The queer archive: Gay subtext in x-men comics

[Quentin]

Iceman has got some solo series recently. It doesn't seem like a failure.

how do we even measure "success" here?

[Colt Cape]

what are we even discussing here? There is basically ONLY Iceman. who else of all the fundamentally and deeply straight mutant character has been turned gay after ages of clearly defined and articulated dogmatic straightness?

Iceman is starting the second season of his super queer themed series. His outing looks pretty successful to me!

Mutant characters aren't the only characters in fiction. Turning a het character gay causes shitstorms.
Also a sequel doesn't immediately equate to success. His first solo was cancelled due to low sales. Its only back as a mini now because of trade sales.

Anyway, I should probably split. This thread obviously isn't for me, and I don't want to appear like I'm trying to censor anybody.

[Anduinel]

I was doing a series just on the subtext that surrounded Northstar back in the day, but since that's technically Alpha Flight, I'll stick to what Claremont gave us during the first XM/AF cross-over for purposes of this thread:

X-Men/Alpha Flight: The Gift #1 & 2 (Chris Claremont and Paul Smith, December 1985/January 1986)

The same month that saw Mantlo take the reins also marked the debut of Chris Claremont’s two-part X-Men/Alpha Flight mini-series. And since this is the last time for some time that several of these characters will be recognizable as the same ones we saw during Byrne’s tenure on the book, I’m going to bend my rules about publication order a bit so that we’ve got this story acting as the buffer between the Byrne and Mantlo runs.

X-Men/Alpha Flight: The Gift is generally agreed to take place sometime between Alpha Flight #22 and #23, and likely between the panels of Uncanny X-Men #192, before Xavier is assaulted. It doesn’t line up perfectly (Storm’s still in Africa in the LS, but home in Uncanny), but it’s about as good as we’re going to get. So Jean-Paul is coping with the murder of Raymonde and Aurora’s rejection (and still wants **** all to do with Alpha Flight), Alpha Flight is still trying to adjust to Guardian’s death, and the X-Men are dealing with the spike of anti-mutant sentiment in the States. Fun times all around.

Our front-and-center hint regarding Northstar’s homosexuality comes from Heather Hudson, Guardian’s widow and not-quite-yet leader of Alpha Flight, in the panels above. I touched on this one back in Alpha Flight #22, as Heather’s sentiment here is almost identical to Aurora’s: Apparently, being a gay man means you can’t stand to be around women.

As eye-rolling as that repeat of misogyny-fueled homophobia is, it’s still of interest due to what it implies about who knew what way back when. Meta wise, we’ve got Claremont dropping the same sort of hints seen in the pages of Byrne’s Alpha Flight, and it backs up Byrne’s assertions that he intended Northstar to be gay early on and wasn’t shy about letting others know. In-story, it again implies that Jean-Paul, while not publicly out, wasn’t keeping his sexual orientation completely secret, at least not among those whom he had any regular contact with. Heather’s remark barely even warrants a verbal shrug from Wolverine, who left the team very early on in the Alpha Flight’s formation. Northstar didn’t care much for most of Alpha Flight and certainly didn’t count them among his confidants, so it’s far more likely he just didn’t give a damn if those around him knew about his sexuality than he trusted them enough to tell them. (Given his recruiting tactics, it is also possible that James Hudson was enough of a dick to out Northstar to his teammates. I tend not to go for that particular explanation, however, if only because while Jean-Paul seemed unhappy with Hudson’s intrusion into his life, he didn’t appear to hate the guy to the extent that would come with an unwilling outing.)

But since Wolvie brought Rogue into the conversation, let’s also talk about her relationship with Northstar in this series, because it’s considerably more interesting than Heather being gross.

During the inter-team misunderstanding obligatory to superhero cross-over stories, Rachel Summers triggered Aurora’s MPD, forcing the base Jeanne-Marie personality into dominance. Since the twins seem to share an inconsistent awareness of each other over distance, Jeanne-Marie’s horror at finding herself far from home and in the middle of a superhero fight is likely what brought Northstar speeding to her defense, despite their recent falling out. So Northstar came in ready to tear a strip off the first hostile he saw, but, unfortunately for him, his choice of targets was Rogue, who wasn’t around the last time the X-Men and Alpha Flight scrapped with each other, and whose durability and powers made her ideally suited for taking down even a flight-capable speedster.

When next we see them interacting (immediately after Heather and Wolverine’s convo above), Northstar lets down his defenses in front of Rogue, even confiding some of his doubts to her. This is highly unusual behavior for Jean-Paul, but at the same time, not out of character. It mostly comes down to context. Prior to this, Jean-Paul has has multiple instances where he’s demonstrated loyalty, steadfastness, and protectiveness. With the exception of Aurora, though, he almost never displays these positive traits toward anyone on the Alpha Flight roster, likely because he doesn’t consider these people his friends, just the interfering Anglophone assholes he can never fully eject from his life.

Rogue is outside of all that. Despite the fact that Jean-Paul probably never would have opened up to a stranger willingly, thanks to Rogue’s powers, the two of them have a weird type of instant intimacy at a time when the people closest to Jean-Paul are either dead or not speaking to him. She makes it clear that she knows all about him, but passes no judgement on his homosexuality (which is more than can be said for Northstar’s own sister). In addition, Rogue has just made herself vulnerable to Jean-Paul as well by her admission: she’s all of eighteen years old, and since childhood she’s had to resign herself to the knowledge that she’s likely going to go the rest of her life without to ability to enjoy even the casual affection that other people take for granted, let alone anything like a normal relationship.

Yeeeah, no way the isolated gay guy was going to be able to empathize with that last bit, nope.

So maybe it shouldn’t be that much of a shock that, instead of telling her to **** off, Jean-Paul lets down his guard, then immediately shifts into over-protective brother mode. When Rogue has a chance to see if her most desperately longed-for wish has come true, Jean-Paul offers himself up as a test subject solely for her benefit. Far from being an intolerable presence, Rogue turns out to be one of Jean-Paul’s few friendships we ever actually see developed on-page.

And then there’s the matter of how Rogue relates to Jean-Paul, particularly where the “first dance” scene is concerned. Rogue is oddly insistent upon Jean-Paul being her partner for her first dance, despite the fact that any one of her male teammates would have been happy to oblige. (I mean, really, Nightcrawler turn down a waltz? Even if it was Magneto offering, he’d probably at least consider it.) And I suspect Jean-Paul’s sexuality plays a part there because Rogue knows he absolutely will not contemplate her as a romantic interest on any level.

As I mentioned before, Rogue is 18 at this time, barely an adult. Her one experiment playing at childish romance ended in tragedy, and she’s been without even casual touch since she was about fourteen. So she she’s had to put an enormous distance between herself and anything like typical human contact, let alone any hopes for future romance. She can flirt, use a kiss as a surprise attack, or admire a handsome man, but it’s all play-acting; it could never go anywhere and she knows it.

But suddenly, that’s all changed. Rogue has to rethink her entire way of interacting with the world, and that’s overwhelming enough without having to navigate male attention as well. And that last bit doesn’t go away just because she’s among friends: Brawler starts to pull a line on her as soon as she shows up in her new dress, Nightcrawler’s an incorrigible flirt, etc. But Jean-Paul won’t have that sort of interest in her, no matter what. She knows him intimately, he’s her first non-traumatic kiss, and there’s no chance of him introducing even a hint of complications she’s not ready to think on yet. He’s safe. She can just enjoy her dance as a dance and leave the rest of it to unravel later.

(That’s not to say that Nightcrawler or Colossus would deliberately do anything to make Rogue uncomfortable, but this scene from UXM #192 is a good illustration of why she might be wary. [1, 2] Kurt stepped over Rogue’s boundaries twice in a matter of seconds, simply because the level of isolation she has to endure momentarily slipped his mind and all he saw was a pretty lady to flirt with. He obviously didn’t mean to and felt awful about it as soon as he realized what he’d done. But just because the hurt he inflicted wasn’t malicious didn’t make it any easier for Rogue in the moment.)

Claremont is known for being the king of subtext, so it’s not all that surprising that he found a way to make these two outsiders interact in emotionally significant ways, but it’s still a damn good piece of work, especially considering that Northstar wasn’t even part of his regular roster. Alas, aside from some momentary interactions during the 2007 X-Men annual and Rogue showing up at Northstar’s wedding, Rogue and Northstar’s friendship has been all but forgotten by subsequent writers. We can always hope someone will bring it back, though.

[Anduinel]

Mutant characters aren't the only characters in fiction. Turning a het character gay causes shitstorms.
Also a sequel doesn't immediately equate to success. His first solo was cancelled due to low sales. Its only back as a mini now because of trade sales.

You're moving the goal posts here. First you claimed failure, then when it was pointed out that Iceman's solo did well enough to get a third trade, suddenly it's about *immediate* success, which is some vague nonsense. Most Marvel solo series that don't feature A-list characters (and A-list talent!) fold by issue #12. And most of those characters don't get another shot at a solo for a few years, or until there's a change in status quo (marketing push, story development elsewhere, etc.).

Marvel commissioned material for a third Iceman arc based on the sales of the first trade. In terms of comic production, that's relatively swift turn-around based entirely on recognition that there is a market for the current incarnation of the character. So the notion that Iceman's coming out has been a failure for Marvel has very little basis in reality. Even in the least generous analysis, Bobby's performing a little better than typical due to factors outside of the direct market.

[Triniking1234]

I'll need to re-read that X-Men/Alpha Flight cross-over since I always thought Rogue was oblivious to Jean-Paul's sexuality even at the end.

I don't understand the complaint about Mystique. What's wrong about a genderqueer woman liking penis?

[Quentin]

I'll need to re-read that X-Men/Alpha Flight cross-over since I always thought Rogue was oblivious to Jean-Paul's sexuality even at the end.

I don't understand the complaint about Mystique. What's wrong about a genderqueer woman liking penis?

The issue is that she became quite cis and straight in the last years...and less genderqueer and bi. I think it would be a beautiful thing to actually make her trans. maybe she was born Eric Raven and decided to become Mystique when her powers manifest?

I think there are many interesting stories we can tell with Mystique if we take her serious as a character besides "grrrr, I'm a psycho b*tch and I will stab you in the back". Claremont's idea to reveal that she is Nightcrawler's father is such an amazing and timely story!

[CuteClops]

Interior decorating...

[CuteClops]

The story makes it apparent that Bobby even showing up is an attempt by Bobby to mollify his father and fit into his limited worldview, which implies that Bobby has felt obligated to do so throughout his life, regardless of his own feelings. The flashback sequence regarding sand castles is telling in this regard; young Bobby stops building the castle after experiencing his father’s disapproval. Present day Bobby, in response, builds an enormous and elaborate ice castle. He feels a deep desire to express his true self at the beginning and at the end of the story in this issue, although he seems to need Rogue’s support to feel brave enough to do so. Does this mean that Bobby’s sense of difference extends beyond his status as a mutant and into his sexuality? This isn’t stated outright, and I can’t speak in regards to the intentions of this issue’s writer, Scott Lobdell, but the presence of Rogue is telling. Why wouldn’t Bobby ask Jean along on this trip? Jean Grey is a woman he has been friends with throughout his entire tenure in the X-Men, after all. Why wouldn’t he ask Storm, who at the time was mentoring Bobby in his powers and was more than capable of standing up to racists? Why would Bobby ask Rogue, a teammate that he never really talks to? Is it because she’s an attractive woman with an obvious, downright medical, reason to avoid human contact, providing a handy excuse for why Bobby wouldn’t attempt to touch her? To me, the story is implying that Bobby is hoping that Rogue will act as his “beard.” He expresses himself fully around her in the beginning of the story, brings Rogue to his family so she can see firsthand the limits he must live within—and so Bobby’s family can see him with a woman—and relies on her for emotional support afterwards. And while Bobby’s homosexuality is only present in this story via implication, that implication may have been strong enough to influence Bryan Singer when he constructed this notable scene from X-Men 2: Bryan Singer has spoken publicly that he feels that the experience of being gay and coming out is analogous to how mutants must feel in the X-Men universe when they “come out,” and that the above scene is inspired by that.

https://www.tor.com/2015/04/23/iceman-gay-coming-out/

[Quentin]

thanks for sharing. This Iceman story was the time when I started to read comicbooks. I'm really wondering if this was already part of the allure why I fell in love with the X-Men. It was such a queer story to tell.

[CuteClops]

Rictor and Shatterstar

[CuteClops]

thanks for sharing. This Iceman story was the time when I started to read comicbooks. I'm really wondering if this was already part of the allure why I fell in love with the X-Men. It was such a queer story to tell.

Most people like the X-Men because of the couples, lovers, and so on... the whole stuff about soap opera.

But I fell in love with the X-Men because what I saw there was all the pain and humiliation, oppression and violence, pride and defiance, fight and resistance of countless minorities around the world.
When I think of X-Men, I think of the word "Resist".

[Strong Girl Daken]

Is this where we'll direct readers who constantly demand proof for subtext just so they can dismiss it?

[Quentin]

Is this where we'll direct readers who constantly demand proof for subtext just so they can dismiss it?

lol yes, basically. Or we forget entirely about these people and enjoy these little queer moments of the past for what they are...

[Strong Girl Daken]

Or we forget entirely about these people and enjoy these little queer moments of the past for what they are...

Totally on board for this.

[starduck]

Has Jean Grey ever been acknowledged as the gay icon she is