I’ll never forget how great it felt when I first discovered El Gato Negro, my first experience with a Latino superhero. For a kid that rarely saw people that looked like him in any form of mainstream media, it meant the world. I reflected back on that day in the library after hearing about DC and Marvel Comics’ recent announcements about their comic books.
Photo: GettyImages
Earlier this month, DC Comics revealed that a “prominent” character would be coming out of the closet (it was officially revealed last week that the Green Lantern would be reintroduced as a gay character). Not to be outdone, Marvel Comics announced that Astonishing X-Men #51 would feature the first same-sex wedding in the company’s history after X-Men member Northstar (who has been openly gay since 1992) proposed to his longtime boyfriend in the previous issue.
Although there is a preexisting history of openly gay characters in comic books (including the ongoing Batman and Robin debate), their treatment in comic books hasn’t always been too, um, positive. So what makes things different this time around? For starters, DC and Marvel are the two biggest comic book companies in the world. Archie, for example, featured a same-sex marriage earlier this year, but the reality is that Archie cannot compete with the Big Two. Secondly, it seems as if both DC and Marvel are going to do a better job with how they treat and develop these story lines (in other words, the Green Lantern isn’t going to be killed off anytime soon…I’m hoping).
These announcements by the comic book giants are in line with an approach to make the comic book universe more reflective of our modern society (as we pointed out with the new Spiderman). But there is a difference between changing the race/ethnicity of a popular character and changing her/his sexual orientation.
This has been evidenced by some of the backlash from conservative groups like One Million Moms who are pressuring the comic book companies to “change and cancel all plans of homosexual superhero characters immediately.” Because, you know, kids look up to superheroes and the last thing we want is for them to admire a gay superhero.
Even if DC and Marvel’s motives behind these decisions aren’t 100% pure (their number one goal is to make money of course), I still applaud their efforts. It’s just another example of art imitating life, and it’s a good thing it’s happening. The unfortunate part of it all is that groups like One Million Moms are more worried on the “negatives” of a gay comic book superhero instead of considering the positives.
It’s no secret that we live in an extremely heterosexist society, and while a gay Green Lantern may not change the (real) world, it is a step in the right direction. At the very least, the Green Lantern may have the same effect for a kid that El Gato Negro had for me. And if that’s the case, who is anyone to say that gay superheroes don’t belong in comic books.
About Cristopher Rubio
The funniest part of rebooting Alan Scott as gay is that in the comics his weakness was wood. Get it, a gay guy whose weakness is wood? HA. It should be noted that this is not the most well known Green Lantern (guy from the movies). That was Hal Jordan who was a member of the Green Lantern Corps and used a ring which was really a weapon. Scott was powered by magic.
Btw, I agree that comics need to diversify. Sadly, many fans refuse to buy comics featuring new characters or containing “too many” (ie more than 2) minority or female characters. It is so pronounced that at a Comic-Con a few years back the heads of Marvel finally admitted the obvious. My nerdiness quota has been filled for the year. Excelsior!
Wow. Eddie Garcia has lost his mind LMAO.
his boyfriend is AQUAMAN!!!
This entire movement in the comic world is so stupid. Even the comics are caving into the political stropngarming of the gay rights movement. I mean give me a f%$king break. Many kids, and even my own, have grown up with many of these super heroes (fake and all) and now they are just ruining the entire legacy of these characters? They couldn’t the time and creativity to come up with their own Gay super hero so they decided to take an old school one and make him gay? Straight up (or gay up) ridiculous. Hopefully they see a 10000% drop in sales due to this disgraceful move. Be creative and think up a new character who’s Gay but leave the old school characters be.
And they call us crazy when we say there is a well organized campaign or conspiracy to win over the hearts and minds of young people. This is a test for the American public, and the American public (not the urban areas – but the rest of the nation, the grand majority of the land – what liberals call “flyover” territory) will decide if they accept this or not. I think they will reject all this silliness that is being shoved down our throats as if this is the only issue or group of people out there. Like I say to the Latinos that are always yelling, “us, us, us!” – I’ll say to the gays – it’s not all about you! I personally don’t want to know if the superheroes are gay – just fight evil and crime on the pages damn it and keep your bedroom activities private.
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/05/americans-have-no-idea-how-few-gay-people-there-are/257753/
And the article is from a center Left publication…
I love how they are including minorities into something so mainstream. Its beautiful. Make love not war.
Sales have actually gone up.Astonishing X-Men #50, where Northstar proposes to his bf is a collectors addition and a top seller. Their wedding should be another collector’s addition. He was hinted as being gay since 1992 and never “reinvented” as gay.
This pathetic!!!!!
*is*
Guys there is a reason behind why the Big Two (DC and Marvel) are forced to reboot old characters or have an old character retire/die and a minority picking up the mantle (Mr. Terrific, Blue Beetle, Firestorm, Psyclocke, The Question, Ultmate Spiderman etc). They have no choice.
Comic buying fans will not support/buy new characters. Why do you think they have been using the same for nearly 60 years? You think any writer likes having to do the same story over and over again? Or be forced to not do a story because something similar was done 20 years ago? No. But the market dictates what they put out there. So unless you want all white male characters the writers have to reboot characters or have them replaced by new minority “legacy” characters.
Finally, the homophobia in here is reaching sad levels. You guys sound like the white supremacist who went nuts when Ultimate Spiderman died and was (drum roll please) replaced with a new Black/Latino character. I had to make sure this was BL and not Fox News or Stormfront.
I’m not homophobic, but I agree with Eddie. Its ok to be gay but why do you have to change the superheros I grew up with? Its fucking weird seeing Batman and Superman or Spiderman and wolverine making out. Not because its gay, but because those characters aren’t gay. Its fine if they wanna make a gay superhero, but just make a new superhero then, don’t just say “Nah, we’re just gonna make them ALL gay instead.” Please stop turning my childhood heros into political statements.
Well said Eddie, This is about action & good storylines not sexual preferences. Not necessary @ All!!
By being different or “mutants,” they already make a political statement if you look for it. Hell, look how the women are drawn or how Super Man sees humans when he acts as Clark Kent. In addition, with different earths, characters always change. Why not sexuality?
They don’t make any politcal statement by being mutants – it’s a freaking story line built on entertaining its audience. It seems that the Gay community has gone too far this time. I mean if you grow up unsure of your sexuality and through your own feeling and soul searching find out that you are indeed gay fine. Your life and your decision. But when you begin to infultrate and organize a campaign in an media outlet that kids (I know adults like the comics too) are influienced by then my belief is the movement has gone too far. To have kids look at the comic and feel confused because they see spider man or bat man kissing another man sends the wrong F$#king message PERIOD! No ifs, not and, or butts especially Gay Butts. This is where the devil in the media is at play and it seems that everyone is welcoming this demorlizing stunt with open arms in the name of human or civil rights. That’s BS. Like I believe create your own comic book line with Gay characters fighting crime in Gaylordville Metropolis but to break down the legacy of many of these super heroes who have been with me and my kids for so long for the sake of pushing a political agenda is irrresponsible. They may be collectors items because it seems that America is done. Between all the praise of the Jersey Shores, Kardashian’s and all other meaningless and self degrading media garbage that American’s are willing to support because they are numb minded to actually THINK about what is happening, I guess you can add this one the list.
Lmao get a grip.
And by that I mean the homophobes with the rants up there. I’m straight and find this hilarious. Not malicious or the workings of some “gay mafia.” You all sound like repressed 16 year olds trying to come to grips with your sexuality.lol FYI conservatives and those who have some deep hatred or just strong feelings about homosexuality have been proven to be dealing with internal struggle or intense sexual desires for the same sex. Lmao. I’m not joking.
Ahhhh another blind liberal fool who finds homophobe as the only cause and excuse for the ‘rants’ above. I guess your straight not giving a f#$k about the world today and how the media is influencing almost everything and anythinig in accordance to the political agenda at hand – but then again you are part of the media so I would imagine you don’t entertain the thought of being looked upon in that manner. It’s those who have your mindset who laid back and dled, content with whatever society feels it should change just because. Your part of the ‘being latino’ media so I don’t take your opinion to be nothing other than bias to this post. Maybe your assumption on the ‘deep hatred’ syndrome is based on your own ‘expriementing’ during your filming sessions….lol
Keep this crap in the closet or B/L is loosing other fans
Seriously, what’s with all the hate? So they’re different, why is that a bad thing? The bigots on this page remind me of the Friends of Humanity from the X-Men comics.
Thanks everyone for your comments…for starters BL is pretty flexible in what they allow us to write. It just so happens that I lean left, so that’s what you’re going to get from me [kanye shrug]. Also, at the end of all of our articles you’ll see this: “Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and should not be understood to be shared by Being Latino, Inc.”
So no, there is no agenda.
As for the argument that a same-sex wedding or a gay superhero stems from a particular agenda, ok I get that. But there have ALWAYS been agendas in comic books. Look at the X-Men. Mutants are discriminated against solely because they are mutants. The two main characters, Professor X wants to coexist with humans (a la Dr. MLK), whereas Magneto is more militant and does not trust humans (Malcolm X). Etc.
And just like Leslie mentioned, there previously existed a ‘code of ethics’ for comics stemming from political pressure in the 50′s to keep comics ‘tame.’ http://www.mit.edu/activities/safe/labeling/comics-code-1971
Even the way women are depicted in comics (as Mr. Tony Diaz) stated raises red flags. You don’t think it’s strange that every woman in every comic is drawn with huge boobs and small waists?
And trust me, nothing’s going to happen to a kid that reads this…if their old enough to read comics, they’re old enough to know that men can love men and women can love women. There are gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, pansexual, people out there, whether a kid reads about it in a comic or not won’t ever change that fact.
Or another word I forgot BIGOTS! Dammm. So it’s really two words that is used to describe those ‘homophobics’ out here – the HOMOPHOBICS and the BIGOTS who are yapping away about the changes to comic super heroes. The small minded think that its about the comic super heroes but its the bigger picure – the influence being pushed to the younger generation by the media. It’s all aimed at a political agenda and not equality. And what’s all the surprise about people NOT AGREEING with the changes to the characters in the comics? The BL post was put up for that purpose – to create and form argumentive opinions among BL followers. Or is it that the posting on BL is an admission of total ACCEPTANCE to the charcters changes without consideration to those who may not be thrilled with the changes? If so, then that would make BL more left wing than right and in fact lacking the element of bi-partisanship that one would expect from a publication that does not have interest in pushing an ‘agenda’. NO?
Eddie, you’re embarrassing yourself. Just because you don’t agree with a word’s dictionary definition doesn’t mean you can ignore it. Just because the color of my skin is different, do I deserve to be ignored? Just because I may follow a different religion, does that make me any less of a man? It’s all the same, hating someone because of race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, and disability, that is bigotry. If you don’t like this issue of Earth-2 by DC comics, don’t buy it; I’m more of a Marvel fan myself.
I agree that a new character should have been created, but 1) that would do little to nothing to quell the anger displayed on this thread and 2) this is taking place in the revamped DC Universe where minor/major changes are being made. Comics do this all the time, but because it involves dong-on-dong action, it’s evil now. Let them live already.
I’m pretty sure comics already have homosexual readers and they’re smart enough to not get pandered to like this, but that doesn’t mean they can’t appreciate this.
http://www.aaanything.net/wp-content/gallery/famous-people-quotes/thumbs/thumbs_gay_marriage_tell_it_to_your_ugly_kid_by_louis_c_k.jpg
@bryan and Alex – you guys just are not getting the point. 1) I’m not angry but more so dissapointed because they have made the changes to push and accommodate an agenda. Simpe. Your gay, your catholic, your black – I have no hate towards anything or anyone. But I as well as my kids have grown up to some of these characters and to have to explain why all of sudden superman and batman are getting it on in the middle of a fight scene is dissapointing and most importantly will explain that it is a agenda being pushed upon them. I now have to censor my kids comics to make sure that none of the dong on dong is going on? Come’on. Make your own freakin super heroes and leave these be. Want to change the future – go ahead no problem but let the past be the past.
Let me explain, Superman’s love interest is Lois Lane, while Earth-2 Green Lantern’s love interest is someone whose name I don’t know (I haven’t read this series); the point is that neither relationship is any less valid.
As for the change in love interest, that’s a result of the reboot in continuity. Last year, the editorial team behind DC Comics decided to start many, though not all (this is where it gets confusing), of it’s superheroes’ stories from scratch with a storyline known as Flashpoint. Marvel did something similar with Ultimate Marvel, though Ultimate Marvel did not replace mainstream Marvel. You see something similar with the movies and how Spider-Man’s girlfriend in the old movies was Mary Jane Watson, but his girlfriend in the new movie is Gwen Stacy. Things change.
X-Men’s Mystique and her partner Destiny (a woman) both raised Rogue together. Destiny was the love of Mystique’s life. At the time of their story, Marvel wasn’t ready to bring the lesbian story out back in 1981. It was consider the “Comics Code Authority” it was forbidden of not to have a gay or bi character (s) at that time. Flash forward 31 years later seems like they have broken that “CCA”.
Lots of homophobes in this thread especially those who always use the threat of. “Being Latino keep posting gay issues you will lose some readers.” Being Latino has lots of LGBT supporters that they will not exclude them out of their propaganda for Latinos. So you’s don’t like what they’re doing, use the unlike button and be on your merry way. BTW they have a Being Latino and Gay page too, which I’m proudly part of and here as well.
No wonder the comic book industry has gone down the drain. They see a Gay super hero as a ‘reboot’? really to who? The only thing embarassing (and I’m surely not embarassed by holding strong to my belief) if the fact that creativity is taking a back seat to the ‘shock’ affect that the media tends to throw out there and support. Introduce something controverisal and considered the hot topic of the times and you’re sure to raise sales and get the attention your looking for. It’s al good for the business aspect of it since, well look at all the exposure it’s received and will continue to receive in the short run but again at the expense of compromising its dedicated audience (or what’s left of it). It’s not for the good of the comic book hero legacy or legend. It’s the snooki, Kardashian and other fools the media supports to create the ‘shock’ factor for great ratings and attention.
Eddie. I don’t understand why you think the x-men don’t make political statements by being mutants. The entire storyline that “entertains” us is completely based on and directed by what happens in our political history. Way too much a coincidence that the story linescary much surrounds the idea of civil rights/racism/segregations, that characters are easily identified in political leaders in history (MLK/Malcontent X), and funny how many “made up” political themes from the comic reflect those within our country. You are just rambling off without knowledge of what you’re really saying.
Green Lantern. But not the one most folks are familiar with.
Green lantern
Green Lantern wasn’t it?
green lantern
I have been a huge gl fan for a very long tie. as a gay mixed individual it’s good to see more and more representation in media…even if it’s comics.
Green lantern
1st Green Lantern
Green lantern…
That’s pretty gay
the one and only 1st gay lantern original color was hot pink
This is horrible!! Really glad its not the original green Lantern Hal Jordan.. Im not buying any of that New green lantern shit, cause thats exactly what it Is Shit!!
Batwoman
Earth-2 Green Lantern, Alan Scott
I think I can see Aquaman as a gay superhero…. Lol
green lantern is not gay im sorry!
Walter Mercado.
Are DC comics retarded? You are catering to a niche who probably don’t even buy comic books to begin with. Nobody wants to read about a gay superhero.
Less than 2% of the population according to the center left Atlantic magazine.
thats just wierd and creppy
^^ Don’t you get it? That’s what they said about a Latino superhero! AND people who throw around the word ‘retarded’ are ignorant.
Is the thing BL can come up with?!?! Put up issues that matter! I think it’s time to let BL go! You guys put a lot of crap that doesn’t anything to do with Latinos.
*have*
“Gay superheroes…” get the hell outta here!!!!
Comics suck nowadays. I remember the comics one bought at a candy store in the 1970s. Those were comics! They were hand drawn and hand lettered. Nowadays all the comics look the same, the art is horrible (looks like it was drawn by the same computer) and they have become politically correct. I predict their demise.
Can’t believe the discrimination against homosexuals in this planet! Whatever happen to tolerance? Love is love no matter how you put it. 100 years ago it was against the law for people to marry outside their race, and now its a normal thing! Love everyone equally ?
So Alan Scott is re-introduced as gay? So what? The main focus will still be about fighting evil. It’s not like that they’ll suddenly focus more on the character’s gay relationships since (spoiler alert – so skip to the next paragraph) the first thing that happens in the first issue is that Alan Scott’s boyfriend dies in an accident caused by something evil and the whole story is about revenging his boyfriend.
So by having one superhero being re-introduced as gay, DOES NOT mean every superhero will be re-introduced as gay (pointing on Eddie Garcia. Btw, if you really think that the x-men story line about mutants is not political, then you’re really NOT in the position to talk about “seeing the bigger picture”). So stop jumping into conclusions that they’ll have spider-man and batman making out next. Stop being so dramatic – cos that’s truly gay.