It’s the final Mighty Marvel Monday of January, and the one year anniversary of my first Mighty Marvel Monday. It means a lot to me to still be here, being a less British version of John Oliver and also being able to break from the genre of weekly news link roundup and devote full weeks to analysis. Next week, we’ll catch up with Marvel Comics and the MCU, but this week, I want to look back at queer representation in 2015, and how 2016 is shaping up.
I saw this article the other day. “Coming Out as Gay Superheroes,” on the New York Times of all places. The video begins with a rainbow superimposed over six comics characters. “Meet 6 L.G.B.T. Comic Book Characters,” it declared. The characters?
Two from DC (Batwoman and Midnighter), Kevin Keller from Archie Comics, Lily Welsh from the indie comic Flutter by 215 Ink and then two from Marvel–Northstar and Iceman. The selection of these two characters is, fortuitously for my purposes, indicative of two of the problems that Marvel Comics has when it comes to queer representation–an emphasis on the white gay male, and also the conspicuous absence of several of its groundbreaking queer characters.
First up: Iceman. Iceman made headlines in 2015 for having two “coming out” issues, since the first one where Jean Grey confronted him and then also dictated his sexuality to him with a healthy dose of biphobia was so gross, it was followed up six months later with a second coming out, handled by The Advocate.
The mishandling of Iceman is not the only misstep Marvel made in 2015 in regards to queer characters. There was the retconning of Hercules’ bisexuality. And then there was that weirdness about not-labeling Angela’s sexuality. Then there’s the Loki question. And while it’s true that you can’t please all of the people all of the time and to err is human, why is it so hard for some people to admit that they were wrong, apologize sincerely for hurting people, and promise to do better? The Batgirl creative team did exactly that. It’s so simple. This isn’t about entitlement, or about certain characters belonging to certain demographics. It’s about respect.
As for the other Marvel character, Northstar, the video tells us he married his boyfriend in 2012. It’s now 2016, and we really haven’t seen much of Northstar since. He actually hasn’t been seen since the short-lived Alpha Flight reboot of 2011-2012, and although a brand new Alpha Flight just debuted last week in the pages of the latest Captain Marvel #1, they are, disappointingly, no longer Canadian, and despite Aurora, his twin sister, being there, the groundbreaking first gay superhero in Marvel Comics, Jean-Paul Beaubier, is nowhere to be found. He’s not the only queer character to mysteriously go missing in Marvel Comics of late. David Alleyne, a.k.a. Prodigy, my favorite bisexual, has been missing since 2014.
But some have come back. David’s teammates from that Gillen/McKelvie Young Avengers run, America Chavez (Ms. America), Billy Kaplan (Wiccan) and Teddy Altman (Hulkling) have returned in the All-New, All-Different reenvisioning of the Marvel Universe, and they are just as awesome as before.
Their returns have been marked by very little fanfare from Marvel and, in a way, this is actually progress. I don’t want to have a press release every time a queer character makes an appearance. I want them to just be there. What makes me nervous, and what upsets me, is when they go missing or are quietly killed off. When I look at the listing for homosexual characters on the Marvel Wikia (which should be relabeled queer or LGBT or something other than homosexual) it surprises me by how many are listed there, and it saddens me how many don’t seem to be around.
“It’s a golden age for queer characters in comic books,” The New York Times proclaims.
Really?
I’m not here to pick on the authors of this piece, but when you have foundational queer superheroes having their queer identities ham-fistedly dictated to them, and other heroes who have their queer identities retconned or handwaved, and still more who are flat out missing, it’s difficult to view this as a “golden age.”
But surely, you’d think, in this age of diversity programming in film and television, surely Marvel’s queer representation on screen must be better than in the comics?
Well, you’d be wrong.
In June of 2015 Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige (in)famously declared that we could see an LGBT hero in the MCU in the next decade.
The next decade.
As for Marvel on the small screen–well, that’s slightly better. The season three premiere of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. introduced Joey Gutierrez, played by Juan Pablo Raba. Joey only appeared in a handful of eps before the show went in midseason hiatus, but I am hopeful for 2016.
Joey’s appearance made him the first LGBT character in the shared universe between the MCU films and television. But there’s also Jessica Jones, which is sort of but not really part of the main MCU, and which introduced Jeri Hogarth, her wife, and her lover. We got our first lesbian characters, and lesbian kisses in the MCU this past November, and I, for one, was quite pleased.
Now it’s time for a bisexual character, right? Well, there’s always Fox’s version Deadpool, who Ryan Reynolds and Director Tim Miller insist is pansexual. The movie’s release is right around the corner, so we’ll have to see what constitutes a queer Deadpool in their minds, especially considering the movie’s plot seems to be centered on Wade rescuing his “best girl” from the bad guys.
But until the MCU steps up, at least I have fandom. Fandom is a fun place to play, unless, of course, you fall in love with a rare pairing, and then your life is a constant state of suffering and wondering why more people don’t see how amazing Steve Rogers and Matt Murdock would be and trying to convert others to share in your pain.
ICYMI
Season Two of Agent Carter premiered last Tuesday and while I will not spoil the plot for those who have yet to see it, I will say that the premiere was stolen by one character in particular, and who I hope will be a season regular. And that character would be Bernard Stark, who is, as described by Jarvis, the devil in pink.
Just watch the show. WATCH IT.
