ics) out as a mutant to his parents — who even ask him "have you tried not beg a mutant?

WHY WE DON’T NEED A GAY MARVEL SUPERHERO

"Ice Man, an X-Man, is actually gay the ics, while fellow X-Man Northstar married his partner Jadu the ic's first-ever gay weddg. To see somethg like a gay weddg an MCU film would be nothg short of 's track rerd won't fill LGBTQ people wh hopeWhile I am exced to see Valkyrie and Phastos "Love and Thunr" and "The Eternals, " and hope that they are given very proment rol their rpective films, I am hant to get my hop up jt don't have an amazg track rerd when to LGBT om the aforementned Le Fou cint, Disney has tried to make good on their promise of reprentatn wh a smatterg of unnamed background characters, like "Zooptopia" and "Onward, " while they bottled the chance of givg queer lead characters their other flagship anchise, "Star Wars. 'Empire' creator Lee Daniels said he's been stgglg to make a gay superhero movie for years but 'maybe they'll give to a whe guy'.

"This year, The Eternals will troduce Marvel movi' first gay have been reports sce 2019 that Phase 4 of the MCU - the films followg the Avengers Infy saga - would star a trans character. Kev Feige nfirmed that the film would star Marvel's first gay character. The new Aquaman who appeared Young Jtice: Outsirs was also nfirmed to be a gay character 2019, ScreenRant reported at the time, and a wrer for DC Comics said durg an terview wh Comisy 2016 that Wonr Woman is the summer of 2019, CNN reported Valkyrie beme the first LGBTQ character to appear a Marvel movie Thor: Love and Thunr.

Marvel Comics' first superhero to e out as gay was Northstar, a move the Tim praised an article published early 1992.

WAR EPTS OVER NEW MARVEL BLOCKBTER’S GAY SUPERHERO

We’ve put together this list to troduce some of the most fluential gay superhero, rangg om groundbreakg figur like Marvel’s Northstar to characters like Harley Qun who only me out the past few 12 most inic gay superhero1) Wonr WomanDiana of Themyscira has a long and storied history as a queer in.

(CC-BY-SA)2) MidnighterPossibly the bt-known gay superhero ic book circl, Midnighter was created as a parody of Batman, startg off the adult-rated Wildstorm ic Stormwatch. As one of the origal X-Men, he was portrayed as straight for s beg outed as gay 2015.

Thanks to the X-Men ics’ love of time travel hijks, there are actually two versns of this character at the moment: A teenage Iceman who realized he was gay after Jean Grey read his md, and an adult versn who stayed the closet and dated women for years, but me out after beg nonted by his younger self. The recent Iceman solo seri foced on his life after this revelatn, earng a mixed rponse bee while ’s great to see a gay character gettg their own ic, his emotnal arc is a rather old-fashned g-out story. She first appeared as Batman’s love tert the 1950s, shortly after the publitn of Sctn of the Innocent, a book that acced Batman of homosexual propaganda.

HOW ‘ETERNALS’ ESTABLISH THE MCU’S FIRST GAY SUPERHERO AND SAME-SEX COUPLE A MOVIE: ‘IT’S LIFE-SAVG’

In recent years she was rewrten to be gay herself, a ntroversial cisn that led to some problems of s her ic’s creators wanted her to marry her girliend, DC nixed the cisn by sayg hero “shouldn’t have happy personal liv, ” a dub statement that sounds pretty ridiculo the ntext of, say, Superman. Avengers: Endgame gave the first openly gay character the Marvel Cematic Universe, but left a lot of fans (who have spent the last wag to see a gay superhero jo the Avengers) pretty unrwhelmed. Here's a selectn of openly gay Marvel characters who serve their time to she the MCU.

THE GAY SUPERHERO ‘ETERNALS’ IS ‘WHAT AUDIENC HAVE BEEN WAG FOR,’ SAYS GLAAD (GUT COLUMN)

While many fans hope that Marvel Studs ntu to diversify the superhero they brg to live-actn, Eternals recently took a signifint step forward by prentg Phastos as part of the first openly gay superhero uple the MCU. Iceman had been fightg alongsi the X-Men the ics for s before he stunned dienc by g out as gay, but fans quickly accepted his sexualy.

Wh Marvel Studs hopg to fix the X-Men film anchise after acquirg om Fox, this uld be a good ll for the MCU’s first gay character.

MARVEL ANNOUNC FIRST GAY CAPTA AMERI

Viv’s sexualy hasn’t been nfirmed the ics, but she's kissed Ironheart and was strongly suggted that she’s eher gay or asexual when she said, “an attractn to boys is nowhere wh me.

There was speculatn that Hercul would be a lead  The Eternals when Marvel announced that the film would star a gay lead, but the reference was stead to Phastos. Phyla-Vell was first intified as gay when she admted to and acted on her attractn towards Moondragon. In any discsn of who will be the first openly gay superhero the MCU, ’s important to mentn the first openly gay superhero Marvel Comics.