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

Contents:

• LOOKG BACK AT THE MISTREATMENT OF MARVEL’S FIRST GAY COMIC SUPERHERO
• WHO WAS THE FIRST GAY SUPERHERO? — THE ROUGH ROAD TO MARVEL’S NORTHSTAR
• WHO WAS THE FIRST OPENLY GAY SUPERHERO? — IN DEFENSE OF DC COMICS’ EXTRAñO
• MARVEL ANNOUNC FIRST GAY CAPTA AMERI
• DC INTRODUCED ITS FIRST GAY SUPERHERO ON TV EARLIER THAN YOU THK
• A CHRONOLOGY OF GAY COMIC BOOK CHARACTERS
• HOW DC REEMED THEIR FIRST OPENLY GAY SUPERHERO
• 10 IMPORTANT GAY MOMENTS COMIC BOOK HISTORY
• YET ANOTHER FIRST GAY SUPERHERO
• 15 OPENLY GAY MARVEL CHARACTERS THAT MIGHT BE COMG TO THE MCU

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

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. 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.

It wasn’t until the '70s and '80s that ic book creators began troducg characters that uld be scribed as havg gay ‘tras’ whout outright clarg them as LGBT.

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

Required absolutely no mentn of homosexualy until they lifted that ban 1989, and as the untry beme more progrsive s unrstandg and acceptance of the LGBT muny, creators ntued to buck the system and troduce pellg characters that were relatable to more people. In an early issue story-arc, Constante go to the fense of several homosexuals who are beg preyed upon and ends up takg a severe beatg for his effort. The two share a mournful embrace over the loss of their loved on and was at that time that Northstar felt fortable enough to announce to the world, “I am gay.

The inty of Hood Jtice is never fully explored, but Hollis Mason’s book, Unr the Hood, which is referenced throughout the ics, he expos Hood Jtice as havg approved of Hler’s actns durg World War II, which he nsired odd bee of Hler’s attu towards homosexuals, makg him a hypocre. Gregor De La Vega, who lls himself Extraño (meang “strange” Spanish), is probably the most offensive pictn of a gay character ics. He is reprented as beg gay via a number of sexual nuendos and slang terms that remble numero stereotyp associated wh homosexualy.

WHO WAS THE FIRST OPENLY GAY SUPERHERO? — IN DEFENSE OF DC COMICS’ EXTRAñO

This was probably due large part to the offensive and stereotypil pictn of a gay man, which brought about a lot of negative attentn om both sis of the issue. The uple are the first openly gay superhero power uple ics and their recent foray to a duo seri wh “Midnighter and Apollo” #1, wrten by Steve Orlando and penciled by Fernando Blan, buted wh the uple dog the same thg pretty much any uple do: they do the dish together, have a nice chat, and get down and dirty right there the kchen.

MARVEL ANNOUNC FIRST GAY CAPTA AMERI

This had to do wh Liefeld creatg Shatterstar and vered his first dozen appearanc, so he stated as the creator that Shatterstar wasn’t gay.

One thg he has never distanced himself om was beg gay, and he is one of the most proment characters featured on this list due to his so-lled ‘g out panel, ’ which has been pictured above. Brian Falsworth has been a mastay ics sce he first appeared “The Invars” #18, wrten by Roy Thomas and penciled by Gil Kane, all the way back 1977, but wasn’t until recently that the character was revealed as gay.

In the ics, Brian was a relatnship wh Roger Aubrey (Dtroyer), which mak the pair to be the first gay characters Marvel ics chronologilly, if not directly. Back then, there was no way to tackle the plited issu surroundg a gay character, even a book that was all about racial equaly Ameri.

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

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. 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.

A CHRONOLOGY OF GAY COMIC BOOK CHARACTERS

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

HOW DC REEMED THEIR FIRST OPENLY GAY SUPERHERO

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.

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? 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?

10 IMPORTANT GAY MOMENTS COMIC BOOK HISTORY

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. 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.

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. 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. 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.

YET ANOTHER FIRST GAY SUPERHERO

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? Jackson - a fan-favore character sce his simultaneo but DC ic books and on the Young Jtice animated seri - has bee somewhat emblematic of the rise of characters wh queer inti morn ic books, now g full circle to the role of Aquaman as one of DC's most unique legacy Stt(Image cred: DC)The origal Green Lantern Alan Stt has been ic books sce 1940, but 's only been sce 2012 that he's been out as a gay man.

Intertgly, Alan Stt's son Obsidian has been out as a gay man sce 2004, beatg his dad to the punch and reflectg a rare, but very real experience shared by many rears who have multiple fay members - even parents - who are (Image cred: Marvel Comics)Beg magil nature has lent Loki the abily to take on many different forms and those forms display many different forms of attractn. Northstar(Image cred: Marvel Comics)Jean-Pl Bebier buted 1979 at a time when both the Comics Co Authory and Marvel's edor--chief Jim Shooter were opposed to openly gay characters, acrdg to thor Shirrel Rhoas 2008's A Complete History of Amerin Comic Books. Creator John Byrne has explaed that Northstar was wrten as gay om the get-go, "even if I would never be allowed to say so many words the ics themselv.

"Dpe not utterg the words "I am gay" until 1992's Alpha Flight #106, Northstar has long been accepted by X-Men fans and ic book fans at large who picked up Byrne's nods as one of the first nonilly gay superhero sce his ceptn. Endurg Civil Wars, Secret Invasns, Origal Ss and every event between, openly-gay wrer Allan Heberg created the pair 2005's Young Avengers #1 and remd rears that Marvel's "world outsi your wdow" clud more than jt the fns of love that had been portrayed to that two also enabled other wrers to create more realistic portrayals of sexualy their team books as evinced by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie's Young Avengers volume that also featured queer characters Miss Ameri, Prodigy, and Loki. Inially rejected by the Jtice League, Coagula found a home wh the Doom Patrol, though she's rarely been seen recent (Image cred: Marvel Comics)In 2015’s All-New X-Men #40, the younger Bobby Drake was psychilly outed as homosexual by Jean Grey, retroactively makg the foundg member of the X-Men Marvel's hight-profile queer mutant.

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

While Jean Grey's vasn of Bobby's privacy was problematic bee he did not choose to e out on his own, makg one of Marvel's olst characters gay is notable the way ream past and future stori. Midnighter and Apollo(Image cred: DC Comics)Created as analogs of Batman and Superman, Apollo and Midnighter were among the first openly gay superhero ic books and were certaly the most visible gay superhero uple the late '90s and early '00s. 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. And he specifilly went after Superman, Batman and Wonr Woman for fascism, homosexualy and sadomasochism, rpectively.