DC's First Out Gay Hero Had A Rough Start, But Greatly Improved

Contents:

• DC INTRODUCED ITS FIRST GAY SUPERHERO ON TV EARLIER THAN YOU THK
• DC'S LATT GAY SUPERHERO OFFICIALLY UNVEILED
• HOW DC REEMED THEIR FIRST OPENLY GAY SUPERHERO
• MARVEL/DC LGBTQ REPRENTATN: WILL BISEXUAL STAR-LORD AMOUNT TO MORE GAY SUPERHERO ON THE BIG SCREEN?

DC INTRODUCED ITS FIRST GAY SUPERHERO ON TV EARLIER THAN YOU THK

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.

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.

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. One of the dividuals was Gregor De La Vega, a gay Pevian stage magician who cintally shar his surname wh Zorro. But his wake, many characters even olr than he beme open about their own inti as gay men.

DC'S LATT GAY SUPERHERO OFFICIALLY UNVEILED

A queer thor himself, Orlando felt was time to brg back DC’s origal gay character om limbo to help celebrate DC’s first ic headled by an openly gay uple. The long history of the ped csar is ltered wh homoerotic subtext, but recent years has bee much more than subtext.

One of the origal X-Men, Bobby Drake is probably one of the most high-profile hero to e out recent is easier for publishers to make queer characters si-characters or one-offs, makg Iceman gay was a huge shift for ics. Not only did the character have a history on the screen, but when to the X-Men, Iceman is one of the stars who will no doubt appear Marvel tl until the day when Marvel shuts he hasn't been onscreen sce he me out officially, if the character do appear the future, makg him anythg but gay would fely e an uproar. When to queer ic book characters, one of the first and most important was Northstar, who was the first character a Marvel ic to e out as gay "Alpha Flight" #106 (1992) then, the mutant superhero has had a sttered rerd of appearg the ics, but 2012 ma history once aga by beg part of the first gay weddg Marvel ics history.

HOW DC REEMED THEIR FIRST OPENLY GAY SUPERHERO

When Jordan’s Green Lantern buted 1959, Stt was relegated to an alternate universe and, over the s, he’s retired, returned to crime-fightg, been tossed limbo, bee an elr statman, and been rebooted as a young gay crimefighter on yet another alternate Earth. This year, Green Lantern Alan Stt returned to his roots as an olr WWII-era hero who has “walked this Earth for a long time, much longer than should have been allotted, ” as he said March’s “Infe Frontier” the same issue, penned by bisexual wrer Jam Tynn IV, the gray-haired rg-slger out as gay to his adult children, the superhero duo Ja and Obsidian. ”Capta Ameri"The Uned Stat of Capta Ameri" ic book verMarvelIn June, Marvel’s “The Uned Stat of Capta Ameri” miseri hs stor, troducg rears to a variety of everyday people om all walks of life who’ve taken up the mantle of Capta Ameri to fend their is gay teenager Aaron Fischer, “the Capta Ameri of the Railways, ” scribed a release as “a fearls teen who stepped up to protect fellow naways and the unhoed.

“I am happy to be able to prent an openly gay person who admir Capta Ameri and fights agast evil to help those who are almost visible to society, ” Bazaldua said a statement. Fally, they start nudgg a few top-tier characters out of the closet — but are always reful never to send 'em out whout first attachg an all-important asterisk, as a bulwark agast any backlash om homophobic rears (and/or stockholrs): Rob's queer! “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.

“You n see a clear shift between so-lled ‘gay vague’ marketg and queer normalizatn mastream advertisg around 2015, ” Grayson ntu.

MARVEL/DC LGBTQ REPRENTATN: WILL BISEXUAL STAR-LORD AMOUNT TO MORE GAY SUPERHERO ON THE BIG SCREEN?

A gay, or bi, or ace, or trans superhero might be a small and ut gture, but every gture tak on outsized meang when speakg out is self a source of fear. In addn to havg several gay and bisexual characters, the Secret Six was among the first mastream ics to have a non-bary character (though a gimmicky one).

Williams III, a ic that revealed how Kate beme a superhero after Wt Pot kicked her out for beg gay. The last story 2022 DC Pri #1, "Fdg Batman" is an timate wdow to Kev Conroy's experience as a gay actor the '70s and '80s. Bone and Adya Bidikar, Conroy explas how his experienc wh homophobia helped him voice Batman.

Unregnized for havg DC's first nfirmed gay superhero on televisn, Static Shock subtly brought LGBTQIA+ reprentatn before the Arrowverse. Before CW's Arrow, Batwoman, or Legends of Tomorrow, DC troduced s first gay superhero to TV the Static Shock animated seri, far earlier than most people thk. However, few knew that late Static Shock creator Dwayne McDuffie was subtle about , but not aaid to add a gay character to the Saturday morng experience.

However, while many may dismiss as a wish for more reprentatn on Saturday morngs, clu the ics and the words of the late creator himself tablish that Gear was gay, predatg a majory of DC TV's current LGBTQIA+ characters.

He noted that he'd always nsired Gear to be gay and softly hted at this throughout the show’s n. Wh the upg adaptatn velopment, perhaps Richie Foley, or even the origal Rick Stone, will be seen, not only as a gay in but also as the hero Dwayne McDuffie imaged him to be. Though had been all-but-revealed for some time now, DC today officially nfirmed the inty of s latt gay superhero: Alan Stt, the origal Green Lantern.

He's also gay, " DC wrer Jam Robson told the New York part of the ongog relnch of all DC monthly superhero tl, dubbed the New 52, Stt was rebooted as a younger, more mornly handsome versn of his Goln Age unterpart. "He's fearls and he's hont to the pot where he realized he was gay and he said 'I'm gay'. "Prentg that kd of a heroic role mol hopefully will be a good thg and help to show gays a posive light for people who might be a ltle more small-md.