“Where Are They Now?”

Now gay.
(Unless Alex Ross is writing.)

Is there a story behind this or is this just the usual comic writer/publisher twitchiness about homosexuality (other than lesbians, because lesbians SELL) in comics?

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Wait, when did they kill Fury?

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I’m going to commit a sin and not bother to look up the original Alex Ross/Obsidian article and go by memory.

When Geoff Johns was getting ready to write JSA again and Alex Ross was on board to make more crappy covers, Alex said in an interview that Geoff was taking Obsidian back so that other writers would stop ‘ruining’ the character. At the time, Obsidian had come out as a gay character in Manhunter and had a boyfriend, a job and a life. Now he is working security at JSA headquarters where you see him in background shots with little to no speaking lines. Yay! The character is protected from any interesting personal development.

Geoff disavowed any intention of stopping Obsidian’s gayness, while Alex Ross blamed the internet for misinterpreting his stupidity and for not still watching Superfriends.

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Yeah, especially since Bucky got good treatment from Brubaker.

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Wasn’t that Guardian already a clone? Didn’t Kirby bring back his golden age Guardian as a clone? Also hasn’t he been replaced by a black guy in Seven Soldiers?

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It-Box, there’s a difference between evolving and changing things for change’s sake.

I’ll give you an example. I remember reading that there was a possibility that Iceman would be depicted as gay, years ago. At the time I hoped that it wouldn’t happen, and that’s not because of homophobia, but because of what it would mean for the history of the character.

Consider: if somebody were to write a story that Bobby Drake was gay, despite his history with women, then it would require an explanation of why he dated women in the first place. That explanation would probably be something like “Oh, he wasn’t really in love with any of them. He was just confused and trying to fit in.”

If you’re a reader who thought that Iceman and Opal (to name one girlfriend) made a great couple, then it would kind of suck to find out that what they had wasn’t real.

Maybe you don’t care about Iceman, but you probably see my point. Let’s imagine if a much higher profile character were revealed to be gay–what if Supes were gay? What if he was never really attracted to Lois, not in any way that mattered? That would diminish the stories focusing on their relationship, and IMO that would be no good.

So if they take a character who’s been established as straight and turn him or her gay, I kind of have a problem with it.

If they make an established character fall in love with somebody of the same gender then that is fine with me, because it doesn’t mean that their previous relationships were shams or anything.

If they make a brand new character who turns out to be gay, such as Hulkling, that’s also fine with me.

If they make an alternate version of an established straight character gay (Ultimate Colossus for example), or if there’s a Reboot-like event that changes everybody’s history and they use that to change some people’s sexual orientation, that’s also fine.

But I can’t stand big retcons where a writer comes in and changes everything around just because its in their power. You gotta respect the work of the guys and girls who came before you, and you also have to respect the history of any given character. If a character is written 20 different ways by 20 different people, they may as well just be a prop, an extra with a certain set of powers without any personality of their own but rather a random personality that happens to appeal to whoever is writing them at the time.

If a writer is given a character, they should become familiar with that character’s history and get a sense of what the character would and wouldn’t do. A good writer won’t write a story wherein Poison Ivy is apathetic about pollution. They won’t write a story where Quicksilver tries his best to be polite and respectful and tries his best not to say anything that might offend anybody. They won’t write a story where Cyclops turns out to be 100% gay and admits to himself that he never loved Jean Grey, Madelyne Pryor, Emma Frost, or anybody else with a pussy who crossed his path.

Dan Slott said this about Living Lightning: “He’s gay. Get over it. Previous girlfriends? Beards. Or relationships that just didn’t work – because Miguel hadn’t come to terms yet with who he really is. Miguel is a gay superhero and a wonderful role model.”

Yes, I’m sure he is a great role model, but if this were done to a character that I’d really cared about and whose prior relationships I enjoyed reading about, I’d be upset about it.

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