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Perry Moore - Hero: WHO CARES ABOUT THE DEATH OF A GAY SUPERHERO ANYWAY?: A HISTORY OF GAYS IN COMIC BOOKS:
I'd heard about this list recently. I was wondering what would be included. I have to admit, it's a much larger list than I'd imagined.
It also kind of ... reaches. Big time, in some places.
WICCAN & HULKING and KAROLINA DEAN: ...eh. I will admit, within the context of the story, this one didn't bother me, although I do understand why people were upset.
GREEN ARROW II/ CONNOR HAWKE: The original Green Arrow’s son. After a long stint in Kevin Smith’s revamp of Green Arrow where Connor is alluded to be gay, his character is made retroactively straight when new writers take over the series.
- You know ... I'm thinking that unless they explicitly say, "Hey, look who's gay!" or show him in flagrante delicto with some guy, this one doesn't count. Ditto for the one about the Legion characters. There has to be some level of absolute and unambiguous ... something, whether declaration or depiction or whatever.
JETMAN: Elder Police Captain of “Top 10” super-human precinct. Closeted. Blackmailed by serial killer who threatened to out him to his police force.
- I will admit, Alan Moore's handling of Jetman and his relationship with Wulf, his partner, in the original Top Ten series is one of the few things that I wish had been done differently in parts. Understand: I don't actually object to Jetman being closeted within the context of the series. It's entirely reasonable that someone who has been on the Neopolis police force for the past 50 years -- which is supposed to be more or less contemporaneous with our current time -- would be closeted. At the same time, Jack Phantom, who is a good 30 years or so younger, is an out and proud lesbian; it's very clear that the generational issues that keep Jetman in the closet. That said, at the end of the "Beyond the Farthest Precinct" story arc, it's made perfectly obvious that everybody who knows Jetman knew about him and Wulf, in a really nice, if brief, wordless sequence. (THAT said, it's one of the two story arcs not done by Moore himself, and I kind of wonder if maybe Paul di Filippo, who wrote it, didn't realize that only one other character did know, canonically speaking.)
- I really dislike what happened at the end of Book Two of the original series, where Moore is trying, unnecessarily at that point, to draw a distinction between pedophile child abuse and normal gay sexual desire and relationships, and more or less succeeds in making Wulf look vaguely pedophilic himself. My guess is that he headed in that direction because he already had the story for "The 49ers" arc planned at some level, and knew he'd have to do something to keep Wulf from looking like the Seven Sentinels, who fake being superheroes to further their pedophile activities. And honestly, I can't tell whether or not the story in "The 49ers", which takes place at the beginning of their relationship, makes that better or worse; we get to see Rolf knowingly enter into a relationship with someone who is, I believe, 16 or 17 at the time. Jetlad (as he's called at that point) has been off fighting in the wars since he was 13 or 14, and gets treated more or less as an adult as a result of that ... but still.
ULTIMATE IRON MAN: Marvel’s neo-conservative war-machine hero who is straight but of note because his book is written by Orson Scott Card, whose anti-gay diatribe “The Hypocrites of Homosexuality” (Sunstone Magazine, February 1990) presents his opinions on gays....
- OK, no. Just ... NO. It is patently ridiculous to include a character, who is not not himself gay or even gay-vague, in this list purely because one writer, out of the many who have worked on him, doesn't like gays, especially if he didn't impute those feelings to the character.
APOLLO & MIDNIGHTER: Thinly veiled gay versions of Superman and Batman. Super-assassin heroes, stars of super group “The Authority.” Book cancelled by parent company Warner Bros for implying Superman and Batman are gay. Book brought back as result of fan-popularity. Apollo attacked and gang-raped by supervillain team....
- For what little it's worth Millar steadfastly refuses to say whether or not Apollo was raped at all, let along gang-raped; what is implied is only that he was raped by The Commander. And if Mr Moore is going to go this route, he should also note that it's implied that Midnighter, as an act of revenge, rapes The Commander (Apollo's attacker) with a jackhammer and leaves him paralyzed. (That said ... Apollo is kind of the much abducted/distressed damsel of the Authority, isn't he?)
STARMAN III: Blue skinned effeminate bi-sexual alien, drawn into stereotypical gay life of drugs and clubs, appears later in a Turk County freak show, where is he rescued by the current, heterosexual Starman.
...You know, I have that series in its entirety, and I don't recall him being particularly effeminate. The drugs and clubs aren't presented as being particularly gay, stereotypically or otherwise; it's just the 70s (note the decade) club/drug scene. It's also of note that being bisexual, being attracted to and sexual with a man, is presented as perfectly normal; in fact, he kind of gently schools Jack on that issue.
TERRY BERG: Teenage assistant to Kyle Rayner, a Green Lantern. Victim of a brutal gay-bashing that lands him in the hospital. Unable to defend himself, Terry relies on heterosexual Green Lantern to seek out his assailants.
- I don't object to Terry's inclusion in this list, but the implication that he was somehow supposed to do something more about this himself, or that maybe he should have sought out someone gay to help him, seems patently absurd.Assistant or not, he's still a perfectly ordinary human being, right? He's just been beaten to a near-pulp. And in that situation, perfectly ordinary human beings generally rely on the police and prosecutors and others of generally unknown sexual orientation to seek out and find their assailants. And if he's Green Lantern's assistant ... who else is he going to rely on?
NBC’S “HEROES”: Popular television series nixes appearance of minor gay supporting character before show airs. Claire’s friend Zach was intended to be a gay character, with episodes planned for him, but his character was pulled from the show altogether.
- And considering as this resulted from the actor's unexpected refusal to play a gay character after he'd agreed to do so, combined with his getting a meater part on another show, it seems patently unfair to count this against NBC. As the creators of the show have said, they and the network were all on board with the idea.
It is an interesting and appallingly long compendium of the rather bad things that happen to gay characters in superhero comics. I'm just not sure all of the things currently on that list should be there.
The following list is a similar catalogue of the treatment of gays in the medium. The goal is to facilitate discussion and awareness, that fans expect and deserve better treatment of lesbian, gay, and transgendered characters. The very fabric of our society is defined by whom we choose to venerate as our heroes. Things are beginning to change, but for every step forward – and there are some very good ones -- the comic book world has taken some giant leaps back. Most gay characters, even in their small numbers, still remain primarily as villains, minor characters, and victims who are tortured, maimed and killed. Is this a fair representation of LGBT characters in the medium? That is left for you to decide. Yes, bad things do happen to all people, gay people included. But are there positive representations of gay characters to counterbalance these negative ones? Who cares about the death of a gay superhero anyway?
I'd heard about this list recently. I was wondering what would be included. I have to admit, it's a much larger list than I'd imagined.
It also kind of ... reaches. Big time, in some places.
WICCAN & HULKING and KAROLINA DEAN: ...eh. I will admit, within the context of the story, this one didn't bother me, although I do understand why people were upset.
GREEN ARROW II/ CONNOR HAWKE: The original Green Arrow’s son. After a long stint in Kevin Smith’s revamp of Green Arrow where Connor is alluded to be gay, his character is made retroactively straight when new writers take over the series.
- You know ... I'm thinking that unless they explicitly say, "Hey, look who's gay!" or show him in flagrante delicto with some guy, this one doesn't count. Ditto for the one about the Legion characters. There has to be some level of absolute and unambiguous ... something, whether declaration or depiction or whatever.
JETMAN: Elder Police Captain of “Top 10” super-human precinct. Closeted. Blackmailed by serial killer who threatened to out him to his police force.
- I will admit, Alan Moore's handling of Jetman and his relationship with Wulf, his partner, in the original Top Ten series is one of the few things that I wish had been done differently in parts. Understand: I don't actually object to Jetman being closeted within the context of the series. It's entirely reasonable that someone who has been on the Neopolis police force for the past 50 years -- which is supposed to be more or less contemporaneous with our current time -- would be closeted. At the same time, Jack Phantom, who is a good 30 years or so younger, is an out and proud lesbian; it's very clear that the generational issues that keep Jetman in the closet. That said, at the end of the "Beyond the Farthest Precinct" story arc, it's made perfectly obvious that everybody who knows Jetman knew about him and Wulf, in a really nice, if brief, wordless sequence. (THAT said, it's one of the two story arcs not done by Moore himself, and I kind of wonder if maybe Paul di Filippo, who wrote it, didn't realize that only one other character did know, canonically speaking.)
- I really dislike what happened at the end of Book Two of the original series, where Moore is trying, unnecessarily at that point, to draw a distinction between pedophile child abuse and normal gay sexual desire and relationships, and more or less succeeds in making Wulf look vaguely pedophilic himself. My guess is that he headed in that direction because he already had the story for "The 49ers" arc planned at some level, and knew he'd have to do something to keep Wulf from looking like the Seven Sentinels, who fake being superheroes to further their pedophile activities. And honestly, I can't tell whether or not the story in "The 49ers", which takes place at the beginning of their relationship, makes that better or worse; we get to see Rolf knowingly enter into a relationship with someone who is, I believe, 16 or 17 at the time. Jetlad (as he's called at that point) has been off fighting in the wars since he was 13 or 14, and gets treated more or less as an adult as a result of that ... but still.
ULTIMATE IRON MAN: Marvel’s neo-conservative war-machine hero who is straight but of note because his book is written by Orson Scott Card, whose anti-gay diatribe “The Hypocrites of Homosexuality” (Sunstone Magazine, February 1990) presents his opinions on gays....
- OK, no. Just ... NO. It is patently ridiculous to include a character, who is not not himself gay or even gay-vague, in this list purely because one writer, out of the many who have worked on him, doesn't like gays, especially if he didn't impute those feelings to the character.
APOLLO & MIDNIGHTER: Thinly veiled gay versions of Superman and Batman. Super-assassin heroes, stars of super group “The Authority.” Book cancelled by parent company Warner Bros for implying Superman and Batman are gay. Book brought back as result of fan-popularity. Apollo attacked and gang-raped by supervillain team....
- For what little it's worth Millar steadfastly refuses to say whether or not Apollo was raped at all, let along gang-raped; what is implied is only that he was raped by The Commander. And if Mr Moore is going to go this route, he should also note that it's implied that Midnighter, as an act of revenge, rapes The Commander (Apollo's attacker) with a jackhammer and leaves him paralyzed. (That said ... Apollo is kind of the much abducted/distressed damsel of the Authority, isn't he?)
STARMAN III: Blue skinned effeminate bi-sexual alien, drawn into stereotypical gay life of drugs and clubs, appears later in a Turk County freak show, where is he rescued by the current, heterosexual Starman.
...You know, I have that series in its entirety, and I don't recall him being particularly effeminate. The drugs and clubs aren't presented as being particularly gay, stereotypically or otherwise; it's just the 70s (note the decade) club/drug scene. It's also of note that being bisexual, being attracted to and sexual with a man, is presented as perfectly normal; in fact, he kind of gently schools Jack on that issue.
TERRY BERG: Teenage assistant to Kyle Rayner, a Green Lantern. Victim of a brutal gay-bashing that lands him in the hospital. Unable to defend himself, Terry relies on heterosexual Green Lantern to seek out his assailants.
- I don't object to Terry's inclusion in this list, but the implication that he was somehow supposed to do something more about this himself, or that maybe he should have sought out someone gay to help him, seems patently absurd.Assistant or not, he's still a perfectly ordinary human being, right? He's just been beaten to a near-pulp. And in that situation, perfectly ordinary human beings generally rely on the police and prosecutors and others of generally unknown sexual orientation to seek out and find their assailants. And if he's Green Lantern's assistant ... who else is he going to rely on?
NBC’S “HEROES”: Popular television series nixes appearance of minor gay supporting character before show airs. Claire’s friend Zach was intended to be a gay character, with episodes planned for him, but his character was pulled from the show altogether.
- And considering as this resulted from the actor's unexpected refusal to play a gay character after he'd agreed to do so, combined with his getting a meater part on another show, it seems patently unfair to count this against NBC. As the creators of the show have said, they and the network were all on board with the idea.
It is an interesting and appallingly long compendium of the rather bad things that happen to gay characters in superhero comics. I'm just not sure all of the things currently on that list should be there.
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There is a long way to go for gay characters, but Moore's list was heavily slanted.
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Also, am I the only one wondering where he got the idea that The Comedian killed Hooded Justice? Because I've read Watchmen several times, and I've never gotten that.