As many people around the real world become more and more accepting of same-sex marriage and the LGBT lifestyle as a whole, the world of comic books seems to be following suit.
In a surprising turn of events at London’s Kapow! Comic Convention this past weekend, representatives from DC Comics revealed that the heralded comic company has changed course on a previously-stated position regarding the sexual orientation of its characters. The news comes on the heels of Marvel Comics‘ recent announcement that a member of one of its most popular superhero teams will soon be exchanging nuptials with his longtime boyfriend.
Comic book blog Bleeding Cool reports that DC co-publisher Dan DiDio confirmed during a panel discussion that the company will be changing the sexual orientation of an unnamed but previously established character in the DC Universe.
DC sales executive Bob Wayne says that this announcement is not a contradiction of DiDio’s recent statements in LGBT publication The Advocate — DiDio told the magazine that instead of changing a character’s sexual orientation, DC would simply introduce a new one whose orientation “is an iatrical part of who he is, or who she is, right from the start” — but is actually a sign that the company’s position on the matter “has evolved.”
In related news, representatives from Marvel Comics will appear on today’s episode of TV show The View to officially announce that X-Men character Northstar will be marrying his boyfriend Kyle. According to Bleeding Cool, Northstar, who is the first openly gay mainstream superhero, announces he and Kyle’s engagement in Astonishing X-Men #50, which went on sale today.
Bleeding Cool also provides a bit more context on the matter, revealing to those of us not fluent in comic book lore that these are not the only gay characters and that Northstar and Kyle’s nuptials won’t be the first exchanged in comic book pages.
DC recently added a gay character to its Teen Titans franchise, and allowed gay characters Midnighter and Apollo to not only marry but to also adopt a superhero daughter named Jenny Quantam. DC and Marvel have both increased their number of LGBT characters in recent years, as have other comic houses including Archie Comics, who had a mixed-race military gay wedding in one of its books (pictured atop this story), and British comic series Spandex, which features nothing but gay characters.
Comics’ transition from heterosexual and stereotypically hyper-masculine to gay-friendly has been met with its share of pushback.
When news of the aforementioned Archie Comics wedding became public, American conservative Christian group One Million Moms called for a boycott of the book, urging retailer Toys ‘R’ Us to remove it from their shelves.
“A trip to the toy store turns into a premature discussion on sexual orientation and is completely uncalled for,” a representative of the group told The Guardian when the comic debuted earlier this year. They feel the subject of same-sex marriage is “too complicated” for children to comprehend and requested in a letter to Toys ‘R’ Us that the retailer “remove all the same-sex ‘Just Married – Archie’ comic books immediately” from their shelves.
One Million Moms’ protest failed, and the comic subsequently sold out.
We’ll have to wait and see the reactions to this latest news.
[Props: Inquisitr]
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