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THE RUNAWAYS’ VIRGIA GARDNER IS BREAKG SUPERHERO TABOOS AS MARVEL’S FIRST GAY CHARACTER
But beneath her sunny exterr, Karola, who is one of the first openly gay Marvel characters, grappl wh her inty—and Gardner unrstands the dissonance between appearanc and realy. It’s like I uld jt rip out a nunchucks route at a what I know of the ic book, Karola is the first gay Marvel character onscreen? I also n’t totally speak to her sexualy on the show yet bee we want to be a surprise, but the ic books I believe she is one of the first openly gay, let’s see how we n dance around this… I assume that’s not somethg that’s not pletely elimated om her inty the is safe to assume.
Sadly, that joy mt now be forever tempered by the knowledge that Koko, whose life sh so brightly om the screen, has been lost to – who, though thori say there is no evince her ath was motivated by homophobia or transphobia, is neverthels yet another victim of the eply embedd hate and vlence that hnts our culture and mak movi like this one seem so very, very prec. On TV, the bisexual Whe Canary (Cay Lotz) and gay Alex Danvers (Chyler Leigh) and Mr. Stray mentns of a seldom-seen gay Unn Jack, or police officer Maggie Sawyer, or Dty and Mystique’s obv (but not explicly stated) relatnship, or the still ntroversial Extraño–there weren’t many characters to choose om, and all of them were seldom-seen supportg players.
That changed 1992 when was revealed that Northstar, a foundg member of the X-Men spoff team Alpha Flight, was gay. That’s why ol’ Jean-Pl Bebier, an Olympic skier turned hothead do-goor, is nsired to be the first gay superhero. Gay characters were sudnly for mature rears only, like the relatnship between The Authory’s Midnighter and Apollo.