Ian McKellen: 'X-Men was a gay man’s light, bee was full of the most amazg divas' | Osrs 2016 | The Guardian

Contents:

• MARVEL’S ICEMAN JT ME OUT AS GAY
• ‘X-MEN’ CHARACTER ICEMAN OUTED AS GAY
• IAN MCKELLEN: 'X-MEN WAS A GAY MAN’S LIGHT, BEE WAS FULL OF THE MOST AMAZG DIVAS'
• JAGUARS’ KEV MAXEN IS FIRST MALE ACH TO E OUT AS GAY US MEN’S PRO SPORTS
• THE ICEMAN ETH OUT: MARVEL FANS PROCS X-MEN'S GAY STORYLE

MARVEL’S ICEMAN JT ME OUT AS GAY

Benjam Deeds: Deeds is one of the most recent X-Men to e out as gay, havg exhibed powers durg a pro-mutant rally on his llege mp.

Unfortunately, this universe's Nightcrawler is outwardly homophobic and hurtful toward Coloss, never creatg the iendly bonds they form the ma Marvel Howlett: Another alternate universe mutant, this versn of Wolvere lted after the god Hercul.

This edorial move mak one of Marvel's most inic and high-profile hero a gay man — a ttament to the pany's ongog missn to clu more diversy and make sure s ic books reflect the real world.

‘X-MEN’ CHARACTER ICEMAN OUTED AS GAY

Wh younger Iceman beg gay, olr Iceman datg women, and Jean Grey llg "a unique suatn, " there was a qutn of whether the X-Men would ultimately get to the nature-vers-nurture bate — a story that uld get really msy.

Though Iceman wasn't explicly wrten to be a gay character, his storyl and his history uld be terpreted as allegori for LGBTQ life.

"The fact that Ben has e out as homosexual is jt a small facet of who he is and what he is gog to brg to Cyclops’ select team of X-Men, " Marvel spokman Joe Taraborrelli told the Huffgton Post 2013. There's been a trend ic books and pop culture that se gay characters troduced but then shipped off to romanc and shuttled to marriag (see: Northstar). "I do fd fascatg that really wh the last 10 years and relatively recent tim, there's been a gay character clud most mastream edi and shows, which is great, " ic book wrer Mark Millar told me while talkg about his ic book Juper's Circle.

IAN MCKELLEN: 'X-MEN WAS A GAY MAN’S LIGHT, BEE WAS FULL OF THE MOST AMAZG DIVAS'

It's weird that there's this versn of gay characters seen, pecially Amerin shows, as people who are almost sexualized, " he said. The “X-Men” seri of ics have long been progrsive terms of diversy, wh a black female character, Storm, appearg the 1970s, and the first gay mastream ic book character, Northstar (who later married the pag). This week's All-New X-Men #40, which ncerns the adventur of the origal, teenage X-Men after they were torn out of their own time and brought to the morn Marvel ntuy, will reveal that Bobby Drake, known as Iceman sce his 1963 but, is gay.

An exchange Wednday's issue addrs both non and potential objectns om some rears, wh young Bobby askg, "How n my olr self not be [gay] but I am? It's also the era which Marvel lifted s edorial ban on openly gay characters, and ma the mutant Northstar s first openly gay superhero. Bobby's reference to beg "mutant and gay" is a nod towards the tersectnaly of inty, htg at the plited polics and potential hazards of "g out.

" By lampshadg the fact that Young Bobby's homosexualy exists alongsi Old Bobby's heterosexualy, Bendis and Asrar are playg wh some plited, even ght, ias, and perhaps implyg signifint ternalized homophobia on the part of Old Bobby. Debutg 1963's X-Men #1 (wrten by Stan Lee and drawn by Jack Kirby), the gay X-Men was the send member to be reced by Profsor X. Iceman was only recently revealed as gay a story handled somewhat clumsily 2014's All-New X-Men #40 (wrten by Brian Michael Bendis and drawn by Mahmud Asrar).

JAGUARS’ KEV MAXEN IS FIRST MALE ACH TO E OUT AS GAY US MEN’S PRO SPORTS

Neverthels, wrers as far back as the 1980s hted that Bobby was gay, particularly the 1990s when Iceman stggled wh his sense of inty. The Iceman story pag are drawn by Kris a prev issue, also drawn by Anka, a time-travelg young versn of Jean Grey read the md of young Iceman, llg him out for hidg that he’s “full gay. ” Young Bobby Drake nfirmed that he is gay, but rears were left wh the cliffhanger of what that means for prent-day Iceman, who has always acted straight.

Prent Iceman eventually admted that he is ed gay, sayg that he was already persecuted for beg a mutant and an X-Man and he didn’t want to add beg gay to the list. He talked about how he put that part of himself away for his entire life, and when he nsired lettg out, he would unsuccsfully try thgs to see if he was actually straight, which only nfirmed that he is gay. (And, while we’re on the subject, did ever occur to them that if they hadn’t lled themselv “homo superr, ” regular folks might have been jt a ltle ls hostile?

THE ICEMAN ETH OUT: MARVEL FANS PROCS X-MEN'S GAY STORYLE

I thk fairly safe to gus that creatg a gay parable was not uppermost on Lee and Kirby’s mds when they first crafted the merry mutants. He almost cl, but then rensirs, offerg a personal ttimonial about the event and how relat to his own life as a gay the statement, Iceman explas that he ed to be ashamed not jt of his powers, but his sexualy, thanks to scty and bigotry om his peers. La síqui mutante Jean Grey ( los personaj origal los X-Men) le pregunta por qué l dice a las mujer “sexy” si ella sabe que él homosexual.

La serie cómics los X-Men han sido progrivas s hace tiempo en térmos diversidad, cluyendo a una mujer negra entre s héro (Tormenta), que apareció por primera vez en los 70, y el primer personaje homosexual cómics, Northstar (que po spués se só). “When I me out as a gay man, was expected by some gay activists that my whole attu to life would change, and I’d bee a queer artists and only do thgs wh gay them, ” McKellen relled. ’”He and Halle Berry are like brother and sisterIan McKellen as Mago Photograph: Fox“X-Men was a gay man’s light, bee was full of the most amazg divas, ” McKellen said of the anchise, which he played the villao mutant Mago, before Michael Fassbenr went on to assume the the large st whom he worked wh on the films, McKellen said he bond clost wh Halle Berry, who played Storm.

A muny of “X-Men” fans — notably young, self-intified queer people of lor — is growg around podsts and on social platforms cludg Twter, TikTok and Gonzalez for The New York TimIn the world of podsts about “X-Men, ” fltg om allegori for equy to “The Real Hoewiv” is almost the eighth episo of “Cerebro, ” a popular podst that looks at the mutant superhero anchise through a gay lens, Connor Goldsmh, who is the host as well as a lerary agent, and his gut, the thor Anthony Oliveira, lve ep to the character known as Iceman.