Who should be the next gay character?

[Wiccan]

How about we just leave straight characters straight? I would, however, love to see a Northstar series.

Oh, the old "Just give the existent minority characters a solo instead of making more!" tactic. Does anyone still buy that?

[Captain M]

Make em bi.

[kaimaciel]

The only characters I would like to read as gay would be Magneto and Professor X. They already have a very close relationship, the sexual tension cuts like a knife, and pretty much everyone ships them already.

[Wiccan]

You know what? You're absolutely right. Ace representation is practically non-existent. What about making Wiccan asexual? And Hulking a trans-woman? Wouldn't that be great?

Oh hi, you must be the guy who thinks whitewashing is the same as making white characters POC on adaptations, how is it going?

[Skedatz]

How about we just leave straight characters straight? I would, however, love to see a Northstar series.

Having a character reveal themselves as a closeted homosexual isn't exactly a bad thing. I doubt that's what you're trying to say (or even feel), but it sort of implies this. Statistically there should be at least a few in the wings of the many many characters. So having a character secretly gay should be expected to be honest.


My vote would be for Marvel to pull someone out of the skunk works and reveal them as gay to mitigate all the people who will get upset no matter what and help promote some of their older history. Sorta like they did with D Man. Someone without too much established history I guess. Another option they may try is having an established villain be secretly gay and actively denying it.

[legion_quest]

The only characters I would like to read as gay would be Magneto and Professor X. They already have a very close relationship, the sexual tension cuts like a knife, and pretty much everyone ships them already.

In the movies, sure. But I've never felt it from their comics relationship

[stingray]

Oh, the old "Just give the existent minority characters a solo instead of making more!" tactic. Does anyone still buy that?

The poll is not about creating new characters, it's about switching the sexual preference of existing ones.

[Drops Of Venus]

People always forget that Marvel HAS a queer character with a successful solo book that doesn't get cancelled: Deadpool. So if the thread's intention is to point out a queer character who could thrive with a solo book, I'd say they should spend more energy treating Wade's pan/omni/whateversexuality as more than a joke. I'm not saying he should be some kind of upstanding advocate for LGBTQ rights or anything like that, it would obviously be very OOC for him. All I'm saying is: treat his attraction to males (or any other non-traditional genders) THE SAME WAY you treat his attraction to females. Another character I think about it's Hercules: his last solo tanked, but once upon a time he was able to have a long-running comic book. Who knows, maybe someday they can recreate that glory, BUT he is in a similar position as Deadpool, in terms of how his queersexuality is often erased and ignored. It's really not that hard to fix this, but they have to break that heteronormative barrier first.

Either way, I still think lesser known queer heroes should keep getting solos. I don't think a comic book's worth is defined by the length of its run, so I'm totally fine with books like Angela, Iceman and America still being published with the full awareness they are probably not gonna last very long. I rather read those stories for a short time than to not read them at all. Another option is perhaps to try those characters in anthology series. Loki (who's also queer) didn't last very long with his own solo title, but I THINK he had a healthier run under Journey Into Mystery, so Marvel should try something like that every now and then.

Now, if we go beyond just solo titles, there's A LOT Marvel can do to improve their LGBTQ rep. There are SO MANY existing LGBTQ characters JUST WAITING to have a central role in group titles. Let Northstar be the star of a main X-title. Let Wiccan and Hulkling be the stars of a main Avengers title (or just relaunch the Young Avengers bECAUSE SERIOUSLY WHY IS IT TAKING SO GODDAMN LONG I DON'T GET IT /rant). That requires Marvel writers AND Marvel editorial to actually put an EFFORT into pushing those characters. And I mean CONTINUOUSLY push them, not make a big deal about their wedding on a very special issue and then ship them to editorial limbo. All I ask for is at least HALF the energy they spend on pushing Carol Danvers and that would already be one hell of an improvement.

With all of that being said, I just want to clarify I'm not one of those people who believe every single established cis-het character is untouchable and impossible to come out as LGBTQ at some point. I think it has to be done very carefully, with the right build-up and the right approach and yes, it can be a worthwhile storyline. What Rainbow Rowell seems to be doing right now with Nico Minoru, for instance, is a good example of that. A character who's been portrayed as straight during all of her comic book existence, BUT the writer is giving me reasons to believe that maybe things aren't so black and white for her and her feelings, and that's okay. Bendis wasn't very thoughtful in the way he outed Iceman, BUT Sina Grace managed to improve that story and make it more appealing in his solo book. I'm fine with that because things like that DO HAPPEN in real life all the time and there's no reason why comic books are not allowed to explore it. It's a very real and very relatable part of human nature. There are certain existing characters I wouldn't mind coming out as queer, but none of them happen to be in the poll..... Anyway, I voted for ''other'' for lack of a better option and also gave a sympathy vote for Odinson JUST because the way Loki describes sexuality within asgardian culture makes me believe Thor's sexuality could potentially work in a similar way as Hercules's, although I don't actually expect them to explore that ever.

None.

Marvel should work on creating new gay characters, build them up and give them exposure.

While the sentiment behind creating brand new LGBTQ characters is more than noble, at this point, I feel like any brand new LGBTQ character is just being set up for the same kind of negligence all the other existing LGBTQ characters go through. I'm not saying Marvel SHOULDN'T be creating brand new LGBTQ characters, of course not. I mean, if they announced a brand new transgender hero right now I'd be ECSTATIC about it, but deep inside I would think ''yeah, if other more established and relevant LGBTQ characters didn't make it, I'm not expecting this one to'' and THAT'S REALLY SAD. Marvel has to improve the way they treat their already existing LGBTQ characters so readers WON'T feel this way whenever a brand new one shows up.

You know what? You're absolutely right. Ace representation is practically non-existent. What about making Wiccan asexual? And Hulking a trans-woman? Wouldn't that be great?

The flaw in this argument is that you're suggesting that one minority has to be axed in order to improve another, and that... is tricky, to say the least. It was great having a female Ancient One in the Doctor Strange movie, but was it great that we lost an asian representation in the process? The thing is: minority characters are just not abundant enough to be considered disposable like that. It should be noted that we've never had ONE SINGLE openly gay character in a Marvel movie, so instead of suggesting something that, in a potential upcoming movie, would erase two potential gay characters from existing in a universe that already BARELY recognizes their existence, why not suggest that, for example, Cassie Lang should become ace? That would be a lot less harmful, as she wouldn't be taking the spot from any minority and she most definitely wouldn't be erasing straight representation from Marvel media, because we would still have A LOT of those.

Well, that was a long ass post.

[stingray]

Having a character reveal themselves as a closeted homosexual isn't exactly a bad thing. I doubt that's what you're trying to say (or even feel), but it sort of implies this. Statistically there should be at least a few in the wings of the many many characters. So having a character secretly gay should be expected to be honest.


My vote would be for Marvel to pull someone out of the skunk works and reveal them as gay to mitigate all the people who will get upset no matter what and help promote some of their older history. Sorta like they did with D Man. Someone without too much established history I guess. Another option they may try is having an established villain be secretly gay and actively denying it.

I get it, but while the characters ages haven't really changed all that much in the comics over the years, I've been reading about most of them since 1968, before a lot of people on these boards were even born. It's very difficult for me to reconcile a major change like this after that length of time.

[Skedatz]

I think people forget that Marvel has a hard time creating new characters, promoting, and using them well to begin with. When it comes to females or PoC or LGBTQ characters Marvel is even worse about it to the point of negligence. At least it's always felt negligent on their part.

It isn't Marvel shouldn't make new characters who aren't straight, white, or male (or some combo), it's just that readers should understand when Marvel is going to replace a character anyway it isn't such a bad concept for something different to take the old character's place. And let's be honest, Marvel will replace Thor, Cap, Wasp, Iron Man, Stilt Man, and literally anybody at some point since Marvel at least tries to treat superhero identities mostly as mantles and not so much as actual names.

In terms of straight characters coming out as not straight? I don't think Marvel is just going to go on a spree or something. Iceman had a lot of implications throughout the years suggesting he might not be straight, and Marvel played off of that. We're not going to see Jarvis, Tony, Steve, and Simon come out as gay from nowhere. If Marvel does continue to explore that avenue they'll have to be careful that a character has personalities that suggest they aren't completely straight and very carefully write that story.

[Skedatz]

I get it, but while the characters ages haven't really changed all that much in the comics over the years, I've been reading about most of them since 1968, before a lot of people on these boards were even born. It's very difficult for me to reconcile a major change like this after that length of time.

And I understand that. I'm not suggesting just any character can be "turned" for whatever reason. I'm suggesting that some characters who might have personalities that suggest they're not entirely straight could be explored. By no means do I think someone like Steve Rogers is suddenly going to be gay, or Cyclops even. But characters like Wyatt Wingfoot or even Sunspot could be there. Johnny Storm as somewhere around bisexual wouldn't be out of the question. Heck, a good possibility for someone who is actively repressing it would be US Agent.

And it's also not to say Marvel should go crazy with this idea. They'd have to be -very- careful with the characters they choose and how they write these stories.

[Tmacaoni]

Make em bi.

I could've supported this for Iceman. I couldn't support him just being gay only. I would've loved seeing his conflicts with past women and how he dealt with being sexually fluid. I don't think Marvel supports bisexuals anyway. You're either gay or straight. I really can think of no character in Marvel that is Bi. Hercules used to be, but surely isn't stated now. Eh...whatevs. Moondragon used to be, but shes renounced men as well.


I take that back. How could I forget about Deadpool? Still, hes the only one out of a plethora of characters (plus he doesn't even talk about it....more like panders) that could be Bisexual.

[legion_quest]

I could've supported this for Iceman. I couldn't support him just being gay only. I would've loved seeing his conflicts with past women and how he dealt with being sexually fluid. I don't think Marvel supports bisexuals anyway. You're either gay or straight. I really can think of no character in Marvel that is Bi. Hercules used to be, but surely isn't stated now. Eh...whatevs. Moondragon used to be, but shes renounced men as well.


I take that back. How could I forget about Deadpool? Still, hes the only one out of a plethora of characters (plus he doesn't even talk about it....more like panders) that could be Bisexual.

To be fair, bisexuality is just hard to write. Unless you have the character referencing it all the time, or just whoring it about and sleeping with numerous people, as soon as you put them in a relationship, people just read them as whatever that relationship is.

[Colossus1980]

I prefer Marvel creating a new character instead of having someone come out of the closet. I wonder if DC is ever going to do this to one of their heroes.

[Dum Dum Dugan]

In the movies, sure. But I've never felt it from their comics relationship