Next month is June, aka LGBT Pride Month. In anticipation of this, and because it is good and necessary to discuss representation in pop culture and media, we present to you this look at how LGBT content has been portrayed in mainstream American comic books. This is by no means a complete history. We don’t have the space for that. But we hope you’ll appreciate this look at some of the major forces that have shaped stories and characters in the mainstream comic book medium.
PART ONE: The Golden Age and The Comics Code
The first comic books were simply reprints of comic strips featured in U.S. newspapers. One very popular strip series was Terry and the Pirates, which ran from 1934 to 1946. Hero Terry Lee had several female enemies during the series, one of whom was the Frenchwoman Sanjak, a spy for the Axis Powers who was noted for always dressing as if she were a man. When Sanjak captured Terry’s love interest April Kane it was implied that she was attracted to the young girl. Many consider this character to be the first lesbian in comics.
The Golden Age of comic books is considered to cover the 1930s until roughly 1951. During this time, sex in mainstream comics was largely limited to being implied via dialogue. Occasionally Golden Age comics featured effeminate men to serve as the butt of jokes, such as Jasper Dewgood from the Kid Eternity stories. Wonder Woman raised a few eyebrows since her backstory involved being raised on an island inhabited only by women, some of whom playfully engaged in bondage, either as part of a game or an exercise in personal power. “Tijuana bibles” also depicted popular characters in sexual situations, sometimes including same-sex contact, without having the licenses or permission to do so. No one knows for sure why they were called Tijuana bibles.
Whenever sexual themes in Golden Age comics are discussed, two cross-dressing heroes often come up. In 1940, Crack Comics #1 introduced Richard Stanton, who disguised himself as an old woman named Madame Fatal to fight crime. In 1939, the character Mrs. Maxine “Ma” Hunkel was introduced in All-American Comics #3, a supporting cast member of the comedy series Scribbly. In All-American Comics #20, a few months after Madam Fatal debuted, Ma Hunkel became the original Red Tornado, letting others think she was a male superhero. Some argue that Ma Hunkel was the first official female superhero (I’m inclined to agree, but that’s a debate for another time). Later her kids became her sidekicks, the Tornado Twins. On the villain side of things, Wonder Woman fought a criminal called the Blue Snowman who turned out to be a woman in disguise.
Superman’s stories featured a character who changed genders. The Ultra-Humanite was the first mad scientist to fight the Man of Steel, debuting in 1939. In 1940 he transferred his brain into the body of movie star Dolores Winters (later renamed Delores Winters). The Ultra-Humanite used her new form to hide from the law and seduce others into doing her bidding. She apparently died in 1940 but reappeared in comics decades later. In 1981 the Ultra-Humanite’s brain was transferred into yet a third body, an albino ape with an enlarged head. You read that right. It’s comics.
Another gender-bending story worth notice was published by Charlton Comics in Space Adventures #3 (1953). The story “Transformation” features Dr. Lars Kranston on a test flight to Mars with his girlfriend and assistant Betty. The ship crashes and the two are separated, each believing they are now alone. Lars fears he’ll go insane without activity or human contact. Going through the ship’s wreckage, he finds notes on an experimental gender reassignment process and pursues it, not just to occupy his time but also because he believes that men are inferior beings. Meanwhile, Betty learns how to survive on her own in the Martian environment. Eventually she reunites with Kranston and is heartbroken to learn that her lover is now a woman.
GayLeague.com suggests that “Transformation” was inspired by news reports a year before of Christine Jorgensen, who was born as George William Jorgensen Jr. and underwent sexual reassignment under the care of Dr. Christian Hamburger in Denmark. Jorgensen used her fame to become an advocate of transgender people. In any event, if Charlton Comics had tried to publish that story a year later, it would have never seen print thanks to Dr. Frederic Wertham and a new thing that many simply called “the Code.”
THE CODE
Starting in 1948, psychiatrist Frederic Wertham wrote and spoke publicly on his beliefs that comics corrupt children with their secret messages advocating social evils such as crime, loose sexual morals, and antisocial behavior (meaning behavior damaging to society, not to be confused with “unsocial”). This, along with bad parenting, was leading to the downfall of American society. In 1954Wertham published his arguments and conclusions in the now infamous book Seduction of the Innocent. Adolf Hitler, according to Wertham, was “a beginner compared to the comic book industry.” Superman and other heroes were clearly advocates of fascism and even anarchy, celebrating a view that their power meant they were right. Wertham pointed to Batman and Robin as a homosexual lifestyle ideal. Wonder Woman was one of the most corruptive comics, in his opinion. The Amazon’s status as an unmarried woman who was stronger than her love interest meant she was a dangerous lesbian who didn’t understand gender roles.
In truth, Wonder Woman’s creator William Moulton Marston did intend to challenge gender roles, peppering his stories with bondage images and talk about the empowerment and sisterhood. But Marston died in 1947 and the Wonder Woman comics subsequently became more tame and in line with “traditional” gender values, with the character often focusing on finding a man. Four years before Seduction of the Innocent was released, Wonder Woman left her job at the US military to become the editor of a romance advice column. Wertham was complaining about stuff that hadn’t been in her book for years.
Wertham’s evidence often involved comic panels taken out of context and misrepresented, such as when he claimed that muscle lines on a character were intentionally hidden images of female anatomy. He also often used panels and scenes taken from horror and crime comics lumped together with criticisms about superhero stories, ignoring that different books were intended for different audiences. It was confirmed in recent years that Wertham faked some of his research and didn’t hold himself to generally accepted scientific or medical standards of research, relying instead on small sample sizes and anecdotal accounts. Unfortunately this wasn’t known at the time, and enough concerned parents believed Wertham that some people held public comic book burnings.
Following the publication of Seduction of the Innocent, Wertham spoke before the Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency and testified that comic books were a major cause of juvenile crimes. The subcommittee report stated that the comic industry needed to gets its act in line and tone down its level of questionable morals. In response to this possible threat of further government action or regulation, the Comics Magazine Association of America formed as the new industry trade group and created the Comics Code Authority. This set of rules, often referred to simply as the Code, didn’t have any official power over publishers, but stores wouldn’t risk carrying comics that didn’t carry the Code’s literal seal of approval.
The Code had a lot of rules. You couldn’t show sex, nudity, explicitly sexual scenes, or graphic violence. There could be no exaggeration of female body parts, nor could clothing be too revealing of the female form. Artists were regularly told to remove cleavage lines (or “intermammary sulcus,” to use the medical term), even if the character was wearing a low-cut top or swimsuit. You couldn’t show how crimes were committed unless impossible technology or powers were involved. Villains couldn’t show how to conceal weapons. Heroes couldn’t be in doubt of morality or tempted by evils. Criminals could not be sympathetic. Authorities could not be shown as incompetent or corrupt unless they were directly identified as a spy or criminal only pretending to be an authority figure. References to characters suffering “physical afflictions” were to be avoided. The Code even prohibited comics from using the word “FLICK,” because there was a fear that the ink could run and merge the L and I, making them look like a letter U.
There were several guidelines concerning how sex and love were to be portrayed in stories. Three of these rules were:
-“Illicit sex relations are neither to be hinted at or portrayed. Violent love scenes, as well as sexual abnormalities are unacceptable.”
-“The treatment of love-romance stories shall emphasize the value of home and the sanctity of marriage.”
-“Sex perversion or any inference to same is strictly forbidden.”
Combined, these three rules could prohibit any LGBT content. What constituted “sexual abnormalities” and “sex perversion” was up to the judgement of the Comics Code Authority Administrator. You could try arguing, but the CCA was a stubborn and strange lot. For instance, they sometimes sent publishers notes asking to tone down the smoke of a firing gun, because too much smoke increased the level of violence.
In response to Wertham’s accusations of homosexuality and the Code’s rules against sexual deviancy, DC Comics started producing stories and characters to give Batman a wholesome, family atmosphere. In 1955 readers met Ace, a German Shepard who sometimes joined the Dark Knight on missions as “Bat-Hound.” The very next year Detective Comics #233 introduced Kathy Kane aka Batwoman, an adventurer and romantic interest designed to quell any gay rumors. Her niece Betty Kane then became Bat-Girl in order to win Robin’s heart.
You may ask, wasn’t Catwoman already a female romantic interest for Batman? Well, under the new rules of the Code, Batman could not be attracted to her in any way, not unless Catwoman first gave up a life of crime, did time in jail, and then became a model citizen. What’s more, there was concern that Catwoman’s sex appeal glamorized being a criminal. So she vanished from comics from 1954 until 1966. Two years before she returned Batman was given a more serious tone again, and both Kathy and Betty were dropped from the stories. They found their way back into the comics many years later.
FAN THEORIES AND READER CONCERNS
Although the Code prevented LGBT ideas from appearing in mainstream comics, it didn’t stop fans from speculating on the sexuality of certain characters. In 1958 the Legion of Super-Heroes was introduced in a Superboy story. The group was a club of teenage heroes native to the 30th century, its members hailing from different planets and wielding lots of strange abilities. The LSH became popular pretty quickly, eventually getting its own series. In 1963 readers met an LSH member named Jan Arrah aka Element Lad, who could transmute substances. The following year, in Adventure Comics #326, Element Lad remarked that he felt out of his element when it came to girls and dating. In a few stories depicting the future of the LSH Element Lad seemed to be the only team member not seen as married or in a romantic relationship. Several readers concluded that Jan was gay, and the LSH fanzine Interlac even published fanfiction that paired the hero off with a male companion.
The Code started to loosen some of it restrictions in the late 1960s. In 1971 several of its guidelines were revised and a few were dropped, which helped usher in a new era of social and political commentary in superhero stories. Vigilantes could discover their friends had hidden drug habits. Villains could be spree killers again for the first time in years. Superman could ponder if his activities stifled human progress. Supernatural entities such as demons, vampires, and werewolves were once again allowed in mainstream comics. But LGBT content was still off the table.
Back to Element Lad for a moment. In 1978 the female character Shvaughn Eric, officer of the Science Police, was introduced in the Legion of Super-Heroes stories. She soon became very close to Element Lad, who was then leader of the LSH. Some saw this as a platonic, spiritual connection. Others took it as a straightforward heterosexual romance, either consistent with Jan having never been identified as gay or as a direct move by DC Comics to quell fan discussion on his sexuality. In the early 1980s, the comics clarified that Shvaughn and Jan were dating and had fallen in love.
But this wasn’t the end of the sexuality discussion for Element Lad. More on that later.
In 1979 the Canadian team of superheroes known as Alpha Flight appeared in the pages of Uncanny X-Men. The team was supposed serve as opponents to the X-Men rather than act as characters in their own stories, so the members weren’t given personal information. Because of this, Alpha Flight co-creator John Byrne was initially reluctant when asked to spin the team off into its own series. Once he decided to do so, he came up with backstories for each character. Team member Northstar aka Jean-Paul Beaubier was now said to be a mutant—a human who had powers due to being born with the X-gene—as well as a former Olympic athlete. Byrne also decided that Northstar was gay. However, he did not directly reveal this in the stories. Instead he only dropped hints, such as having a teammate innocently remark that Jean-Paul didn’t seem very interested in the young female admirers he gained as a celebrated athlete. Byrne also had no problem telling others verbally that Northstar was gay.
Byrne initially declined to say if anything beyond the Code prevented Northstar from coming out, he admitted in recent years that he was also hampered by Jim Shooter, Editor-in-Chief at Marvel from 1978 to 1987. In 2013, Byrne said, ”Shooter forbade any overt mention of Northstar’s homosexuality” (thank you to JohnByrneSays for pointing this out). Even before Byrne made this admission, it had been reported for years from different sources that during his time as EIC, Shooter decreed there were “no gays in the Marvel Universe.”
In 1980, Shooter wrote a comic that became a subject of debate. “A Very Personal Hell” was featured in Rampaging Hulk #23 (1980) and intended to place protagonist Bruce Banner into a “realistic” setting of danger and fear. Rampaging Hulk was a magazine targeted at “mature readers” and sold to comic shops rather than public newsstands, so it could sidestep some of the code guidelines.
One scene involves Banner hiding from the police and taking respite at a YMCA. Two men at the YMCA notice Banner and decide he’s quite attractive. They follow him into the shower and make it clear they intend to rape him. Banner’s fear is so great that he can’t even turn into the Hulk (which is not consistent with the many times fear caused his transformation before and since). After escaping his attackers he literally shakes with horror and revulsion at the thought of what could have happened, which triggers the Hulk to emerge and go on a rampage.
Shooter said that this story was meant to give a realistic look at the horror of a violent assault, not to provide a homophobic viewpoint. Critics have argued that, as the would-be rapists were the first characters in Marvel Comics directly identified as non-heteronormative the story comes off as homophobic regardless of intention.
PART TWO: Bending the Rules & After the Code
UNDERGROUND COMIX, DIRECT MARKET, AND SUPPORTING CHARACTERS
Of course, only mainstream publishers felt pressure from the Code. Independently published “underground comix” didn’t care about its restrictions on LGBT content and started positioning themselves as an alternative side of the medium. Likewise, newspaper strips were bound not by the Code but by the standards of each individual publisher. In 1976 Gary Trudeau‘s Pulitzer Prize-winning series Doonesbury featured character Joanie Caucus meeting Andy Lippincott. Joanie falls in love with him, but then it’s revealed that Andy is gay. Although heartbroken, Joanie comes to accept him as simply a friend. After a few months Andy vanished from the cast of Doonesbury. He then returned for a while in 1982, now acting a gay rights activist and speaking openly about LGBT political concerns.
In 1989 Andy reappeared in Doonesbury again, revealing that he had been diagnosed with AIDS. The next year followed his fight to enhance AIDS awareness followed by his final days and his funeral. A few newspapers wouldn’t run the storyline, saying it was in bad taste, but others praised it for educating many on AIDS issues. The story earned Doonesbury another Pulitzer Prize nomination. Despite being fictional, Andy Lippincott was given a panel on the AIDS quilt.
In the underground scene, the series Gay Comix started in 1980 and was followed by more and more independent comics that delved into LGBT content and featured LGBT news. The same year that Andy returned to Doonesbury as a gay rights activist, DC Comics published the direct market mini-series Camelot 3000 as a “mature readers” story that didn’t carry the Comics Code Authority stamp. The story, written by Mike W. Barr and featuring art by Brian Bolland, featured people in the future realizing that they were reincarnations of the Knights of the Round Table. A woman named Amber regains the memories and personality of Sir Tristan and is repulsed by the fact that he now has a “weak” female form. This self-hatred increases when Tristan realizes a male friend is attracted to her and that his former lover Isolde has also been reincarnated, still as a woman. Isolde tries to get Tristan to accept that they can both be women and still be lovers.
As the 1980s continued, Alpha Flight continued to imply that Northstar was gay, now more strongly under the direction of writer Bill Mantlo. In 1987 Northstar became mysteriously ill. It’s been reported that Northstar was going to be diagnosed as HIV-positive but that the Code wouldn’t allow it. In the meantime, Mantlo had Alpha Flight member Sasquatch die and then reincarnate in the body of his deceased female teammate Snowbird. Mantlo explored how people treated Walter (now “Wanda”) differently after the change. A couple of years later Sasquatch became male again and Snowbird was resurrected.
What about Jean-Paul’s illness, though? In Alpha Flight #50 Northstar learned from Loki, Asgardian god of lies and chaos, that his illness was due to the fact that he was secretly part elf and his magical biology was having trouble adjusting to Earth’s environment. Northstar was then magically cured and said goodbye to his team, leaving Earth’s dimension to go live with the elves he now considered to be his people.
This has gotta be one of the weirdest superhero plots I’ve read. Not even two years later it was thrown out the window. Northstar returned, revealing that he wasn’t part elf or part fairy or magical in any way. He was a human born with mutant powers, like the X-Men and others. All that stuff Loki told him was a lie because… well, Loki lies, so deal with it, okay?
While superheroes like Northstar weren’t allowed to be seen with a lover or say they were gay, supporting characters had a little more freedom. In 1982 Captain America #268, written by J.M. DeMatteis, introduced Arnie Roth, a childhood friend of Steve Rogers who protected him from bullies. As the two friends catch up for the first time in decades Arnie nervously explains that he never married because it never seemed “right,” but that he’s found happiness and stability in the company of Michael Blech, his “best friend” and roommate. Later in the same issue Steve sees Arnie and Michael share an emotional embrace, and it inspires him to finally open up to his romantic interest Bernadette “Bernie” Rosenthal. A few issues later, he tells Arnie that Michael is “one heck of a good guy.”
This was, frankly, pretty huge. The same year that the medical community finally adopted the acronym AIDS to replace terms like “gay cancer” or GRID (Gay-Related Immune Deficiency), Marvel’s WWII hero Captain America learned that someone he considered a brother was gay and accepted him with love. As a tragic contrast, the fact that Arnie was gay and Jewish made him a target for Captain America’s enemies who followed the Nazi ideology, such as the Red Skull and Baron Zemo.
The Code’s ban on LGBT content started loosening in the mid-1980s. As before, the guidelines for “mature readers” comics were even looser, with responsibility to keep them out of kids’ hands falling to individual comic book stores. One such story was the 1986 DC Comics series Watchmen by Dave Gibbons and Alan Moore, which briefly mentioned that the character Silhouette was a lesbian. But her life as a gay woman in the 1940s was not explored, as she only had two lines in the whole series. The same year saw the release of The Dark Knight Returns, wherein the Joker became a more effeminate character because writer Frank Miller considered him to be “a homophobic nightmare.”
In 1987 Superman #7 introduced readers to Maggie Sawyer, a tough Metropolis cop who intimidated enemies and colleagues alike. Less than a year later, Superman #15 revealed that Maggie lived with a “roommate” named Toby, a woman whom she was obviously close to and who called her “babe.” That same issue had Maggie reveal to Superman that she was divorced and had a daughter, Jamie.
Maggie then shared her past, saying she had been “confused” for some time by troubling thoughts she tried to repress and deny, “things a proper Catholic girl didn’t even want to consider.” She accepted her boyfriend Jim’s marriage proposal largely because she thought it would stop those doubts and help her find what she was looking for. But years later, Maggie realized how unhappy she was and “finally came face to face… with reality.” This led to her divorce, at which point the judge deemed her unsuitable to have custody of Jamie.
The same year Maggie was introduced, a Swamp Thing and Hellblazer crossover involved the protagonists dealing with gay bashers. Both of these series were market to “mature readers” and eventually fell into DC’s less kid-friendly Vertigo imprint. Months later, in 1988, Wonder Woman Annual #1 introduced Kevin Mayer, brother of Wonder Woman’s friend and publicist Myndi Mayer. After coming out as a gay man, Kevin became active in HIV-awareness charities.
1988 also introduced the DC Comics hero Extraño, a cast member of the short-lived New Guardians series. He was technically the first openly gay superhero, because Northstar wasn’t open even though it was clear that his sister and a few other people knew. As an effeminate and flamboyant Peruvian sorcerer who referred to himself as “Auntie,” Extraño was criticized by many as a gay stereotype. He was later diagnosed as HIV-positive and later still met his death at the hands of the villain Krona.
GOODBYE RULES
In 1989 the Code was altered yet again, and now there were no rules against LGBT content. The same year Doom Patrol author Grant Morrison re-imagined the heroes Negative Man and Negative Woman as a single, intersex character called Rebis. Neil Gaiman‘s Sandman series featured LGBT characters openly. In 1993 Rebis met Kate Godwin, a male-to-female transsexual who became the superhuman called Coagula.
With the Code gone, previously existing characters could now openly come out as LGBT or could be revised to be LGBT even if they weren’t created with that intention. Maggie Sawyer came out and openly discussed her sexuality. The 1940s hero known as the Destroyer, who also became one of the Marvel heroes to be called Union Jack, was revealed to be a gay man.
In 1992 writer Scott Lobdell was working on Alpha Flight and was asked to pitch a few ideas for a filler issue. For years Northstar had been portrayed as an increasingly antagonistic and rebellious character. Some considered this consistent with both the arrogance he’d displayed almost since his introduction and with stories that showed a distrust of the government. But Lobdell figured that Jean-Paul’s behavior resulted from his not being open about his sexuality. So for the filler issue, one of Lobdell’s pitches was that Northstar be confronted about how his staying in the closet was selfish when he could use his celebrity status to bring awareness to LGBT and HIV issues. Convinced by the argument, Northstar would then publicly come out.
Marvel approved, and the story was published in Alpha Flight #106. Lobdell didn’t consider the issue groundbreaking, as it was well known by many that Jean-Paul was supposed to be gay, but the story gained national medial attention. The New York Times called it a “welcome indicator of social change.”
A few months later Legion of Super-Heroes #31 revisited Element Lad’s sexuality. Written by Mary and Tom Bierbaum, the story had Jan worry about his girlfriend Shvaughn’s increasing absences. Tracking her down, he discovers that Shvaughn Erin was born as a male named Sean Erin. For years Sean has been using a gender reassignment drug called ProFem. But with the economy now in dark times, she can’t afford as much of the drug and has been hiding whenever the effects wore off again. Element Lad, who knows a thing or two about changing physical matter, say that this doesn’t matter. He adds, “Anything we ever shared physically… it was in spite of the ProFem, not because of it!”
Two years later, though, the Legion of Super-Heroes continuity was rebooted from scratch. It has been rebooted three times since then. Since 1994 no mainstream version of Element Lad has been portrayed as or hinted at being homosexual or bisexual. But in Legionnaires #59 (1998), written by Roger Stern and Tom McGraw, LSH member Lyle Norg aka Invisible Kid was pleased to get a letter that read “Can’t wait to see you!” It was signed with the initial C. A few issues later, readers saw Lyle meet up with version of Condo Arlik. In the previous continuity, Condo had been the LSH member called Chemical King. 90s reboot Condo was a reporter. Some readers wondered if he and Lyle were in a relationship.
It was later revealed that this was indeed the intention, but the creative team altered the relationship before it could be outright stated. There was talk of eventually getting to it, but then the Legion of Super-Heroes continuity rebooted yet again in 2004 and the idea was dropped entirely. That same year saw the publication of The Definitive Guide to the Characters of the DC Universe. It is the only book published by DC Comics that actually states that Lyle and Condo were in a relationship.
Other stories openly dealing with sexuality followed. The Flash learned that his enemy-turned-ally Hartley Rathaway was gay, which made him feel awkward until he realized he was being a jerk. The Hulk learned that his old friend Jim Wilson was now HIV-positive. Justice League member Ice Maiden expressed sexual interest in both men and women but didn’t care for the label “bisexual,” arguing that people didn’t need to fit into boxes. Likewise, her teammate Todd Rice aka Obsidian admitted affection for his male best friend Al and argued that he didn’t want to define it. Kyle Rayner, the new Green Lantern, had a lesbian couple in his supporting cast named Li and Lee who were not treated as any more or less important than any other couple he knew. 1993 saw the creation of Milestone Comics, published through DC, which focused on minority representation and featured several LGBT characters. It shut down in 1997 and several of its characters, such as Static, were eventually absorbed into the DC Universe.
1998 saw the debut of Apollo and the Midnighter in the pages of Stormwatch. Created by Warren Ellis, the two heroes were clear homages to Superman and Batman, respectively, and had been working together for years. They and other Stormwatch characters spun off into a new series called The Authority. In 1999 Ellis’ final story on the series included a scene where the Midnighter affectionately kissed Apollo on the cheek before a dangerous mission, revealing them as a couple. Ellis had given readers a year to decide whether they liked the characters or not before revealing their sexuality. Years later, the two were married.
THE REMAINING INFLUENCE OF CENSORSHIP
Despite all this, some argued that things still had a ways to go. For instance, while supporting characters were sometimes seen with partners, gay superheroes were not. The 1990s series Gen13 featured the hero Rainmaker openly talking about her attraction to women. Yet artists were told she could only kiss women on the cheek, not the lips. This led criticism from readers, who pointed out that the series didn’t balk from regularly featuring bloodshed, semi-nudity, and dismemberment. Similarly, some questioned a scene in the DC series Starman where bisexual alien superhero Mikaal Tomas kissed his boyfriend Tony. The scene was fully lit, but the kiss was depicted in shadow. And what about Lyle Norg? Why had it been necessary to hint at his relationship in a vague way instead of being open about it? Why couldn’t that letter be signed “Condo,” and then readers could see the two greet each other with a kiss? Meanwhile, in Marvel Comics, Northstar proudly discussed his sexuality in his autobiography Born Normal and occasionally got into fights with homophobes, but throughout the 1990s he was never seen in the company of a boyfriend.
Even without the Code’s restrictions on sexuality, some stories that intended to delve into LGBT content wound up altered. Raven Darkhölme aka Mystique was introduced as a shape-shifting terrorist in the first Ms. Marvel comic series in 1978. She was created by artist Dave Cockrum and writer Chris Claremont. After Ms. Marvel was cancelled, Mystique showed up with a full team of villains, the new Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, in Claremont and John Byrne‘s 1980 Uncanny X-Men story “Days of Future Past.” That same story teased a connection between Mystique and the hero Kurt Wagner aka Nightcrawler. Some readers guessed that Mystique was Kurt’s mother. Originally Claremont intended to reveal that Mystique and her teammate Irene Adler aka Destiny were lovers. Sometimes they coupled as two women, while other times Mystique would take the form of a man. Claremont intended that Nightcrawler would discover Mystique was actually his father and Destiny his mother.
But this was during the 1980s, so the idea was flatly rejected. The Code would never allow it. During the 80s there were no hints about the two having a relationship beyond the fact that Destiny was the only person Mystique ever referred to as a friend and showed affection towards (not counting her adopted daughter Rogue). In 1989, the year the Code dropped its anti-LGBT rules, Uncanny X-Men #254 featured Destiny referring to Mystique as “my dearest friend – full of strength and courage and passion – that I have loved from the moment we met.” Destiny died soon afterward and Mystique’s grief was intense. In Uncanny X-Men #265 (1990), the villainous Shadow King refers to Destiny as Mytique’s “leman,” which is an old and largely forgotten word for “lover,” sometimes used to also imply that there’s something amoral about the relationship. Some readers missed this (and it’s possible editorial did as well).
Still, with the code’s anti-LGBT rules gone, Claremont could finally reveal that Raven was Nightcrawler’s father, right? Nope. Claremont left the X-Men in 1991, and the new creative team went down a different path. In X-Men Unlimited #4 (1994), Mystique told Nightcrawler that she was his mother, as had been suspected for years, and that his father had been a human named Christian Wagner.
It wasn’t until 2001, twelve years after the Code had taken away its LGBT content ban, that the comic mini-series X-Men Forever finally and explicitly referred to Destiny as Mystique’s “lover.” That same year, Marvel Comics dropped using the Comics Code Authority entirely, developing its own rating system instead. 2001 also saw the X-Force series reimagined by Mike Allred and Peter Milligan, then relaunched under the name X-Statix. The new team of mutant heroes featured three gay superheroes in its roster.
Following X-Men Forever, it was revealed that Destiny met Mystique when the shape-shifter had been living as a man named Eric Raven. Over the years they sometimes loved as two women, other times as a man and a woman. It’s sad that this relationship has only been briefly touched on in flashbacks, and even that only after Destiny’s death ensured that it wouldn’t affect present-day stories. Most of the Mystique stories that mention Destiny still don’t delve into the fact that they were lovers and companions for decades or address the emotional impact of Destiny’s death on Mystique. In recent years Destiny was resurrected, which happens a lot to X-Men characters in particular. But unlike many X-Men characters, she didn’t stay resurrected for long and died again before she could resume a relationship with Mystique. Maybe we’re just not allowed to see their romance fully explored.
Since we only had Mystique’s word that she was Nightcrawler’s mother, some readers who were aware of Claremont’s intention chose to believed that she had been lying and was in fact the hero’s father. But in 2003 writer Chuck Austen confirmed in flashbacks that Mystique was Kurt’s mother and had indeed been married to Christian Wagner. Austen then revealed that Nightcrawler’s father was Azazel, a mutant with whom Mystique had an affair. Azazel evidently inspired certain demonic legends and looks just like Kurt except for being red instead of indigo.
I wish Mystique had been revealed as the father.
THE 21ST CENTURY
In 2003 several readers raised an eyebrow when the Marvel mini-series Rawhide Kid: Slap Leather displayed a label reading “Parental Advisory: Explicit Content” when there was no explicit content of a sexual or violent nature in the series at all. What warranted the warning was that the Rawhide Kid, a wild west hero originally created in 1955, was now interpreted to be gay. Rather than being stated outright in the story it was merely strongly implied through things like the Kid constantly making double entendres and other characters remarking on how clean and fancy he is. Some criticized that the mini-series missed an opportunity by relying on gay stereotypes for the sake of humor rather than seriously addressing the experience of being a homosexual in the wild west.
The same year that Slap Leather came out Marvel released the first Runaways series by Brian K. Vaughan, featuring the children of a group of super-villains. The first story arc included heavy implications that team member Karolina Dean, a girl who discovered both her parents were alien, was lesbian and had a crush on a teammate. That teammate didn’t reciprocate this crush, but in 2005 Karolina met new team member Xavin. More on that in a bit.
A homosexual mutant named Victor Borkowski aka Anole was introduced in New Mutants #2 in 2003. The original plan by writers Christina Weir and Nunzio DeFilippis was that Anole would come out to his family and immediately be shunned. Unable to deal with the situation, Anole would commit suicide. The story, planned for issues #8-10, was to be a powerful message about the damage caused by intolerance. But Marvel wasn’t too keen on the idea, so it changed. Rather than die to serve as a lesson, he remained in the X-books for years, gaining a fan base. He also formed a strong bond with Northstar. Oddly, the stories didn’t explicitly say he was gay until New Mutants #43 in 2012, even though many readers had figured it out and no one on the creative team kept it a secret.
Back at DC Comics, the Green Lantern Kyle Rayner got a personal assistant in 2003, a teenage boy named Terry Berg. Terry acted like a big jerk towards Kyle’s girlfriend and the two finally had a talk about it in Green Lantern #137. Terry confessed he was jealous and Kyle asked if he was gay. Terry admitted, “I don’t know what I am.” Kyle told him that was all right and that what he was going through was normal. If he decided to identify as gay, that was fine.
Over the following issues, Terry realized he was homosexual and came out to his friends and family. Readers saw his mother deny the situation, deciding it was simply a phase that didn’t need to be discussed again. Terry’s father reacted almost violently. Nevertheless, Terry embraced who he was and developed a new confidence in life. Then he was attacked by gay bashers after they saw him kissing his boyfriend in public one night. Terry was hospitalized and comatose. Kyle initially responded by embarking on a quest for revenge but then stopped himself, not wishing to hurt others as brutally as Terry had been hurt. Despite critical injuries Terry made a full recovery, and his parents, realizing how close they had come to losing their son, finally accepted him. Terry was later seen with his own version of the GL power ring, but what that meant for his future was never revealed. Soon afterward DC decided to relaunch the Green Lantern series with Kyle’s predecessor Hal Jordan back in the lead role. Kyle left to star in spin-off titles while his supporting cast, Terry included, disappeared.
In another corner of the DC Universe, Maggie Sawyer transferred from Metropolis to Gotham City PD. From 2003 to 2006, Greg Rucka and Ed Brubaker wrote Gotham Central, a series that focused on the city’s cops, Maggie included. One of the major characters was Renee Montoya (originally named Rene). Renee had been created for Batman: The Animated Series but debuted in the comics months before her episodes aired in Batman #475 (1992). She became a familiar character to readers, rising to be one of the GCPD’s best detectives. In Gotham Central she was outed as a lesbian when a picture of her and a date kissing was posted to the station bulletin board. Renee had to deal with mockery from colleagues as well as anger and disapproval from her family.
Following the book’s cancellation, Renee fell into a depression but then became ally to Vic Sage aka the Question in the pages of the weekly series 52. By the end of the series Renee had found a new purpose in life. Following Vic’s death Renee succeeded him as the new Question, becoming yet another out and proud superhero.
In 2004, writer Marc Andreyko introduced divorced mother and attorney turned superhero Kate Spencer in the series Manhunter. An openly gay man himself, Andreyko later included the character Todd Rice aka Obsidian in Kate’s supporting cast. For years, Obsidian had been interpreted as a hero who fell into villainy due to identity issues and going off medication. Touching back on the 1990s stories where he had feelings for his best friend Al, Andreyko revealed that Todd’s identity issues stemmed from denial of his own sexuality. By coming out of the closet in Manhunter, Obsidian gained stability and entered a committed relationship.
In 2005 DC published the 7 Soldiers saga by Grant Morrison, a large story divided between several mini-series. The Shining Knight mini-series introduced Sir Ystin, a reimagining of the Golden Age Shining Knight who’d been named Sir Justin of Camelot. Ystin inhabited a version of Camelot that existed in 8,000 B.C.E. The heroic boy turned out to have been born a female named Ystina. It was not clarified whether Ystina identified as male or had masqueraded as one in order to be accepted as a knight.
In 2005 Young Avengers debuted, introducing new teenage characters who modeled themselves after Marvel’s mightiest heroes. Creators Allan Heinberg and Jim Cheung originally intended that the characters Hulkling and Asgardian (the latter of whom later took the name Wiccan) were in love. Hulkling was going to be a female shapeshifter who then realized her true form was male, which would force Asgardian to decide whether this altered his feelings. Editor Tom Brevoort suggested that instead of delving into this complicated story, the two characters could simply be gay male teens in an open relationship.
Heinberg agreed, thinking he would drop “subtle” hints throughout several issues, but many readers figured it out during the first issue. The superhero couple became a hot topic of debate, with some criticizing teenage boys in love as a corruptive influence and others praising a book for having two out teenagers without putting a spotlight on their sexuality as their major defining trait. But even supporters noticed that it was many years before readers ever got to see Hulking and Wiccan actually kiss, despite being public about their relationship.
The idea of a shape-shifter deciding their dominant form was a different gender got used in Runaways in 2005. Xavin, a member of the alien Skrull race, intended to marry Karolina. Realizing she was a lesbian, Xavin became a female, figuring her form didn’t matter. Later on it was revealed that Xavin had truly accepted female as her gender, even reverting to it instinctively as her default form.
2006 was the fiftieth anniversary of Kathy Kane’s debut in DC Comics. In the weekly series 52, writer Greg Rucka reimagined the Batwoman as Kate Kane, an out lesbian who had once been romantically involved with Renee Montoya. Kate became popular very quickly, becoming the lead character of Batman’s title Detective Comics for a few months. It was revealed that while at West Point Kate had outed herself in order to protect someone else from investigation. As this was when “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was still in effect, it meant she had to leave military service. Now Kate used her training to fight crime. During her story in Detective Comics Kate met Maggie Sawyer and the two began dating.
In 2007 Wolverine Origins #10 introduced Ahiro, the son of Wolverine. Calling himself Daken, this man had the same sex appeal and talent for violence that his father was known for, but none of his morality. Daken had pheromone based powers that let him control whomever he wished, seducing both men and women in different stories. Writer Marjorie Liu, who wrote the series Daken: Dark Wolverine, confirmed the character was bisexual. At a panel at Comic-Con International in 2009, she added “[Daken] will do anyone and anything [to achieve his goals and he's] past that kind of identification. He’s beyond it.”
In 2009, 17 years after Northstar came out, the hero was finally given a boyfriend on-panel. That was also the year that ended a long-standing debate about the character Shatterstar’s sexuality. An alien warrior whose nature and origin was revised more than once, Shatterstar was created by Rob Liefeld and Fabian Nicieza and first appeared in the 1991 in the X-Men spin-off series New Mutants. When New Mutants relaunched as X-Force, Shatterstar came along for the ride and was one of the team’s most formidable members. Raised with to focus on combat, he seemed to have no real desire for a life outside of battle. In 1995 Nicieza explored the character’s emotional limitations by having Shatterstar confide to his teammate Rictor that he had never experienced romantic or sexual feelings. Nicieza later clarified, “I had planned to make Shatterstar think he was in love with Rictor, but only because he simply didn’t know any better about what love was.”
Nicieza left as writer soon afterward, and Jeph Loeb took over. Loeb made obvious hints that Shatterstar and Rictor were falling for each other and intended that they’d become a couple, but he left the series before he could write it in. As often happens when creative teams change, the sub-plot was simply dropped. In 2009, however, writer Peter David had Shatterstar and Rictor reunite in the pages of X-Factor and share a romantic kiss. David later explained that while Shatterstar had been raised to think only of combat, his experiences on Earth opened up his mind to romance. Shatterstar was revealed to be in love with Rictor and later stated that he was bisexual and polyamorous. Co-creator Liefeld immediately criticized this move, saying “Shatterstar is not gay. Sorry. Can’t wait to someday undo this.” He added: “Shatterstar is akin to Maximus in Gladiator. He’s a warrior, a Spartan, and not a gay one.”
In 2010 Archie Comics introduced its first openly gay character, Kevin Keller. His debut issue Veronica #202 sold out, becoming the first Archie Comics issue in history to get a second printing. Kevin got his own series two years later. That same year Life with Archie #16 revealed Kevin’s future as an adult. Readers learned that he will serve in the US Armed Forces, get injured, and then meet his future husband while recuperating in a military hospital. This became pretty big news, got lots of supporters, and seriously appalled groups like One Million Moms.
In 2011 DC Comics rebooted its superhero universe, replacing their main comics line with fifty-two new titles. Sadly, the “New 52″ continuity ditched multiple LGBT characters who existed previously. Obsidian no longer existed, and there was an implication that Renee Montoya was dead (though DC later denied this and said there’s a possibility of her eventual return), The Question was once again a white male. Midnighter and Apollo still existed but were now strangers to each other. In the new Stormwatch series, writer Paul Cornell immediately showed Midnighter and Apollo becoming drawn to each other, saying in interviews that he was happy to show their courtship because that kind of relationship development between gay characters wasn’t often shown in mainstream comics.
Cornell brought back Sir Ystin in the New 52 series Demon Knights, which took place during the dark ages. Ystin identified as male, but the character’s gender was an ongoing debate amidst some of the cast. In Demon Knights #13 Sir Ystin faces demons from Hell, one dressed as a male and the other as a female. Ystin is told, “You have to choose the bride or the groom. Either promises quite a wedding night. Too long have you refused to declare your sex. Reveal yourself before everyone! Now!” In Demon Knights #14 Sir Ystin discussed his gender and said, “I was born this way… I’m not just a man or a woman. I’m both.”
When asked if this meant that Ystin was intersex or transgender, Cornell said “I think that’s down to what each individual reader wants from that exchange, or most identifies with. Why shut down any of the possibilities?” Months later, writer Gail Simone revealed in Batgirl #19 that the hero’s roommate Alysia is a transgender bisexual. Simone said that she wanted to show a human character who was transgender in a grounded way rather than crediting it to magic or science fiction elements.
In 2012 DC announced that one of its major heroes would be reimagined as an openly gay man in the new continuity, later revealing that this was Alan Scott, the original Green Lantern. While some were happy about this development, others were critical of Alan’s boyfriend being immediately killed in the same issue that he first appeared in. There were also some who thought it would have been a braver choice to make the current Green Lantern an LGBT character rather than revising the 1940s incarnation, who wasn’t widely known to the public.
Around the same time, Marvel announced that Northstar would marry his boyfriend Kyle that summer. One Million Moms protested and called on supporters to write to the publishers and demand that Marvel back down for the sake of children. In spite of these protests, Northstar became the first openly gay superhero to marry a same sex partner in Astonishing X-Men #51, written by Marjorie Liu. Liu said that part of the reason for the marriage was to counter the idea in superhero comics that characters and couples cease to be interesting once they get married. This certainly contrasted the decision by Marvel in 2007 to erase Spider-Man’s 20 years of marriage from continuity, partly borne of a belief that matrimony limited his character.
Not long afterward DC Comics became the subject of a lot of fan rage. First the publisher hired Orson Scott Card to write a Superman story. A famous science fiction writer, Card has also actively tried to overturn same sex marriage legislation and called for violent action against government officials who made same sex marriage legal in the first place. Despite fan outrage and debate, the story was only cancelled when artist Chris Sprouse decided to drop out for his own reasons.
Another source of fan rage concerned Batwoman. Kate Kane proposed to Maggie Sawyer in 2013, but soon afterward DC readers learned that the book’s creative team of J. H. Williams III and W. Haden Blackman would be leaving. On his blog, Williams explained:
“From the moment DC asked us to write Batwoman — a dream project for both of us — we were committed to the unofficial tagline ‘No Status Quo.’ We felt that the series and characters should always be moving forward, to keep changing and evolving… Unfortunately, in recent months, DC has asked us to alter or completely discard many long-standing storylines in ways that we feel compromise the character and the series. We were… most crushingly, prohibited from ever showing Kate and Maggie actually getting married. All of these editorial decisions came at the last minute, and always after a year or more of planning and plotting on our end.”
Williams clarified that, as he understood it, DC did not prohibit the marriage because of homophobia but in order to stay with the New 52′s decision that superheroes not be married. The reboot also undid the marriages of Superman and Lois Lane, Green Arrow and Black Canary, and Barry Allen and Iris Allen. DC co-publisher Dan Didio explained that he believed, in general, that superheroes should not be married or have happy romantic endings because their lives require a level of tragic sacrifice. Many criticized it as a bizarre decision that unfairly limited the stories of DC’s characters and eliminated the drama inherent in seeing them enter any kind of relationship. What’s more, it limited the growth potential of the only lesbian superhero who led her own series from a mainstream publisher.
In terms of progress, there’s still a long way to go. With superhero movies and live-action shows going strong, many are hoping that LGBT characters and superheroes can appear on-screen. Renee Montoya is set to be a series regular on the upcoming TV show Gotham. Lesbian character Victoria Hand, played by bisexual actor Saffon Burrows, appeared in multiple episodes of ABC’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. But her sexuality was never explored and thenshe was murdered while en route to a place called the Fridge, causing some to wonder if this was a dark joke on the phrase “women in refrigerators.”As for the comics themselves, many are critical of the fact that several LGBT characters still haven’t returned to the DC Universe, arguing that there’s no reason not to introduce new ones or reimagine familiar ones.
Of course, there are folks who complain, as Rob Liefeld did, that you shouldn’t reimagine characters to be LGBT if they were not originally created to be so. But as Gail Simone pointed out in an interview with Wired, “[A]lmost all the tentpoles we build our industry upon were created over a half century ago… at a time where the characters were almost without exception white, cis-gendered, straight, on and on. It’s fine — it’s great that people love those characters. But if we only build around them, then we look like an episode of The Andy Griffith Show for all eternity.”
How LGBT content will evolve in the future remains to be seen. It’s definitely a discussion that needs to keep happening.
Source: Alan Sizzler Kistler, The Mary Sue
TL;DR:
1. Everything was horrible
2. Northstar
3. Captain America remained perfect
4. Hulkling and Wiccan
5. Batwoman is awesome
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire