Comic Fury Webcomic Hosting - DC to announce Gay Superhero - odds on for who?

I heard on the radio this morning that DC Comics are going to announce one of their superheros as being Gay.



The way it was put on TripleJ radio, by a local "nerd celebrity", was that it's going to be an established character, not some invented "GayMan". There was then speculation as to who. The suggestions were Batman or Superman, with counter arguments that no, couldn't be Batman because he's had sex with a lot of women, and Superman because no one's going to call a guy who can split a planet in two a "fag". I suspect though that the Radio Jocks are thinking of pre-reboot versions of those characters. Batman's now Dick Grayson isn't he? And Superman's backstory has had him married to Lois for a long long time (and loving it).

I suspect it's going to be a cope-out, some superhero with a minor or problematic role like Aquaman or the latest Blue Beetle. What do folk think, who do you think they'll pick and why?

Sooooooo I'd love to weigh in more coherently, but whatever this "Nerd Authority" was, he sounds like an a--hole. With... a very narrow conception of what it means to be gay?

/start OT rambling about the semantics of sexuality/

I'm just saying that "He can't be gay because no one is going to call a guy who can split a planet in two a 'fag'" is a prettttttty idiotic justification. Is he suggesting that queer people can't... be that powerful? Or that everyone who is gay has to be called a fag? Now, if he said "no one is going to call him a 'fag' (if he is gay) because he can split a planet (and said offender's skull) in two," that would make more sense. But that wouldn't make him not gay. It would make him less likely to get teased for it. Also, insert the usual here about how obviously no gay men have slept with (or married, or married multiple times) a woman, etc etc.

Sorry that's not contributing to the speculation, but I do think the people who said this stuff in the radio speculation are total jerks. And I got all huffy. And I'll totally stop that now!

/end rant./

That all said, I think Superman's love for Lois was pretty epic, so I doing see him swinging there. Batman, though. I don't know. I could see Bruce going that way for sure.

But I highly doubt they're going to drop a bomb like that on one of those headliners.

I'm not too familiar with superhero comic characters (I've only really read old Batmans) but I'm excited to see what the reveal is!

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(PS-Sorry to be 'that guy.')

Its probably going to be some awful throw-away character like Steel or something (Side-note: I was going to pick Speedy, green arrow's side-kick, but then noted she had HIV and was therefore already a token "progressive" superhero.) Generally when they try to get all social on us they use some odd-ball character no one really cares about. Maybe aquaman.

Actually Batman is back to being Bruce and Dick is Nighwing again.

My biggest hope (though I don't see that happening) is for them to make Superboy or Red Robin (Tim Drake) (or both and set my fan girl heart a flutter) gay. I think the more teen characters that are gay the better plus, I am admittedly a member of the group of fans that loves to pair the two of them together.

Plus, they are both in the Teen Titans comic, which already has a gay character (Bunker) thus the possibility of them having a relationship with another gay superhero. Though, once again, I don't see that happening.

I am really rooting for anyone in the Justice League as they are all moderately well known by the general public rather than one of the less known characters that the non-comic fan would be unfamiliar with.

As for Aquaman, I don't think so. His comic has actually become way popular (in terms of sales) since the reboot. I don't think they would want to do anything to jeopardize that.

I may have mis-phrased the Superman argument. I think they said that it WOULD be Superman because of that. However, why not listen to what they said?

The Station is TripleJ and the show is Breakfast with Tom and Alex. One of them (can't remember which because it's seldom referred to) is openly gay, but that doesn't really count, because their niche is college style humour for the "youth market". They have daily podcasts but the today's isn't up yet (in fact the whole station's netcast). The expert nerd is Paul Verhoeven. Normally he's pretty good but his main focus is games rather than comics.

Is he - damn. Most of my comic reading for DC and Marvel comes from what's in the local libraries (for free) so it's out of order and dated. Oddly enough that matches how I used to read both a s a child, because my mother would bring home B&W reprints with the covers ripped off (they were discards bought at jumble sales). I never knew what order anything was in!

Just another publicity stunt, kinda sad..

This is the type of thing they do probably want to announce earlier. If they just did it there would probably be way more backlash against it. Its a safe move to publicize it first.

See, even if it is a publicity stunt, which honestly it probably is (they would likely not do it if they did not expect some positive response to overall sales or at least not a negative one), I will take a publicity stunt any day to add more diversity to the characters.



I agree, for a lot of people changing something about a character they have come to know over the years, like their sexuality, is a big thing, regardless of how they feel about homosexuality.

We all know that it's Aqua Man you guys


Don't try to hide it.

Dude, one word Aquaman. Only Spider Man goes by two words. And what's with all the hate for the third best comic since the reboot.

it so didn't look write when I wrote it as one word though :c

Maybe it can be Aquaman when they announce his true sexuality?

They actually only changed them back pretty recently.

Most of my comic reading as a kid came from these packs of back issues my comic book store would sell. Something like 30 comics for around $10. Even if you are not reading the comics in a row or caught up with what was current, they were just a lot of fun to read.



It is almost always one word, and it almost always looks completely wrong. But that is just how it is.

He does sort of have a girl in the current comics, but other than being vaguely romanticish to each other I don't think they have done anything else. So it could work.

But out of all their current heroes most have less of a romantic inclination in the comics than him. But I would one love it, because I love how they have written him since the reboot.

Woah, when did Aquaman grow beard? *suddenly sees millions of bearded aquaman pictures*

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I can't really decide which one they would make gay, or the reasoning for it. I'm kind of thinking they'll stay away from the classic characters like Wonderwoman, Superman, Batman etc, or any of the characters that are selling well at the moment and that it might be one of the 'newer'/younger characters, like Nightwing, or one of the teenage characters. :L

Damn, why can't it be Marvel? Then I could say Antman.

Hey, all because wasp is dead now doesn't mean nothing (is she still dead? i haven't been following comics too well recently)

I think wonderwoman would be really easy to turn into an offensive gay character.

Man, if they made him gay, then we'd have uncomfortable comics of him being abusive to both his life-partner AND his wife.

And, y'know, I'd love to say this is just a meaningless publicity stunt. But ever since NC declared all marriage in that state to be between a man and a woman, I'd like to believe a gay established superhero could be useful for some readers' personal growth.

And then he would have twice the amount of sex on his best friend's grave

She is already too embraced in the LGBT community, they don't need her to be gay. Plus, she is gay enough already. But, yeah, it could get really offensive really quickly, though I would hope the writers are better than they would have been back a decade or two ago.

Though not quite as gay as Batman. I joke, Batman is gay enough already as well. He really does not have a serious female in his life and has really strong relationships with men (not that these should be interpreted as sexual, I don't think he is banging underage Robin, but the do convey a real strong male bonding preference). And there has been a lot of strong homosexual innuendo in some of the comics/movie/shows throughout the years. Not all of them, but some.

Plus, Batwoman is already gay, I think making Batman gay as well would be a little odd.

Here is a good post, from before the news, discussing which character should come out of the closet. http://www.comicsalliance.com/2012/05/11/spandex-closet-gay-superheroes-need-come-out/ (It includes DC as well as other comic company super heroes).

Other forums have suggested that it would be the Flash (the Wally West one?). The one who hasn't appeared since the reboot.

Reasons:
1. Not flagship, but not throwaway character.
2. Has the characterization freedom to be gay.
3. Hasn't appeared since the reboot despite being a semi-major character.