Gay superheroes...
Jan. 15th, 2009 07:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fajrdrakoLatest news headline: Stan Lee to create first gay superhero.
Say what? If you look up 'first gay superhero' on Wikipedia, you get Extrano at DC, from 1988. And what about Northstar, a superhero so gay he had a press conference about it, but never had a boyfriend? At least he had the good taste to think Gambit was cute.
There are so many gay superheros, there are websites devoted to listing them. And the bi ones. And the trans ones. Remember Paradox, the bisexual shape-changer? I loved him. Her. Whichever. So obscure, he's not on Wikipedia. And the subject shouldn't ignore Apollo and Midnighter, who are not just gay, but a dramatically gay couple. In my favourite era of Legion of Super-Heroes, Element Lad was gay, as were Lightning Lass and Shrinking Violet.
Considering that the 'first gay superhero' phrase doesn't even specifically refer to comic books, I'm not sure the first gay superhero wasn't Achilles, from three thousand years ago.
I love media hype. And I hope Thom Creed is a raging success.
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Date: 2009-01-15 04:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-15 05:05 pm (UTC)Comic book writers and editors tend to like gay (and bi) heroes; and then the marketing department gets cold feet. Or something. It's a bizarre industry. Which is one of the things that make it interesting.
On the whole, I think comics are genrally a lot less homphobic than television - more likely to sideline gay heroes and kill off women. Their streak of homophobia comes from the same source - fear of reactions from the middle-American public. But they're a lot more likely than television is to push the envelope. The big companies less than the small ones, of course - they have more to lose.
And I'm sure some DC comics struggles with the same constrants as Warner Brothers on television.