A 'prominent' superhero is coming out of the closet

I think the two guys in the Stormwatch are gay. I mean, I get your point what with Girl on Girl Is Hot, I'm just willing to bet they think the publicity might be worth it.

They've said definitively that the gay character is going to be a guy, and a hero. At least, all the press releases I've read have said that. As many have said, Batwoman is already a lesbian, so it really wouldn't be anything new to have a lesbian character. They've said they're "re-introducing" a character as gay who was previously portrayed as straight, so it's going to be someone we've met before, and probably someone reasonably well known. Don't know if it's going to be someone we've met since the reboot yet, though...

I'm hoping it's NOT Nightwing or any of the Robins, if only because that's a really old joke and was in poor taste to begin with (it implies that Batman's a pedophile, which isn't the same thing as gay, folks). Who could be re-interpreted as gay without disrupting their core character too much?

Honestly, I think it would be interesting if they just went with it and actually did have some Batman and Robin UST going on.

Meanwhile, Marvel is (probably) having a gay wedding.

Which is (probably) being done in New York, between two Canadians, in a book where the author got one of their names wrong in the first issue of her run.

At this early stage, it seems like a blatant publicity stunt, frankly.

That carries even more Unfortunate Implications than having it be Bruce or Dick - Jason is by far the most depraved and unstable member of the Bat Family. Having him be revealed to be gay would only stink of Depraved Homosexual - people would take it as if it were intended to be some kind of explanation, and it just wouldn't work.

That's actually kind of why they can't have it be a villain - with only a few exceptions Bats' villains kind of revel in their depravity. Making one of them be the big homosexual reveal would cause more problems than solve.

Okay, now it's been said specifically that it'll be a character "not seen since the reboot."

My guess is that it's either Alan Scott or Jay Garrick.

To be fair, we've always known Joker is Batmansexual.

We have seen Alan though. Earlier this month at the very end of Earth-2 Issue 1. We also say Jay.

So yeah probably Vibe.

Wouldn't it be cool to have Jason's constant acting out be him kind of denying his homosexuality? It might add some depth the character sorely needs.

Also, it WONT be Damian. I doubt DC wants to apply ANY kind of sexuality to a ten year old child.

That's different though. That's a character trait that's been around for awhile, not this big fanfare'd retcon they're suddenly hyping as the thing that shows they care about homosexuals.

If this particular instance, with all they're putting on it, turns out to be one of the villains it might not end well for them.

@Post 26: I was talking about general trends; Stormwatch is an outlier.

Ooh, how about Mogo? If only to force someone to figure out how that would even work?

Comics Mogo is dead :/ (unless that was retconned by Flashpoint...)

Nope they referenced Mogo being Dead in last weeks GLC. John killed another Lantern to stop him from giving the enemy info to invade Oa. And when this was brought to light people mentioned Mogo.

If mainstream comics don't do gay male characters, then what the hell is Northstar, Bunker, Wiccan, Hulkling, Anole, Midnighter, Apollo and the Tasmanian Devil?

That said, the latter seriously needs more love. He got skinned alive, got back to life...and might as well have stayed dead, since not even gay fans remember him.

There's also the purple magic guy in Teen Titans, Bunker I think.

I already mentioned him...

I was talking over you I think.

Is Gaggy prominent enough?

@Gannetwhale: Again, I was talking about general trends, and employing slight hyperbole to make a point. Those guys are outliers.

It is not like anyone reacted well to DC's recent attempts to portray straight sexuality on their pages, why expected them to do anything else well? Those who insist on continuing to buy DC comics I'll reckon aint doing so to see more sex and relationship drama. Could they want to see more stand alone stories with long term plot development and possibly super heroics? Power Girl's shirt was bigger news.

"Northstar, Bunker, Wiccan, Hulkling, Anole, Midnighter, Apollo and the Tasmanian Devil"

Wiccan and Hulkling aren't appearing in ongoing series. Anole's a background character in a couple books. Midnighter and Apollo were from an already-fucked-up series, so hardly truly mainstream. Northstar is appearing in a low-selling book, alongside Karma. The same applies to Striker in Avengers Academy, and Shatterstar and Rictor in X-Factor. I'm not sure how the Batwoman series is selling.

Wiccan and Hulkling are sort of the ensemble darkhorses of Young Avengers though, so they have several specials. And now they are supposedly going to feature alongside the main Avengers, given that they now are full Avengers.

I'm surprised nobody's mentioned the reformed Flash villain Pied Piper.

He's sort of unused though. And a villain (that said, there are several LGBT villains. Brain and his ape boyfriend come to mind)

Most of them good characters, but I think they're aiming for a name even non comics readers picked off the street could recognize.