Weddg bells will rg this summer for Marvel Comics' first openly gay hero, super speedster Northstar, and his longtime boyiend.
Contents:
- MARVEL COMICS HOSTS FIRST GAY WEDDG ‘ASTONISHG X-MEN’
- <I>ASTONISHG X-MEN</I> CREATORS DISH ON MARVEL'S HISTORIC GAY WEDDG
- MARVEL COMICS PLANS WEDDG FOR GAY HERO NORTHSTAR
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. 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.
<I>ASTONISHG X-MEN</I> CREATORS DISH ON MARVEL'S HISTORIC GAY WEDDG
Dpe Marvel’s reputatn as a mp phenomenon and as a hotbed for liberal — even subversive — disurse, Stan Lee’s ics publishg juggernt would not feature a nonilly gay character until some 30 years after the but of The Fantastic Four. The 1954 Comics Co Authory — a censorship bure that policed ics ntent — explicly banned “sex perversn or any ference to same, ” which ics scholar Hilary Chute not is “a clear reference to homosexualy. Th, Marvel Comics was, om the outset, actually prohibed om pictg gay characters.
It wasn’t until 1992 — three years after a major revisn to the Comics Co officially opened the door to pictns of LGBTQ+ characters — that Marvel had their first openly gay superhero.
In Alpha Flight #106 wrten by Stt Lobl, the character Northstar (alias Olympic ski champn Jean-Pl Bebier) clared: “I am gay. Comics scholar Ramzi Fawaz not that Claremont’s X-Men “articulated mutatn to the radil criqu of inty promulgated by the cultur of women’s and gay liberatn.
MARVEL COMICS PLANS WEDDG FOR GAY HERO NORTHSTAR
Another ics scholar, Stt Batman, puts more simply and says: “mutant bodi are explicly analogized to … gay bodi” Claremont’s X-Men. It is no surprise then, that Marvel’s first gay superhero should emerge om this seri.
Marvel’s first gay superhero emerged om the X-Men seri. “There needs to be gays ics bee there are gays real life. That’s why I created Northstar — I felt the Marvel Universe need a gay superhero (even if I would never be allowed to say so many words the ics themselv), and I felt that I should create one, rather than retroftg an existg character.
It’s a sympathetic portrayal of the character that helps to normalize the ncept of a gay superhero, even if Marvel uldn’t intify him that way at the time.