Established DC Character to Come Out
Image via dc.wikia.com
Last weekend was the Kapow Comic Convention in London, England.
Bleeding Cool was there and reported that DC Comics‘ Dan DiDio announced an established character will be coming out of the closet.
I don’t read any of her comics, but I feel like I’m on board with the thoughts of Jill Thompson (@thejillthompson) on Twitter this week:
But seriously-the new gay DC character should just b an excellent character & have good stories. That’s all. One day it won’t b such a big deal.
In my opinion, comics has had some jarring and uncomfortable attempts to introduce homosexual characters (2003′s Rawhide Kid, anyone?). More often than not, these characters have become two-dimensional stereotypes instead of comic book characters I’d be happy to show to any my gay friends.
Why does this have to be the case?
The exceptions in my mind are the relationship between Shatterstar and Rictor (as written by the very talented Peter David in X-Factor) and Hulkling and Wiccan (from Young Avengers written by Allan Heinberg).
I guess what I’m saying is, I find it’s a shame that with a list of gay comic book characters as long as my gorilla arms, there are only two cases of gay characters actually being strong characters in good stories.
It’s a shame that a good story with a gay character is not what I’m expecting from Dan DiDio’s announcement.
It’s hard to discount Mystique as a strong and interesting queer character. Her stuff with Destiny (and their relationship to Rogue) is pretty great, but I think she’s sort of passed over because she’s mostly with men.
And I think there are some pretty strong exceptions over on the DC side, though they’re mostly women. Kate Kane (Batwoman), Renee Montoya, Scandal Savage, Knockout (maybe Ragdoll?)… granted, only one of them (I think) survived the reboot, but they existed and their stories can be read (Gotham Central should be a must read for anyone, IMO). There’s also Bunker, but I haven’t ready any of the post-reboot Teen Titans since issue 1, so I have no idea how he is as a character. But Batwoman is a critically acclaimed, popular series that’s rooted in good storytelling (and it was the same when she was headlining Detective Comics).
I can’t say I have much faith in DiDio, or in mainstream comics as a whole, though. I’m with you on that. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see which character it is, and how they handle the whole thing.
I read the first issue of Batwoman and though the story seemed pretty good I had the feeling the lesbian aspect was played to tittilate dudes. The two page spread where her side kick and her undressed and redressed felt gratuitous and like I said, the whole lesbian aspect felt so written-by-dudes-for-dudes to me. Granted I didn’t keep up with the book so maybe the following issues made better on it.
Apollo and Midnighter, anyone? surely they qualify as good characters in strong stories?
I wasn’t ever a real reader of those guys but to me (and I can only speak for me) it was more “Hey guys! Check this out! Batman and Superman are gay lovers. Snicker snicker.”
Tim, I must disagree about Batwoman. As an honorary gay- well, half gay- I love Batwoman and I was surprised at how not gratuitous it was. Of course I don’t mind a little sexiness thrown in, but I thought it was tastefully done compared to, say, Catwoman.
I really hope Wonder Woman comes out.
Well it is just my opinion. Maybe it was like getting offended on someone else’s bahalf, maybe it was also because in all the New 52 I was also looking for a string female character and story for my daughter to read and couldn’t find a single comic that had strong female character and was child friendly. But that’s just how iBatwoman came across to me.
I personally hope it’s Blue Devil
I think … well, it depends on the writer for Apollo and the Midnighter. Certainly when they showed up in Stormwatch Volume 2, and for the first twelve issues of the Authority, they weren’t parody characters – yeah, the midnighter had a little bit of Batman in his DNA (leatherclad fighter and planner) and Apollo similarly had a little bit of Superman (guy who flies around a lot and is muscly) but nether were particularly flaming, goofy or snickery.
Of course, when Mark Millar took over, subtlety went out the window but that happens with Mark Millar anyway (writer of Captain America’s “Does this A look like it stands for france” line).