When the mutant superhero Iceman came out last month — thanks to a one-two punch of his prying telepathic teammate and a time-travel visit from his younger self — he immediately became the most prominent gay comic book character. But his revelation was far from the only story line involving gay, lesbian and transgender characters in the fast-evolving world of comic-book narratives.
“The industry is catching on pretty quickly to the fact that diversity can improve sales of comics,” Josh Siegel, founder of Geeks Out, wrote in an email. “So publishers are evolving their lines of books to showcase queer characters in a number of interesting ways.”
Geeks Out seeks to build a fan community from a shared passion for pop culture. In June, the group inaugurated Flame Con in Brooklyn. “Both lead characters and supporting cast-members are now openly queer in many comics, allowing stories to explore different kinds of queer themes,” Mr. Siegel wrote.
And while superheroes — thanks to their longevity and their exploitation in animation, television series and big-budget films — may often hog the spotlight, a look at the independent side of the comic book industry shows even deeper depictions of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender life.
September saw the release of the second volume of “Flutter,” a graphic novel about a shape shifter in high school that explores gender roles, and “Virgil,” about an undercover and closeted police officer in not-so-welcoming Kingston, Jamaica. In August, Jo, one of the main characters in “Lumberjanes,” about a group of Girl Scouts at summer camp, came out as transgender in a nonchalant scene.
The growing depiction of L.G.B.T. characters comes at a crossroads of passionate fandom and concentrated efforts by publishers to attract broader audiences. Gay fans have long admired the impossibly perfect bodies and chiseled features of their heroes and felt a kinship with some like the X-Men, who fought for acceptance in a world that feared and hated them simply for being mutants.
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And publishers, in an attempt to reflect modern times, have introduced a plethora of champions who are no longer primarily straight, white and male under their masks. They include the teenage Muslim Ms. Marvel, the female Thor, a lesbian Batwoman, a Mexican-American Blue Beetle and many more.
AdvertisementContinue reading the main storyThis quest for diversity has not gone without some missteps. Last December, the creative team of Batgirl apologized for how it revealed that a villain impersonating the heroine was male. Some readers found the depiction, and Batgirl’s reaction, transphobic. Reprints of the story have softened her dialogue.
In July, there was a dust-up concerning the sexuality of the Marvel hero Hercules. Some fans believe he is bisexual and were put off when it was not confirmed. (Hercules had a relationship with Wolverine in an alternate-reality story; there was also some innuendo about a dalliance with Northstar, the mutant hero who came out in 1992.)
PhotoSteve Orlando straddles the worlds of independent and more mainstream comics. He is the writer of “Midnighter” for DC Comics and of “Virgil,” which was published by Image. The characters are also on ends of a spectrum: Midnighter, who was created as a Batman analogue, is out and thrives on his high-octane adventures around the globe. Virgil is closeted, suffocating and suffering in homophobic Jamaica.
“Midnighter is not in the closet about anything,” Mr. Orlando said. “If he’s buying latkes, he’s still Midnighter.”
In between the hero’s high stakes and extreme adventures, the series has been peppered with refreshingly normal moments of Midnighter’s domestic life: He’s been shown using a dating app, being sexually active and beginning a relationship. He also has a flirty, frenemy relationship with Dick Grayson, the longtime ally of Batman. “They are a violently acrobatic ‘Odd Couple,’” Mr. Orlando said.
The writer, who is bisexual, said his goal was to make Midnighter’s sexuality just one part of the character: “You don’t want to have African-American books. You don’t want gay books. You just want books. You want themes integrated into the story.”
Photo“Flutter,” written by Jennie Wood and drawn by Jeff McComsey, is like a mash-up of “My So-Called Life” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” It tells the story of 15-year-old Lily who transforms into a boy to win the heart of the girl. In 2013, The Advocate called the book “one of the year’s best L.G.B.T. graphic novels.”
The graphic novel series, published by 215 Ink, was inspired in part by Ms. Wood’s time growing up in Salisbury, N.C. “It came from me imagining that life would be better as a guy,” she said. Her male cousins would frequently bring their dates to the local movie theater to make out. “I wasn’t even out to myself at the time,” she said. “The thought of bringing a girl to a movie was not even an option. It still is not in some places.”
Ms. Wood, who now lives in Boston with her girlfriend of 10 years, said she has met a lot of supportive fans — straight, gay and transgender — at comic book conventions around the country. But she knows that the story is not for all audiences. “You put something out there and you have to let it go,” she said. “It won’t resonate with everyone. I don’t know if I would want it to.”
AdvertisementContinue reading the main storyA series that defies easy description could be the best way to talk about “Love and Rockets” by the brothers Gilbert and Jaime (and sometimes Mario) Hernandez. The two main characters in Jaime’s story, about Latina friends in Los Angeles, are “a bisexual and a butch lesbian. This became my favorite comic instantly,” said Tara Avery, the publisher of Stacked Deck Press.
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“This love letter from California changed my life,” she said, adding that it helped inspire her to be a cartoonist. Ms. Avery founded Stacked Deck this year specifically to publish gay-themed material. “Having our own publishing house was important to better represent ourselves and to present our world and our comics to the reading public,” she said.
Last month, the company began a Kickstarter campaign in support of an “Alphabet” anthology, which will spotlight the work of writers, artists and cartoonists who will exemplify every letter in the L.G.B.T. rainbow or, as Ms. Avery puts it, the “alphabet soup.” Part of the impetus of the campaign was to celebrate 10 years of the Prism Comics Queer Press Grant, which supports emerging gay cartoonists.
Ms. Avery, who is bisexual and transgender, said one of her favorite parts of the project is the coloring book of real-life gay heroes offered to some Kickstarter backers. “It will have people who were queer and maybe some who aren’t known for their queerness,” she said.
Iceman was certainly not known for being gay when he first appeared in 1963, but that is true for most superheroes back then. But what will come next?
“Every character has to carry the weight of everyone’s expectations, because there just aren’t enough characters to represent a diverse range of desires and experiences,” wrote Andrew Wheeler, the editor in chief ofComics Alliance, a website that covers the comic book industry. “We need to get from some to enough. And really, we’ll know we’ve achieved success when Captain America can have a boyfriend, and Wonder Woman can have a girlfriend. For queer representation in superhero comics, that’s what success looks like.”
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