Marvel Comics General

I think the best way to do that would be to do it with a hyper-obscure character with no fanbase to get mad about it. Doing it with somebody popular like Connor was always going to go wrong in some form or another, so basically, the best option would be to give them the James Gunn approach where you elevate the character while completely reinventing them, and nobody is bothered by the changes because nobody cared about them before.

Edited by lbssb on Mar 23rd 2024 at 1:57:10 PM

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The reason Bobby worked for gay was that a huge number of fans already believed it.

I'd also use a post-everything character unless you plan to do a respectful handling of the process.

Example: Jennifer Kale the Sexy Witch used magic to become her true self.

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.

I would like to see Jennifer Kale do something again, she's really underrated.

I think I'd buy any character as trans if there was a good enough pitch and the writing on it was strong enough.

I think we'd need more than the usual marvel five issue miniseries, though. That'd need an ongoing.

All comic are reinventions.

Retcons are a tool of the medium and suspension of disbelief is something often employed.

Still, it becomes harder to believe in some cases because Connor Kent is a character we've been in the head of for a long time.

So it come quite a bit more so than, say, if it was revealed for a character we don't know as much about interior life wise. There's also characters that could have existing trans themes updated.

Bring back Shauvaugn Erin from the Legion of Superheroes. Who IS a trans character (but they didn't realize it)

Maybe Mystique could have been assigned male at birth.

This from a wholly ignorant CIS guy, admittedly.

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.

I don't know about Mystique being it, considering a growing number of trans and non-binary people have been pretty annoyed at the amount of Non-Human Non-Binary going on, since the sheer volume of it is starting to near Discount Lesbians level.

Well Mystique being a mutant is still human but I admit I'm, again, not the kind of person who would understand the nuances of this.

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.

I do think doing it with a character like Mystique makes it kinda cheap and easy. Like, there's no real story, there. There's not much emotional weight to Mystique being like, "oh, yeah, I was actually born with a dick but decided I didn't want it, so I got rid of it, except for special occasions."

While it was mostly a joke, I once came up with the idea of Beast being trans. So many transformations, but never finding the form that actually fits!

More seriously, Marvel could also make actual use of the trans characters they already have. Sera was a great character, bring her back. Koi Boi may have been used for a comedy book, but there's no reason he can't be more. Escapade could be one of those characters who's almost always used in one X-title or another, or branch off into other books, as well (put her on some secondary or even tertiary Avengers team, initially helping them with a heist and then sticking around; things along those lines).

Or introduce a new trans character in a team book that gets a long run and allows the character to be developed over time and spun off into other titles, maybe even a solo. They had a chance with that one in Black Panther, but since they ended that run fairly quickly, it's safe to assume that character won't be seen again any time soon.

Sadly, there's probably a pretty good chance that Loki, over in Thor, will be just about the only trans rep Marvel has for the rest of this year.

X-Men X-Pert, my blog where I talk about X-Men comics.

Where is Sera these days?

Last I remember, from Asgardians of the Galaxy, she was living on Ego, taking care of some people who'd settled there. A quick look at the Wiki suggests that was her last appearance.

Ego was destroyed a couple years ago, wasn't he? In that Guardians/X-Men crossover event? One would assume Sera wasn't on Ego when that happened, and that she's still alive, but it's very clear that no one in editorial has even the slightest interest in her, so there's no way we see her outside of a Pride special any time this decade. She hasn't shown up in 5 years as it is, and that was only for a two-issue story that was only done to officially break Angela and Sera up so people would stop asking her after she hadn't appeared in the previous 3 years.

Their (adopted) daughter, Leah, is similarly doomed to limbo, unlikely to be seen again. Even though she and Illyana would make a very cute couple. It at least would've been cool to see Leah meet Illyana, but the most reasonable place for that to have happened would've been Angela's solo, before it got cancelled. Leah doesn't even get to be mentioned in Pride specials. She was last seen driving off with Thori, who's had plenty of appearances since then but with no mention of his previous owner. And I thought dogs were supposed to be loyal. Bad dog, Thori.

X-Men X-Pert, my blog where I talk about X-Men comics.

Generally true for Mystique, but one Hulkling & Wiccan story did have P'alluc, a Skrull trans woman who was haunted by the fact that her body was only presenting as female due to shapeshifting. Among other things, it meant she'd be treated as male when she died and her body reverted to her "default" form.

That story contrasted her situation with Lacie, an immortal, utterly invulnerable/indestructible trans woman who can't physically transition because her powers won't let anyone — even gods and sorcerers — change her.

Lacie's initial view of P'alluc was the one suggested for Mystique above; P'alluc did not see it that way.

(Lacie was a great character and should come back at some point)

Edited by Mrph1 on Mar 24th 2024 at 10:06:41 AM

Part of why I don't like the Nico/Karolina is that I really enjoyed Xavin as well as the struggle between Karolina's unwillingness to accept their gender while they would now be described as nonbinary.

Because, of course, Karolina is projecting her own issues on Xavin.

She struggles to get people to accept her as a lesbian so being with Xavin means that Xavin must be female presenting at all times.

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.

So crushed that Rainbow's Runaways series got canceled the moment it was preparing for Xavin to return, written with modern sensibilities. We got one panel of then rocking an amazing androgynous look with fantastic abs and then nothing.

The transgender Skrull experience must be interesting, because it seems clear that some parts of their culture can be really flippant about gender, but some parts really really not.

Didn't Xavin show up in some story on Marvel Unlimited? I seem to remember people wishing that story was longer.

X-Men X-Pert, my blog where I talk about X-Men comics.

Yeah, the Skrulls have been either extremely conservative or progressive depending on the writer. Though it might just be inconsistent writing.

And across a galactic empire with various regimes in power, from the secular to the religious fanatics of Secret Invasion, there's plenty of scope for a range of views.

Edited by Mrph1 on Mar 24th 2024 at 1:08:48 PM

Their religious mantra hinges on their god being gendered for one thing.

My headcanon is that Xavin comes from a sect of gender abolitionists, who are probably expected to adopt a gender-to-be-confirmed-at-death when leaving that sect, and most people do because its meaningless to them, but because having no gender identity is part of Xavin's identity they would refuse to be thought of that way like they did on earth.

One imagines in Skrull culture death and the afterlife is rigorously gendered (hence "he loves you"), and in gender abolitionists sects, bodies would be concealed on discovery of death, viewed only by medical professionals, and then cremated.

Edited by Whowho on Mar 24th 2024 at 7:42:20 AM

That makes me think of Butterball, one of those characters introduced in the Avengers: The Initiative comics who seems to have faded into comic-book limbo. He also has the Blessed with Suck power of invulnerability/indestructibility in the form of unchangingness — except his problem is that he's overweight and in otherwise poor shape, and his powers won't let him become more fit, so being sent to superhero boot camp does him exactly no favors.

I've occasionally thought about the semantic implications of such a power — agelessness, for example, like Lacie has. Or having anterograde amnesia, with your memory periodically resetting to when you first got your powers. At least Lacie and Butterball didn't get that drawback... (For one thing, they wouldn't be able to go the Memento route since their powers would prevent them from getting tattoos.)

Edited by ClancyGardener on Mar 24th 2024 at 1:00:53 AM

Trimming the hedges, one trope at a time.

I actually almost prefer Xavin to just being from a Skrull community that doesn't think it's a big deal and is confused why so many Earthlings think it is.

Sort of like, "Why is this worth killing over?"

Then maybe doing a casual mention of some insane Skrull prejudice.

Edited by CharlesPhipps on Mar 24th 2024 at 1:23:21 AM

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.

Looking through some Marvel Handbooks for obscure characters. I think I may have found a Golden Ager with an even weirder origin than the Whizzer. Behold, Blue Blaze!

"In 1852, Spencer Keen studied science at Midwest College, where his father Dr. Harrison Keen was a professor. One night, as Spencer donned a blue costume for a masquerade ball, his father showed him his newest discovery: A flaming azure energy that Spencer dubbed a "blue blaze." The blaze had killed mice and insects during Dr. Keen's tests, but those creatures had revived months later with greatly enhanced strength and longevity. Fearing the blaze's power, Dr. Keen planned to destroy it, but a tornado suddenly wrecked the college, killing 85% of the local population; struck by the blue blaze during the storm, Spencer was seemingly slain. Left in his blue costume during the hasty mass burials that followed the disaster and never processed by a mortician, Spencer spent decades in his grave in a form of suspended animation, his strength and durability slowly increasing while he subconsciously monitored the outside world's development via "sub-strata dermatic rays." These rays showed him an increasingly corrupt world, and the dormant Keen dreamed of someday battling that corruption."

The Terror is another good one — has several plot devices awkwardly sitting next to each other: https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Mystic_Comics_Vol_1_5

He reappeared in Steve Gerber’s run on She-Hulk, which didn’t seek to make any more sense of the origin.

The Golden Age had all sorts of high concept and sometimes downright baffling superheroes and origins for said heroes. Definitely one of the markers of how the genre was still finding it's feet.

My personal favorite example of this is Centaur Publication's The Eye, which was basically "biblically accurate angel as a superhero"; a giant floating eye wreathed in golden light obsessed with justice. They don't even bother to give him an origin, he's just described as the Anthropomorphic Personification of man's inner conscience.

Edited by immortaleditor on Mar 25th 2024 at 11:02:09 AM

Steve Gerber deciding not to have something make sense? I'm shocked!

X-Men X-Pert, my blog where I talk about X-Men comics.

Sound like a easy to bring back character, Just say he have been in suspended animation until something happened that took him out of his grave. Just stretch how long he stayed in there and you don't even have to retcon his birth date.

Does anyone know if Ms Marvel: Mutant Menace is going to be an ongoing or a miniseries?