Ho Yay / X-Men

X-Men

What else do you expect from a comic about a small minority generally indistinguishable at first glance, often not knowing their own identities until puberty or later, loathed by large parts of society?

See here for the X-Men Film Series.

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Comic Books

• In various incarnations of the X-Men, there is definite... chemistry between Professor X and Magneto, even to the point of them cracking open a bottle of red wine and discussing philosophy on their(!) balcony in Excalibur, series 2 issue 2. Charles has agreed to help Erik rebuild Genosha, so the two find it beneficial to SHARE A HOUSE! We get many scenes of domestic bliss with the two, such as Erik cooking breakfast for both of them.
  • In fact, in the final episode of X-Men: The Animated Series, Jean asks "Did you love Charles Xavier?"; Erik's response is to be outraged that she could doubt it.
  • In the Ultimate universe, Professor Xavier says outright that he left his wife and family to be with Erik. Plus, caption box dialogue saying they were closer than brothers because of their uber-powers.
  • Their flashback with kid-Jean in the third movie is pretty close to a couple considering adopting a child. Sir Ian McKellen and James McAvoy both ship it. The latter referred to First Class as a love story and... well, just check out that quote at the top.
  • The part in First Class where Erik is practically cuddling him. Okay, it loses something because Charles has just gotten the injury that will put him in a wheelchair forever, and it was Erik's (accidental) fault, but it still has the highest "are you sure he's not the love interest?" quotient in the movieverse.
  • Though the druggie psycho Magneto of the "Planet X" arc was retconned into being an impostor in an Author's Saving Throw, he was intended to be the real Magneto when it was written... so you gotta wonder why Mags, while in full-on baby-eating mode, saw fit to not kill Xavier, but instead... keep him unconscious and naked in a tank of something-or-other. (It's totally transparent, too. Magneto has an unobstructed view of Charles' ass.) He planned to release him once all humans are wiped out, and was looking forward to Charles someday looking over the new world and agreeing with him. At his most whacked-out, Mags still wanted to live happily ever after with Charles. Post-retcon, we can say the impostor got at least one thing right.
  • Professor X has referred to them as being "two sides of the same soul." That's right, they may or may not be literal soulmates.
  • There's a 2012 story in Uncanny X-Men featuring the last two members of a species called the Apex. One of them is a benevolent yet often condescending scientist. The other is an arrogant, vengeful man grieving for his people. They've been torn apart by the latter's madness and their differing ideas about how to care for the legacy of their species. They are also in love. Sound like anyone we know?
    • Of course, they've also been shown to have female love interests in the comics, cartoons and cinema (Xavier with Moira MacTaggert, Gabrielle Haller, Amelia Voght and Lilandra, Magneto with his first wife, Polaris' mother, Lee Forrester and Rogue) so perhaps Ambiguously Bi is a better fit.
  • This poll by ComicsAlliance.com asks, "Who Should Magneto Hook Up with in His Last Days?", and the leader was Charles Xavier, who earned a whopping 95%! Some of the comments at the bottom of the article basically express that this contest is totally unfair for the other four female candidates.
    • The site then acknowledged this fact the very next day:
    "Yesterday [...] an overwhelming majority voted for Charles Xavier, to the point where it just seemed like we needn't have bothered including anyone else."
• Speaking of Magneto, sometimes it's very hard not to see his longtime disciple Exodus as an Ignored Enamored Underling. When he took over the Acolytes post-Fatal Attractions (Marvel Comics) he all but doted on the comatose Mags, to the point of attacking one of the other Acolytes just for looking at him in his comatose state. He is later driven to tears by the prospect of Magneto being in a relationship with female Acolyte Amelia Voght, and when the two finally meet again in Uncanny X-Men (2016) he boasts of all his actions being "for you", and when Mags doesn't agree, going so far as to allow himself to be beaten by him. Apparently this was enough for Magneto to forgive him, as they have since reconciled (though Mags certainly doesn't return his utter devotion).
• The Claremont-written novelization of the third X-Men movie had Iceman giving Angel his codename because of his unnatural beauty, which he goes on about in narration for some time. Of course, canonically, Angel is just that angelic-looking (even if not every comic artist manages to pull it off.)
  • Chris Claremont was frankly somewhat notorious for slipping this in where he got a chance (and we love him for it. Among other things.) One theory among old-timers about the whole Storm/Forge thing was that the editors freaked over the level of Les Yay in Ororo's night on the town with Yukio (not to mention the former's makeover) and told the man to write in a male love interest ASAP.
    • If so, it didn't stop the subtext; in a later annual Storm's heart's desire is to run away with Yukio.
    • This became canon in an issue◊ of Black Panther.
• New Mutants:
  • Illyana gives a distinct impression that she crushes on Kitty.
  • The same occurs with Warlock on Cypher, although this strays into Discount Lesbians because Warlock belongs to an asexually reproducing race and thus is a "he" only by default.
    • Warlock's love for Cypher played a part in the sad story of Earth-8545, where Warlock fused with Doug Ramsey in a last-ditch attempt to cure him of the Legacy Virus — and instead ended up turning almost every human and mutant on the planet into cyber-zombies.
    • "I love you and you are breaking my heart." It's pretty much explicit with Warlock/Cypher upon Doug's return from the dead, although not in a sexual manner.
  • And then there's Dani and Rahne. This page lists some of the alleged Subtext, make of them what you will.
    • Dani does have the superpower of mentally bonding with animals, and Rahne is a werewolf. Still...
    • This is pretty clear:
      Dani: —you're not alone. Moira loves you, and I—
      Rahne: I know. But that doesn't make me ache any the less.
  • Apparently, some creators noticed, as the film The New Mutants has Dani and Rahne fall in love.
• Wolverine/Gambit and Wolverine/Cyclops is lampshaded by Emma Frost, who in one issue comments on how Wolverine and Cyclops have a "Rad Bromance."

  • This Gutters Comic helps the Ho Yay so very much.

  • In Wolverine #12, Logan has a dream sequence where he sees a literal Cyclops hand-feeding a red bird. Logan tries to get Cyclops' attention on him instead, but, much to his dismay, is unsuccessful. The dialogue is vague as to who exactly Logan is jealous of.
  Logan: My money's as green as hers.
  (The cyclops continues gazing at the bird)
  Logan: Fine.
  • And of course, Nightcrawler addresses Wolverine as "liebchen" in a recent issue. http://asylums.insanejournal.com/scans_daily/351609.html#cutid1
  • And there's Beast addressing Nightcrawler in the same way in #502...
  • Speaking of Nightcrawler he has routinely referred to Colossus by German pet names.
    • And their girlfriends have complained that on double dates they often spend more time talking to and about each other than them.
  • Both completely destroy the het pairings of the parties involved, with Wolverine/Cyclops being the 'if I can't get you I'll get your girl' example and Wolverine/Gambit both spurning Rogue.
    • Let's not forget that these three can be a threesome as well.
    • And as if there's not enough subtext for Wolvie and Cyke, in All-New X-Men #20, Tyke expresses an attraction to X-23, despite already knowing that Laura is Logan's Opposite-Sex Clone. This has not gone without a lampshade.
• Wolverine is walking Slash Fic fodder. He seems to get scenes of chemistry with every other X-Man, male or female, ranging from the standard Ho Yay (in the forms of Colossus and Nightcrawler) to varying shades of Slap-Slap-Kiss (Magneto and Gambit) to I Love You Because I Can't Control You (mostly in his relations with Cyclops).
• While it could be interpreted as the actions of two men who have known each other since they were teenagers, Angel does seem pretty fond of randomly picking Cyclops up and flying off with him, and Cyclops seems more prone to affectionate physical contact with Warren, and to smiling. Also behold Old Married Couple Angel and Cyclops: [1]◊
• Speaking of Claremont and Les Yay, let's not forget Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew) and Lindsey McCabe.
  • Or Jessica Drew and Carol Danvers. Or Kitty and her many predatory older women. Or... you know, let's just not forget Claremont and leave it at that.
  • Or Jessica Drew and Sybil Dvorak, or Jessica Drew and Nekra Sinclair...
• And, more recently, the Psylocke miniseries starts with Dazzler riding around on the back of Betsy's motorcycle. Later, when he's trying to persuade Betsy to kill him, Matsu'o threatens:
  "I won't stop. Your brother. Warren Worthington. Alison Blaire... anyone and everyone you care about will die."
  • Just to be clear, that's her twin brother (with whom she is naturally extremely close), the man with whom she was canonically in love for years (and who a large section of the fandom thought she was going to marry), and... the lady she's just started hanging around with, for the first time since they were both written by Chris Claremont.
  • Madelyne Pryor(the Red Queen) kidnaps Psylocke and places her mind in her original body which was brought back from the dead under the Red Queen's control. The brainwashed Psylocke is forced to fight Dazzler who uses her powers to blow half her face off. Psylocke manages to gain control and stab herself with her psychic knife killing her old body. Dazzler goes to her now cradling her body saying "No, no, c'mon baby girl, hold on." Luckily Betsy returns to her Japanese body.
• In Claremont's later run on Uncanny, when Rachel discovers that Colossus is back with Kitty, she storms out of their (Kitty and Rachel's) shared room and acts all mopey and depressed.
  • And the overly friendly way she hugs Kitty in the X-Women one-shot. Guess who wrote said one-shot.
• When Rob Liefield and Fabian Nicieza wrote X-Force in the 90s, it was a catalog of testosterone, with Shatterstar, the Mojoverse warrior who was interested only in fighting. When Nicieza took over after Liefeld left, Shatterstar began figuring out human emotions and struck up a friendship with fellow teammate Rictor. Jeph Loeb took that one step further, giving Shatterstar a very obvious crush on Rictor and developing a subtext between the two men that eventually became difficult to ignore and a LGBT Fanbase ensued (detailed extensively here). Years later, Peter David writing X-Factor reunited the pair and had them become a canon couple, to the disapproval of Liefield who said that his vision of Shatterstar was as a 'gladiator' and 'Spartan', apparently precluding him from homosexuality.
  • Peter David's response to this? Have Strong Guy ask Shatterstar if he likes gladiator movies. Shatterstar concludes that he does.
• In a 2005 story (Rogue vol. 3 #7-12) Tony Bedard established that back in the really old days (the flashback part of the story is set before Sunfire's first appearance, X-Men #64 (1970)) a 17-year-old Rogue was really close friends with a memory-stealing female mutant called Blindspot who also happens to be immune to her absorption power. To this day Blindspot loves to cuddle up with one of Rogue's old costumes, and at the end of the story Rogue gives her the one she then was wearing in return for having her memories restored.
• The 2010 X-Women one shot by Claremont was written just so he could make it clear that Emma Frost, Rogue, Psylocke, Kitty Pryde and Rachel Summers are all lesbian/bisexual. The whole comic from start to finish is panel after panel of poses, lines of dialogue, scenes, and character moments that make it clear ALL these characters fancy the pants of each other and are shagging like bunnies when the "Camera" is off them.
  • The art was by famed erotic artist Milo Manara. He can't not draw women that way!
• The Colleen Coover back-up strips from X-Men: First Class were noted for some subtle Les Yay between Jean Grey and Wanda Maximoff. The fact that Coover herself is an out bisexual and was best known for girl-girl erotic comics previously didn't hurt.
• In the recent X-23 comics, fandom went crazy over this little scene between Jubilee,who happens to be a vampire (better than it sounds) and X-23. X-23 and Jubilee◊. And this◊. Nicknamed appropriately, the "vampire Lesbian scene". Although the writers seem to be genre savvy, since they have Jubilee claim she was merely acting under the influence of her vampire instincts...sure.
  • Truly genre savvy writers would have known that excuse would convince no-one.
    • Given that Vampire stories tend to have erotic overtones, and in the progenitor of modern vampire lit those overtones are sapphic as hell...
  • Some suspect X-23 had a little unrequited crush on Dust. Look at the lengths she went to in order to keep the bigoted Striker from killing Dust during the Purifiers' post-M Day attack on the school. More recently, when Dust and Laura were reunited in Avengers Academy's "A vs. X" arc, Laura makes an awkward attempt to compliment Dust; throughout the arc, their relationship is one of the side-conflicts that must be resolved.
  • Her relationship with Academy member Finesse edges this at points, especially as both are unemotionally devoid Bosom Buddies who bond over fighting and analyzing. The relationship goes sour and their final talk in Academy almost reads like a sorrow filled break up, with X-23 walking away from Finesse saying she felt betrayed by her actions.
  • As noted above, Laura gets to add a massive load of fuel to the fire over Wolverine and Cyclops just by existing, when the time-displaced teenaged Cyclops is revealed to be attracted to her.
  • On Jubilee's part there's Daria from the Operation: Zero Tolerance storyline, who betrays Bastion after being swayed by Jubilee's determination and her kindness following Daria's discovery that she was really a Prime Sentinel. Might seem standard except for the parts where Daria admires Jubilee's gutsiness with phrases like "God, I love this girl" or her constant staring at Jubilee over the monitors. In the most recent Adjectiveless series there's bisexual mutant Bling who outright admits her crush on Jubilee and even kisses her (though whether Jubilee returns her feelings remains to be seen).
• Kitty Pryde has been mentioned on this page already, but special mention must be made of her relationship with Storm. The older woman is the only person in the X-Universe who actually calls her "Kitten" as a term of endearment, and there is at least one fanfic out there dedicated to Ororo seeing Kitty as more than "the daughter she never had" (which is the type of relationship they share in canon).
  • Then there's the Mutant X short series where Ororo is a vampire who turns Kitty (and Forge) into her slaves.
• In X-Men Unlimited issue 22, Marrow gets downright poetic about Kitty Pryde's loveliness (before throwing a dead rat into her lap.) As a Morlock, it's supposed to be jealousy of/distate for one of the "pretty" mutants who have it so easy, but that comes off as an Informed Attribute as it's very understated and Kitty's beauty and perfection is emphasized a great deal (the entire story is seen through Marrow's eyes.) The entire portion of the issue that isn't devoted to heroing is Marrow acting like a child teasing her crush while thinking about how lovely and perfect Kitty is.
• So, in summary, Logan is the person most affected by the death of Nightcrawler, he keeps a photograph of their happy days in his pocket, he said how much he misses him, looks at a photograph of him before heading out on one of his missions with X-Force, and hits Dark Beast for attacking a Kurt alternative. Then he puts Kurt and Jean Grey on the same level, said how much he loves his voice, called AOA! Kurt "elf", without really doing it on purpose and, at an earlier stage, has let his school be invaded by horrible blue dwarfs, only because they vaguely look like Kurt.
• Kurt has descended to earth to help Wolverine with his fight against devils. Not protecting Wolverine is not an option.
• Psylocke and Fantomex started out as a fairly ordinary relationship - he fell in love with her, they slept together, he got his heart ripped out by a supervillain and died. Of course, this being comics, he came back. But he came back as three people, all of them still in love with her, and one of them a woman.
  • Notably, each one gained different aspects of his original person, and while Betsy starts to date one, she finds that he's merely an asshole due to only getting the Jerk part of the originals Jerk with a Heart of Gold personality. After they break up, the female Fantomex clone approaches her, and the two quickly realize that the aspects of him that Betsy was in love with were the ones she got. It's at this point it's no longer subtext.
• From the 2014 X-Force series, Marrow and Psylocke. Or at least, Marrow towards Psylocke — initially, Psylocke thinks of Marrow as a "drooling idiot-goblin", while Marrow suspects she may be dead, and Psylocke is part of her personal heaven.
  "So... look... I like you, Duchess. Honest I do. You're real pretty. I like the elasticity 'n texture of your skin."
  • And, later, after the two of them pull a Fastbone Special against an invincible enemy:
  Psylocke: "Sarah? Sarah, say something."
  Marrow: "W-we're totally BFFs now. Let's go dancing and make out."
  Domino: "He's still alive."
  Marrow: "Skip the dancing."
• While they've gone their separate ways in recent years, Juggernaut and Black Tom Cassidy are among the earliest and longest-lasting same-sex relationships in the X-universe. They have been absolutely inseparable since their first appearance together way back in UXM #100. Far from being just scoundrels with common goals, the two villains are usually depicted as completely devoted to each other, with Cain doing things like jumping out of planes to save his buddy and even giving Tom half of the Juggernaut power as a gift once.
• Much like Black Tom and Juggernaut above, Brotherhood stalwarts Blob and Unus the Untouchable were inseparable for as long as Unus was alive, and Unus was notably one of the only people for whom the Blob would drop his usual Jerkass behavior. During one of Unus's Power Incontinence episodes, the Blob even fed and cared for him!
• Of all people, Sauron the Pterodactyl-Man had a Ho Yay moment or two during the 90's. In a three-issue storyline that spanned between the pages of Darkhawk and Sleepwalker, Sauron hypnotized the character Portal, a Native-American mutant targeted by Toad's Brotherhood for his teleporting power. What was eyebrow-raising, then, was how protective of Portal the normally cold-blooded Sauron was afterward, defending him after he accidentally teleported the Brotherhood to New York going so far as to attack Blob with his claws after the rotund mutant tried bullying the brainwashed hero. He was forced to abandon Portal at the story's end and the two characters have never interacted again, but given how quickly Portal assured Sauron that "My will is still yours", it sure was looking like a case of More than Mind Control there for a bit.
• Also, especially in the early issues, Toad's slavish worship of Magneto comes off as puppy love.

Cartoons

• Take one good look at the average episode of the '90s cartoon and it's possible to interpret Wolverine as flirting with every male character present, provided you squint a bit in the case of Professor X.
  • In particular, the animated series created the character of Morph, whose relationship with Wolverine is...noticeably slashy.
  • This is carried over and indeed ramped up in the comic book adaptation of the show, which simultaneously ups the suggestiveness of their relationship and completely removes their friendship. Despite the fact that their deep friendship is needed for Wolverine's behavior to make any level of sense...)
  • It would be remiss to not mention just how near-canon Rogue/Storm is. Heck, the first time we ever see Rogue's 'dere' side is when she's worrying that Storm's been crushed by debris. We don't see her express that amount of emotional attachment to her canonical love interest Gambit until nearly six episodes later.
  • Not to mention Magneto. He had a fair number of moments with Xavier, while his near-infinite patience with Magneto's villainy and the respect the two men hold for one another can't help but remind viewers of similar relationships. Somewhat Hilarious in Hindsight seeing as as several years on, openly gay actor Ian McKellen was cast as Magneto in the live-action films.
  Jean: (to Magneto) How much do you love Charles Xavier?
• Because of lines like this, people seem to see Boom Boom and Magma's relationship in X-Men: Evolution as pretty much Pseudo-Romantic Friendship:
  Tabby: Do I know what my girl needs, or what?
  • The Brotherhood itself was one big Ho Yay orgy with four boys living in a house together with only one girl. Of particular note was Lance and Pietro.
    • After Pietro betrays the Brotherhood, they are sent by Gambit to rescue him. Lance says "I can't wait till I get my hands on Pietro." I bet you can't.
  • Scott and Kurt don't escape either. Especially since in one episode, Kurt embraces Scott in order to teleport him out of the way of a falling object.
    • Evan, while filming Kurt and Scott washing Scott's car together (yes): "Scott can be pretty stiff, but Kurt usually takes care of that." Cue Spit Take.
    • The episode where they had to share a room, and Scott leaves that room in the morning absolutely COVERED in patches of blue fur.
    • Kurt to Scott: "You really are ashamed of me!"
  • Scott and Lance. More Ho Yay when Lance joined the X-Men in one episode.
  • There are also Kitty and Rogue (and their famous dance scene), Rogue and Jean, and the lesbian orgy that is the "On the Wild Side" montage with Jean and Amara grinding on each other.
  • Wolverine and Captain America, in a really sweet, sad kinda way.
  • The first scene Angel and Gambit have together is a shirtless Angel walking in on Gambit, who just broke in to his house, and asking him if he"likes what he sees". Wow...
  • Then once Angel gets to the Institute, Kitty and Amara are spying on him. Bobby sneaks up behind, asks them if they're "checking him out". Once they leave, he takes their place, even sneaking closer for a better look (my shipping goggle may have been on when I saw this episode though).
  • Ta-da!
  • "Dark Horizon" had Magneto carrying Xavier around and looking really worried about him. Xavier does not object.
  • Also in "Dark Horizon", Wolverine and Sabertooth tend to act like a couple who went through a really bad break-up.
• In Wolverine and the X-Men (2009) we have scenes of Rogue and Domino hand holding, looking into each other's eyes, and when Rogue goes to rejoin the X-Men... Domino looks like she was about to convince Rogue to stay with the Brotherhood with a kiss...
  • And as usual Xavier and Magneto have their moments: when Magneto found an injured Xavier unconscious on the shores of Genosha he took Xavier in and put him on life support, looking upon him with great concern when the X-Men caught up with them. Additionally in flashbacks after Magneto cedes defeat to Xavier in allowing a young Jean Grey to stay with Xavier's X-Men, there's a certain suggestiveness to the way they smile and trade barbs with each other after the battle, a certain flirtation almost, if you will, as if between old lovers.

Video Games

• Yes, really. In X-Men Legends II, we've got Brotherhood and X-Men working together, and when Toad talks about how Magneto should be in charge and not Xavier, Magneto said "Charles and I discuss everything before a mission." With emphasis on Xavier's name just like that. You'd have to hear it, but the way he said it sounded like the bratty kids preferring one parent's way over the other, but the other assures them that all decisions are made as a unit. In general, the arguments between the two teams in almost every cut scene make Charles and Erik seem like Mommy and Daddy to bickering siblings for the entire game. And nobody but the other calls each other by his first name (except Emma Frost at one point). It probably sounds like a Shipping Goggles-based stretch to anyone who hasn't played it, but it's unmistakable to anyone who has.

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