LGBT+ Marvel Characters Discussion

[Frontier]

I’m surprised there’s no thread like this in the DC Comics forum.

There was one in 2019.

[MasterOfMagnetism]

I’m surprised there’s no thread like this in the DC Comics forum.

The DC LGBT Characters thread was always neglected. Which I have always found extremely ironic given that in the past DC fans have liked to boast that they have more and better LGBT characters.

[Dermie]

Damage Control.

Actually, Damage Control has had a few LGBT employees. Lisa Halloran (America Chavez' ex-girlfriend) joined Damage Control in the JANE FOSTER: VALKYRIE series. Hercules worked as a Damage Control employee for a while, as part of his community service. Edifice Rex, a Damage Control construction worker who got turned into a cosmic being when exposed to an alien artifact on a job site, may not have been explicitly stated to be gay--but they certainly gave some stereotypical hints along the way.

[Pitchblack34]

I’m surprised there’s no thread like this in the DC Comics forum.

Dc has such few LGBT characters, it wouldn’t be a very active forum. The few LGBT characters they do have are bi women made to satisfy the straight male gaze by occasionally kissing women.

[Fokken]

Dc has such few LGBT characters, it wouldn’t be a very active forum. The few LGBT characters they do have are bi women made to satisfy the straight male gaze by occasionally kissing women.

Courtesy of Luciano Vecchio -- the DC gays

[Will Evans]

I know Diana and Selena are on his drawing, but I’m surprised he didn’t include Holly Robinson. And Hippolyta, and Phillipus, and Artemis.


But I guess he would have to include a lot of Amazon’s if he did.

[Fokken]

I know Diana and Selena are on his drawing, but I’m surprised he didn’t include Holly Robinson. And Hippolyta, and Phillipus, and Artemis.


But I guess he would have to include a lot of Amazon’s if he did.

That's a pretty big ask, yeah.

[armlessphelan]

Dc has such few LGBT characters, it wouldn’t be a very active forum. The few LGBT characters they do have are bi women made to satisfy the straight male gaze by occasionally kissing women.

Dismissing bisexual women does nothing to further diversity. Thank you to the others in the thread for standing up to this.

[Pitchblack34]

Dismissing bisexual women does nothing to further diversity. Thank you to the others in the thread for standing up to this.

You’re misconstruing what I’m saying, I am not dismissing bisexual women. What I am saying is that DC’s LGBT rep is sanitized for a predominantly straight male audience . To straight men the idea of two men kissing is gross and emasculating especially two prominent, and badass heroes so as such there are very few gay and bi male heroes. Conversely there are much more lesbian and to a larger extent bi women to titilate the male gaze. Many of dc’s bi women have never had or alluded to a relationship with a member of the same sex t’s relegated to subtext (Wonder Woman), or a one time kiss (Catwoman).

[Dermie]

You’re misconstruing what I’m saying, I am not dismissing bisexual women. What I am saying is that DC’s LGBT rep is sanitized for a predominantly straight male audience . To straight men the idea of two men kissing is gross and emasculating especially two prominent, and badass heroes so as such there are very few gay and bi male heroes.

Just looking at the group shot of the various DC LGBT characters, it seems like you might be underestimating the number of gay and bi male heroes.

You have a valid enough point about comics (also tv and movies, for that matter) historically being more likely to have female gay and bi characters due to that being more acceptable to the straight male audience. But that has been changing over time, and DC has certainly piled up a number of LGBT male characters over the years. Its probably fair to say that they have more female LGBT characters who are very prominent than Marvel does though, with DC having big name and popular women like Wonder Woman, Catwoman and Harley Quinn outed as bi.

[Dermie]

The Week In Gay:

Guardians Of The Galaxy #10 - This issue was a "King In Black" tie in

X-Factor #6 - this issue included a quick nod to the Prodigy/Speed relationship.

A light week in terms of numbers of books, but it was Marvel's two most LGBT-inclusive titles so it was actually a pretty big week in terms of overall number of LGBT characters who turned up.

[walk]

Just looking at the group shot of the various DC LGBT characters, it seems like you might be underestimating the number of gay and bi male heroes.

You have a valid enough point about comics (also tv and movies, for that matter) historically being more likely to have female gay and bi characters due to that being more acceptable to the straight male audience. But that has been changing over time, and DC has certainly piled up a number of LGBT male characters over the years. Its probably fair to say that they have more female LGBT characters who are very prominent than Marvel does though, with DC having big name and popular women like Wonder Woman, Catwoman and Harley Quinn outed as bi.

Of the men featured in that picture only Constantine has any sort of relevance within DC at large and frankly I'd imagine unless his bisexuality was confirmed over at Vertigo I doubt it would of ever happened within the mainline books which have notedly gone out of their way to ignore in the past, it's the same with their most prominent gay couple Midnighter and Apollo who started life outside of continuinty as Wildstorm creations.

The fact that they're comfortable with allowing some of their most popular and prominent women to be queer only highlights this discrepancy and their continual output of queer represnation is still almost exclusively women with characters like Far Sector Jo Mullein, Teen Titans Crush and Djinn, Young Justice Jinny Hex and recently Tom King Batman/Catwoman confriming Helena Wayne to be queer as well, adding to the long list of queer women in the Bat-side of their universe yet there is still to exist a single queer male character of note witinin the Batfamily.

Obviously there's improvement to made all a round on both sides but if Marvel can have a gay wedding and two men kissing on page upfront and center of their big Summer Event than the least DC could do is finally let Judd Winick confirm Jason Todd bisexuality officially instead of having him resort to vague tweets.

[Will Evans]

Of the men featured in that picture only Constantine has any sort of relevance within DC at large and frankly I'd imagine unless his bisexuality was confirmed over at Vertigo I doubt it would of ever happened within the mainline books which have notedly gone out of their way to ignore in the past, it's the same with their most prominent gay couple Midnighter and Apollo who started life outside of continuinty as Wildstorm creations.

The fact that they're comfortable with allowing some of their most popular and prominent women to be queer only highlights this discrepancy and their continual output of queer represnation is still almost exclusively women with characters like Far Sector Jo Mullein, Teen Titans Crush and Djinn, Young Justice Jinny Hex and recently Tom King Batman/Catwoman confriming Helena Wayne to be queer as well, adding to the long list of queer women in the Bat-side of their universe yet there is still to exist a single queer male character of note witinin the Batfamily.

Obviously there's improvement to made all a round on both sides but if Marvel can have a gay wedding and two men kissing on page upfront and center of their big Summer Event than the least DC could do is finally let Judd Winick confirm Jason Todd bisexuality officially instead of having him resort to vague tweets.

I’d argue that making Aqualad and original version Alan Scott Green Lantern queer is a big deal, as they are both big time queer males in their respective franchises. Even Alan is about to be cast in the HBO Max Green Lantern show. And Aqualad may appear in an Aquaman sequel or an upcoming Titans season.

The only thing is that Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman families don’t have queer male rep, and they’re DC’s biggest solo franchises.

Wonder Woman is forgiven because her family and supporting cast are 95% females anyway.

So that leaves the Superman and Batman families as your real issue.

[MasterOfMagnetism]

Fine, since we're doing this I'll throw my hat into the ring too.

- How many of the characters in that image are prominent members of the DC comics line right now?

- Was Wonder Woman ever actually confirmed as bisexual or is it still just that one panel hint that she had been with women in the past?

- Are Midnighter and Apollo still around in the DC universe right now? Do either of them have a book? Does Batwoman even have a book?

- DC made Alan Scott gay and in doing so retconned the character's original gay son Obsidian out of continuity. That's not giving us more gay representation that's just replacing one gay character with another. Is Alan Scott around in the comics right now or is it just that HBO show that he'll be in?

- Seriously how many of those characters are still present in DC comics right now? Bunker, Pied Piper, The Ray, Catman, White Knight? How many of these characters are actually being used?

[Johnrevenge]

- DC made Alan Scott gay and in doing so retconned the character's original gay son Obsidian out of continuity. That's not giving us more gay representation that's just replacing one gay character with another. Is Alan Scott around in the comics right now or is it just that HBO show that he'll be in?

Obsidian hasn't been retconned. He alongside his sister Jade and his father will appear in March, and from what it seems (the story they'll appear written by James Tynion), Alan will still be gay.