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A 'prominent' superhero is coming out of the closet

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GAP Formerly G.G. from Who Knows? Since: May, 2011 Relationship Status: In love with love
Formerly G.G.
#1: May 21st 2012 at 12:16:16 PM

What do you think of this?

Your favorite DC Comics character might be gay. In an interview at the Kapow Comics Convention, DC Comics Co-Publisher Dan Di Dio said that a "prominent" DC Comics character will soon come out of the closet, reversing an earlier statement where he had said DC was more likely to insert a new LGBT character than "out" an existing one. Twitter users have cited Aquaman and Wonder Woman as the most likely candidates. They won't be the first gay characters in comics, though. "It's sad when DC is playing catch-up to Archie. And the entire comics industries of Japan and Europe," tweeted @Joe_Hunter. Once they start catching up, though, it could happen in a Flash.

Here is another one.

One question asked at the DC panel today at the Kapow comic convention in London, was about DC co-publisher Dan Di Dio’s interview with The Advocate. Specifically over the decision not to change any character’s sexual orientation when relaunching the DC Universe. At the time Dan stated they would introduce new LGBT characters rather than switch orientation, but the question asked why DC would switch race, size, age, all sorts of identifying features, but not orientation.

Surprisingly, Dan stated that they had changed DC’s policy in this regard. And they ae about to reintroduce a previously existing DC character who was previously straight and now will be “one of our most prominent gay characters.”

As Senior VP Sales Bob Wayne explained, just like the President of the United States, the co-publisher’s policy on this “has evolved.”

And despite his best efforts to stem Dan’s wandering mouth, we also got the very strong impression that the death of Superman of Earth Two many not have been as final as portrayed…

UPDATE: Thanks to all the news organisations that have linked to this post. For your files, the first openly gay mainstream superhero was Northstar, reinterpreted as gay by his creator John Byrne in the eighties, but only officially stated as gay by writer Scott Lobdell in the nineties, and Marvel is expected to announce Northstar’s engagement to his boyfriend, Kyle,on ABC’s The View tomorrow. Lobdell recently created a new gay DC character in the recent relaunched comic Teen Titans. Image Comics and Wildstorm published comics in the noughties featuring gay couple Midnighter and Apollo, based on Batman and Superman, something that was played down and censored when DC bought Wildstorm, though eventually the pair were allowed to marry in the comics, in a ceremony conducted by a fictitious version of Ellen De Generes. Of late both Marvel and DC have significantly increased the number of LGBT characters, prominently in books such as Young Avengers, Batwoman, 52 and Astonishing X-Men, and even Archie Comics has featured prominent gay characters and earlier this year a mixed-race military gay wedding. And then there is the British superhero comic Spandex, featuring noting but gay characters!

Things have come a long way since the only gay people in mainstream superhero comics were the bad men who tried to sexually assault Bruce Banner…

This may be old news but what do you guys think of it?

"Fan, a Mega Man character."
Sparkysharps Since: Jan, 2001
#2: May 21st 2012 at 3:22:14 PM

I think I heard rumors for the next Catwoman book about how the character Selina once had a fling with was female.

Other than that, I would assume Wonder Woman on account of it being so brainfuckingly obvious.

(Seriously, if Wonder Woman actually is announced to be gay or bi, most of the comic-reading population will probably go, "No shit she is, dumbass.")

Tiamatty X-Men X-Pert from Now on Twitter Since: Jan, 2010 Relationship Status: Brony
Braincogs Since: Jul, 2009
#4: May 21st 2012 at 3:41:51 PM

I think it'll be Wally West. He's a prominent hero that the public knows about (probably more than Barry Allen) and he has yet to be reintroduced.

It's strange that they're making such a big deal about it; they already have gay and bisexual heroes. (Granted, few people who aren't into comics know about them.) And while it probably doesn't need to be stated, they're obviously only doing this as a publicity stunt.

LLSmoothJ (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#5: May 21st 2012 at 4:47:43 PM

[up][up] I don't think it'll be Wally West. At least it better not be Wally West, considering that it'll destroy years of history with the character (And we can say goodbye to Irey West). Not to mention Young Justice.

My guess is that it'll be a character who isn't married or known to be in a relationship. I would think that they'd want to use a character who won't end up ruining the history of the character just for the sake of a publicity stunt. But considering their past decisions I doubtful.

Deboss I see the Awesomeness. from Awesomeville Texas Since: Aug, 2009
I see the Awesomeness.
#6: May 21st 2012 at 5:35:33 PM

I seriously doubt it's actually a prominent character.

Fight smart, not fair.
Jhimmibhob Since: Dec, 2010
#7: May 21st 2012 at 6:16:42 PM

If I were gay and it turned out to be freaking Aquaman, I'd be protesting in the streets.

Deboss I see the Awesomeness. from Awesomeville Texas Since: Aug, 2009
I see the Awesomeness.
#8: May 21st 2012 at 6:28:01 PM

Considering he's got the hottest girlfriend, it would definitely be a shame.

Fight smart, not fair.
Deadpoolrocks Since: Sep, 2010
#9: May 21st 2012 at 8:44:57 PM

Hey Aquaman is awesome. But hes not gay because he has his hot wife Aquawoman. Yes I know her name but Im continuing the gag of calling her Aquawoman from the comics.

Bur from Flyover Country (Living Relic) Relationship Status: Having tea with Cthulhu
#10: May 21st 2012 at 8:58:44 PM

[up]x4 Seconding this. Would be nice if someone as well-known Wonder Woman was officially outed but, well...

...actually that might come with gratuitous lesbian sex, so maybe I could see that happening.

edited 21st May '12 8:59:09 PM by Bur

KnownUnknown Since: Jan, 2001
#11: May 21st 2012 at 9:06:56 PM

I'd find this more interesting if they didn't seem to be doing this just to prove that their "policy has evolved." It seems too... sensationalist.

If even in universe the only reason they can come up with is "this character is gay now because we needed to make someone gay in order to show we care about homosexuals," I will be sorely disappointed.

This reminds me of when Storm and Black Panther got married in defiance of characterization simply so two prominent black characters could be seen in a relationship together. It's not the way you ought to do something like this. It just isn't.

The fact that they're making an enormous point out of doing this is a sign to me that they're probably not going to handle it well. I hope one day we'll get to the point where we won't have to make an enormous point of having gay characters, and we can just have them organically, such that we won't have to go to the point of altering pre-established characters in order to make a show out of presenting ourselves as progessive.

Basically, we need to think progressively in a natural way, not have the kind of thinking where we go out of our way to look like we think progressively - that's not progressive, that's acting progressive and it usually does nothing but cheapen the quality of what you're doing.

edited 21st May '12 9:19:31 PM by KnownUnknown

Deadpoolrocks Since: Sep, 2010
#12: May 21st 2012 at 10:02:46 PM

Eh they didnt really make a big deal out of it. They mentioned it at a con, and everywhere else is making a big deal out of it.

Deboss I see the Awesomeness. from Awesomeville Texas Since: Aug, 2009
I see the Awesomeness.
#13: May 21st 2012 at 10:07:54 PM

I think purple magic guy in the current Teen Titans is gay, but I don't know if that is legacy characterization.

Fight smart, not fair.
Deadpoolrocks Since: Sep, 2010
#14: May 21st 2012 at 10:42:36 PM

Bunker is Gay buts thats not who they are talking about. Cause hes new. It says that a Batfamily character will be revealed to be gay so it could be Jean Paul.

KnownUnknown Since: Jan, 2001
#15: May 21st 2012 at 10:46:45 PM

If it's a Batman character then there's a Seduction Of The Innocent reference to be made, but on second thought I don't think I have the guts to make it.

Though I think with all the baggage associated making Bats or any of the Robins Gay All Along would result in more than a little more result than DC is prepared for.

edited 21st May '12 10:54:36 PM by KnownUnknown

TheConductor Since: Jan, 2011
#16: May 21st 2012 at 11:08:23 PM

I have a feeling that it is going to be Jason Todd.

Deboss I see the Awesomeness. from Awesomeville Texas Since: Aug, 2009
I see the Awesomeness.
#17: May 22nd 2012 at 2:51:24 AM

Wait, isn't Batwoman already gay? They're adding another Batfamily character? And don't all of them have relationships or something except for Damian?

Fight smart, not fair.
RavenWilder Since: Apr, 2009
#18: May 22nd 2012 at 2:58:01 AM

I note that this guy says a prominent DC Comics character will be revealed as gay, not necessarily a superhero. Maybe they'll decide to make the Foe Yay between Lex Luthor and Superman canonical.

VampireBuddha Calendar enthusiast from Ireland (Wise, aged troper) Relationship Status: Complex: I'm real, they are imaginary
Calendar enthusiast
#19: May 22nd 2012 at 8:11:21 AM

Long, angry post alert!

First off, it's not going to be a male character.

DC comics isn't indie or underground. Really, it's mainstream; you can find the comics in any newsagent's, and people in general recognise the characters, even if hardly anybody actually reads the comics themselves.

Mainstream media doesn't do gay men. Attractive, feminine lesbians let them claim to be progressive while drawing in the penis market by showing sexual scenes with double the number of breasts and no penis in sight, because while many men are proud of their own penises, they really don't want to think about anyone else's. Having a love scene with twice as many penises and no boobs will send an unfortunate number of men screaming.

So, no men that are going to engage in bummery. That just leaves the women.

Now, consider DC. Its product line is very male-oriented; the basic story is of people defeating evil villains by punching them, and if that doesn't work, punching them really hard. In most cases, men are tall, broad, big-chested, and muscled; they're the sort of men that regular men want to be. The women, on the other hand are tall, willowy, slender, graceful, and dress in an overtly sexual manner; they're the sort of women that regular men want to be in. Starfire is the most blatant example of this, but she's merely the logical end to the manner in which women are designed for DC.

As has been established, bummery is right out for all the regular men who read DC, but sapphism is still fair game. Having a little mammary-on-snugglepillow action is also good for sales; outing a character as a lipstick lesbian means they get to include gratuitous hot lesbian scenes, while hypocritically saying "Look! Homosexual characters! We're progressive, honest!"

So yeah, it's going to be a female character. Come to think of it, Starfire is the sluttiest character in the universe at the moment, so I wouldn't be surprised if they made her a lesbian in order to have her be naked alongside another sexy woman.

Right. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say either Starfire or Wonder Woman is going to be DC's new homosexual. If I'm wrong, I will post a euro to anyone who has already posted in this thread who wants one. (Seriously, I'm not joking. If you want one, send me a PM with your address and whether you want an actual euro or if I should convert it to your local currency.)


And now a clarification which is going to look a bit like backpedalling, but it's not.

The above is a rant about DC, but I'm not singling them out; I just talked about them because this discussion is about DC. Marvel is just as bad, and if this thread had been about the imminent homosexuality of a Marvel character, the only difference would be that I would have replaced Starfire with Emma Frost and not mentioned Wonder Woman at all.

And DC and Marvel aren't even the worst. Japan, for example, is pretty new to the whole feminism thing, and if you were to compare any given American superhero comic to a random manga, you could make a profit by betting that the women in the manga will spend more time wearing less clothes than the American women while also contributing less to the plot. And that's not even counting the outright hentai.

But bad as Japan is, Italy is even worse; after all, this is a country where Silvio Berlusconi can become prime minister. I've read some Italian comics published in the last couple of years that were so shockingly misogynistic and sexist that I've had to repress memories of them.

But really, this isn't a thing about comics. It's about all media. Check out any movie or TV show with homosexuals in it. 95% of the time, it's lesbians. Nine times out of ten, they're attractive, feminine lesbians. With the exception of books, works featuring gay men are rare; prominently featuring them, vanishingly so (except for Japan, surprisingly enough, which despite a culture that majorly frowns upon homosexuality is actually very cool with it in media).

And the reason for this? Lesbians are hot. At some point, some pornographer was watching two people have sex, and had an epiphany - "This would be much hotter if we replaced the dude with another chick!" The hotness of lesbians meme spread at a speed the Internet can never hope to match, and lesbians eventually found their way into mainstream media as a two-pronged approach to gaining publicity - hot girls making out draw in the men, while the presence of homosexuality leads to condemnation from religious groups. As for the gay men? Well, they'll bring the condemnation, but not the sexual appeal to men.

You'll notice here that there is a distinct lack of attempt to sexually appeal to women. Part of this is because what engages women is a lot more subtle, complex, and varied than the much simpler routes to arousing men. A greater part, however, is that within living memory, men were considered to be more important than women, and such sexism was enshrined in the laws of various countries.

For example, in my country up to 1971, there was a law on the books mandating that a woman earn less than a man for doing the same work. This wasn't an oversight or unfortunate result of long-standing prejudice; this was an actual, overt law. It was repealed not because people realised it was bad, but because lack of such laws was (and is) a prerequisite for joining the EU.

This, in turn, goes back to the time when humans changed from hunting and gathering to agriculture. When humans settled into agricultural societies, an arrangement developed that the men would do the heavy work due to their bigger muscles, and women would take care of the children (due to giving birth to them). By the time the Sumerian city-states arose, this had developed into the view that men were more important than women, and that a woman's lot in life was to do as her father and husband commanded. Have sex with him. Bear his children. Entertain him.

This basic attitude, in one form or another, lasted throughout history, and is still apparent today; for example, check out Conservapedia some time. (The World History Lectures is chock-full of this crap, mixed in with all sorts of idiocy, poor research, and an undercurrent of racism; if you want to retain your sanity, Rationalwiki has an incredibly interesting, entertaining, and educational sporking here, written almost entirely by a self-described liberal, homosexual, socialist, atheist, black, British, history-degree-educated PhD-level academic bodybuilder.)

And, even though most modern men in the western world consciously support feminism, the idea that women are there for the service and entertainment of men is not an easy one to eradicate.

And that's why media does lesbians so much more than gay men*

.

And that's why DC's new homosexual is going to be a woman.

Ukrainian Red Cross
Tiamatty X-Men X-Pert from Now on Twitter Since: Jan, 2010 Relationship Status: Brony
#20: May 22nd 2012 at 12:37:23 PM

[up] Agreed all around.

As for a word for gay men, I like Scott Thompson's suggestion of "faggo." He was trying to figure out why people don't like faggots, and decided it must be the word itself. And after ruling out all the other letters, he suggested the 'T' reminds people of Jesus on the cross.

So, he dropped the 'T' and the word became "faggo." As seen here.

And while we're at it, Running Faggot.

X-Men X-Pert, my blog where I talk about X-Men comics.
Deadpoolrocks Since: Sep, 2010
#21: May 22nd 2012 at 2:12:06 PM

Actually its confirmed already to be a Male Gay character. The batfamily character is supposedly new and may be that Harper girl. The reintroduced gay character might be Vibe

BigMadDraco Since: Mar, 2010 Relationship Status: [TOP SECRET]
#22: May 22nd 2012 at 2:30:24 PM

In what would does Vibe count as prominent?

Deadpoolrocks Since: Sep, 2010
#23: May 22nd 2012 at 3:25:04 PM

Hes not prominent yet, but seeing as how hes a part of the Trinity War, and is coming back to the Universe for it. Besides DC never said prominant. They said established character who was straight is now gay. Every other place is saying prominant.

NapoleonDeCheese Since: Oct, 2010
#24: May 22nd 2012 at 3:33:28 PM

It'll be freaking hilarious if it turns out to be Darkseid.

What? Despite the thread's title, the official statement doesn't say it'll be a superHERO, just "a prominent character".

Other So Bad, It's Good picks: Damian Wayne, Jim or Babs Gordon, Nightwing, Green Arrow (Canary, you poor beard!), Booster Gold, the Phantom Stranger, the Spectre.

edited 22nd May '12 3:36:18 PM by NapoleonDeCheese

3of4 Just a harmless giant from a foreign land. from Five Seconds in the Future. Since: Jan, 2010 Relationship Status: GAR for Archer
Just a harmless giant from a foreign land.
#25: May 22nd 2012 at 3:45:45 PM

The personification of God's Wrath homosexual? Might be a really really bad day to be an radical evangelist.

edited 22nd May '12 3:46:03 PM by 3of4

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