Because of the overwhelming response by my posts on the recent GLAAD Media Awards: Best Comic Book Nominees I wanted to share some LGBT characters to watch for in 2012.
Writer Marjorie Liu and Artist Mike Perkins are the new creative team on Astonishing X-Men starting in March. Northstar and Karma are in their lineup. I’ve posted before about why Northstar should rejoin the X-Men now that Alpha Flight is ending. Jean-Paul Baubier and boyfriend Kyle’s relationship was tested in Alpha Flight and the tension isn’t over as the couple move to Westchester. I’m hoping Jean-Paul will be a teacher at the Jean Grey School. You can read about Liu and Perkins take on Northstar in this post.
Karma was a founding member of the New Mutants. She has the mutant power to possess the minds of other people or animals. Xi’an (pronounced Shan) Coy Mahn was born in Vietnam. During the Mekanix series Karma and Kitty Pryde reunited at the University of Chicago. This is when Xian came out as a lesbian, confessed her for Kitty but Kitty’s heart belongs to Colossus. (OK I know they broke up but they’re soul mates.)
Karma eventually returned to the Xavier Institute as their librarian and became a mentor to Anole, a young gay mutant boy. When the X-Men were based in San Francisco Xi’an’s leg was injured in battle, had to be amputated and replaced with a prosthetic. It will be exciting to see Karma on the Astonishing team and perhaps have a love interest.
Anole (Victor Borkowski) is a young mutant with an appearance like the reptile he’s named after. Vic’s powers include wall crawling and adaptive camouflage. Vic was a student at Xavier’s then regrouped with the X-Men in San Francisco and decided to attend Wolverine’s new Jean Grey School. Anole is among the student cast of Wolverine and the X-Men. Anole and Rockslide’s (Santo is straight with a mutant body made of rocks) friendship continues to be hilarious and inspiring. You can follow Victor on Twitter @_Anole_.
These are some great X collections featuring Anole with a quick link: New X-Men: Academy X, Young X-Men, Nation X
we can watch for anole but will we see him be more than a background prop? after 6 issues of little to no anole, i just dropped wolverine and the x-men. i’m going to replace it with astonishing x-men starting with #48 (for Northstar). the only other marvel books i read are avengers academy, x-factor, the wizard of oz book, and avengers children’s crusade.
Thanks for the comment. I’m hoping Aaron will bring Anole into a story after the Wolverine and Quentin in space story. I’m really excited about Astonishing X-Men – I think with Northstar and Karma on that team – Anole may be part of Marjorie Liu’s story since both were his mentors. I have not read Avengers Academy but just read a great article about the gay characters on that team. Avengers Children’s Crusade is perfection – wish it didn’t take so long to come out. I hope the Young Avengers get their ongoing book but who knows what will happen after AVX. I have not posted it yet but Bleeding Cool says Bendis is taking over the X-Men books like he did with the Avengers. Thanks again for checking out my blog and the comment. Hope you come back.