DC to reveal 'iconic' male character as gay

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http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/entertainme ... of-closet/

By ABC News
May 21, 2012 6:49pm
Comics Cliffhanger as Unnamed DC Superhero to Come Out of Closet
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ABC News’ Jason Volack reports:

For the first time, a major comic book character won’t be ambiguously gay anymore.

DC Comics, whose portfolio includes such iconic characters as Batman and Robin, Superman, and Wonder Woman, plans next month to reintroduce one of its major superheroes as openly gay. Just not yet.

“One of the major iconic DC characters will reveal that he is gay in a storyline in June,” Courtney Simmons, DC Entertainment’s senior vice president of publicity, confirmed to ABC News.

So which one is it? The folks at DC Comics aren’t saying, but they do say it’s the latest effort to make sure their comics keep up with the times.

Last September, DC Comics relaunched its entire line of comic books to feature an updated look and a new lineup of LGBT superheroes: including Voodoo, an African American bisexual woman and Batwoman, an open lesbian.

Batwoman garnered DC comics an Outstanding Comic Book award from GLAAD, an advocacy and watchdog organization for LGBT issues.

“DC and (archrival) Marvel are recognizing that there is an LGBT audience that has been reading their comics for years,” said Matt Kane, associate director of entertainment and media for GLAAD. “When creating these fictional worlds it’s important to show the full diversity.”

Aside from making good business sense, Kane said younger readers are perfectly comfortable with gay characters and expect to see their peers represented.

Although DC’s Comics’ plan to plans to reintroduce a major character as gay is new, gay characters in comic books are not.

Marvel Comic’s Northstar was revealed to be in a gay relationship back in 2009. Archie Comics introduced a gay character in 2010, and there was a gay wedding in Riverdale in 2011.

Rumors are swirling that Northstar too is expected to tie the knot to his boyfriend Kyle.

“They are recognizing how the world is evolving,” said Kane.
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Place your bets, place your bets. Which already established 'iconic' DC male character will be revealed as gay? People are guessing Alfred Pennyworth, the Riddler, Superboy, Tim Drake, and a whole bunch of others. Who do you think it will be?

[Gandalf]

I wager Jimmy Olsen.

This is based on basically nothing.

[FaxModem1]

I was going to say Connor Hawke, but then I realized he was wiped out by the reboot. So, I'm going to guess one of the Robins, maybe Tim Drake.

That is, of course, if they don't feel the Bat-Family already has a token in Batwoman and it's somebody else.

[Irbis]

Captain America?

This is based solely on amount of RAEG it would cause. And yes, I know Cap' is Marvel character.

Hmm, if they want controversy, the only characters I can see causing any are Lex Luthor or Superman, but both are implausible for several reasons...

[Murazor]

No idea of whom it could possibly be.

[Grumman]

Just as long as it doesn't end up as another Ultimate Spoiler

Colossus.

I much prefer it handled like Spoiler

Scandal Savage and Knockout

in Villains United and for it not to be treated as an Issue.

[fgalkin]

No idea at all



Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

[SAMAS]

I just hope they don't do it cheaply and retcon it back a year or two later

[Tsyroc]

Haven't all the "iconic" male characters had fairly serious relationships with female characters already? I mean, who are they going to retconn?


I'm wondering what they mean by "iconic" as well. It makes me think of Icon and I think it'd be a bad move to make him gay. Not to mention he hasn't been around long enough to be "iconic".

[evilsoup]

Well they recently rebooted their entire line (again).
I bet Martian Manhunter, because he's one of those Justice League guys, but one that nobody cares about.

[Themightytom]

Oh if they're gonna plug an icon, it better be an icon. if Blue beetle comes out I'm just not gonna care. iconic to me means Justice league worthy, Superman Batman, Green Arrow, Aqua man Captain Marvel, Green Lantern, Flash, Martian Man Hunter...

Aqua man already has a wife doesn't he? That would take some fast talking I think,

Batman would be a ridiculously smooth fit in some ways, but a can of worms in others. He doesn't have a particularly strong lady lead, besides maybe Cat Woman or Talia Al Ghul, but he's got that persona as a play boy and seriously, with all the robins, maybe not opening that can of worms is a good idea. There's an element of vulnerability in taking in orphans and training them. it would turn that all incredibly awkward.

For Green Lantern, it doesn't have to be Hal to be iconic right? He's got Carol Ferris, Kyle... well his gay friend was beaten to death that could kind of fit in but he's got a lot of lady friends, he'd probably be bi. Are they planning EXCLUSIVELY Gay?

Guy Gardner could, I don't know of any strong love interests there. Steward again, has had quite a few lady friends.

If it's Mogul i will stop reading comics.

Now in the flash family, Bart maybe? he's the most likely member of the Flash family in my mind. half the others are married or have a seeeerious romantic tie in.

Jimmy Olsen is an iconic sidekick, which is cheating, but he would need a reboot after all his antics with Lucy Lane, cat grant, being turtle boy the heart throb... Alfred would be an entirely new kind of awesome.

Captain marvel...eh Billy's young, I don't think they've given him a love interest, and I feel like they will gravitate towards younger males in order to depict an experience that is identifiable. The Robins are possible but they've all had central lady figures in their life. Again this is all predicated on the interpretation that gay means exclusively so. if they're bi... it's anybody's game

It's too bad they said "he" because Wonder Woman would seem incredibly plausible.

[Themightytom]

Oh if they're gonna plug an icon, it better be an icon. if Blue beetle comes out I'm just not gonna care. iconic to me means Justice league worthy, Superman Batman, Green Arrow, Aqua man Captain Marvel, Green Lantern, Flash, Martian Man Hunter...

Aqua man already has a wife doesn't he? That would take some fast talking I think,

Batman would be a ridiculously smooth fit in some ways, but a can of worms in others. He doesn't have a particularly strong lady lead, besides maybe Cat Woman or Talia Al Ghul, but he's got that persona as a play boy and seriously, with all the robins, maybe not opening that can of worms is a good idea. There's an element of vulnerability in taking in orphans and training them. it would turn that all incredibly awkward.

For Green Lantern, it doesn't have to be Hal to be iconic right? He's got Carol Ferris, Kyle... well his gay friend was beaten to death that could kind of fit in but he's got a lot of lady friends, he'd probably be bi. Are they planning EXCLUSIVELY Gay?

Guy Gardner could, I don't know of any strong love interests there. Steward again, has had quite a few lady friends.

If it's Mogul i will stop reading comics.

Now in the flash family, Bart maybe? he's the most likely member of the Flash family in my mind. half the others are married or have a seeeerious romantic tie in.

Jimmy Olsen is an iconic sidekick, which is cheating, but he would need a reboot after all his antics with Lucy Lane, cat grant, being turtle boy the heart throb... Alfred would be an entirely new kind of awesome.

Captain marvel...eh Billy's young, I don't think they've given him a love interest, and I feel like they will gravitate towards younger males in order to depict an experience that is identifiable. The Robins are possible but they've all had central lady figures in their life. Again this is all predicated on the interpretation that gay means exclusively so. if they're bi... it's anybody's game

It's too bad they said "he" because Wonder Woman would seem incredibly plausible.

[Themightytom]

Well they recently rebooted their entire line (again).
I bet Martian Manhunter, because he's one of those Justice League guys, but one that nobody cares about.

yeah but I don't think it would be a great idea to cast your first gay character as an alien

[DPDarkPrimus]

Animal Man.

[Majin Gojira]

Oh if they're gonna plug an icon, it better be an icon.

I have the sinking sensation that it's going to be newly minted Founding JL member Cyborg. It ties into the "We need a new boosting thing/advertising thing noe that we're almost a year away from the relaunch and numbers are settling into a normal line" vibe I'm getting from this whole stunt.

Guy Gardner could, I don't know of any strong love interests there.

Ice is his main one.

Alfred would be an entirely new kind of awesome.

Agreed.

It's too bad they said "he" because Wonder Woman would seem incredibly plausible.

As far as any WW reader is concerned, she's Bi, but DC's just to chicken to admit it directly. Instead, the best writers who used her (Greg Rucka and Gail Simone primarily, I have yet to go through George Perez' run) subtly imply all sorts of lesbianism amongst the amazons and amazons who have (unrequited) crushes on Diana. Whether or not she is herself, it is likely she is at the very least accepting of such feelings because her two guiding stars as a character (at least, before the Reboot, when she basically became Xena) were Truth and Love.

[TimothyC]

Lex. Has to be Lex. No major women in his life, and it really doesn't destroy the character.

[Sarevok]

Lex. Has to be Lex. No major women in his life, and it really doesn't destroy the character.

I think you are onto something here. It would be hilarious if it turned out to be Batman or some such. But realistically Luthor is safest choice that would not antagonize the fans and may infact make some in universe sense !

[Themightytom]

Lex. Has to be Lex. No major women in his life, and it really doesn't destroy the character.

Woah woah woah we're not dumping Mercy... and he dated Supergirl... kind of..
alright he fits, but again, the first gay icon is a villian? Womp womp. That also excludes beast boy. They'd likely be sensitive to interpretation with the first go around.

I'm still thinking it'll be someone young, though choosing an older character would be extremely bold. NOT Batman, cause they're not going to screw up his movie, but Tim Drake was Very Focused on reviving Superbody wasn't he? That could be retconned handily, Superboy is kind of mehhh for attention anyway. I think SB himself has had way too many lady friends as well to be in the running. The most iconic younger hero IS Robin...

Cyborg is not Iconic, butttt as dumb as this sounds... he's African American. They might go with him as a shameless and superficial nod to Obama's "evolution". honestly I doubt this will be handled well in any case

[Themightytom]

Lex. Has to be Lex. No major women in his life, and it really doesn't destroy the character.

I think you are onto something here. It would be hilarious if it turned out to be Batman or some such. But realistically Luthor is safest choice that would not antagonize the fans and may infact make some in universe sense !

They can't make Lex Luthor Gay, they would be villanizing homosexuals and would get a redICULOS amount of shit for it. I know we'd ALL love to see L dawg profess his love for supes but not in this lifetime :-p

[Majin Gojira]

Oh, and meanwhile, prior to this, Marvel announced that Northstar of Alpha Flight is actually going to marry his long time partner. Wedding and all.

[Bakustra]

This isn't going to attract a lot of gay readers because the open contempt comics have for any audience that's coming into the circle of incest is still there, and if they want to attract new readers with this, they should have made it full-out BL and had Superman sighing over ~Bruce-chan~. I'm guessing it's Martian Manhunter because he's tangential enough that their bloated fanboy hearts can bear to rewrite his sexuality. I don't see how any major character would be ruined by having their sexuality altered, though.

[SAMAS]

Of course, the "Total Cop-Out" choice would be Green Lantern.

No, not Hal, Guy, John, or Kyle; but a totally new one.

[Majin Gojira]

This isn't going to attract a lot of gay readers because the open contempt comics have for any audience that's coming into the circle of incest is still there, and if they want to attract new readers with this, they should have made it full-out BL and had Superman sighing over ~Bruce-chan~. I'm guessing it's Martian Manhunter because he's tangential enough that their bloated fanboy hearts can bear to rewrite his sexuality. I don't see how any major character would be ruined by having their sexuality altered, though.

Um, IIRC. Gay men don't really like Boys Love all that much from what I've heard, it's more of a ladies market (it goes with the Shojo art styles most of them have--god, why do I know that?!)

[Batman]

Too much hetero backstory for virtually all of us-Clark's got Lana, Lois, at least one other woman with the initials LL whose name escapes me for the moment, I got Talia, Vicky, Selina and depending on the writer Dr Isley, Barry had Iris, Wally had that TV reporter who would become the mother of his children, Hal-Carol Ferris, Ollie-Dinah, Dick-(always) Barbara, Donna, Kory and whoever it was he married to, Tim had Arianna and Steph, Arthur was married and a father, there aren't all that many iconic characters who are male and not at the very least bi.

Besides, me and Clark would never work. Nevermind the fact that I would always want to be in charge, which would inevitably lead to stress given that he's the one with the actual superpowers, how did he put it in DKSA when Lara asked him about Sex?
'Never with terrans. They're too fragile.'

[Bakustra]

This isn't going to attract a lot of gay readers because the open contempt comics have for any audience that's coming into the circle of incest is still there, and if they want to attract new readers with this, they should have made it full-out BL and had Superman sighing over ~Bruce-chan~. I'm guessing it's Martian Manhunter because he's tangential enough that their bloated fanboy hearts can bear to rewrite his sexuality. I don't see how any major character would be ruined by having their sexuality altered, though.

Um, IIRC. Gay men don't really like Boys Love all that much from what I've heard, it's more of a ladies market (it goes with the Shojo art styles most of them have--god, why do I know that?!)

Yes, that's the point- if you want to attract new readers without compromising the inanity of your marketing, you need to pick up alternate methods of inanity, like yaoi.

Too much hetero backstory for virtually all of us-Clark's got Lana, Lois, at least one other woman with the initials LL whose name escapes me for the moment, I got Talia, Vicky, Selina and depending on the writer Dr Isley, Barry had Iris, Wally had that TV reporter who would become the mother of his children, Hal-Carol Ferris, Ollie-Dinah, Dick-(always) Barbara, Donna, Kory and whoever it was he married to, Tim had Arianna and Steph, Arthur was married and a father, there aren't all that many iconic characters who are male and not at the very least bi.

Besides, me and Clark would never work. Nevermind the fact that I would always want to be in charge, which would inevitably lead to stress given that he's the one with the actual superpowers, how did he put it in DKSA when Lara asked him about Sex?
'Never with terrans. They're too fragile.'

~In the marvelous realm of fiction, anything is possible~