Contents:
- A CHRONOLOGY OF GAY COMIC BOOK CHARACTERS
- LOOKG BACK AT THE MISTREATMENT OF MARVEL’S FIRST GAY COMIC SUPERHERO
A CHRONOLOGY OF GAY COMIC BOOK CHARACTERS
Mastream ics have had more than their fair share of homosexual subtext almost sce their ceptn — look no further than Wonr Woman’s all-female homeland of Paradise Island or Bce Wayne’s overly fortable relatnship wh his ward Dick Grayson.
In honor of the news that Archie ics troduced s first openly gay character last week, here’s a look back at the evolutn of open homosexualy mastream ic books. NorthstarIt’s not exactly a stretch to see the anti-mutant bigotry found the world of the X-Men as a thly veiled metaphor for homophobia — mutants are lled “homo superr, ” after all. It’s strange, then, that the first openly gay major character the Marvel stable hails om the Canadian super-team Alpha Flight.
Although some of the scen centerg around their relatnship seem a ltle tone af by today’s standards, Midnighter and Apollo broke new ground as the first ma characters of a mastream ic to publicly portray a gay Pied PiperThe Pied Piper, a mic-themed Flash rogue wh a hypnotic flute, is one of the first openly gay supervillas to not be played for lghs — we’re lookg at you, Estraño. Later renamed the X-Statix, the team boasted a roster featurg no fewer than three gay characters: a mutant wh the power to alter his abili by changg the lor of his sk, an Emem pastiche who uld alter his nsy, size, and shape by manipulatg his own subcutaneo fat, and a werewolf. Rawhi KidUnfortunately, not all portrayals of gay characters ics are posive on — not by a long shot.
LOOKG BACK AT THE MISTREATMENT OF MARVEL’S FIRST GAY COMIC SUPERHERO
In the ntroversial 2003 miseri Rawhi Kid: Slap Leather, wrer Ron Zimmerman treated the readg public to a rebooted Rawhi Kid whose sexualy amounted to nothg more than a sprgboard for tired, stereotypil gay nuendo. Hulklg and WicnAs members of the Young Avengers, Hulkg and Wicn had the honor of beg the first openly gay teenage uple wh their appearance. Durg the ial n of Young Avengers 2005, each issue featured s letters sectn a bate ncerng the propriety of a gay uple the pag of a mastream ic book.
This distctn is all the more ironic nsirg that, when Batwoman was first troduced 1956 as Kathy Kane, Bce Wayne’s girliend, she was sentially a lerary beard for a character that had famoly been acced of homosexualy by the lik of Sctn of the Innocent thor Freric QutnRenee Montoya was origally troduced as an (ostensibly) straight policewoman Batman: The Animated Seri, but received a new sexual orientatn when she ma the transn om the small screen to the paneled page. 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.
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.