SPIDER-MAN creator Stan Lee is to unveil the world’s first gay superhero.

[seemslikeadream]

http://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/scotsol/homepage/article2128530.ece

SPIDER-MAN creator Stan Lee is to unveil the world’s first gay superhero.
High school basketball star Thom Creed hides his developing superpowers along with his sexuality.

Former Marvel Comics boss Stan, 86 — who also created the Hulk and the X-Men — will unleash the character in an hour-long TV drama being shot in the US.

If it’s a hit there it will cross to the UK.

TV execs hope it will rival the huge success of shows likes Heroes.

Lee developed the idea of a gay character from the award-winning novel Hero by Perry Moore.

A TV insider said: “It was only a matter of time before we had our first gay superhero. And if there is one man who can make him a success it is Stan Lee.

“There’s a real buzz among comic book fans.”

[cliffordu]

1. K&R. Excellent.

[Poll_Blind]

2. This is great- and it's going to have a positive effect on the lives of so many.

PB

[Broken_Hero]

3. hmm, wasn't there gay superheroes before?

I'm thinking, Northstar?....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northstar

[Orrex]

4. He was forcibly closeted for most of his career, though

I'm thinking that the current one will be out from the outset.

[Broken_Hero]

6. how long in his career?

I remember him being an open gay in the late 80's or so...but my memory is for crap nowadays....

I haven't thought of Northstar for a while...he was pretty interesting, I liked Alpha Flight better than Xmen(don't flame me!)...

[Broken_Hero]

10. He outed himself fully in the comics in 1992

thats what the wiki article says, I'm still reading...it seems the creator of the character wanted to out his as gay, in 1983, but couldn't because of editor/comic code pressure...

[Orrex]

12. Not his creator, as far as I can tell

Byrne was referring to fleshing out the characters for the Alpha Flight series launched in 1983. As he says, prior to that time the characters were pretty poorly defined.

I'd love to see confirmation of Byrne's claimed intent. A print interview from the 80's, or the like. But I suspect that this doesn't exist, so we'll need to take it on faith. I didn't realize that Jim Shooter was such an asshole, though; I just figured he was a boob who couldn't write.


One thing I do remember from the early 80's is an issue of Uncanny X-Men in which Kurt Wagner "answered" the Letters column. One of the letters was from a gay man confessing his feelings for Wagner. It was basically just a crush on a fictional character, and the writer clearly knew it, but it really struck me. I was around 12 or 13 at the time, and I recall a turn of phrase used by the letter writer: "It's the souls of men that I see." Alas, that might not be the exact wording, but the point is served. And it was my first exposure to a quite elegant metaphor.

[Broken_Hero]

14. hmm...

On his website's message board, comic book writer and artist John Byrne said that, while planning the Alpha Flight series that was launched in 1983, the characters had little to no depth at the time, and so he decided to flesh them out.

"One of the things that popped immediately into my head was to make one of them gay," Byrne stated. "I had recently read an article in Scientific American on what was then (the early 80s) fairly radical new thinking on just what processes caused a person to be homosexual, and the evidence was pointing increasingly to it being genetic and not environmental factors. So, I thought, it seemed like it was time for a gay superhero, and since I was being 'forced' to make Alpha Flight a real series, I might as well make one of them gay." Byrne went through the cast members deciding which character would be an appropriate choice. "I settled on Jean-Paul, and the moment I did I realized it was already there. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I must have been considering making him gay before I 'decided' to do so. Of course, the temper of the times, the Powers That Were and, naturally, the Comics Code would not let me come right out and state that Jean-Paul was homosexual, but I managed to 'get the word out' even with those barriers."

Marvel editor-in-chief Jim Shooter had decreed that there were to be no gay characters in the Marvel universe and prevented writers from having their characters be gay. Byrne was able to imply that Northstar was gay, but could not state it explicitly.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northstar#Sexuality

seems like Byrne was intent on outing him, but who knows...

[Orrex]

17. Yeah, it's a tough call

Like I said, we need to take Byrne's claim on faith. I don't really have a problem with that, but independent corroboration would kick ass.

Incidentally, in Alpha Flight's debut issue, Jean-Paul visits his sister Jean-Marie in the convent where she lives. A higher-ranking nun catches Jean-Marie apparently sneaking a guy into her room, and the nun scolds her, saying something like

"Ms. Beaubier, you know the rules concerning men in your quarters."

And Jean-Marie replies something along the lines of:

"But this is not a man. I mean, of course he's a man, but he's also my brother."

The exact wording escapes me--it's been decades since I read it! I never read anything into that before, but I wonder if Byrne was trying to send a signal.

[Broken_Hero]

20. Maybe! :)

Who knows, that is rather funny though....I've been so outta comics mainstream for so long, I don't know how much I've missed, I swear I've been out of the main stream since..98 or so...

I would like to subscribe but the prices for a yearly sub are so effin high...

[greyl]

Yep, a few others in this thread:

www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x4826581#4827088

[Veritas_et_Aequitas]

7. Yeah, but he's part of an ensemble cast.

A few other X-Men I think are gay (Angel/Archangel and Colossus are). I don't think a there has been a gay superhero with a comic devoted entirely to him. The closest I can think of is Starman, since the third one was bisexual.

[Broken_Hero]

8. Thats true, it seems its going to be pushed as a TV series

as well, sounds like a good idea to me

[Chovexani]

11. Apollo and Midnighter

Superhero team and partners for life. Wildstorm is not as big as Marvel, though.

John Constantine is also bi, IIRC.

[Orrex]

5. From the pioneer who also brought us Stripperella

Still, it's a good step.

[Chovexani]

9. He's not the first gay superhero.

Okay I'm going to have to nerd it up for a minute, bear with me. :) This won't be the "first gay superhero". Not even in the first in the Marvelverse. That honor would go to Northstar, a member of Alpha Flight (Wolverine's original hero squad before he joined the X-Men). Marvel actually has a number of canonically queer characters, more than a non-comics dork would think. Especially the X-Men comics; there's Mystique, who is bisexual (the love of her life was a woman). Ultimate-verse Colossus was gay. I think they are saying this is the first major mainstream superhero who is designed as gay from the ground up, rather than an existing character who was outed later. Though arguably, Apollo and Midnighter from Wildstorm Comics set that record already too.

Hell, the X-Men themselves are strong allegories for LGBT people (it was sort of played for laughs in the second movie, but it's true), and that was done in a time when gay visibility in any pop culture medium was risky, let alone one with the stigma of being "for kids". There have been a lot of AIDS allegory stories. I don't know a queer comics fan who ISN'T a raging X-geek for this very reason.

That said, I LOVE Stan, he is amazing, a wonderful ally of LGBT comics fans, and I can't wait to see this show and buy the comic.

BTW, check out this wiki article on the subject, it's pretty interesting: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_characters_in_comics

[Orrex]

13. Hey, geek. You're a few posts behind!

Try to stay current, would you?

:evilgrin:

[Chovexani]

16. I am slow

It's been a long, difficult night (I posted a thread about it :( )

[Orrex]

18. Missed that thread--is it in the Lounge?

:hug:

[Chovexani]

21. Nah it's in here

I need hugs. :hug:

[Orrex]

22. Well then here's another

:hug:

Geek!

[Chulanowa]

15. First gay superhero?

Well, there's Northstar... both Mystique and Colossus have been written as being bi. Batwoman is a lesbian, her lover is Renee Montoya... Poison Ivy has always been on the "could be" list, but given the whole sociopathic tendencies it could just mbe she's an equal-opportunity murderer... V from V for Vendetta was in fact a lesbian...

Plus there's a huge, huge list of characters that seem written to the stereotypes... And let's not even start with Wonder Woman... that poor girl's sexuality has bot to be the most messed-up thing in comics.

and are just... weird

[TheWraith]

37. Huh?

Okay, I admit I don't "get" most of this thread, not being a comics person. But this caught my eye:

"V from V for Vendetta was in fact a lesbian..."

This is one of the few things I have read, due to the hype that surrounded the movie. What makes you say that? For one, V was male, and second, it was never revealed why V was targeted--if he was gay, or non-Anglic, or a political prisoner, or what. Are you maybe thinking of Valerie, the woman incarcerated with V whose letter is passed to Evey?

[Chulanowa]

38. It's very strongly implied in the comic that V IS Valerie

Then again it's also implied that V isn't... But it would explain a few things about the character

[TheWraith]

39. I never really got a suggestion of that, myself.

It's certainly implied that V was probably an actor, as demonstrated by a fondness for the tools of the craft, but I never read into it that V was supposed to be Valerie. Also, when it's speculated that V was physically or mentally enhanced by what was done to him, doesn't he say that he's "Just a man"?

[DarkTirade]

19. Um... Apollo and Midnighter anybody?

[Jamastiene]

23. All superheroes are gay, aren't they?

I thought they were. You mean my Wonder Woman poster wasn't really winking at me? :cry:

[bluedawg12]

24. New gay Super Hero: (pit)BULL-DYKE(tm)

[Chovexani]

27. ...psst...

(Okay, I admit that's probably just wishful thinking on my part.)

[Jamastiene]

29. Yowza!

Me likey! :P :evilgrin:

[Chovexani]

33. People who don't know any better love to go on about Lara Croft

As the first big video game heroine. NUH UH.

Samus Aran is a bounty hunter! In space! And she's been around since around 1985. She was modeled after Ellen Ripley from Alien (one of the recurring Big Bads in Metroid is named Ridley as an homage to the movie). And she was totally my first video game crush. :)

The hilarious part is, back in the day, when the original Metroid was all the rage, no one who didn't finish the game knew she was female because she spent the entire game with her helmet on, and Nintendo graphics weren't exactly stellar back then. At the very end of the game, she takes her helmet off during the credits, and her blonde ponytail whips in the wind. It made for some comedy gold among the nerd boy set when I was a kid, let me tell you. Me? I thought it was so rad! Girls just weren't heroes in games back then, they were always simpering princesses in poofy dresses that needed rescuing. (Of course, there's an easter egg where if you beat the game under a certain time, she'll wear a bikini during that sequence. It WAS 1985, after all.)

[bluedawg12]

42. Awesome! Ridley wasn't too shabby either. LOL.

[Moloch]

35. I know some ladies who would be really happy...

if Samus Aran came out..

[readmoreoften]

25. As opposed to existentially gay like the X-men?

All superheroes are gay. The Lois Lane accoutrement is just a beard. And that's why the chick superheroes don't have boyfriends. Gay. Whole lot of em.

[Political_Junkie]

26. Awesome!

And he's just the man to do it!

[AntiFascist]

28. According to gay.com...

This one is gay friendly, and he has a gay brother :)

http://www.gaytvblog.com/2009/01/chris-evans-on.html

[ThomCat]

40. Very cool.

I feel better about lusting after him now.

Now if he would just appear in some better movies. :P

[sundog]

30. that's cool

i wonder what network will be bold enough to pick it up

[Bluenorthwest]

31. Folks on this thread would enjoy

the novel 'Kavalier and Clay' by Michael Chabon. Probably everybody has read it already, but if not, 'tis cool. A fiction about the beginings of comics.

[Froward69]

32. He-Man and the masters of the universe...

He-man most definitely was, at the very least Bi. It was not till College and I actually had a Gay friend that this fact was pointed out to me.

[Chovexani]

34. Let's not forget his sister, She-Ra

Who hung out with hot scantily clad women all the time with nary a man in sight (except for Bo, who was also gay as hell).

[Froward69]

36. My GF in High school

would get really turned on watching He-man. I didnot mind. it was not til my College friend pointed that out to me. that she probably did not concisely know it. but it was most likely that fact that did it for her. years later she called while she was getting divorced. as her husband turned out to be gay. I chuckled and asked if she had dumped me B/C he liked the same floral pattern as she.?

She said that was not funny. I said you had to have hints. she said yes as she knew he was at least BI. I then told her about He-man. She Laughed and admitted she had her suspicions. what did it for her was he went full on male. she felt abandoned.

[xchrom]

41. yay! go stan! nt