comickal: captain marvel's WHAT? and an interesting list
Wizard Entertainment -- FIVE FOR FRIDAY: THE BEST GAY SUPERHEROES:This week’s Annihilation: Conquest-Quasar #1 by Christos Gage and Eric Basaldua, starring Captain Marvel’s lesbian daughter Phylla-Vell as the new bearer of the Quantum Bands, is one of the first mainstream titles with a gay headliner in quite some time. It’s just too bad it didn’t hit in time for Pride Month. Regardless, Five for Friday is here to parade out the best LGBT superheroes around....
So, do they mean Monica Rambeau had a daughter? (Seriously, no clue. My entire experience with her was in the awesomeness of Nextwave, and despite being old-line Marvel characters, they might just as well have had no past whatsoever, as much as it mattered.)
I do have one or two ... qualms about this list, although that has more to do with the nature of what's happened with LGBT (there are T superheroes?) superheroes than with the list per se. But note
#5 - Batwoman: vanished from the scene -- Occasional Superheroine, a comics business and DC veteran posits that it may be because DC got twitchy about having a lesbian attached to the "Bat" brand;
#4 - Lucy in the Sky/Wiccan -- I don't disagree, but ... Wiccan gets cited and his boyfriend doesn't? Lucy gets listed and her ... um, friend doesn't? (Well, Xavin is kind of a special case.)
#3 - Midnighter -- As I've mentioned, I have one or two issues with the character himself, and the way his relationship was handled (or rather, expressly shoved to the side) in his series -- and do not get me started on the samurai thing. It would be nice if someone could write his series as though he and Apollo had a partnership of equals -- or even liked each other, really. He somehow tends to get written as, "Yeah, I've got a husband. Don't know what to do with him. Think I'll go out and maim something instead."
#2 - Northstar -- Well ... first he was closeted, and then he was out and proud! This, of course, meant that shortly thereafter, he was clearly and sincerely dead. This, of course, meant that he shortly thereafter got resurrected and became a villain! This, of course, meant that in order to save him, the X-Men (or SHIELD, whichever) brainwashed him to counter his previous brainwashing. All that said ... he was the first out of the closet, so that's something, I suppose.
#1 - Renee Montoya/The Question -- Yeah. Hmm. Well, first of all, except for momentary appearances in Countdown, she pretty much doesn't do bupkis today. Yes, OK, she was important in 52, but frankly, I'd ruther have had the character maybe put on hold and brought back for the alleged Streets of Gotham (although I think plans for the title itself may have been dropped due both to DC deciding that Three Straight Years of Weekly Continuity Porn Is What Readers Want -- and we see how that's working, with Countdown losing something like 2,000 readers per month; I'd also guess that the plans to save Manhunter -- which seems to have vanished into Countdown's backdraft, or something -- meant that DC might have decided that the DC Universe really only needed one low-read prestige title, and Manhunter was to be it). So, yes, first, the invisibility of the character. Second ... it bugs me that they decided to take the face away from the latina lesbian, OK? It just does.
Mind, I'm not sure what changes I would make, other than probably putting both Xavin (who, OK, I guess counts as a Trans character, what with being able to be any sex or species) and Hulkling or whatever he's calling himself up there on line 4 with their partners. There aren't that many out there in the first place, and even fewer LGBT heroic characters are both alive and active. Freedom Ring is dead with malice aforethought, afterthought, duringthought -- really, was it necessary to kill him quite that thoroughly? Obsidian is mired in Manhunter's publication schedule, although I expect him to be well written once the title actually starts publishing again regularly. Then there's the women in Annhilation:Conquest. Then there's ... um ... well, there's ... someone I'm forgetting. I hope.
So, do they mean Monica Rambeau had a daughter? (Seriously, no clue. My entire experience with her was in the awesomeness of Nextwave, and despite being old-line Marvel characters, they might just as well have had no past whatsoever, as much as it mattered.)
I do have one or two ... qualms about this list, although that has more to do with the nature of what's happened with LGBT (there are T superheroes?) superheroes than with the list per se. But note
#5 - Batwoman: vanished from the scene -- Occasional Superheroine, a comics business and DC veteran posits that it may be because DC got twitchy about having a lesbian attached to the "Bat" brand;
#4 - Lucy in the Sky/Wiccan -- I don't disagree, but ... Wiccan gets cited and his boyfriend doesn't? Lucy gets listed and her ... um, friend doesn't? (Well, Xavin is kind of a special case.)
#3 - Midnighter -- As I've mentioned, I have one or two issues with the character himself, and the way his relationship was handled (or rather, expressly shoved to the side) in his series -- and do not get me started on the samurai thing. It would be nice if someone could write his series as though he and Apollo had a partnership of equals -- or even liked each other, really. He somehow tends to get written as, "Yeah, I've got a husband. Don't know what to do with him. Think I'll go out and maim something instead."
#2 - Northstar -- Well ... first he was closeted, and then he was out and proud! This, of course, meant that shortly thereafter, he was clearly and sincerely dead. This, of course, meant that he shortly thereafter got resurrected and became a villain! This, of course, meant that in order to save him, the X-Men (or SHIELD, whichever) brainwashed him to counter his previous brainwashing. All that said ... he was the first out of the closet, so that's something, I suppose.
#1 - Renee Montoya/The Question -- Yeah. Hmm. Well, first of all, except for momentary appearances in Countdown, she pretty much doesn't do bupkis today. Yes, OK, she was important in 52, but frankly, I'd ruther have had the character maybe put on hold and brought back for the alleged Streets of Gotham (although I think plans for the title itself may have been dropped due both to DC deciding that Three Straight Years of Weekly Continuity Porn Is What Readers Want -- and we see how that's working, with Countdown losing something like 2,000 readers per month; I'd also guess that the plans to save Manhunter -- which seems to have vanished into Countdown's backdraft, or something -- meant that DC might have decided that the DC Universe really only needed one low-read prestige title, and Manhunter was to be it). So, yes, first, the invisibility of the character. Second ... it bugs me that they decided to take the face away from the latina lesbian, OK? It just does.
Mind, I'm not sure what changes I would make, other than probably putting both Xavin (who, OK, I guess counts as a Trans character, what with being able to be any sex or species) and Hulkling or whatever he's calling himself up there on line 4 with their partners. There aren't that many out there in the first place, and even fewer LGBT heroic characters are both alive and active. Freedom Ring is dead with malice aforethought, afterthought, duringthought -- really, was it necessary to kill him quite that thoroughly? Obsidian is mired in Manhunter's publication schedule, although I expect him to be well written once the title actually starts publishing again regularly. Then there's the women in Annhilation:Conquest. Then there's ... um ... well, there's ... someone I'm forgetting. I hope.