By Ryan Riley, Contributor
With the last few Required Reading columns I've written, I've made a conscious effort to point out aspects of comic books past & present that have at least a passing relevance to current social and/or political events. The presidential election earlier this month inspired quite a few of them, but now that a new president has been elected I knew that it was time to look elsewhere for inspiration.
Oddly enough, it is the rather glaring backlash from a state proposition in the recent election that served as a partial impetus for this column. Proposition 8 overturns a May state Supreme Court decision that makes it unconstitutional to limit the definition of marriage to a union between a man and a woman. The initiative passed by a narrow margin. Since the election, there has been an undercurrent of discontent among Prop 8 opponents that has manifested in a series of protests all across the state.
The second inspiration for this article came from an announcement made on this very blog regarding the development of a new TV series. "Hero", a book by Perry Moore that details the life of a gay superhero, was recently optioned for development by Showtime and will be produced by Stan Lee.
Here are some of the more memorable gay characters in comics. (Note: there are a few spoilers for the comics "Runaways," "Ultimate X-Men and "Watchmen.")
Starting at the top
The venerable Alan Moore has tackled the topic of homosexual superheroes on more than one occasion throughout his storied career. Here are a couple of examples:
Silhouette, Captain Metropolis & Hooded Justice, Watchmen
This graphic novel is available in just about every book store.
There aren't any major players in this book that are homosexual, but if you read the supplemental materials after each chapter, some of them make reference to members of the Minutemen that were gay. The highest profile of these was the female hero known as Silhouette. After a short time with the group it became public knowledge that she was a lesbian. The other Minutemen were convinced by their publicist to expel her from the group to avoid a PR fiasco, and she was subsequently killed by one of her old enemies. When asked about this in an interview many years later, Sally expresses her shame in agreeing to the decision, given that two other Minutemen were closeted homosexuals. She doesn't mention them by name, but there is a note from Sally's manager that identifies them as Hooded Justice and Captain Metropolis (read carefully, as the reference is so veiled that you might just miss it if you blink).
Jack Phantom & Jetlad, Top 10
These stories are currently available in the trade paperbacks Top 10 Book 1, Top 10 Book 2 & Top 10: The Forty-Niners.
Top 10 tells the story of a police precinct that is tasked with keeping order in Neopolis, a city packed to the gills with super-powered residents. Two officers serving in the "Top 10" are homosexual. One of them, Sgt. Jackie Kowalski (a.k.a. Jack Phantom), is an openly gay woman who laments the fact that she is attracted to her partner, Lt. Cathy Colby (a.k.a Peregrine), but can never pursue it because Peregrine is a staunch conservative. She eventually finds a more willing partner on the job and in the bedroom in fellow officer Panthalassa.
The other notable gay resident of the 10th precinct of Neopolis is commanding officer Captain Steve Traynor, formerly known as the WWII air ace Jetlad. He is less forthcoming about his sexuality, but he and his life-partner Wulf have been in a decades-old relationship, the beginning of which was revealed in the book Top 10: The Forty-Niners.
From the "House of Ideas"...
It took a good while for Marvel Comics to introduce any gay characters in their books. Jim Shooter, the editor-in-chief of Marvel during the early 1980's, expressly forbid any writers from creating any explicitly gay characters. It wasn't until the early 1990's that Marvel loosened its stance on having homosexual characters in their comics. Even then, they were fairly slow to tackle the topic in any meaningful storylines until fairly recently. Here are some of their more prominent characters.
Northstar, Alpha Flight
These stories are currently available in various issues of Alpha Flight, Uncanny X-Men & Ultimate X-Men.
John Byrne, the writer of the original Alpha Flight series that spun out of his and Chris Claremont's run on Uncanny X-Men, had intended for Northstar to be openly homosexual right from the first issue of the spinoff book Alpha Flight. But because of Jim Shooter's policies on the matter, was only able to subtly hint at his sexuality. It wasn't until 1992 that the character was allowed to come out as gay. Marvel was cautious about bringing it up too much soon after, since Alpha Flight was not one of their better-selling titles, although the issue that featured his "coming out" garnered mainstream media attention and sold a good amount of copies. Years later, the character would be featured as a very positive role model for gay men in Uncanny X-Men, where he joined the field team and also served as an instructor in Economics & French. In the title New X-Men he even served as a mentor to one of the Xavier Institute's sub-groups dubbed "Alpha Squadron" and developed a bond with Anole, a young mutant who also happened to be homosexual.
In the Ultimate X-Men title, Northstar is reimagined as a conflicted gay teenager that got kicked off his school track team because it was suspected he was taking steroids, when it was his emerging mutant power giving him an unfair advantage. After almost dying at the hands of Mr. Sinister, he ends up being recruited to attend Emma Frost's "Academy of Tomorrow" and pursues a romantic relationship with the next character I'll be highlighting...
Colossus, Ultimate X-Men
These stories are currently available in Ultimate X-Men Vol. 3: World Tour, Ultimate X-Men Vol. 6: Return of the King, Ultimate X-Men Vol. 9: The Tempest & Ultimate X-Men Vol. 13: Magnetic North.
In the mainstream Marvel Universe, Colossus was arguably best known by longtime fans for his romance with Kitty Pryde. In the Ultimate Marvel Universe, Colossus is in fact a gay man. The first hints of his sexuality came when Colossus left the team to return to his native Russia, and Cyclops & Jean Grey are sent to find him. When confronted about his reasons for leaving, he gives the explanation that he wasn't fitting in at the school, but Jean read his mind and got to the truth of the matter: the one person on the team that he loves will likely never love him back. The dialogue is left at that, but the fact that he hung out with Wolverine a lot outside of school gives a pretty big clue. The next clue came with Colossus wanting to confess his feelings for Wolverine and getting swiftly hushed by him well before he could complete his thought. It would seem that Wolverine knew about his friend's unrequited feelings and shut down the dialogue before things would become awkward. Later on, Colossus would find romance with Northstar after the X-Men tangle with the students of the "Academy of Tomorrow". Once that happened, Colossus let his guard down about his sexuality and pretty much all of the other X-Men, with the notable exception of Nightcrawler, didn't have a problem with it.
Karolina Dean, Runaways
These stories are currently available in all of the collected editions of Runaways in trade paperback, manga format & hardcover.
Karolina Dean, the child of two of Hollywood's biggest movie stars, lead a pretty blissful childhood. The bliss ended when she found out that not only were her parents part of a group of supervillains known as The Pride, but that she was in fact an extraterrestrial. Add to this the fact that she is dealing with the fact that she is gay and you have someone that defines the term "inner turmoil". When discovering her parents' secret she ran away with the children of the Pride's other members. Despite their harrowing circumstances, Karolina always managed to exude a calming influence on her fellow Runaways. She developed a crush on another girl in the group, Niko, but that went unrequited. Later on, she would meet up with a Super Skrull in training named Xavin, who told her more of her alien heritage and revealed that they were arranged to be married to bring peace between their people. Karolina wanted to fulfill this obligation but had misgivings about Xavin's gender. Fortunately for her, Xavin has no problems switching genders due to his/her shapeshifting abilities. The pair develop a genuine bond of affection for each other, a bond that lasted even after their respective races renewed hostilities with one another.
...to the "Distinguished Competition"
Thanks largely to the inception of their Vertigo imprint, DC Comics got a bit of a head start on Marvel in featuring homosexual characters in their books. And thanks to their incorporation of the Wildstorm imprint, they have proven to be a little more cutting-edge in their portrayal of such characters. Here are their most well-known gay characters.
Various Characters, Sandman
These stories are available in just about every volume of the Sandman collected editions.
If you read through Neil Gaiman's Sandman series all the way through, it will almost seem that every other character in the book is gay, lesbian or a transvestite. Of course, Gaiman had a tendency to tie characters in separate story arcs together through personal connections. It therefore stands to reason that if one homosexual character appears in one arc, another arc would feature an acquaintance of theirs of the same persuasion. One character, Judy, a woman that had just split up with her girlfriend, ended up in the same diner with Dr. Destiny in the very first story arc, who proceeded to use the powers of a dreamstone stolen from Morpheus to drive everyone in the diner insane before killing them. Judy's ex girlfriend, Foxglove, and her new partner Hazel were featured in the story arc "A Game Of You" trying to rescue their neighbor and friend Barbie from a destroyer of dreams. The entire run of Sandman is chock full of interpersonal relationships that carry between story arcs, which (to me at least), makes for compelling reading no matter who the characters are.
Terry Berg, Green Lantern
This story is available in the trade paperback Green Lantern: Brother's Keeper.
The major focus of Green Lantern lately has been the aftermath of the incident with the Sinestro Corps and the build up to the epic "Blackest Night" storyline. But before Hal Jordan reclaimed his power ring, the only Lantern in town was Kyle Rayner, a freelance artist. He landed a gig writing a comic strip called "City Dwellers" for a major entertainment magazine, and Terry Berg worked for him as his assistant. Berg, a young man coming to terms with his homosexuality, had a crush on Kyle before getting a steady boyfriend. In the story arc "Brother's Keeper", Berg and his boyfriend runs afoul of a group of homophobes, who chase after them and beat Berg into a near-coma. Kyle, racked with anguish, uses some decidedly Batman-like torture tactics on one of the assailants in a jail cell to find out the whereabouts of his friends and brutally brings the rest to justice.
Midnighter & Apollo, The Authority
These stories are available in the entire collected editions of The Authority.
This is arguably the most prominent and highest-profile example of a homosexual relationship in comic books. The best way to describe this pair is to imagine the answer to the question "What if Superman & Batman were lovers?" The Midnighter & Apollo are possibly the closest we'll ever get to finding out the answer. The pair were made into superhumans by the commanding officer of the original Stormwatch, Henry Bendix. After their first mission went FUBAR, they went underground, hiding from a commander that turned out to be a megalomaniac. After Bendix was ousted and the team disbanded, Jenny Sparks convinced the two heroes to join The Authority, where they quickly became the most famous (as well as the most dangerous) gay couple on the planet. They eventually got married and adopted Jenny Quantum, the child that is the reincarnation of Jenny Sparks.
The Tip Of The Iceberg
Now I know from the amount of research I did for this article that I left a ton of characters and relationships out due to space constraints. And this is where I challenge you, the reader, to fill in the gaps. Leave some feedback on the blog with who you feel should have been included in this article and why.
As a staunch Conservative I happen to think that the treatment of Northstar was more dignified to/for homosexuals when he was closeted... and when he was "out" he became a worse role model for them...
Not to be misunderstood: I question why Marvel Comics' most famous homosexual character happens to be such an asshat/jerk. Rather than having their first outted homosexual to be a decent man, we have a character who no one would have been surprised to see beaten to death... and only because he pissed someone off for reasons more likely connected to his superpowers and attitude than his sexuality (his sexuality had nothing to do with his attitude).
More importantly the Gay Lantern arc was poorly written and stupid and I thought his interrogation tactics weren't really Batman-like at all.
Batman is a human and can only hurt you that way.
In the comic Green Lantern tortures someone like a god would and could... making him completely and utterly helpless with no way to call for help. Sealed in horror.... what fun!!!!
Well i thought that was a rather good list of gay characters. And as a gay man i think Northstar is a great role model. And i also think blue spiders comment is fuled by homophobia and hate, I wish backwards redneck ideals were left in the trailer park instead of being projected on a very good blog about some of my most favorate comic characters.