Which versns of Superman, Rob, and Wonr Woman are gay? How DC Comics is refg the symbols of characters like Batman, Green Lantern, and the Flash for a new, queerer generatn.
Contents:
DC FAC SEVERE BACKLASH AFTER TRODUCG GAY ROB
More than 80 years sce he was first troduced to rears, and after s of homoerotic subtext wh his pann Batman, ics’ most tsty sikick Rob has nonilly e out as a cliffhanger endg to DC’s latt issue of Batman: Urban Legends, the current eratn of the Boy Wonr, Tim Drake, is shown acceptg a date vatn om his iend Bernard, havg jt rcued him om a villa while disguise as Rob.
The list of superhero accintally or liberately d as queer who have never nonilly been brought out of the closet bee of homophobia is long and prsg. But wa, I n hear the ments already: So now Tim is jt The Rob Who Is Gay? Tim Drake’s story speaks to what advot for diversy n fet and homophob would rather ignore: There are legimate reasons to give a long-standg straight character a g-out story beyond “more diversy is more.
In March, Marvel unveiled their first gay Capta Ameri character — a queer youth advote named Aaron Fischer — to be clud the upg “Uned Stat of Capta Ameri” ic book miseri. This is an ia that has pecially applied to Rob the past:"Queer dg ics, the ia of exprsg your te self through a lorful stume as you hid your dual inty om the world, was once nsired too sndalo for a largely homophobic natn. “Characters that were unknown to most of the general public — like Starman, say, or Maggie Sawyer, or Green-Lantern-no-not-the-active-one-wh-a-seri-but-the-olr-one-nobody-outsi-of-ics-fandom-knows-by-name — uld be gay, but Superman had to be able to sell movie tickets and toothpaste the Midwt.