It's legal in New York! The MARVELous Gay Wedding.

[Tev]

I want Dazzler to do the reception.

This morning, the ladies of The View confirmed a long-rumored wedding announcement: An openly gay member of the X-Men will propose to his partner, with the marriage scheduled to take place in Astonishing X-Men #51. The French Canadian superhero Northstar became Marvel’s first openly homosexual superhero in 1992, and although it took nearly two decades for the guy to get a boyfriend, give Marvel credit for diving headfirst into the gay marriage debate, even at the risk of a stern blog post by Bristol Palin. The ladies of The View had a relatively subdued reaction. Avowed comic book fan Whoopi Goldberg loved it. Joy Behar noted that X-Men is “a cutting-edge comic strip,” which is inaccurate in just so many ways, but also joked: “You think Batman and Robin could come out of the closet?”

Maybe so. In an interesting development Northstar isn’t the only gay superhero in the news today. According to the Daily Mail, DC co-publisher Dan DiDio revealed that one of his company’s heroes will reveal that they are, in fact, gay. DiDio didn’t specify who or when, but Courtney Simmons of DC told ABC News, “One of the major iconic DC characters will reveal that he is gay in a storyline in June.”(DC already has one of the most prominent lesbian characters in mainstream comics: Batwoman, a.k.a. Kate Kane, who headlined one of the coolest books of the ’00s.)

So yeah, sign of the times and all that. As a side note; who is the pick for DC's man of the hour?

[Kim]

I'm wagering it's Robin.

[Tev]

I want to toss my money on a Lantern, but I can't decide which one.

[CABAL49]

I could see Tim Drake being gay. But Batman has no room in his heart. He is married to Justice.

And totally Guy Gardner.

[Bells]

Maybe it's just me... but i really don't see this as something worthy of an "annoucement"...

Like, dude is gay... so what? move on.

I understand it's consider "news worthy", but to me, the more we deal with this as Something News Worthy, the less normal it gets. And that's what it really is to me... normal.

There are what? A couple hundred super heroes int he DC world? Multiple backgrounds, Backstorys, some of them from different countries, others from different planets, galaxies even freaking timelines... by statistic alone some are bound to be inclined towards some dick rubbin luv luv... i don't particulary cares, because that's something that should not (and normaly would not) change the character, his stories, adventures or what he stands for...

Unless they are aiming to have some sort of Storyline where a big hero calls out to being Gay and the public turns on him because of it and politicians start to target and smear him for it...

...which is not stupid per se. Just Comic Book stupid.

[Kim]

Originally Posted by Bells

Maybe it's just me... but i really don't see this as something worthy of an "annoucement"...

I'm going to wager you're straight.

[Tev]

Originally Posted by Bells

There are what? A couple hundred super heroes int he DC world? Multiple backgrounds, Backstorys, some of them from different countries, others from different planets, galaxies even freaking timelines... by statistic alone some are bound to be inclined towards some dick rubbin luv luv... i don't particulary cares, because that's something that should not (and normaly would not) change the character, his stories, adventures or what he stands for...

Well the "problem" (and please don't think I'm insinuating that being gay is a problem) is that it is not one of the hundreds of DC heroes from time and space immemorial. It is one of the Iconic Characters...with a capitol I and C. As far as I know, most of DC's iconic line-up have pretty extensive back-stories that, while messed with all the time, are pretty consistent in the relationship department. Superman has Lois. When Batman's not fighting crime with Robin, he's either with Catwoman or Wonder Woman. The Lanterns....I'm not sure about their story.

Either way, it's "news" because people may be interested in the hand-waving and story manipulation needed for an iconic character to just drop all that background baggage and be revealed as gay. I mean, what if it's Batman? He's an icon. He's been at the middle of snarky fannon gay jokes for decades. Would it make a difference to me personally, if DC let him be the gay icon of comics? No, but I'd still be interested to see how it plays out across society and the media as a whole. It would be news worthy for that alone.

[Bells]

Originally Posted by Liz

I'm going to wager you're straight.

True. But my point is that i wouldn't make a big deal of a character being gay, i would just let the character be... because it doesn't matter. Specially if you are a Super Hero, specially if your target audience is kids how could learn that they are not special (for better or for worst) for beign Gay, they are simply normal.

Not everybody needs to go through a turmoil of guilt and fear before coming out with being Homosexual... they can just be who they are. Of course i'm in a bit of a "Speech Nirvana" here, cause i know things don't work like that at all... but i wish we were moving towards that. A character can be straight, then meets someone, has feelings for them and... that's ok. Maybe a little confusing at first, but every change in behavior has an Awkward first phase..

Well the "problem" (and please don't think I'm insinuating that being gay is a problem) is that it is not one of the hundreds of DC heroes from time and space immemorial. It is one of the Iconic Characters...with a capitol I and C. As far as I know, most of DC's iconic line-up have pretty extensive back-stories that, while messed with all the time, are pretty consistent in the relationship department. Superman has Lois. When Batman's not fighting crime with Robin, he's either with Catwoman or Wonder Woman. The Lanterns....I'm not sure about their story.

Well, this is DC. And my Mind Structure for DC heroes is primarily taken from the Justice League Cartoons that i love (never followed the comics up close). So, by Major DC Hero, who are we talking about?

The Big 7 from the Justice League? (batman, Superman, wonder woman etc)
Or the B Tier heroes? (Green Arrow, Super Girl, Cpt Marvel and so on)
Or the tier C Heroes? (Booster Gold, Black Panther etc...)

Cause i would bet on the Tier C heroes for something like this...

[Professor Smarmiarty]

Guys I'm marrying Superman. Don't tell anyone.

[Kim]

Originally Posted by Bells

True. But my point is that i wouldn't make a big deal of a character being gay, i would just let the character be... because it doesn't matter. Specially if you are a Super Hero, specially if your target audience is kids how could learn that they are not special (for better or for worst) for beign Gay, they are simply normal.

Not everybody needs to go through a turmoil of guilt and fear before coming out with being Homosexual... they can just be who they are. Of course i'm in a bit of a "Speech Nirvana" here, cause i know things don't work like that at all... but i wish we were moving towards that. A character can be straight, then meets someone, has feelings for them and... that's ok. Maybe a little confusing at first, but every change in behavior has an Awkward first phase..

It doesn't look like ANYONE has implied what you're assuming.

They're just saying a character is gonna be gay.

They're making a big deal out of it so more people will buy more of their comics. This is a shitty reason, but it gets them to do it so whatever. It's good for them to make a big deal out of it because 1. It lets people know that a hero they've followed forever is gonna be gay. 2. It offers some degree of comfort to gay people that hey people aren't pretending we're invisible anymore. 3. It pisses off bigots and fuck those fucking dicks.

The fact of the matter is something like this kinda is a big deal because popular culture is fucking terrible about representing minority groups.

One day it won't be a big deal because popular culture will be less fucking terrible, but until that day comes I am 100% okay with people treating it like the big deal it actually is.