A History of Sex in DC Comics

[Frontier]

Sorry for the tacky question. But wasn’t Black Canary raped and tortured?
That was the reason for her no longer being able to have children and lost her canary cry (until a dip in the Lazarus pit in the 1990s)

Mike Grell said she wasn't raped, just tortured, even though visually and story-wise it looked very much like she was sexually assaulted.

[Will Evans]

Yeah, and while on the subject, in fact, DC Database used to have a page about sexual assault, but has since been deleted. It was saved on the Wayback Machine though. Might as well list here what was listed there and provide the list of referenced issues. It may or may not be 100% correct, but I thought it was at least worth bringing up: https://web.archive.org/web/20190711...Sexual_assault

Female victims:

Arella was raped by the demon Trigon, leading to the conception of their daughter Raven.[1]
Anne Pasquale was raped her freshman year in college by an unknown man who was never caught. The event caused Anne to become a cop.[2]
Artemis Her soul ended up in Tartarus after death and there she became a figurative bride or concubine to one of the ruling Princes of Hell, Dalkriig-Hath. Diana had came to her aid, but Artemis accepted her fate. Despite being raped, beaten, and tortured at the hands of her "husband" and possibly other demons, she became accustomed to her "damnation", and adapted quickly.[3]
Batwoman was raped by Nocturna over a period of many months due to vampiric-hypnosis, and during that time also subjected to repeated acts of emotional and psychological abuse. After Nocturna's deception was revealed by Bette, along with her intent to frame her for murder, the vampire attempted to shift all of the blame on to Kate, claiming it was what her subconscious desired all along. It didn't work.[4]
Bleez was repeatedly raped by members of the Sinestro Corps after her home planet was overrun, which inspired her with the rage to become a member of the Red Lantern Corps.[5]
Cellanth was kept as a sex slave by the megalomaniacal Solus.[6]
Cinder DuBois was raped as a child by Lacey.[7]
Cora was raped and impregnated by Dardanus and gave birth to her son Kordax.[8]
Gypsy was raped by Baron Üman von Mauler twice, once when she was fourteen and once when she was nineteen. After the second time, she psychically battles and then kills him.[9]
Demolitia was raped by a group of thugs after she was found under the rubble of a building.[10]
Grace Choi ran away from her foster home and was abducted to become an underage sex slave from the ages of 9 to 12. Her abuser was a man named Tanner who held her prisoner until her powers developed.[11]
Harriet Arkham and her daughter were both brutally raped and murdered by Martin "Mad Dog" Hawkins.[12]
Hippolyta was drugged, chained and raped by Heracles after he simulated a truce to steal her girdle.[13]
Judith Benoir was raped by Mathieu Arbogast and died due to injuries.[14]
Lady Flash was raped by Vandal Savage.[15]
Starfire was raped by members of the Citadel.[16]
Mirage was raped and impregnated by Deathwing and gave birth to her daughter Julienne.[17][18]
Pix was beaten and raped by a gang of street thugs.[19]
Sue Dibny was revealed to have been brutally raped by Doctor Light during the Identity Crisis storyline.[20]
The Huntress was kidnapped and raped by a mobster who belongs to a rival family when she was a child.[21]
The original Silk Spectre was raped by the Comedian in Watchmen.[22]
Windfall was drugged and passed around by members of a fraternity at her college, who posted pictures online. The local district attorney was father to one of the boys, and he refused to press charges. The school used her past career as a super-villain to justify expelling her, and she ended up on the Suicide Squad.[23]
Melissa Dugan was sexually assaulted by Lex Luthor out of spite for attempting to end their romantic relationship.[24]

Male victims:

Apollo was raped by The Commander. The rape was followed by a scene of revenge in which it is implied that The Midnighter raped The Commander with a jackhammer.[25]
Aquaman was raped by Siren who was disguised as his wife, Mera.[26]
Batman was drugged and raped to conceive a child with Talia al Ghul which she raised in secrecy.[27] This may be a retcon of an earlier story in which their sexual encounter appeared consensual, and took place during marriage.[28]
Birgit Eisenmann once attempted to rape Batman in the hope of creating a perfect child, although she failed because she couldn't get him to develop an erection.[29]
Cosmic Boy: Saturn Girl tried to use her telepathic powers to bring Cosmic Boy out of a coma. It appeared that she'd succeeded, but instead she was subconsciously animating and controlling his comatose body; during this period they began dating, and Cos woke up at their wedding. This admittedly was not treated as "okay" so much as it was forgiven because Saturn Girl did it subconsciously, not on purpose.[30]
Edward Lawton: The son of Deadshot, is implied to have been sexually assaulted prior to being killed by Wes Anselm.[31]
Green Arrow was raped by Shado while he was delirious with fever, believing her to be his girlfriend Black Canary.[32] This lead to the birth of their son Robert Queen.
Invisible Man was sodomized to death by Mr. Hyde in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen comics, as revenge for Griffin assault and attempted rape of Mina Murray.[33]
John Constantine was raped by Swamp Thing and his wife Abigail when Swamp Thing possessed John's body without his consent in order to conceive their daughter.[34]
Kyle Rayner was date-raped by Bueno Excellente, who slipped something into his drink. This is only mentioned in passing and he does not remember the incident.[35]
Mr. Majestic was raped repeatedly by Nemesis while he was in a paralytic state.[36]
Nightwing has been raped on multiple occasions. Mirage posed as his girlfriend Starfire to deceive him into having sex with her.[37]
Tarantula pulled his pants down and raped him on top of a building while he was going into shock after the emotional strain of participating in Blockbuster's murder.[38]
Starman was raped by the villainess Mist II and fathered a child.[39]
Swamp Thing was raped by an alien entity known as Technis.[40]
Vril Dox was raped by his L.E.G.I.O.N. teammate Stealth as part of her species' mating habits.[41] This led to the birth of their son.
Guy Gardner (New Earth) was raped by Vuldarian Empress Karine.[42]

1. Teen Titans (Volume 3) #8
2. Vigilante #33
3. Artemis: Requiem (Volume 1)
4. Batwoman (Volume 2) #40
5. Blackest Night: Tales of the Corps #2
6. Swamp Thing (Volume 1) #21
7. Cinder and Ashe #2
8. Atlantis Chronicles #3
9. Justice League Task Force #24
10. Action Comics #718
11. Outsiders (Volume 3) #17
12. Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth
13. Wonder Woman (Volume 2) #1
14. Beware the Creeper (Volume 2) #5
15. The Flash (Volume 2) #50
16. Tales of the New Teen Titans #4
17. Team Titans #8-10
18. New Titans #130
19. Batman: Gotham Knights #34
20. Identity Crisis #2
21. Huntress #1
22. Watchmen #2
23. Suicide Squad (Volume 3) #5
24. Lex Luthor: The Unauthorized Biography #1
25. The Authority #14
26. Aquaman (Volume 7) #44
27. Batman #656
28. Batman: Son of the Demon
29. Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #24-26
30. Legion of Super-Heroes (Volume 4) #96
31. Deadshot #3
32. Green Arrow (Volume 2) #11
33. League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (Volume 2) #5
34. Hellblazer #10
35. JLA/Hitman #1
36. Wildcats: World's End #23
37. New Titans #88-90, Deathstroke the Terminator #14
38. Nightwing (Volume 2) #93
39. Starman (Volume 2) #12
40. Swamp Thing (Volume 2) #60
41. L.E.G.I.O.N. #7
42. Hawkman (Volume 3) #23

Off panel, Mordru controlled Hank Hall (as Monarch then Extant) to fake kill Dawn Granger and then rape her, to give birth to the newest body of Dr Fate, Hector Hall. This was all explained in JSA.


Also Lady Blackhawk, in her past, was kidnapped and brainwashed by the Blackhawks enemy Killer Shark. She became the villain Queen Killer Shark and was Killer Shark’s lover until she was de-brainwashed. So I believe that counts as rape.

[Lightning Rider]

The only sex scene in DC history that actually means anything was Swamp Thing and Abby during the Alan Moore run.

Haha, that was incredible.

[Goldrake]

brightestdayamnestybay.jpg

From Brightest Day

[seismic-2]

O.P.:

As far as DC, I'm pretty sure neither Superman or Wonder Woman were ever shown as having sex until Superman got married

I'd say it was while Superman and Lois were engaged. That apparently was the case because as soon as he came back from the dead, they celebrated by doing it. (At least that's what's implied at the end of the reunion scene, when we see the unmade bed, and one is talking to the other, who is in the shower.) Do I remember that correctly?

[Frontier]

brightestdayamnestybay.jpg

From Brightest Day

Nothing better than post-revival/reunion sex .

[Slimybug]

O.P.:


I'd say it was while Superman and Lois were engaged. That apparently was the case because as soon as he came back from the dead, they celebrated by doing it. (At least that's what's implied at the end of the reunion scene, when we see the unmade bed, and one is talking to the other, who is in the shower.) Do I remember that correctly?

That would be an interesting thing to find.

[witchboy]

O.P.:


I'd say it was while Superman and Lois were engaged. That apparently was the case because as soon as he came back from the dead, they celebrated by doing it. (At least that's what's implied at the end of the reunion scene, when we see the unmade bed, and one is talking to the other, who is in the shower.) Do I remember that correctly?

It was made pretty obvious in the mid 70s - 1976 to 1978, that after Superman broke up with Lois she starts dating Clark. His powers are coming and going and he's considering giving up being Superman. He and Lois have beef bourguignon (which is the start of it being a code word for them having sex) and the last panel of the scene shows the click of the lock on the door. Sex definitely implied. Later, he gets his powers stablelized, Clark and Lois break up, and she reconciles with Superman, where they also have a romantic scene that ends with the click of the lock on the door, implying she and Superman had sex. It's unclear if they had ever done it before this. It's shocking to find implied sex in 70s comics, and also hard to believe Lois didn't know for sure that Clark was Superman once she had sex with both of them.

[seismic-2]

That would be an interesting thing to find.

Here you go. Adventures of Superman #505. Superman just knocked on Lois's window and let her know that he's come back from being dead. They kiss, and "later"...

AdventuresOfSuperman505_reunion.jpg

[Slimybug]

It was made pretty obvious in the mid 70s - 1976 to 1978, that after Superman broke up with Lois she starts dating Clark. His powers are coming and going and he's considering giving up being Superman. He and Lois have beef bourguignon (which is the start of it being a code word for them having sex) and the last panel of the scene shows the click of the lock on the door. Sex definitely implied. Later, he gets his powers stablelized, Clark and Lois break up, and she reconciles with Superman, where they also have a romantic scene that ends with the click of the lock on the door, implying she and Superman had sex. It's unclear if they had ever done it before this. It's shocking to find implied sex in 70s comics, and also hard to believe Lois didn't know for sure that Clark was Superman once she had sex with both of them.

Wait...What? When did Lois and Clark date in the 70s? When did any of that happen?

Here you go. Adventures of Superman #505. Superman just knocked on Lois's window and let her know that he's come back from being dead. They kiss, and "later"...

AdventuresOfSuperman505_reunion.jpg

Wow.

[witchboy]

Wait...What? When did Lois and Clark date in the 70s? When did any of that happen?



Wow.

I'm afraid all I can remember is that the Lois and Clark relationship was around 1976-1978, and lasted only a few to several issues.

[Tzigone]

On the reverse side, does anyone know the last time we saw a married couple with twin beds? Reread some old 'Tec for Elongated Man and that happened (several times, I think).

[seismic-2]

Wait...What? When did Lois and Clark date in the 70s? When did any of that happen?

Superman #297, in March 1976:

[Tzigone]

O.P.:


I'd say it was while Superman and Lois were engaged. That apparently was the case because as soon as he came back from the dead, they celebrated by doing it. (At least that's what's implied at the end of the reunion scene, when we see the unmade bed, and one is talking to the other, who is in the shower.) Do I remember that correctly?

I'd say implied before that, though I can't say if anything was shown, so perhaps debatable. Certainly I took this to be referring to the first time they had sex:
July.jpg
but certainly it's not indicated to the same degree as the scene a bit later.

[Slimybug]

Excellent detective work, everybody!

I had no idea there was anything between Lois & Clark pre-Crisis! Now I have so much to look into!

These issues aren't even on comixology! How can I find them!

Holy implied sex, Batman! So I just did a little more searching, and I found the page where those panels come from. There is no click of the door, as previously stated. No, it's even more suggestive! Jimmy comes into the office the next day and says to Lois "Same dress as yesterday, huh?"

Wow! Clark Joseph Kent!