LGBT+ Marvel Characters Discussion

[Anduinel]

The Week In Gay:

We actually got quite a bit of gay content last week.

Age Of X-Man: Extremists #4 - Northstar is the central character for this issue

Iceman and Rictor also feature heavily.

[Dermie]

Oh, yes, I forgot to mention that: she was artificially aged, as Genis was. Otherwise both of them would be way younger than Teddy, who was naturally conceived while Mar-Vell was still alive.

Although Teddy must also technically have some accelerated aging at some point, because he was conceived after Franklin Richards was born and yet is still older than him even after Franklin just got age-jumped while travelling the multiverse. The "they can't be THAT old yet due to Marvel Time" factor is something that people always remember with Wiccan and Speed (and is excused through magic), but it is frequently overlooked when it comes to Teddy.

Since we know his caretaker (who he thought was his mother) was supposed to keep him safe from his parents' enemies, I wonder if she either artificially accelerated his aging (as was done with Genis and Phyla for the same reasons), or if she somehow had access to some limited time-travel technology--jumped a few years back in time, so by the time anyone came looking for the baby he wouldn't be a baby anymore. Those are the best two options I've come up with thus far.

I'm not sure if an age was ever pinned on her, but I am also under the impression she is physically older than him.

Yeah, no specific age was ever really given to her due to her odd creation. Chronologically she would only be a few years old, but physically and mentally she should be early 20s, with a lifetime worth of implanted memories to match.

[legion_quest]

Oh, yes, I forgot to mention that: she was artificially aged, as Genis was. Otherwise both of them would be way younger than Teddy, who was naturally conceived while Mar-Vell was still alive. I'm not sure if an age was ever pinned on her, but I am also under the impression she is physically older than him. And that's it. I don't think there's much else to add. They never met each other while she was alive. I'm not even sure if they know about each other, really. Their connection to each other exists more in the minds of the fans than in the actual canon we got over the years, unfortunately. I'll keep waiting for the day we have a legit Vell family reunion. Sigh.

I doubt we'll ever get a Mar-Vell family reunion.

Between Mar-Vell and Genis seemingly staying dead, Phylla being replaced by an alt. universe version and Carol having stolen the family legacy, there isnt any money or mileage in doing it.

[Dante Milton]

Happy Pride Month, everyone. I thought I would try to draw as many of Marvel's LGBT characters as I can, we'll see how far I get.



Angela and Sera

[H-E-D]

I guess the colour of Karma's bathing suit just made me think more of Honey Badger. Whoops.

I can't believe Karma still hasn't ever had a (named) girlfriend. She's like the only X-Men that hasn't dated about twelves teammates.

[King_Thor13]

I can't believe Karma still hasn't ever had a (named) girlfriend. She's like the only X-Men that hasn't dated about twelves teammates.

I mean, the only known LGBT women on the X-Men that come to mind are Bling!, Mercury, Mystique and Lady Fantomex/Cluster. The first two are minors, Raven is a villain and Cluster is 'dead'. So that certainly doesn't help. And even outside of the X-Men, there aren't a lot of options right now that I think would fit. Just going off the compiled list on Page 1, I mean, maybe Joystick or Stacy-X? I feel like you'd be hard-pressed to organically weave one of them into a story and enter into a relationship with Xi'an though.

[Anduinel]

I mean, the only known LGBT women on the X-Men that come to mind are Bling!, Mercury, Mystique and Lady Fantomex/Cluster. The first two are minors, Raven is a villain and Cluster is 'dead'. So that certainly doesn't help. And even outside of the X-Men, there aren't a lot of options right now that I think would fit. Just going off the compiled list on Page 1, I mean, maybe Joystick or Stacy-X? I feel like you'd be hard-pressed to organically weave one of them into a story and enter into a relationship with Xi'an though.

Liu was hoping to set up something between Karma and Warbird during Astonishing X-Men, but just didn't have the page space. I suspect I would have much rather had that than another retelling of "Well, maybe the alien really does share human values after all", but it probably would have been too much of a stretch after making Warbird the designated 'phobe at Northstar's wedding.

[H-E-D]

I mean, the only known LGBT women on the X-Men that come to mind are Bling!, Mercury, Mystique and Lady Fantomex/Cluster. The first two are minors, Raven is a villain and Cluster is 'dead'. So that certainly doesn't help. And even outside of the X-Men, there aren't a lot of options right now that I think would fit. Just going off the compiled list on Page 1, I mean, maybe Joystick or Stacy-X? I feel like you'd be hard-pressed to organically weave one of them into a story and enter into a relationship with Xi'an though.

Well, I mean, I'm just surprised nobody created a character to be her girlfriend at any point. Obviously there's not a lot of good contenders, which I guess is part of my point.

[Beetle]

Warbird was gross. I'd take just about anyone over her

[Holt]

Happy Pride Month, everyone. I thought I would try to draw as many of Marvel's LGBT characters as I can, we'll see how far I get.



Angela and Sera

Nice work.

I can't believe Karma still hasn't ever had a (named) girlfriend. She's like the only X-Men that hasn't dated about twelves teammates.

She gets criminally little focus overall. Even back in the old New Mutants days, you get the sense a lot of the writers had no idea what to do with her.

[King_Thor13]

Liu was hoping to set up something between Karma and Warbird during Astonishing X-Men, but just didn't have the page space. I suspect I would have much rather had that than another retelling of "Well, maybe the alien really does share human values after all", but it probably would have been too much of a stretch after making Warbird the designated 'phobe at Northstar's wedding.

You learn something everyday. I don't mind that it didn't happen, because from what I remember of the run and of Warbird as a character, it wouldn't be the best fit. And, as you say, Warbird wasn't the most supportive individual when it came to JP & Kyle tying the knot.

Well, I mean, I'm just surprised nobody created a character to be her girlfriend at any point. Obviously there's not a lot of good contenders, which I guess is part of my point.

Probably because it's hard to get an original character to stick. I mean, ngl, I've already forgotten the name of Iceman's boyfriend from the Sina Grace series and I loved that book. That title ran into a lot of the same problems, and Bobby's ideal love interest has been contended too. I mean, we were presented with Daken and Pyro, and there are fan ships of him with Cannonball, Northstar, Sunfire etc. but I don't feel any of those quite work either. (personally I'd love to see him & Lightning together but that's another discussion)

As said, there aren't many great contenders from existing characters that feels like a natural fit. And while I suppose there's opportunity to have an established character come out, realistically few writers find the time or opportunity to have that be the scope of their story, especially when it comes to the narrative of C-List characters like Xi'an.

[Anduinel]

Warbird was gross. I'd take just about anyone over her

Oh, agreed. She was just about tolerable under Liu (still a walking pile of cliches, but that's what the lady had to work with to start), but Aaron's writing was absolute garbage and one of the reasons I loathed the character. Especially her ongoing sexual harassment of Iceman being played for laughs, which looks even worse in hindsight than it did at the time. Give a stalker **** and sexual assault is suddenly hilarious, I guess.

[H-E-D]

Probably because it's hard to get an original character to stick. I mean, ngl, I've already forgotten the name of Iceman's boyfriend from the Sina Grace series and I loved that book. That title ran into a lot of the same problems, and Bobby's ideal love interest has been contended too. I mean, we were presented with Daken and Pyro, and there are fan ships of him with Cannonball, Northstar, Sunfire etc. but I don't feel any of those quite work either. (personally I'd love to see him & Lightning together but that's another discussion)

As said, there aren't many great contenders from existing characters that feels like a natural fit. And while I suppose there's opportunity to have an established character come out, realistically few writers find the time or opportunity to have that be the scope of their story, especially when it comes to the narrative of C-List characters like Xi'an.

I mean, Northstar is something of a good example. Rather than go to existing characters, a new character was created to be his love interest. By chance things worked out in a way that keeps Kyle around (so long as Northstar is around, that is). I totally get that it's hard to make a new character stick, but the X-Men even more than other Marvel franchises are just loaded with failed, forgotten attempts at new characters. But Karma doesn't even have one of those.

I guess by the time Marvel started allowing openly gay relationships in their books, she'd fallen more into obscurity. Shame, she's a cool character. Though, according to the Marvel Wikia, Claremont could've done with a little more research into Vietnam when creating her.

Karma's real name "Xi'an Coy Manh" is grammatically wrong in Vietnamese; the name also does not exist nor can be pronounced as "Shi-ahn" in real life. This might have happened due to the writer's lack of knowledge of the Vietnamese language.

[King_Thor13]

I mean, Northstar is something of a good example. Rather than go to existing characters, a new character was created to be his love interest. By chance things worked out in a way that keeps Kyle around (so long as Northstar is around, that is). I totally get that it's hard to make a new character stick, but the X-Men even more than other Marvel franchises are just loaded with failed, forgotten attempts at new characters. But Karma doesn't even have one of those.

I guess by the time Marvel started allowing openly gay relationships in their books, she'd fallen more into obscurity. Shame, she's a cool character. Though, according to the Marvel Wikia, Claremont could've done with a little more research into Vietnam when creating her.

Well in the case of JP&Kyle I think they were more fleshed out, and given room to grow. But yes, it's not that its impossible to create a new character for the sake of a love interest, just that with thousands of characters at their disposal, people tend to be very 'meh' on new additions to the wider MU y'know? The last thing we need is another OC that's brushed aside by the next writer that comes along and then we don't see them again, or are made to wait for a very long period of time for them to grace our pages once more. And you're not wrong with the X-Men being particularly full- it seems that most X-Writers like to plant an OC into the world of the X-Men, hence why the totality of the roster is so ridiculously large nowadays. And yes, a love interest for Xi'an is something we've yet to see. Rachel Summers or Kara Killgrave aren't bad options as far as romantic partners go.

And there's that. It's only been somewhat recently we've started to see more LGBT couples represented, and Xi'an hasn't been at the core of the X-Line since she and the other New Mutants were in their prime. I admit I never really gravitated towards her, but only because she never really felt as fleshed out as the others to me. She & Amara have always been the least interesting of the group just in their inability (at least up until this point) to produce character narratives I'm particularly interested in.

[Drops Of Venus]

Although Teddy must also technically have some accelerated aging at some point, because he was conceived after Franklin Richards was born and yet is still older than him even after Franklin just got age-jumped while travelling the multiverse. The "they can't be THAT old yet due to Marvel Time" factor is something that people always remember with Wiccan and Speed (and is excused through magic), but it is frequently overlooked when it comes to Teddy.

Since we know his caretaker (who he thought was his mother) was supposed to keep him safe from his parents' enemies, I wonder if she either artificially accelerated his aging (as was done with Genis and Phyla for the same reasons), or if she somehow had access to some limited time-travel technology--jumped a few years back in time, so by the time anyone came looking for the baby he wouldn't be a baby anymore. Those are the best two options I've come up with thus far.

Yeah, I've brought up the weirdness of Teddy's age once around here. There is no way the Kree/Skrull War is as old as he is in the MU, so there should definitely be an explanation for his age. I like that James Robinson took the time to acknowledge that Billy and Tommy's ages didn't match the Maximoff babies in the Scarlet Witch solo, so he left open to interpration two possible scenarios: either the babies took over the bodies of two children who were already born, or they time traveled and reincarnated in the past. I wish some writer would do the same for Teddy.

His adoptive mom artifically aging him and giving him false memories of an early childhood on Earth is my guess as well, as that would've been a good way to disguise him. I guess they could also say that due to the fact that he and his mom traveled through space, time passed differently for them, so by the time they arrived on Earth, Teddy was older than someone raised there. Although that would raise the question as to why he didn't remember having an early childhood in space...