Gay Superheroes Essay
For my Queer Media class, I needed to write a research paper. I decided to write about gay superheroes in comics, because, really, all superheroes are a little gay regardless of sexuality. I received an A on the paper, so I figured I'd post it for you guys to read. I exceeded the page length, so forgive me for missing a few points, like... fandom and HIV. I compared Marvel's take on Teh Gay to DCU's take. This is what I came up with:
Queer Comics: Subtext and Context In the Main Marvel and DC Universes
Comic book superheroes have become a staple of American culture, and many superheroes have increased their visibility and audience by spreading into other media such as film, television, and novels. According to Geoff Klock, author of How to Read Comic Books and Why, there are three academic approaches to viewing comic books: structural mythology, cultural history, and cultural studies, including sociology, demography, economics, interviews, reader response and media reaction (Klock 10). Cultural studies provides a broad frame from which to work and can be interpreted through context or subtext.
Context (canon) stops as soon as the comic book comes to an end; however, subtext continues into fandom and relies heavily on fan speculation. Within the comic book genre, context is usually bent several ways with each run of the comic title as each comic book contains a fair amount of collaboration and each collaborator has his own take on each character. “Comic book fandom (eg fanfiction) is by no means incorrect, but this study takes the position that these are highly accidental extratextual materials organized by a visionary storyteller, alongside genre and narrative elements” (Klock 14). Due to the wide range of audience, context and subtext can be interpreted many ways, but “the target audience of the comic book companies [is] eighteen to twenty-four-year-old college-educated males. [Therefore] Comic books [are]… expected to tell stories for adults using the building blocks of children’s literature” (Klock 21).
The best known publisher names in American Comic books are DC and Marvel. DC brings the world Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and the Justice League while Marvel produces The Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, The X-Men, and The Avengers. DC is approximately twenty years older than Marvel. The first DC title published was Superman in 1938, followed by Batman a year later, The Green Lantern the year after that, and Wonder Woman in 1941. Even though Marvel was created in 1939 under the name Timely Comics, the modern Marvel was born approximately twenty years later, debuting with The Fantastic Four in 1961, followed by Spider-Man and The Incredible Hulk in 1962, X-Men, The Avengers, and Iron Man a year later, and Daredevil in 1964. Both DC and Marvel now carry dozens of titles.
As the DC superheroes were created almost sixty years ago, their language and mannerisms reflect their time of inception. These superheroes focus on saving their public and sometimes their world from destruction and little else, leaving no room within the comic book for deep personal lives outside of family. This is also demonstrated through the dialogue between characters and narration.
The stiff writing, even in the most recent runs of DC comics, seems vaguely reminiscent of what it was years ago, even the jokes. DC writers are striving to keep the monologue and banter alive. Within the Golden Age Wonder Woman, while she is fighting she says, “You can take the first grip --- Unh! My Mistake! So that’s the way you want to fight, eh? This is the way Earth wrestlers keep ‘em flying!” (Fox 5). Over sixty years later in 2004 while Wonder Woman makes a cameo appearance in Teen Titans she says, while fighting, “Your determination is impressive as usual, Starfire. But my own warrior’s temper has grown thin” (Johns). Both declarations could have easily been within the same issue, not over sixty years apart.
While the banter is a constant in the superhero equation, language can be updated to include slang and pop culture references. There are instances within DC where references are made, very rarely does the language express this, and it is usually in titles aimed at a younger generation such as Teen Titans. Marvel writers have shed most of the monologues and have moved on to having the entire collaboration tell the story not just the character’s narration. The Human Torch goes from saying, “Wow! I never realized she had gotten so good with her invisible power! She actually forced me right out of the house” (Lee) to being sarcastic with The Thing, saying, “C’mon, Ben, let’s find the fantasti-door and have a fantasti-look inside,” relying on the context of the scene and the artwork to complete the story (Bendis). As The Human Torch’s character developed, so did his language and the writers’ skills, unlike Wonder Woman who has virtually stayed the same as she was at the beginning of her run back in 1941.
Not only has language evolved, so has costuming. This change, however, is a direct reflection on the time of publication. Although art and writing are two different aspects of the comic book collaboration, the art seemed to change faster than the writing. This mostly is the result of the “Comics Code Authority,” which is similar to the Production Code Administration in Hollywood in the 1930s and 40s, and protects “values and decency” within the Comic Book Industry (Klock 43). There was once upon a time where the word “zombie” could not appear within the pages of a comic book, and “terror” or “horror” could not be used in the title (Daniels).
It was under the Comics Code Authority that “illicit sex relations” as well as “violent love scenes [and] sexual abnormalities” were banned (Daniels). This was followed up by “sex perversion or any inference to same is strictly forbidden,” thus banning homosexuality and non-stereotypical depictions of homosexuals from comics (Daniels). As times changed, so did the Code, and revisions were made. The 1989 revision lifted the ban on homosexuality, and the homosexuals already embedded within certain comic runs were no longer constrained by stereotyping (Daniels). Marvel ridded themselves of the Comic Code Authority in 2001, opting to use their own system of rating their comics; however, DC still uses the Comic Code Authority (Daniels).
Even with the ban on homosexuality, the Comic Code Authority could not veto subtext and innuendo, as the writer could deny it as easily as confirm it. “The comic book industry responded to such accusations… by scrupulously avoiding any acknowledgment of homosexuality and vigorously defending “truth, justice, and the American way”” (Gross 212). The oldest comic book hero, Superman, a DC hero, began with subtext already in full swing. Superman, as Clark Kent, is an alien living as a human. He hides his true self from the world, yet comes out as something people can understand. As a superhero, Superman is able to truly be himself. He has a secret identity as Clark Kent for Superman, but Clark Kent is also a secret identity for Kal-El. Superman needs to have both of those secret identities and stays in the closet, so to speak, about his abilities. “He has to fit in. He can’t stand out in the way that he could if the whole truth were known about him” (Morris 259). However, that makes him uneasy with who he is because “at some level, it seems that he wants desperately to be human, or at least to know what it means to be human in the deepest, most intimate possible way”( Morris 259).
If Clark Kent were to come out as Superman, there would be hysteria at least on some level. “People get seriously weirded-out when they see this man use his powers openly. It makes them retroactively paranoid” (Waid 7). Superman realizes how people work: they are afraid of anything new and are open to paranoia. The masses think, “He has superhuman powers and he’s been keeping them a secret? That’s a big secret. What else has he been keeping from them, they’d wonder. The possibilities would be endless, and some of them sinister” (Waid 7). So Superman stays hidden as Clark Kent who also hides Kal-El, and Clark Kent is nothing more than a “mild mannered reporter.” “He has to fit in. He can’t stand out in the way that he could if the whole truth were known about him” (Morris 259).
This ambiguous subtext within Superman is strengthened when Superboy was released. Superboy has two biological fathers: Superman and Lex Luthor. DC intended for Superboy to be torn between the genetics of the ultimate good of Superman and the ultimate evil of Lex Luthor, and that notion fuels many story arcs about Superboy’s choices between good and evil. Superboy does have Superman as a mentor, and that relationship pushes Superboy in the direction of being a superhero. In Infinite Crisis, Superboy faces his greatest challenge of battling himself, literally, except this other self had been raised by Lex Luthor. The superhero Superboy dies, and so does the other Superboy, in a way. Therefore Superboy is the product of faulty parenting that not only comes when one parent is a superhero and one is a super villain who they both want to kill each other very much, but it also comes when both parents are of the same gender.
The next title DC published after Superman, Batman, took the subtext to another level. Superman is often referred to as “the Big Blue Boy Scout,” but Batman is “the night.” Superman has morals and practices them; however, Batman’s morals are more smeared, and he has a darker personality with more secrets. Batman has also been more exposed to others than Superman due to Batman’s teenaged sidekicks: Robins one through four. Most of the controversy arose from Robin I, Dick Grayson. “Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson’s life at the Wayne Manor is described as ‘the wish of two homosexuals living together’ creating turmoil between readers and the public” not savvy in the ways of comic books or superheroes (Klock 32). However, a psychiatrist by the name of Wertham, who authored Seduction of the Innocent, which brought about the need for the Comic Code Authority, stated that “only someone ignorant of the fundamentals of psychiatry and of the psychopathology of sex can fail to realize a subtle atmosphere of homoerotism which pervades the adventures of the nature of Batman and his young friend Robin” (Gross 212).
Frank Miller, who authored The Dark Knight Returns, “is not so naïve as to insist that homoeroticism is entirely absent from the Batman narrative, and in fact provides for a consequential role” in his comic book (Klock 34). He does avoid homoeroticism between Batman and Robin, “catering to the instincts that Batman and Robin’s relationship is not a thinly disguised homoerotic fantasy, but also gives Wertham his due by not invoking a reactionary position, that the homoerotic has no place at all” (Klock 34-5).
The platonic relationship between Batman and Robin is driven from readers’ minds when The Joker is introduced as the villain of The Dark Knight Returns, and homoeroticism is brought into the light. As The Joker and Batman converse, “Wertham’s general charges of homoeroticism into Batman, and the shift from Batman-Robin to Batman-Joker makes the claim significantly more interesting and complex” (Klock 35). Within The Dark Knight Returns, there is a scene during which Dr. Wolper, the Joker’s psychotherapist, claims, “My patient is a victim of Batman’s psychosis” and that the nature of this psychosis is “sexual repression, of course”” (Miller et al. 126). This pushes the homoerotic subtext into an actual contextual mold. The underlying homoeroticism between Batman and The Joker could easily be interpreted as homophobic: the villain is sexually attracted to the hero. Nevertheless, the claim is that the Batman-Joker interaction “provides a subterranean connection between two characters who seem… to be diametrically opposed” (Klock 35). The Dark Knight Returns took the public’s attention away from the Batman-Robin subtext and gave them something concrete to fixate on.
Wonder Woman was the first female superhero created by DC Comics, and she was subjected to the same vigorous sexual interrogation as her male counterparts. Wonder Woman originates from an island of all women, and even though it is not specifically said that there is any sort of sexual behavior between the island inhabitants, it is implied. Although, a more pressing question than “are they lesbians?” is “how do they reproduce?” Regardless, Wonder Woman is also accused of “encouraging lesbianism among girls” (Gross 212). As Wonder Woman is not as popular as Batman or Superman - even though she is considered to be one of the three The World’s Finest - she is able to, for the most part, stay out of the subtextual limelight.
Unlike DC, Marvel was able to avoid most of the subtext that DC was faced with. The Fantastic Four had to deal with incestuous subtext between Sue and Johnny Storm not homoerotic subtext. The Fantastic Four are held together by a relationship similar to family as opposed to a romantic relationship, although some tensions have been established between Johnny Storm and Spider-Man. The first two Marvel comics with homoerotic subtext began the same year: The X-Men and The Avengers. These two comic books deal with many characters, and the tensions between these characters can be strenuous at best. There is a love triangle in The X-Men between Cyclops, Wolverine, and Marvel Girl, and there is a strange camaraderie between Captain America and Iron Man in The Avengers. The tensions between these characters can be interpreted as sexual tension much like that between Batman and The Joker in The Dark Knight Returns. Unlike The Avengers, The X-Men also has another dimension to the queer subtext: mutants are shunned by society.
It is not only the interactions between all of the aforementioned characters that could be considered queer, there is also the idea of secret identities, secret powers, and a lack of non-metahuman understanding. Within The Fantastic Four, there are no secret identities: The Thing is Ben Grimm and Ben Grimm is The Thing - they cannot be one without the other. While it can be argued that Superman is always Clark Kent and Kal-El, he hides two of those identities behind one. Clark Kent is never in the same place as Superman and probably never will be. The Thing hides nothing and is out in the open about who he is, but Superman keeps who he truly is locked away.
Spider-Man was originally loathed by the public. In one issue of Spider-Man, the Human Torch points out that Spider-Man has lost the public’s trust because he hides something from them. In this certain instance it is Spider-Man’s face that causes this distrust: the public cannot see Spider-Man’s face so it is assumed that he is doing something sinister (Straczynski). It is not until Civil War that Spider-Man comes out as Peter Parker, which creates as many problems as it solves (Straczynski). He does earn the public’s trust, but he puts his relatives in danger because of it.
Both Spider-Man and Superman keep their powers a secret while in their civilian guise. This also fostered mistrust throughout the public. They have no idea who these people are in their everyday lives. There is a man at large who can crawl up walls and another man who can fly over them. These men could be anyone and are virtually unstoppable. That idea scares the public and they lack the understanding to process the idea of metahuman powers.
No civilian could battle Spider-Man or Superman, but a super villain could. Super villains also have superpowers, and the public is caught between the good and the evil. While superheroes are inherently good and super villains are inherently bad, the public cannot fully comprehend the differences between the two, especially since superheroes have the tendency to go rouge every so often or destroy cities that they are trying to protect. The general public has no metahuman abilities, at least within DC Comics, and is powerless against a super villain or a rouge superhero. However, in Marvel Comics, some of the public does have metahuman abilities. They are given the name “mutants” and are mostly present within The X-Men. There is no equivalent to a mutant in DC Comics: only superheroes and super villains have superpowers. If a person of the general public were to suddenly acquire superpowers, he or she would become either a superhero or a super villain much like Bart Allen’s roommate in The Flash: One Year Later, who actually became the former and then the latter (Bilson et al.). That person with newly acquired superpowers feels that it is his or her duty to help or take advantage of the powerless public.
In The X-Men, many mutants keep their genes a secret, opting to remain unseen and neither good nor bad. “The difference between mutants and “normal” people have led to many ordinary citizens to fear and even hate mutants, who are therefore often forced to remain “in the closet”” (Evans 167). There is a huge debate throughout the X-Men’s world about what should be done with mutants. Politicians such as Senator Kelly use the public’s fear of mutants to their own advantage and against mutants. People fear what they do not understand, meaning that mutants receive the short end of the stick.
Professor X eventually changed the outfits his X-Men wore from a superhero outfit to something more on the normal side. Beast inquired why the X-Men dressed up as superheroes originally. Cyclops answered for the Professor, “The Professor thought people would trust the X-Men if we looked like something they understood” (Morrison et al. #114). In order to gain the public’s trust, the X-Men had to not become a part of the public but had to further remove themselves while asserting themselves in a particular role that the public would understand.
Mistique is a mutant villain working for Magneto against humans and the X-Men. She has the ability to shape-shift into whatever human guise she wishes, male or female. “But when Nightcrawler asks her why she doesn’t just permanently shift her appearance to look like everyone else, she replies bitterly that she shouldn’t have to” (Housel 82). Mistique argues that she should not have to be something she is not nor hide who she really is behind a false person: the public should accept her for who she is, not try to change her into something she is not.
Many mutants are faced with this problem, many to the point of self-denial. In Ultimate X-Men, Northstar had an easier time coming to terms with being a homosexual than believing that he was a mutant. Mutations are often kept hidden, but unfortunately only those who look like humans can pull that off. Angel tried to hide his mutation from his father in “X3: The Last Stand” where Angel makes his first appearance in the film universe of The X-Men. Angel’s mutation, giant wings protruding from his back, could not be kept hidden very well for very long. Angel’s father took steps to cure his son of his abnormality, which Angel ultimately refused to accept.
Beast is one mutant who never was able to blend in as part of the public, and in New X-Men, a civilian calls Beast gay. The announcement originated from one of his bitter ex-girlfriends, and he did not bother to correct it. When Cyclops prompted why, Beast answered, “I might as well be! I’ve been taunted all my life for my individualistic looks and style of dress… I’ve been hounded and called names in the street and I’ve risen above it.” Cyclops continues to protest Beast’s lack of denial and again Beast answers, “Come on, I’m as gay as the next mutant! I make a great role model for alienated young men and women” (Morrison et al.). In Ultimate X-Men, when Colossus comes out to Nightcrawler, he says, “If a man as unique as [Nightcrawler] no longer has to hide in the shadows, I fail to see why someone like me should” (Vaughan #65).
Nightcrawler comes from a very conservative, Catholic background and instantaneously abandons Colossus as a friend after he comes out. This homophobic reaction seems almost pathetic coming from a man with blue skin, a prehensile tail, and three digits on each hand, yet the action is entirely realistic, even for someone different as Nightcrawler. “Many people who have no trouble accepting love between two hobbits or two ogres still have difficulty accepting love between two men or two women,” and Nightcrawler fills that token homophobe gap within Ultimate X-Men (Benshoff 262).
In 1992, three years after the Comic Code Authority amendment, Alpha Flight, which is in the same Marvel Universe as The X-Men, was also one of the first comics to have a homosexual superhero. “After nearly a decade of battling evil around the globe, the comic book hero Northstar has revealed to the 100,000 or so people who follow his exploits that he is gay” (“The Comics Break New Ground, Again.”). Many fans have accused Marvel of Northstar’s coming out as simply being a publicity stunt.
The first mainstream homosexual character was the Pied Piper from The Flash, a DC Comics title. The Pied Piper was a former super villain but reformed his ways and helps Flash in some of his endeavors. Later, the Pied Piper jokes ironically that he was the only super villain to go straight when he obviously is not. The Pied Piper has a very smooth coming out scene in which Flash does not take the news as tactfully as he could have (Messner-Loebs #53). The Flash at the time, Wally West, was curious if, when the Pied Piper was “on the other side of the law,” he discovered if the rumors of The Joker being gay were true. The Pied Piper informs Flash that the only super villain he knew of who was gay was himself. In doing so, the Pied Piper denies the subtext of The Dark Knight Returns years before it was conceived. Flash is shocked by the Pied Piper’s admission and jumps off the building they were conversing on and runs away. The Pied Piper simply smiles and shakes his head at Flash’s obvious discomfort and awkwardness and his denial thereof. Eventually, the conservative Flash overcomes his shock and they proceed as if nothing unusual had ever occurred, and Flash becomes comfortable with his friend’s sexuality.
Unlike Northstar’s coming out, DC Comics was not accused of pulling a publicity stunt. The Flash editor Brian Augustyn was “ready for a real controversy” but was surprised with the “overwhelmingly positive” responses from readers (Messner-Loebs #57). In the letter column of the issue, however, Augustyn hangs out reader’s dirty laundry. The responses published and answered are both positive and negative. The positive letters showered DC with praises for finally having an openly homosexual character, and the negative letters damned DC for finally having an openly homosexual character.
Since these major characters have come out in the early 1990’s, minor characters have revealed their sexuality. There were a handful of characters that had been outed before the Comic Code Authority amendment in 1989, but before the amendment there was a lot of ambiguity. One such character hinted at was Obsidian, a DC Comics character. According to The Gay League, in the main Marvel Universe there are a total of eighteen out male homosexuals, and of those eighteen, twelve are superheroes and two are criminals and the four others are supporting characters (Palmer). In the Marvel Universe there are a total of nine lesbians, and of those nine, four are superheroes, three are criminals and the remaining two are supporting characters. In the DC Universe there are a total of fifteen out male homosexuals, and of those fifteen, four are superheroes, five are criminals, and six are supporting characters. The Pied Piper was included as a supporting character due to his role as both a superhero and a super villain. In the DC Universe there are thirteen lesbians, and of those thirteen, four are superheroes, two are criminals, and seven are supporting characters (Table 1).
Of the known homosexual Marvel characters, four of the males are well-known and mainstreamed (Northstar, Colossus, Wiccan, and Hulkling) and none of the females are. Of the known homosexual DC characters, a potential two males are roughly considered well-known and mainstreamed (the Pied Piper and Obsidian), and one potential female (Batwoman). Extrano, a DC supporting almost-superhero, could possibly be considered a mainstreamed superhero; however, he was the stereotypical flamboyant homosexual, and his sexuality was never outright declared.
In the case of both Northstar and the Pied Piper, they remained celibate for years and therefore homosexual in name only. It is not until years later that either character became involved in a relationship. The Pied Piper was given a live-in boyfriend in the late 1990’s, but Northstar was not in a relationship until 2006 and in only one run of The X-Men. While the Pied Piper was the first to have a significant relationship, his place within the DC Universe is considerably smaller than Northstar’s place within the Marvel Universe. The Pied Piper also dates a civilian, whereas Northstar dates a fellow superhero, Colossus. The relationship between Northstar and Colossus is only in Ultimate X-Men and does not transcend X-Men titles. In fact in Uncanny X-Men, Colossus is in a relationship with Shadowcat, and Northstar harbors unrequited love for Ice Man. The discrepancy between these two titles is speculated to be because Marvel does not wish to lose a chunk of its fanbase because of that relationship. In all X-Men titles other than Ultimate X-Men, Northstar remains celibate, and in New X-Men, he dies a meaningless death by Wolverine’s claws. (He got better.)
Marvel took an even bigger chance than creating a relationship between superheroes: they started a new title with two of the main, male superheroes in an established relationship. Young Avengers has four teenaged male superheroes, somehow related to the original Avengers, taking over the Avengers job of protecting New York after the Avengers had disbanded. Hulking and Asgardian - who later changed his name to Wiccan to “avoid becoming a national joke” when his and Hulking’s relationship went public - were in a relationship since before the comic began. However, these two superheroes remain celibate on panel and there are only a few hints as to what goes on off panel. When a former Avenger asks for an interview for her colleague, she says that Hulking and Wiccan will undoubtedly be asked about the nature of their relationship. Hulking answers, “Why should Northstar have all the fun?” (Heinberg and Cheung).
As Young Avengers progresses, the relationship between the two boys becomes increasingly more public. Since this comic is relatively new, their relationship has potential to continue to open the way it has been. However, just like X-Men balanced Northstar and Colossus’s relationship with the heterosexuality of Colossus and Shadowcat’s relationship, Young Avengers balanced Hulking and Wiccan’s relationship by overplaying Stature and Iron Lad’s relationship, but once Iron Lad returned to the future, the heterosexuality was no longer overpowering.
DC Comics is stumbling to keep up with Marvel, even though neither includes well-known lesbian characters. In Manhunter, Kate Spencer, who doubles as Manhunter, has a gay co-counsel Damon Matthews, and the writer Marc Andreyko wanted him to have a superhero boyfriend with Damon being oblivious to the fact that he was dating a superhero (Contino). The superhero Andreyko chose was Obsidian a member of the Justice Society of America, who up until Manhunter #18 had been of questionable sexuality. When asked if DC put up any resistance to the queering of one of their superheroes, Andreyko said that “DC has always been pretty open to gay stories and, in fact, wanted a visible gay character. We all agreed on not wanting to make the gay part a "big deal" for the character” (Contino). The relationship between Damon and Obsidian is not chaste and a lot is shown on panel. However, Manhunter is a lesser known title and therefore would have fewer fans to cause an uproar about the blatant homosexuality.
There had been fan speculation as to Obsidian being gay, which is similar to the speculation around the second Green Arrow, another DC hero. Connor Hawke, who is the biological son of the original Green Arrow and became the second Green Arrow while his father was dead (he got better), was raised in a Buddhist monastery. When Kevin Smith takes over writing for The Green Arrow, people keep asking Connor if he is gay because he has no idea how socially interact with women. This social awkwardness has to do with the fact that he grew up in a monastery where he was never in contact with any women. The original Green Arrow asks, the fourth Green Lantern asks, the second Speedy asks, even the first Speedy now Arsenal asks, and Connor becomes short with them. However, in Connor Hawke: Dragon’s Blood, Connor has an affair with Lady Shado thus silencing all questions about his sexuality.
In the case of Connor Hawke, DC disproved the idea of a person being awkward with the opposite sex automatically making him or her homosexual. This is a great improvement from Extrano, who under the Comic Code Authority was very stereotypically flamboyant. Also, when the Pied Piper outs himself to Flash, Flash admonished himself for not noticing, as if there were certain tells that he could have picked up on, which is more applicable to real life - no matter how much real life does not usually apply to superheroes (Messner-Loebs).
Marvel has no true equivalent to Connor Hawke or Extrano. Within Marvel, the homosexual characters do not make a big deal about their sexuality, which DC does with the Pied Piper. DC uses the Pied Piper as a conduit for public service announcements for social issues such as AIDS. Marvel character Northstar once suffered the same fate as the Pied Piper; however, now Northstar is simply another character in X-Men: the only exception being that he is not involved in any of the love-triangles within Professor X’s school. Most Marvel characters are simply who they are: no labels.
Outside of DC’s main universe with Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman, there are series that DC handed over to Wildstorm, which, while owned by DC Comics, is viewed as a separate entity as it does not include DC’s main universe. One of Wildstorm’s main titles is The Authority, a continuum of Storm Watch. “The Authority takes the homosexual subtext that Miller and Moore brought to the fore and brings the volume all the way up, openly troping it as a foundation of superhero literature in the figures of Superman and Batman” (Klock 143). Midnighter, who is Batman with fewer morals and superpowers, and Apollo, who is Superman with fewer morals, are two of the main superheroes within the comic and are openly homosexual as well as in a relationship with each other. “In March 2002 the DC Comics [now Wildstorm] series The Authority broke new ground by revealing that two of its 21-century superheroes, Apollo and Midnighter, were lovers” (Gross 214). Author Mark Miller explained, “The whole idea of a superhero is that he or she fights for the underdog, so I don’t see why we shouldn’t have superheroes who are gay” (Gross 214).
“The open homosexuality between two masculine powerhouses of the team, Apollo and Midnighter” was difficult for some fans to deal with, even if their sexuality was slowly brought to the forefront (Klock 143).
Now penned for DC Comics imprint WildStorm Productions by writer Mark Millar and illustrator Frank Quitely (both of whom are heterosexually married with children in Scotland), The Authority is slowly upping the ante. Apollo and Midnighter now hug, and they even kissed after one nearly fatal battle.
Quitely, for one, thinks the go-slow approach could have unexpected advantages for educating the kids reading The Authority. "I'm sure there were some kids who thought [Apollo and Midnighter] were really cool," says Quitely, 32. "Then it started to dawn on them, and they thought, I hope not; I hope not." He laughs, then adds, "It's good for them to deal with" (Glitz).
Recently, Midnighter has been given his own series through Wildstorm, and writer Garth Ennis spoke on the character who people have compared to Batman. “I always thought Batman was the gay Batman, but there you go. I think the Midnighter is very much his own man; his sexuality is just one part of that” (Newsarama). Midnighter is the star of “the first ongoing comic from either Marvel or DC starring a gay hero in the title role” (Newsarama). “His sexuality is not a complex issue: he likes… men. He likes… one man in particular,” and that is the end of Midnighter’s issue with his sexuality (Newsarama). Ennis concludes that Midnighter “has no more questions about himself in that regard, so why should we? As for any controversy this may bring, well, if Brokeback Mountain proved anything, it’s this: gay characters piss off all the right people” (Newsarama).
The Authority was also the first comic with a same sex couple being married and adopting and raising a child. While this is progress for the rest of the comic book world, the claim belongs to neither DC nor Marvel. Jenny Quantum is adopted by Midnighter and Apollo and is the reincarnation of their old team leader Jenny Sparks. Jenny does not show any abnormal signs because she was raised by two males, and is, in fact, as normal as any child with superpowers raised by two people with superpowers. DC has imposed a same-sex marriage in Green Arrow: One Year Later. Oliver Queen, Green Arrow turned politician, has become mayor of Star City and legalized same-sex marriage, but that legalization is for the general public, and no one of superhero or even super villain status has taken him up on the offer.
Because Wildstorm is technically part of DC, the progressive ideas presented in The Authority may leak into the mainstreamed DC Universe. However, simply because DC plays the diversity card, does not mean that they will do much with it. As shown by the numbers given above, there are very few homosexuals within the DC superhero community compared to Marvel. Most of DC’s homosexual characters are supporting characters. Although Marvel also has a large homosexual supporting character to homosexual superhero ratio, there are more homosexual superheroes in Marvel than in DC.
DC pushes all homosexual characters to the background as Marvel pushes them to the foreground. Both Marvel and DC have more male homosexuals than female homosexuals, yet Marvel has more male homosexual superheroes and DC has more female homosexual supporting characters. Both publishers balance out the tiny usages of homosexuality with a plethora of heterosexual displays, and the females in both also receive little equality when it comes to a strong relationship on panel.
The characters created for Marvel have an overall more organic feel than the characters created by DC, so it stands to reason that the homosexual characters also have a more organic feel when written in Marvel. DC and Marvel both address social issues such as AIDS and homophobia, but Marvel takes it one step farther and creates a realistic context whereas DC relies heavily on subtext to carry an idea.
Table 1: Out Homosexual Characters in the Main Marvel and DC Universes and the Titles They Appear In
Marvel
Character Comic Title
Male Homosexual Superheroes
Anole X-Men
Bloke X-Force
Colossus X-Men
Flatman Avengers West Coast
Freedom Ring Marvel Team-Up
Hector Incredible Hulk
Hulkling Young Avengers
Living Lightning Avengers West Coast
Vivisector X-Force
Phat X-Force
Wiccan Young Avengers
Northstar X-Men
Male Homosexual Super Villains
Hayden Deadpool
Machinesmith Captain America
Male Homosexual Supporting Characters
Arnold Roth New Warriors
Tyler Lang Incredible Hulk
Jefferson Wolfe Incredible Hulk
Ned Campbell Captain America
Female Homosexual Superheroes
Karma X-Force
Karolina Dean Runaways
Moondragon Iron Man
Sunfire II Exiles
Female Homosexual Super Villains
Amazon Marvel Team-Up
Leather Web of Spider-Man
Lace Web of Spider-Man
Female Homosexual Supporting Characters
Molly Von Richthofen Punisher
Captain Power* Amazing Spider-Man
DC
Character Comic Title
Male Homosexual Superheroes
Extrano Millenium
Hero Superboy
Obsidian Justice Society of America
Tasmanian Devil Justice League Quarterly
Male Homosexual Super Villains
Captain Stingaree Justice League of America
Cavalier Justice League of America
Monsieur Mallah Doom Patrol
The Brain Doom Patrol
The Answer II Captain America
Male Homosexual Supporting Characters
Damon Matthews Manhunter
The Pied Piper* The Flash
Terry Berg Green Lantern
Gannon Malloy Nightwing
Josiah Power Justice League of America
Lance Gardner Wonder Woman
Female Homosexual Superheroes
Batwoman 52
Captain Marvel IV Captain Marvel
Fauna Outsiders
Syonide Outsiders
Female Homosexual Super Villains
Knockout Superboy
Scandal Villains United
Female Homosexual Supporting Characters
Andy Jones Supergirl
Renee Montoya Batman
Maggie Sawyer Superman
Closet Space Supergirl
Holly Robinson Catwoman
Lee Green Lantern
Li Green Lantern
*the character served as both a superhero and a villain.
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