Bad things happen to gay superheroes

[Shawn Hopkins]

http://www.harpers.org/archive/2007/10/0081728

It shows that gay comic book characters have been treated almost as badly as females. What's sad is that I can think of at least one more, Terry from Winnick's Green Lantern.

I have to quibble with some of the list, though. It is padded with several characters from The Boys, which shouldn't count because the whole point of that book is to trash superheroes. And I'm not sure if the Jason Todd Robin was really gay. Finally, bad things have happened to Apollo and Midnighter but they've been shown in a mostly positive light and worse things have happened to heterosexual characters in the book.

[Harlan_Phoenix]

...Jason Todd being gay? That's news to me...I haven't read much with Jason Todd in it beyond Dead in the Family, but I didn't think he was gay...nor have I ever heard that until now...

[Zorak Masaki]

Ice was a lesbian? News to me, its not even noted on her wikipedia page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_%28comics%29

[Don_East]

Ice was a lesbian? News to me, its not even noted on her wikipedia page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_%28comics%29
I think they meant Icemaiden:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icemaiden

[Shawn Hopkins]

Yeah, they do. Ice dated Guy Gardner. And Icemaiden isn't dead, although she did survive being flayed alive.

I think one thing those who made this list need to realize is that horrible stuff happens to everyone in comics, not just gay people. Disfiguring characters, killing them, depowering them, even having them give mystical birth to their own sons who then rape them (it happened to Ms. Marvel, in fact the mystical birth to a son who immediately grows up has also happened to Power Girl and Donna Troy) is par for the course.

[Prdgn]

Four replies already and no Brainatra?

[Jin Kazama]

...Jason Todd being gay? That's news to me...I haven't read much with Jason Todd in it beyond Dead in the Family, but I didn't think he was gay...nor have I ever heard that until now...

He's not. Right now in Countdown there's a love-triangle with Jason, Kyle and Donna.

With Donna in the middle. Not Kyle. :)

[Anthonynotes]

Four replies already and no Brainatra?

(Brainatra enters, not having been online all day given he has a job and stuff :-p )

Nice that I'm missed :-p

Yes, bad stuff happens to everyone in comics nowadays---but I'd say it's more noticeable/criticized if it's to a group of people who've traditionally been depicted not at all or poorly/mediocre at best in said medium, as well as in what manner or type of bad stuff that happens to them (Sue Dibney being raped then murdered while pregnant seems more humiliating/worse of a "bad" thing than, say, Batman's back being broken...). Given gays have been invisible or treated badly in comics until very recently, could see why someone would rip into poor current-day depictions of gays and lesbians...

Of course, the generally high levels of mean-spiritedness/nastiness in current/recent superhero books also isn't doing anyone any favors...

-B.

[Harlan_Phoenix]

He's not. Right now in Countdown there's a love-triangle with Jason, Kyle and Donna.

With Donna in the middle. Not Kyle. :)

Ah, okay. Thanks for clearing that up for me.

[FightingDreamer]

Granted, my only exposure to the characters is through the Teen Titans show but... The Brain and Monsieur Mallah are gay? And they're looking for a body for the Brain so they can "consumnate their love"? That's just messed up.

[Robin2099]

Yeah this list has too many inconsistencies for me to take seriously.

[Harlan_Phoenix]

Granted, my only exposure to the characters is through the Teen Titans show but... The Brain and Monsieur Mallah are gay? And they're looking for a body for the Brain so they can "consumnate their love"? That's just messed up.

I always thought that it was so bizarre it was awesome, myself.

[Karkull]

...Jason Todd being gay? That's news to me...I haven't read much with Jason Todd in it beyond Dead in the Family, but I didn't think he was gay...nor have I ever heard that until now...I think they're referring to Dick Grayson in Frank Miller's stupid The Dark Knight Strikes Again.

[Spider-Man]

Yeah this list has too many inconsistencies for me to take seriously.Is there a more accurate representation of this list that's available? I'd like to see what they got wrong and what's actually correct.

[Lorendiac]

http://www.harpers.org/archive/2007/10/0081728

It shows that gay comic book characters have been treated almost as badly as females. What's sad is that I can think of at least one more, Terry from Winnick's Green Lantern.

I have to quibble with some of the list, though. It is padded with several characters from The Boys, which shouldn't count because the whole point of that book is to trash superheroes. And I'm not sure if the Jason Todd Robin was really gay. Finally, bad things have happened to Apollo and Midnighter but they've been shown in a mostly positive light and worse things have happened to heterosexual characters in the book.

I've never read "The Boys," but I imagine that accounts for some of the names I didn't even recognize. I have no idea why Jason Todd ended up on that list. I don't remember any story that ever showed us that Jericho was gay, either. It also mentions Wing -- the only one I remember by that name, offhand, was the Crimson Avenger's sidekick. I'm not remembering homosexual overtures, though -- if it's the same guy, when did that stuff about the broken arm, etc., get retconned in?

And he mentions a few examples from Alan Moore's "Watchmen," but so what? Let's face it, that book was hard on practically everybody! It wasn't like Moore was saying, "If you were a heterosexual Golden Age hero way back when, then 'today' (in the mid-1980s) you're probably still alive, physically and mentally healthy, sober, popular, rich, respected, and very happy . . . but if you were a closet homosexual superhero back in the Golden Age, you probably got killed messily, many years ago!"

Heck, we got to see Hollis Mason, a real straight arrow, get beaten to death by a street gang for no good reason . . . Dollar Bill had died way back when; Rorschach got killed by a fellow hero because he stuck to his principles; The Comedian also got killed by a fellow hero (and Comedian had been a rapist to boot); Mothman ended up in an asylum, didn't he?