An X-Man got married to a Man. A gay Green Lantern was born. A Riverdale teen met his geek (and gay) icon. A twist on who was a Slayer in Buffyverse. Those were just some of the GLBT characters and storylines that made mainstream headlines, boosted comics and possibly helped change our culture.
GLAAD revealed their nominees for Outstanding Comic Book. Congratulations to the writers/artists/editors and publishers for the recognition. The nominations reflect on the big year for gay characters in comic books and the impact they have on society.
Astonishing X-Men, Earth 2, Kevin Keller, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Batwoman are great books by talented creators but which book should win and why?
Op/Ed:
Do I have a favorite? I admit I have a X-Men bias but it was my first comic book.
I have go to with Astonishing X-Men. Northstar’s wedding to Kyle Jinadu was not just a one issue stunt. Jean-Paul has been out since 1992. Jean-Paul an Kyle’s romance developed in earlier volumes of Uncanny X-Men and the most recent Alpha Flight series.
In Astonishing X-Men #51 Jean-Paul and Kyle got married in New York’s Central Park surrounded by teammates. Marvel even gave the book 2 variants: one with Jean-Paul and Kyle kissing and one with the happy couple on the cover with some of Marvel’s most famous couple’s on their big day. You may call that smart marketing. It is. By looking at this special cover it sent a message that Jean-Paul and Kyle’s ceremony and relationship was the same as Reed and Susan Richards and other Marvel super couples. (Let’s hope they turn out better than Scott & Jean, Storm & T’Challa or Quicksilver & Crystal!)
The wedding was not the end of Kyle’s screen time in the book. After the honeymoon Marjorie Liu continues to explore the complicated life of being married to a superhero in every issue. Who would have thought Wolverine would be giving a guy relationship advice about his husband? Remember when Jean-Paul couldn’t come out?
Northstar wasn’t the only GLBT character featured in this book. Former New Mutant Karma was central to the storyline of Liu’s thrilling arc. Liu didn’t touch on Karma being a lesbian just a conflicted character who showed why she’s a great hero and mother figure to her younger siblings. It didn’t matter than Karma was a lesbian but perhaps Shan may find love now that she’s survived the villain of Liu’s first arc.
By Editor
By Editor
i have never read archie or batwoman, so i can’t judge or vote for them. earth 2 bugs me because we were promised an “iconic” character would be gay and then it was alan scott. his lover is immediately killed, making him “sexually safe” for the majority straight readers. it was a nice touch that his gl ring was created from his engagement ring but will we ever see alan have a relationship any time soon? i highly doubt it. however, i am still reading earth 2 in the hope it will get better whereas i just dropped astonishing x-men. in the wedding issue, where were all the marvel gay charaters? anole said one word (his first in like a year) and it wasn’t even to northstar. hector didn’t want to come congratulate his old friend? wiccan and hulkling who talked about marriage didn’t want to attend? although i did enjoy reading kyle and jp’s part of the issues, i find all the other characters and plots uninteresting. and i still don’t see how they got jp’s name wrong, how much can marvel really care about him. i give the award to buffy (my biased favorite) although it too is not perfect. even though the story can be sometimes weak and the art is VERY weak, i’ve wanted a gay male slayer all the way back to when it was still on the air. i believe they only added billy now because of how marvel and dc had their big gay headlines this past summer (but i don’t care, i’m just glad the buffy universe finally got him).
Thanks for your feedback. Were you surprised Rictor and Shatterstar of X-Factor were dissed? I have to say I’m surprised Bunker didn’t get a nod. He’s fun. I appreciate that he’s out and proud. I always enjoy reading your insight.
bunker not getting a nod for teen titans did kind of surprise me but my patience with this book is running thin. most of the time it feels like all the other titans are putting bunker down. we see other team members making out and having some romantic tension but will we ever see bunker have a relationship with a team member that’s treated as equally as the others? i’ve only kept getting this book because i really like bunker too but it’s got to get better soon. i want bunker to have aboyfriend who is ON THE TEAM.i wish they would put a new writer on titans as well, he’s awful. as for x-factor, i dropped it because ric and shatty were only in it half the time and they were the only characters in it that i was interested in. i would guess they didn’t really do anything news worthy in the past year.