DC Comics reveals that major superhero will be coming out of closet
posted at 12:47 pm on May 23, 2012 by Howard Portnoy
Suffering sodomy, Batman!
To paraphrase Red Eye’s Andy Levy, if you can’t keep your superheroes straight, you are not alone. DC Comics has announced that one of its superheroes that previously had been assumed to be straight will soon reveal that he (or she) is gay.
The comic blog Bleeding.Cool.com is credited with breaking the story, reporting on Sunday that DC co-publisher Dan DiDio reversed his earlier stated position—that DC would bring in a new homosexual character rather than “out” an old one—while attending the Kapow Comic Convention in London.
Senior Vice President of sales, Bob Wayne (no relation to Bruce), confirmed the story, claiming that DiDio’s view “had evolved,” much like Barack Obama’s.
This is not the first time a fictional character has been recast in some manner to comply with a social agendum. That would be the rerelease of Joseph Conrad’s 1987 novella The Nigger of the “Narcissus” as The N-word of the “Narcissus” in 2010. (Despite the name change, the title character, James Wait, continues to be a black man from the West Indies.)
So will the move by DC advance the acceptance of homosexuality among those who disapprove of it or consider it sinful? Probably not—but neither will it likely hinder the acceptance of alternative lifestyles, which recent polls find to be increasing.
For me, the big question is the same one I raised whenCalifornia passed a law mandating the teaching of gay history: Namely, how will this change manifest itself in the work? Will Superman (or Batman, or whomever) suddenly be depicted holding hands with his “partner”? Kissing? Expressing a fondness for Broadway musicals and antiques? I don’t mean to be coy, but I just can’t see how the storyline will change, for better or worse.
In the meantime, for those who can’t wait for the roll-out by DC, here is a sneak preview.
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definitely what is needed to boost sales right DC??
not good writing or anything you just keep altering the canonical toons you go girls
harlekwin15 on May 23, 2012 at 1:27 PM
“It’s a bird!”
“It’s a plane!”
“It’s UP THE POOPER-MAN!”
NoDonkey on May 23, 2012 at 1:46 PM
Geoff Johns’ rainbow lanterns hardest hit.
The Schaef on May 23, 2012 at 1:47 PM
Howard,
Have you seen this article about Marvel Comics? I think this was a wonderful thing they did for this child!
I don’t know anything about comic books so is Marvel company the same as your post?
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/05/23/hearing-impaired-new-hampshire-boy-inspires-new-marvel-comics-super-hero/
L
letget on May 23, 2012 at 2:01 PM
I could see Stan Lee urging Marvel Comics to do the same. Stan is quite liberal.
Batman and Robin were long parodied as a homosexual couple.
Though DC and Marvel are the big two in comic books, homosexual characters in comic books is nothing new.
At the very least, if DC is going to come “out” with a new character that’s homosexual instead of “outing” an old character, it makes it at least a little bit more palatable. I think DC realizes that if they made Batman, Superman or one of the other major characters be gay, they’d lose even more market share. Comic books are a volatile/iffy market.
Logus on May 23, 2012 at 2:23 PM
Aquaman.
He’s into water sports.
mrt721 on May 23, 2012 at 2:37 PM
No, Marvel is a rival company. This is a nice gesture, but Marvel, according to the BleedingCool blog, is also introducing a gay superhero.
But according again to the source cited above, they are not. They are “retooling” (excuse the expression) one of their extant characters.
Howard Portnoy on May 23, 2012 at 2:42 PM
Considering the love of alliteration in the comics:
The Fabulous Flash
Reno_Dave on May 23, 2012 at 3:11 PM
An “in-your-face” (on in some other body part) would be for DC to flip one of their big two super heroes. I’d actually be shocked if they did that, because that would be a major gamble with the corporate brand and, more importantly, bump up the risk factor with any potential ancillary things like movies (ditto the top names over at Marvel — Spidey’s not dating J. Jonah anytime soon).
Once you get past Supe and Batman, though, the rest of the DC universe is fair game, since you narrow the scope of the public that cares to the real comic junkies. Ticking off a segment of that group isn’t nearly the same risk (and my guess from two days ago is still that instead of re-branding Superman, if they want to do something within his comic, they end up outing Jimmy Olson, especially since the guy who played him on TV in the 1950s, Jack Larson, has been openly gay for decades and is still alive at age 84. DC gets a double publicity boost that way).
jon1979 on May 23, 2012 at 3:15 PM
Sorry to hear that. Maybe they did this nice gesture so more parents would buy their comics and get more kids exposed to their new ‘guy’? It seems that this ‘gay’ issue is in alot of cartoons kids see now?
L
letget on May 23, 2012 at 3:17 PM
Ah. Misread original posting by you.
Glad I gave up comic books over ten years ago. Looking back, should never have gotten into them.
Logus on May 23, 2012 at 3:48 PM
Superman’s love interests have long had the initials L.L.
Lana Lang
Lois Lane
Lori Lemaris
Dare we hope for… Lex Luthor?
malclave on May 23, 2012 at 5:08 PM
And I had such immense respect for comic books and their fanatics before. But the evolution of super heroing is just faaaabulous! Besides, everybody in Gotham City knew that Bruce Wayne and his young friend Dick were partners…
cicerone on May 23, 2012 at 5:59 PM
Aqueerman is what we used to call the fish talker in DC’s linup.
Joe Mama on May 23, 2012 at 6:27 PM
Now instead of catching crooks, Batman will break into their headquarters and tastefully decorate the entire premises.
Bacon4allah on May 23, 2012 at 7:50 PM
Always seemed to me like Robin was the gay one and Batman was just too polite to facepalm every time he made it obvious. Then again, my Batman consumption is limited to the movies and The Animated Series.
WeekendAtBernankes on May 24, 2012 at 3:30 AM
In all seriousness, it has to be Spiderman. I mean, what kind of straight superhero is played by Toby McGuire?
WeekendAtBernankes on May 24, 2012 at 3:31 AM
“He OR she”?
Considering that the original (1940s) idea of Wonder Woman was that if she gave herself to any man, she’d lose her powers, I’m just going to make my guess that Wonder Woman will come out as a lesbian.
OK, so there are stories where Superman and Wonder Woman are kissing in a passionate embrace. So what? Since when do comic books have to be consistent? :p
Aitch748 on May 24, 2012 at 8:35 AM
Aitch748 on May 24, 2012 at 8:35 AM
Wonderwoman as a lesbian would sell comics to the teenager set, that’s for sure. Maybe she can make a go with Catwoman.
Rowr rowr.
NoDonkey on May 24, 2012 at 10:02 AM
A problem with this is that most super heroes have sex lives with hot comic book babes… so… you’d have to pick one that didn’t.
Super man and batman can’t happen… spider man can’t happen… Can’t really think of any xmen that you’d could do this with since most of them again have heterosexual sex lives.
It will be interesting to see where they go with this because they’ve gone out of their way for generations to make this unlikely.
as someone above said, aquaman… but he’s a joke and it would be a PR backfire if they did that… also I only cite him because I know next to nothing about him. For all I know he could have 10 children.
Karmashock on May 26, 2012 at 2:44 PM