LGBTQ+ X-Men Appreciation 2023

[CGAR]

thats cool

maybe we can do a daily spotlight to keep engagement in this thread

anyone can do one if they want

[Dermie]

I THINK this has most of the LGBTQ+ mutants but I might be missing a few:

Nicely done! I can think of a few you overlooked.

Flatman of the Great Lakes Avengers.

Madin - non-binary member of the Morlocks who was a supporting character in the ICEMAN solo series

Vivisector, Phat and Doop from X-STATIX. Vivisector and Phat were gay and Doop is bi.

Bat-Wing and his deceased boyfriend Rhodney are from an alternate future in the original GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY series from the 90s.

Andreas Strucker has been explicitly confirmed as bi on-panel but it has been implied and Fabian Nicieza also once mentioned it on a message board back when Andreas was the Swordsman in his NEW THUNDERBOLTS series.

Gwenpool was implied to be bisexual, and she's been turned into a mutant now.

[From The Shadows]

My appreciation.

[Dermie]

Editorial didnt allow Gambit to be bi so he's straight for now.

Well, they didn't allow for him to be officially outed on-panel. It hasn't stopped various writers from writing him as bi though. Given the more fluid sexuality of the Krakoa era, editorial might be more inclined to confirm Gambit's bisexuality now....but yeah, at the moment its still unofficial.

What series did Pixie state she was bi???

In a guest appearance in RUNAWAYS she was shown flirting with Nico Minoru and the two of them almost kissed...before Nico stopped herself since she already had a girlfriend at the time.

[Deer God]

Gambit being bi and Storm being pan should be finally confirmed.

[BobbysWorld]

Okay, well here's one for today, an oldie but goodie obscure fave I'd love to see come back:

Mulholland Black, or Holly for short.

Mulholland_Black_(Earth-616)_from_The_Order_Vol_2_1.jpg

Holly's only ever appeared in about ten to twelve issues or so, she was part of a short-lived Matt Fraction series called The Order. It was one of the 50 States Initiative teams created in the aftermath of Civil War and the Superhuman Registration Act, and was the California team, based out of LA. The premise of The Order was that each of the team members were recruited and given powers via experimental Stark tech, with their 'contracts' being for one year only, because the tech they used couldn't create permanent powers (at least not stably). So once their year was up, new recruits would get powered up and fill the empty slots. Course, the book was cancelled after a year so that really never mattered all that much. Additionally, the Order was modeled after the Greek pantheon, with the members given powers and weaponry inspired by the Greek gods, and Holly's niche was the Hephaestus role, hence the large oversized hammer she's carrying in that picture.

The thing about Holly though, is unlike the rest of the Order, she wasn't new to superpowers....she was a mutant who was depowered on M-Day, and she signed up for the Order because they promised to give her powers similar to what she lost. It wasn't an exact match though, which played into the book's finale plot, and so we never technically saw her mutant powers in action. So if she were resurrected and brought back, there's wiggle room for the writers to tweak her powers in whatever way they want or need.

So Holly's whole deal was she was originally a powerful psychic who used the history of a place and the people who lived there, as like, her psychic fuel source and ammo for the various things she could do. Basically she could create a psychometric connection to a place she lived and draw on the psychic energy left by the the people who'd lived there in the past, and turn that into energy she could use in the here and now.

Like for instance, her backstory was she was the daughter of two unnamed but allegedly famous grunge rock stars who'd both OD'd when she was just a baby, so she ended up in the system and bounced around from one foster home to the next until she ended up in juvie as a teenager. This was when her mutant powers kicked in, and because that place was so steeped in decades of violence and abuse, the psychic echoes of all the pain and trauma of the thousands of kids to live there throughout that institution's history was just a huge, plentiful well of psychic energy Holly tapped into without even trying.

To her, juvie was basically a powderkeg of violent psychic energy that her power lit the match to, and she turned all that energy into physical force that blew out the walls and let her and most of the other inmates escape onto the streets, where she spent the rest of her teenage years living before she ended up as part of a group called the Black Dahlias. They were a girl gang formed with the stated intention of "taking back the streets" for women and girls. This was accomplished primarily through beating up and humiliating those who prey on young women - namely pimps and drug dealers. Holly said that back when she was with them, they were like "guardian angels" who, though deathly serious about cleaning up the streets, avoided using lethal tactics. (This came up as relevant during the Order as the Black Dahlias were an enemy they faced who HAD started killing on behalf of a mysterious group that was blah blah blah plot related but unimportant here).

Order_Vol_2_5_Textless.jpg

While with the Black Dahlias (above), Holly was in a relationship with the leader, Cut (the one with the sword) until she cheated on Cut with another girl, Lisa, and she was kicked out of the group. (Did all of this read like exactly what you'd expect the Matt Fraction version of a lesbian biker gang fantasy to read like? Oh absolutely. But we try not to hold that against Holly, y'know. Conceptually).

Eventually Holly was depowered on M-Day and then ended up joining the Order when they opened up to recruits after the SHRA, but before M-Day, Holly had figured out that the key to making the most of her power, and thus empowering herself, was to arm herself with as much history as she could find and so she practically lived out of libraries while she researched LA. The more she knew about the past of a place she lived, aka the city of LA, the more she knew where to search for the most emotional or traumatic events in the city's history when she went spelunking through its psychic past. The bigger the impact an event had on the city and its residents, the bigger the residue it left in its wake....which meant the bigger the juice for Holly in the here and now.

Thus, when the Order gave her a facsimile of her mutant powers post M-Day, she used her knowledge of LA history to pick a past event and zero in on the psychic impression left by that event. For example, when fighting an out of control supervillain, she rifled through the city's psychic history til she found the infamous Northridge earthquake of '97, and plugged directly into all the emotional energy that had kicked up then and channeled it into telekinetic force she bludgeoned the bad guy with. More complicated than it needs to be? Probably. But she is a Fraction character and it made more sense in the context of the narrative. Plus she wasn't limited to just that use of her powers. For another example, after one of her teammates was murdered, by touching her body in the morgue and drawing on all the psychic history it carried, she was able to create a kind of psychic ghost of her teammate that was able to answer her questions about what had happened to her, who had done it, etc.

Eventually the Order culminated in Holly being captured by a villain who somehow tweaked her powers until they were inverted....and so instead of Holly drawing on the city's history and emotional energy and past psychic pains and turning that into power.....now Holly's abilities were flipped so that Holly's history and past psychic pains and emotional turmoil was channeled into the city instead. He reversed the current, basically, so that by torturing Holly and amping up her fear and pain, her powers spread that pain and terror throughout LA, sparking riots, destroying buildings, etc.

And thus, the grand finale of the Order's twelve issues was that its leader, who had always disliked Holly and basically been a shit to her the whole series, 'mercy-killed' Holly to stop the chaos being inflicted on the city. I say mercy-killed with deep, DEEP sarcasm and also some ire, because Holly was tearfully begging her team leader to forgive her (for something that wasn't her fault) and to help her, and the solution he came up with was hugging her and telling her it was all okay and he 'was going to fix this' before snapping her neck. While, y'know, crying his own tears of manpain at how much this was hurting HIM and how it was affecting HIS life. It was like shut up, bitch, you didn't even like her. Way to make this about you.

In conclusion, Holly desperately deserves a comeback, AND a glow-up.....a chance to be the hero she actually wanted to be rather than just a cautionary tale about how sometimes you have to bury a gay to save the world but look, its okay if you're saving the world FROM them because they were bodily hijacked and just used as a delivery system for the supervillain du jour's big master plan. (Oh, in case anyone was wondering - or ever doubted at all - why yes, the supervillain behind this DID get away to live and scheme another day. The only character who faced lasting consequences because of the story was, well....Holly).

Not that I'm bitter about this story or anything. LMAO.

Anyway, she's a really unique character that might be a bit tricky to pull off well, but if utilized right, she's a potential narrative goldmine. Krakoa's faced so much violence in just the past couple years that a resurrected Holly would have plenty of ammo to fuel her, I mean, just between Empyre, King in Black and Judgment Day alone, like...that's some real firepower in her hands.

Buuuuuut....imagine what she could add to a book if, say, she were to go live on Arakko and maybe intern with Xilo in order to learn about Arakko's history as part of a bridging of cultures as Krakoans explore more mutant history thanks to their cousins. This could be a perfect vehicle for Xilo and Fisher King and other Arakkii to narrate stories from Arakko's history and past battles, victories and losses alike....which then, if Holly were to fight for Arakko in future conflicts, be of Arakko herself.....turns Arakkii history itself into a weapon and shield Holly can use on its behalf.

I'm just saying, I feel like it could be a very Arakkii way of thinking and honoring their dead, if they were to view Holly's mutant weapon as something that gives their fallen warriors a way to still make a difference and fight for Arakko in the present, even long after they died.

[Starfish]

Thanks for making this thread, CGAR!

I'm still hoping for an update on the Bling!/Mercury/Loa polycule sometime.

[Foon4000]

Respect to the original 'lifelong close friends':

Gambit being bi and Storm being pan should be finally confirmed.

Agreed. Gambit's horniness doesn't care about binaries.

Rogue had an emotional affair if not a physical one (per canon) with Blindspot.

TBH the only completely straight and cis X-person I can think of is Warren.

[JB]

I still want Simon Lasker to return with a different codename and costume. I liked the chemistry between him and Bobby.

[davetvs]

They can call him Flamer. It'll be subversive.

[JB]

They can call him Flamer. It'll be subversive.

Brilliant.

[Uncanny X-Man]

I THINK this has most of the LGBTQ+ mutants but I might be missing a few:

Iceman
Northstar
Destiny
Mystique
Rictor
Shatterstar
Karma
Galura
Prodigy
Akihiro
Anole
Somnus
Bouncer
Tempo
Mercury
Loa
Solem
Pixie
Betsy Braddock
Rachel Grey
Graymalkin
Jessie Drake
Escapade
Morgan Red
Darkveil
Christian Frost
Bling
Negasonic Teenage Warhead
Mulholland Black
Pyro II (Simon Lasker)
Carmen Cruz aka Gimmick
Benjamin Deeds
Hindsight
Cam Long
Aura Charles
Brutha Nature
Leonara Eng
Monica Sellers
Liana
Pity Girl
Good Arson
Faceshopper
Amphelion
Sunpyre
Exodus
Fantomex
Jumbo Carnation
Shinobi Shaw
Stacy X
Skein
Courier

Additionally, New Mutants' last issue seemed to hint that Cerebella is interested in Escapade, Chance from the original 80s Fallen Angels series is a trans boy and you can pry that 'headcanon' aka truth from my cold dead hands but you'll still be wrong, he's a boy, he's trans, its fact, and also Kate Pryde is bisexual, but we all know there will be people who will insist BUT ACTUALLY until she actually says the words "I'm bisexual" or is in a clear definitive wlw relationship in canon even though she shouldn't have to but whatever. Oh and Theia from Marauders is same gender attracted.

Great idea for a thread CGAR and well done on this very thorough list, BobbysWorld!

I will list Irene Adler as my current favourite LGBTQ+ due to her resurgence and prominence lately as well as some great writing by Kieron Gillen. Jean-Paul is the one who I wish would appear more and be written better than he has been over the last decade or so. X-Factor didn't really do it for me and I long for the days JP becomes interesting again.

[jwatson]

Great idea for a thread CGAR and well done on this very thorough list, BobbysWorld!

I will list Irene Adler as my current favourite LGBTQ+ due to her resurgence and prominence lately as well as some great writing by Kieron Gillen. Jean-Paul is the one who I wish would appear more and be written better than he has been over the last decade or so. X-Factor didn't really do it for me and I long for the days JP becomes interesting again.

I agree it's nice to have one of these threads here too especially since a lot of the lgbtq characters are mutants.

[Kingdom X]

Great idea for a thread CGAR and well done on this very thorough list, BobbysWorld!

I will list Irene Adler as my current favourite LGBTQ+ due to her resurgence and prominence lately as well as some great writing by Kieron Gillen. Jean-Paul is the one who I wish would appear more and be written better than he has been over the last decade or so. X-Factor didn't really do it for me and I long for the days JP becomes interesting again.

Destiny is putting in WORK and I ain’t mad it at.

I need the rest of X-Factor to get put in books ASAP, cause I’m having real Prodigy withdrawal. Wasn’t there a plot thread where he was criticizing Beast at some point? Idr if it was in the pages of X-Factor or X-Force but seems like one of the first people to notice Hank was acting CRAZY should be around for his downfall.

[CGAR]

Not my fave character but I think she looks awesome here.

I miss Clay Mann drawing the Academy kids.

Screen Shot 2022-12-20 at 9.07.02 AM.jpgScreen Shot 2022-12-20 at 9.07.02 AM.jpg