Mighty Marvel Monday: #BiWeek Edition!

It’s Mighty Marvel Monday!

It’s also Bisexual Awareness Week (#biweek), and in honor of that, and the fact that other than a Doctor Strange casting confirmation and some Luke Cage casting confirmations Marvel news is pretty quiet, I’m taking the opportunity to revisit a few of Marvel’s bisexual characters (though not all, so to see more of our affection be sure to venture on over to Bisexual Characters We Have Loved).

I also want to ask one very important question–

Where Are They Now?

When I ask Where Are They Now I’m not only asking if they are they a current character in the Marvel Comics Universe, actively being written, but whether they are still being written as bisexual, because sadly, the answer to that is not always yes.

Prodigy a.k.a. David Alleyne

I love David Alleyne something fierce. I first met David in Young Avengers, but what I remember about him is that he was the first bisexual character I read who actually talked about how they knew they were bisexual.

prodigy-ya

This scene resonated with me so strongly I don’t think I’ll ever forget it.

Where Are They Now?

MIA. David was last heard of in the recent Ant-Man series when Scott Lang beat him out for the Chief of Security position at Stark Industries which, let’s admit it, must have been a pity decision on Tony’s part.

Psylocke a.k.a. Betsy Braddock

I don’t know much about Betsy, and I know even less about how she’s become an official bisexual on Marvel’s roster without having had a canon romantic relationship with another woman as of yet, though there were rumors back in the day about her and Alison Blaire a.k.a. Dazzler, and this memorable panel:

psylockedazzler

So, yeah. Psylocke can canonically confirm her bisexual anytime now. Really.

Where They Are Now?

Psylocke is set to return this fall on an X-team with two other bisexual characters–Mystique and Fantomex–in Uncanny X-Men, by the creative team-up of writer Cullen Bunn and artist Greg Land, and, at least according to this interview, she is still bisexual.

Daken

Daken is one of my favorite Marvel bisexuals because, well, his bisexuality wasn’t the weirdest thing about him. Although he did at times wield it like a weapon, like here, when he’s trying to assert his dominance over Bullseye.

dakenbullseye

He was kind of fucked up, but I guess that’s what you get when Wolverine is your dad and leaves you for dead and your entire life is Daddy Issues.

Where They Are Now?

MIA. Although, Axel Alonso addressed the missing Daken on this week’s Axel-In-Charge, coincidentally enough:

A couple writers have pitched stories featuring Daken, but we haven’t landed on anything solid yet. Suffice it to say, with a title featuring “Old Man Logan” and a title featuring “Wolverine” on the stands, it’s only a matter of time before he shows up.

No news on whether Daken will still be bisexual, but I won’t hold my breath. 

Mystique

Mystique is the oldie-but-goodie on this list, having been closeted due to certain restrictions in the 70s and 80s. It’s only been in the past few decades that her relationship status with Destiny has been changed from “friends” to “lovers” and now to “life partners,” which is fitting, since they basically raised Rogue together.

roguemothers

Both women had relationships with men as well, during their “off again” periods, and since Destiny is dead (at least for the moment), Mystique is free to pursue new partners, in theory.

Where Are They Now?

About to join up with Psylocke and others on the new Uncanny X-Men series this fall, and still bisexual.

Hercules

I’ve already written about how Hercules’ bisexuality is historically accurate (which, oddly enough, doesn’t seem to be nearly as important to certain demos unless they’re trying to justify the absence of POCs) and our EIC declared Hercules Bi in Every Universe, because, as she so eloquently phrased it:

It’s a wonderful thing, being able to look into the past and find yourself represented in ancient tales, and the Western heroic tradition, so often trawled for comic book inspiration, is full of queer and non-binary people, fictional and real. But you wouldn’t know that, for all the blinding straightness (and for that matter, whiteness) that gets passed down to us through children’s tales, so concerned with modeling a WASPy, straight masculinity.

I love that so much. I can’t quote it enough. I also love this:

2895357-wolverineandhercules

Where Are They Now?

Bi-erased in the new Hercules series set to debut this fall.

Deadpool

Okay, I’m not really a fan of Deadpool, and whether bisexual or pansexual would be a better label for Wade since he hasn’t canonically adopted either is not a question I’m willing to debate. Honestly, I put Deadpool on this list because of the utter ludicrousness of Fabian Nicieza’s explanation of Deadpool’s queerness:

screencap fabnic tweet

This attempt at queer erasure is not just clumsy, but is also totally unsurprising and has important implications, both of which are explained in On Queer Deadpool and Bisexual Erasure in Comics.

I’m inclined to take the inch they grudgingly gave us and run with it, because if he’s whatever “sexual inclination his brain tells him he is in THAT moment,” that means that he’s probably bisexual at least some of the time. Or, you know. All the time, since attraction to one gender doesn’t actually erase the attraction you have to another gender. Deadpool could do nothing but bang women from here on out–and it still wouldn’t erase his canonical attraction to men.
Cable and Deadpool #7

Deadpan thinks Thor is hot

Being attracted to more than one gender is kind of the point of bisexuality, and you don’t lose your bisexual identification card when you “switch teams,” which actress and open bisexual Evan Rachel Wood reiterated in a recent series of tweets.

https://twitter.com/evanrachelwood/status/644633787687501824

https://twitter.com/evanrachelwood/status/644636599171481600

Preach.

Where Are They Now?

Uncanny Avengers, debuting this fall, and you know, that whole gay thing was probably just a phase….

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Kate Tanski

Kate Tanski

Recovering academic. Fangirl. Geek knitter.

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