Northstar, Marvel’s First Gay Superhero – Mark Carlson-Ghost

Contents:

• MARVEL COMICS HOSTS FIRST GAY WEDDG ‘ASTONISHG X-MEN’
• MARVEL JT SAID ‘I DO’ TO S FIRST-EVER GAY SUPERHERO WEDDG
• MARVEL MAK HISTORY WH ITS FIRST GAY WEDDG BETWEEN TWO SUPERHERO
• LOOKG BACK AT THE MISTREATMENT OF MARVEL’S FIRST GAY COMIC SUPERHERO
• MARVEL’S FIRST GAY SUPERHERO DEFEATS EVIL, MAK HISTORY ETERNALS TRAILER
• ONE OF N.L.'S FIRST MARRIED GAY UPL LOOK BACK WH PRI
• WHO WAS THE FIRST GAY SUPERHERO? — THE ROUGH ROAD TO MARVEL’S NORTHSTAR
• NORTHSTAR, MARVEL’S FIRST GAY SUPERHERO
• CELEBRATG THE 16TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FIRST GAY SUPERHERO WEDDG
• GAY SUPERHERO IN COMICS & MOVI YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT
• A MARVEL X-MAN HAS ICS' FIRST GAY WEDDG AS DC PLANS TO OUT A HERO
• LGBT REPRENTATN ON TV THROUGH THE AG – OM EASTENRS’ FIRST GAY KISS TO TRANSGENR SUPERHERO
• COMIC BOOKS TAKE A BIG LEAP FORWARD WH GAY WEDDG

MARVEL COMICS HOSTS FIRST GAY WEDDG ‘ASTONISHG X-MEN’

Back 1992, Marvel Comics ma headl by revealg that Northstar, a Canadian superhero associated wh Alpha Flight and the X-Men, was gay. “When gay marriage beme legal New York State, raised obv qutns sce most of our hero ri New York State.

MARVEL JT SAID ‘I DO’ TO S FIRST-EVER GAY SUPERHERO WEDDG

Northstar is the first openly gay character ics and he’s been a longterm relatnship wh his partner Kyle so the big qutn was – how would this change his relatnship?, ” says Marvel Comics edor--chief Axel Alonso. “Here are two people, tryg to live their liv – mutant and gay, black and gay – empowered their own ways, but also ge-dwellers, ” says Liu. The tensns will rm Liu’s Astonishg X-Men stori gog forward, but Alonso says the uple will also have to nont homophobia om Northstar’s teammat.

Longtime boyiends Wicn and Hulklg–two members of the Marvel Comics superhero team the Young Avengers–jt ma a breakthrough: they beme the first gay superhero uple to get married the history of the publishg label. Although Northstar of the X-Men married his partner, Kyle Jadu, back 2012, Jadu is not a characters Midnighter and Apollo hold the distctn of beg the first gay uple to tie the knot the 29th and fal issue of The Authory, which was published shortly before the seri’ ncellatn 2002. Wicn and Hulklg were first troduced to the Marvel Universe as part of the Young Avengers seri 2005 and soon beme the first out gay teenagers the publisher’s history.

A gay superhero parody of BYU's Brigham Young statue (2017) (image by Pastelopapa via Wikimedia). Marvel’s first gay superhero is an amalgamatn of straight assumptns.

MARVEL MAK HISTORY WH ITS FIRST GAY WEDDG BETWEEN TWO SUPERHERO

Northstar was troduced 1979 as the first gay character the superhero genre. Bis men g and out of his home, or lgerg shirtls the background of panels, Northstar was d through the unique perspective of how straight men typilly view gay men. Northstar’s publitn history shows a cross sectn of 40 years of the Uned Stat’s mastream view of the gay muny.

LOOKG BACK AT THE MISTREATMENT OF MARVEL’S FIRST GAY COMIC SUPERHERO

In the 1980s he was portrayed as dismissive of women to the pot of misogyny, while the ghts, gay men were so often portrayed fictn as the gay bt iend that Northstar was portrayed almost solely the pany of women.

His backstory evolved as homosexuals emerged om enomic dispary: Where once he was an unattend mor, he beme a wealthy, privileged man as the natnal narrative surroundg queer youth gradually expand. Perhaps seemed that to keep the first out gay man was a potls exercise, pecially one so mired outdated stereotyp.

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.

ONE OF N.L.'S FIRST MARRIED GAY UPL LOOK BACK WH PRI

Power and David Philpott had to make their own ke topper by glug groomsmen figur togetherFrom “partner” to “hband”: meet one of the first married gay upl N.

WHO WAS THE FIRST GAY SUPERHERO? — THE ROUGH ROAD TO MARVEL’S NORTHSTAR

Philpott and Power may have been the first gay uple the provce to be legally married, but the trail they blazed was soon followed by many, wh the St.

Now that we’ve vered the LGBTQ ic book basics, and the first mastream, openly gay superhero, Extraño, ’s time to take a look at the (sort of) first mastream gay superhero: Northstar. Then, over the urse of rearchg how Northstar beme the poster boy for closeted gays, this post took a fun ltle tour. Wrer and artist John Byrne nsirs himself to have created the first gay superhero Northstar, a character who first appeared a uple issu of The Unnny X-Men.

One of the characters should be gay, and Northstar was his logil choice.

NORTHSTAR, MARVEL’S FIRST GAY SUPERHERO

But while Byrne may have thought was time for a gay superhero, Marvel edor--chief Jim Shooter had very different ias.

He had, reportedly, stuted a ban on homosexual portrayals throughout his tenure the ’80s. If you haven’t, here’s a quick ndown: Bce is attacked the YMCA showers by two predatory gay men tent on filg him.

From makg one of the first forays to homosexualy one of vlence and gay panic, to pictns that lean heavily to stereotyp and borrle ritur, ’s jt a nightmare. Stereotypg gay characters as beg straight out of a gay panic fever dream was not his problem, sce he jt wanted to tell a personal story. It left a mark on him, and dig around onle enough and you’ll fd those who suggt that the ban on homosexual portrayals was a direct rponse to the backlash he got om his Hulk story.

CELEBRATG THE 16TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FIRST GAY SUPERHERO WEDDG

So how necsary was his extra cree for Marvel’s ic le that was subject to the Co, sce the CCA didn’t drop their own ban on homosexual ntent until 1989?

None of this is to say Jim Shooter is homophobic, pecially as this was, aga, almost 40 years ago. But at the time, he wasn’t exactly creatg a welg environment for the gay muny or his gay rears. We’ll get to the part above that had pissed off that particular gay rear, but why not take a tour first to an earlier part of the TCJ terview?

Fun fact: One of Byrne’s first ic-type projects was creatg an openly gay superhero! As he told TCJ, Byrne created a character he dubbed Gay Guy for The College of Art’s school paper at the Southern Alberta Instute of Technology.

GAY SUPERHERO IN COMICS & MOVI YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT

But as he also explas TCJ, “Gay-Guy was this ltle boy who had his lollipop stolen by Ruby the Dyke and grew up hatg women. ” He then go on to scribe Gay-Guy’s purple leisure su, pk pe and “diamond studd glass” that ma up his superhero uniform. Still, may have been a step up om the paper’s gay superhero that replaced, “Fat Faggot.

) And at least Gay Guy was a mpy superhero of sorts and not a sexual predator…. (As an asi, this also rais the qutn: How do we ci who was the first gay superhero? But when you put that excerpt together wh Gay Guy, you have to wonr if the flamboyant superhero was a wk, wk, nudge, nudge parody done by a somewhat tactls (but talented) llege kid, or if he was emblematic of an ia Byrne held for some time that there were certa ways “queers” should look and act that somehow ma them ls than their straight unterparts.

A MARVEL X-MAN HAS ICS' FIRST GAY WEDDG AS DC PLANS TO OUT A HERO

As he says on his own page, he thought of makg one of the members of Alpha Flight gay after readg a Scientific Amerin article. The article poted to creasg evince that homosexualy was a rult of geics, not environment. That fli the face of the backstory he gave Gay Guy eleven years earlier.

And by the time he cid to make Northstar gay, he seems to have gotten past the ia that gay folks should look and act a certa way. Though she wasn’t que a superhero, didn’t take long for her to e out, predatg even Extraño as DC’s first openly gay character. So now that we’ve gotten a taste of that wackily offensive culture of the time, how well did Marvel’s first gay superhero work out?

Wrer-artist John Byrne first hted at Northstar’s sexualy Alpha Flight # 7(2/84), which Jean-Pl is rned wh an old, prumably gay iend named Raymon. The advisabily of Marvel’s only possibly gay character dyg of AIDS was viewed as a bridge too far for all sorts of reasons. Beg outed as half-elf was apparently still preferable to beg nfirmed as totally gay.

LGBT REPRENTATN ON TV THROUGH THE AG – OM EASTENRS’ FIRST GAY KISS TO TRANSGENR SUPERHERO

Dpe all of the hts, Northstar is not explicly said to be gay and out as a gay man a prs release until Alpha Flight #106 (3/92). Though this is an entire mi-seri voted to the supposedly openly gay hero, no direct reference is ma of his homosexualy. In issue #8, he talks about his sexualy wh a fisherman who has a gay son.

COMIC BOOKS TAKE A BIG LEAP FORWARD WH GAY WEDDG

) Portrayed more openly gay than ever before, Northstar tras barbs wh a homophobic, largely vulnerable young mutant named Plie Provenzano. The year 2005 marked a particular low pot for Marvel’s premiere gay superhero. Reviewg Northstar’s history as a character provis a mi-semar on the treatment of LGBT characters ic Byrne’s troductn of Jean-Pl Alpha Flight as a gay character all but actual name was both groundbreakg and necsarily ut.

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.