LGBT+ Marvel Characters Discussion

[Tiamatty]

The Week In Gay!

Future Wiccan has a very brief cameo in Sorcerers Supreme #12.

Generations: Captain Marvel has lesbian aliens. Who are leaders among their people. And also pretty badass.

Hulk #10 is a fantastic issue, the finale to the Oliver arc. Sadly, things aren't necessarily going to be much better for Oliver and William. But hey to them being there, and Bradley, too.

Runaways #1 had a podiatrist who appears to be dating another woman. But apparently no Karolina in this issue.

X-Men Blue #11 had Bobby and Danger unconscious, though Bobby does also get to sass the Goblin Queen at one point. Also, Bloodstorm, who, let's face it, looks way too awesome to be straight.

So this is . . . another near-nonexistent week for LGBTQ+ representation. Didn't these round-ups used to be longer? What the hell happened? Feels like Marvel's really cut its LGBTQ+ representation lately.

[Dermie]

The Week In Gay!

Future Wiccan has a very brief cameo in Sorcerers Supreme #12.

Generations: Captain Marvel has lesbian aliens. Who are leaders among their people. And also pretty badass.

Yeah, I liked that part. Carol's book seems to be something of a lesbian-magnet in recent years. DeConnick's run outed Tracy Burke, and had Carol befriend another alien lesbian, Ja'Kyee. Now Stohl has added Glory as a supporting player, had Quasar as a supporting player for an arc, and now this.

The rest of the issue was rather weird though, with Mar-Vell not sounding anything like himself...and somehow not recognizing Carol despite her current costume not having any mask to it at all. I know she looks different with her shorter haircut, but c'mon--her face and voice haven't changed! It also looks like Stohl is going to be retconning Carol's origin and history to Mar-Vell, since she referred to him as her "old boss back at the lab". Yeah, nooooo....she was security chief; he wasn't her boss.

Hulk #10 is a fantastic issue, the finale to the Oliver arc. Sadly, things aren't necessarily going to be much better for Oliver and William. But hey to them being there, and Bradley, too.

Although this is the end of the arc, I'm not sure its the end of Oliver's story. I think we may follow up with him in later issues. Hopefully the book finds some stability with its art team soon. Switching artists partway through an arc can be jarring enough, but doing it mid-issue is especially unfortunate.

Runaways #1 had a podiatrist who appears to be dating another woman. But apparently no Karolina in this issue.

Yeah, it looks like the first arc is going to be a slow build of reassembling the team one by one. I wonder if Klara's status is going to be dealt with at all--I don't recall her being seen or mentioned in any of the promos or interviews about the series.

So this is . . . another near-nonexistent week for LGBTQ+ representation. Didn't these round-ups used to be longer? What the hell happened? Feels like Marvel's really cut its LGBTQ+ representation lately.

I dunno--you mentioned gay characters appearing in 5 books in one week. That doesn't seem too bad.

As for Marvel's overall representation, a little while back I did a list of all the LGBTQ+ representation we know of for the announced Legacy titles, and it actually looked pretty good. I don't think there's really been any significant drop. Maybe we're just going through a little bit of a slow patch at the moment?

[Drops Of Venus]

well it almost seemed like they were intentionally trying to make Helmut look like Milo Yiannopoulos; when he appeared in Zub-Malin Thunderbolts.



I couldn't find a small enough picture of the comic art to post; for comparison.

Can't you just post a link? Now I'm curious. And I'm picturing Helmut bashing transgender people and feminists.

[Silvermoth]

I actually have been wondering lately who will be the alt right metaphor. I was hoping the x-men would go up against them but I'm not entirely sure they would get it right

[Drops Of Venus]

I actually have been wondering lately who will be the alt right metaphor. I was hoping the x-men would go up against them but I'm not entirely sure they would get it right

I'm pretty sure Nick Spencer has spoofed the alt-right already through his endless political metaphors in his Cap/SE run, just not any specific queer person like Milo. But it's definitely something I can see them doing at some point.

[Tiamatty]

The Week In Gay!

My LCS didn't get America #7 this week; hopefully it'll come in next week. But from what I've read about it, it's got lesbian gods and some gorgeous art via the guest artists. (Jen Bartel!)

USAvengers #10 had Toni Ho become the new leader of AIM, and Aikku expresses concern about how Toni needs a project to be complete and happy, but she doesn't want to pressure Toni into getting a project, because she just got Toni out of a project with the Iron Patriot armour and she doesn't want Toni to think she's just never happy with her. I really hope these two land somewhere when this book ends, because they're both great characters, and their relationship is cute.

Swain is vaguely there in Royals #8.

And, uh . . . that might be it.

[MrFrost]

The Week In Gay!

Future Wiccan has a very brief cameo in Sorcerers Supreme #12.

Generations: Captain Marvel has lesbian aliens. Who are leaders among their people. And also pretty badass.

Hulk #10 is a fantastic issue, the finale to the Oliver arc. Sadly, things aren't necessarily going to be much better for Oliver and William. But hey to them being there, and Bradley, too.

Runaways #1 had a podiatrist who appears to be dating another woman. But apparently no Karolina in this issue.

X-Men Blue #11 had Bobby and Danger unconscious, though Bobby does also get to sass the Goblin Queen at one point. Also, Bloodstorm, who, let's face it, looks way too awesome to be straight.

So this is . . . another near-nonexistent week for LGBTQ+ representation. Didn't these round-ups used to be longer? What the hell happened? Feels like Marvel's really cut its LGBTQ+ representation lately.

Pei's friends from Immortal Iron Fists?

[Tiamatty]

Pei's friends from Immortal Iron Fists?

Wait, what? I'm only up to #3 of Iron Fists. (And frigging loving it, for the record, it is a great, fun comic that I highly recommend. Afu Chan is a fantastic artist. Dynamic, with a great sense of motion.) So her friends are gay? Nice. They're both cool and cute.

Edit: I just read #4 and omigosh. My heart. My poor heart. Ray and Iz. Such a roller coaster. How dare Andrews and Chan play with our feelings like that?

This moment is one of the saddest things ever:

weird (2).jpg

But then, this:

danceshoes (2).jpg

Heart officially warmed!

So good.

[MrFrost]

Wait, what? I'm only up to #3 of Iron Fists. (And frigging loving it, for the record, it is a great, fun comic that I highly recommend. Afu Chan is a fantastic artist. Dynamic, with a great sense of motion.) So her friends are gay? Nice. They're both cool and cute.

yea its pretty fun

[legion_quest]

Always good to see more representation.

Sadly I disagree on that art. That cartoony twee stuff is not to my taste I'm afraid

[Crimz]

DC is going to get an LGBT Visionary award, do you guys think that Marvel will ever receive such an accolade? If not, what more do you think they need to do for better representation?

[Silvermoth]

I think there might need to be some creative changes behind the scenes at marvel before that happens

[Tiamatty]

DC is going to get an LGBT Visionary award, do you guys think that Marvel will ever receive such an accolade? If not, what more do you think they need to do for better representation?

Yeah, I can't see it happening any time soon. Marvel's still a bit of a mixed-bag in terms of LGBTQ+ rep. Iceman and America have solos: Great! But what happens when their solo end? (And I can't imagine either one lasting more than a year, if I'm honest. Though it's tough to tell, these days, and I hope I'm wrong.) Marvel has a really bad habit of letting its gay characters drop into limbo. It's been nearly a year since Ewing's New Avengers ended, and the Wiccan and Hulkling of the present are nowhere to be seen. (A future Wiccan did get to be in Sorcerers Supreme, at least.) It's been 6 months since Bendis' GotG had Sera disappear, in order to set up another writer's story, and we still haven't heard a damn thing about that story. (I still have no idea what that editor was thinking. By the time a follow-up story gets announced, the people who'd been reading Bendis' GotG will have long since stopped caring. They've already stopped caring. So why even bother setting it up that far back? I do not get what the thought process was there.) Marvel still struggles with keeping gay characters as a central focus on an ongoing basis. DC's done much better at that. Aside from Batwoman being a constant presence, the Bombshells series was one of the gayest comics ever to come out of the Big Two, Harley and Ivy being canonical girlfriends is a pretty big deal. I don't even read DC, but I'm aware of how much better about LGBTQIA+ rep than Marvel is.

I think my approach would be: Storm comes out as pansexual (or, at least, rejects labels and says she loves people, not gender) and dates a woman, add a couple trans characters, make Wiccan and Hulkling part of the main Avengers line-up and do an event where they're central to the story, and screw it, bring back Destiny, goddammit, with Mystique and Destiny forming a new Brotherhood of Mutants that aggressively fights to defend mutants and is presented sympathetically, with the argument that they don't want to fight but sometimes survival means throwing a punch. (The important part is not to treat them as wrong. Mags Visaggio can write it, because she's argued regularly that violence can't be removed as a tool in the struggle for civil rights.)

I mean, that's not all I'd do, but those would be some big things to help Marvel improve its LGBTQIA+ rep.

[Crimz]

Yeah, I can't see it happening any time soon. Marvel's still a bit of a mixed-bag in terms of LGBTQ+ rep. Iceman and America have solos: Great! But what happens when their solo end? (And I can't imagine either one lasting more than a year, if I'm honest. Though it's tough to tell, these days, and I hope I'm wrong.) Marvel has a really bad habit of letting its gay characters drop into limbo. It's been nearly a year since Ewing's New Avengers ended, and the Wiccan and Hulkling of the present are nowhere to be seen. (A future Wiccan did get to be in Sorcerers Supreme, at least.) It's been 6 months since Bendis' GotG had Sera disappear, in order to set up another writer's story, and we still haven't heard a damn thing about that story. (I still have no idea what that editor was thinking. By the time a follow-up story gets announced, the people who'd been reading Bendis' GotG will have long since stopped caring. They've already stopped caring. So why even bother setting it up that far back? I do not get what the thought process was there.) Marvel still struggles with keeping gay characters as a central focus on an ongoing basis. DC's done much better at that. Aside from Batwoman being a constant presence, the Bombshells series was one of the gayest comics ever to come out of the Big Two, Harley and Ivy being canonical girlfriends is a pretty big deal. I don't even read DC, but I'm aware of how much better about LGBTQIA+ rep than Marvel is.

I think my approach would be: Storm comes out as pansexual (or, at least, rejects labels and says she loves people, not gender) and dates a woman, add a couple trans characters, make Wiccan and Hulkling part of the main Avengers line-up and do an event where they're central to the story, and screw it, bring back Destiny, goddammit, with Mystique and Destiny forming a new Brotherhood of Mutants that aggressively fights to defend mutants and is presented sympathetically, with the argument that they don't want to fight but sometimes survival means throwing a punch. (The important part is not to treat them as wrong. Mags Visaggio can write it, because she's argued regularly that violence can't be removed as a tool in the struggle for civil rights.)

I mean, that's not all I'd do, but those would be some big things to help Marvel improve its LGBTQIA+ rep.

You bring up an interesting point. Marvel has been trying to diversify their collection of heroes, but a lot of them are on shaky ground and usually disappear after the book they're in is gone. Like most of the new heroes who are taking the mantle of classic ones, after the originals come back most are gonna go straight to limbo and that's sad. There needs to be more minority heroes who are consistently used.

Storm is my second favorite character and I think it would be great if she was pansexual and it makes sense, but you must have seen how some fans reacted to even suggesting it. I've made a thread that I think Johnny Storm should be bisexual and while there were many more who would be ok with it than I thought, the majority were still against it. I just wanted the Fantastic Four to be more diverse so that they don't always revert back to 4 straight white people and he's popular enough to always be on at least one book. After the Iceman situation and current Marvel's attempt to diversify, I think it's going to be much harder for Marvel to do these things.

[Tiamatty]

You bring up an interesting point. Marvel has been trying to diversify their collection of heroes, but a lot of them are on shaky ground and usually disappear after the book they're in is gone. Like most of the new heroes who are taking the mantle of classic ones, after the originals come back most are gonna go straight to limbo and that's sad. There needs to be more minority heroes who are consistently used.

Storm is my second favorite character and I think it would be great if she was pansexual and it makes sense, but you must have seen how some fans reacted to even suggesting it. I've made a thread that I think Johnny Storm should be bisexual and while there were many more who would be ok with it than I thought, the majority were still against it. I just wanted the Fantastic Four to be more diverse so that they don't always revert back to 4 straight white people and he's popular enough to always be on at least one book. After the Iceman situation and current Marvel's attempt to diversify, I think it's going to be much harder for Marvel to do these things.

I mean, I feel like most people already assume Storm hooked up with both Yukio and Callisto. Her coming out as pan would just be, "Yeah, we all know already." Also, her being pan wouldn't "invalidate" her straight romances. (Not that I think a person coming out as gay actually invalidates any straight relationships they've been in, either. But that's the complaint.)