Top 6 Gay Comic Book Characters

 

Today is a monumental day for the United States of America. The Supreme Court has ruled that gay marriage is now legal in all 50 states. All I can say is: it’s about damn time! We’ve waited a long time to see the nation start treating EVERYONE with the respect they deserve, and while we’re still a long way from complete and total equality, this is definitely a step in the right direction.

Though the United States government has been a little late with the whole equality thing, comic books have been promoting equal rights for the LGBTQ community for years (it’s a bit sad when the comic industry is more in-line with equality than the government, isn’t it?). Here are six of the top gay comic book characters.

6. The Pied Piper

Back in 1991, in an issue of The Flash, writer William Lessner-Loebs casually inserted a brief dialogue between DC villain the Pied Piper and Wally West where the former admitted he was gay. The Piper has been around since 1959, where he fought Barry Allen’s Flash, but eventually became a close ally to Wally West’s Flash almost 30 years later. The Piper’s coming out was seen as a gutsy move because this was when there were hardly any openly gay characters in any form of mainstream media. However, Lessner-Loebs didn’t give two sh%ts and went ahead with penning the Pied Piper’s coming-out.

While Wally West was a little unsure about this revelation regarding his friend’s sexuality, the two soon reconciled and remained good friends until the New 52 took over. Wally West was thrown into a brief limbo, but Pied Piper is still around and is actually dating Barry Allen’s boss, David Singh.

A fun little fact: if you’ve been watching CW’s The Flash, both the Pied Piper and David Singh have made appearances, and both are openly gay (but they’re not dating each other – at least, not yet).

 

5. Hulkling/Wiccan

Hulkling and Wiccan go together like peanut butter and jelly, cookies and milk, lamb and tuna-fish (Big Daddy, anyone? No? Okay, moving along…). These two characters were first introduced in 2005 as part of one of Marvel’s newest series, Young Avengers. What made them such prominent characters in the comics was the subtle ways in which they were introduced as a romantic couple. Allan Heinberg, an openly gay comic writer, originally portrayed them as just close friends, but readers were smart enough to see that there was much more going on. The two finally came out at the end of Young Avengers‘ first run, and shared their first on-panel kiss in Avengers: The Children’s Crusade. To this day, they are still happily together, snuggling in the morning and kicking ass in the evening.

4. Renee Montoya

DC’s Renee Montoya started out as just another background character in the Batman lore. It wasn’t until the events of Gotham Central that she received some true character development and was promoted to a major player in the DC universe. In the 2003 comic, writer Greg Rucka included a subplot where notorious Batman villain Two-Face publicly outed Montoya, causing her extremely Catholic family to disown her. This caused a chain reaction that led to her becoming an alcoholic and being fired from the Gotham City police force.

Despite her life going down the drain, Montoya refused to give up, nor did she try to cover up her sexuality in any way. She decided to take up a life of crime-fighting outside of the law. When she wasn’t training with Victor Sage to become the new version of the superhero the Question, she was smooching with another female hero (who is actually on this list). The only downside to this story is that the New 52 essentially erased Montoya from existence. The original Question is back to fighting crime, and his female successor is nowhere to be found. Come on, DC!

3. Iceman

Out of all the characters in the comic universe, I think it’s most fitting that one of the X-Men would turn out to be gay. In fact, if you go back and watch X2: X-Men United, there’s a particular scene where Bobby Drake aka Iceman “comes out” to his parents as a mutant, and it’s been stated that this entire scene was meant to be an analogy for people coming out as gay or lesbian to their families. In a shocking twist of fate, a young Iceman was revealed to be gay in a recent issue of Astonishing X-Men.

The reveal was met with your standard reaction. A lot of people praised it, and others flipped out about it, mainly because Iceman has had relationships with various women in his past. This isn’t the first time comics have retconned stories about their characters, and this will probably not be the last. People are going to get angry because they claim that this is “ruining” classic characters (just look at people’s reactions to a female Thor and a black Captain America). Here is the thing: characters change all the time. I never understood the whole “ruining” of characters or their stories. It’s not like someone is taking all the previous issues of X-Men where Bobby was straight and tossing them into an incinerator. If you want to read stories where Bobby is straight, go read them. They’re still out there to enjoy. If a fictional comic book character’s sexual orientation really bothers you (especially when it doesn’t impact their plot points, development, or actions), then maybe you need to go outside or find another hobby.

 

2. Northstar

Northstar deserves a lot of credit for his role in the fight for LGBTQ representation in comic books. When Northstar debuted in 1979, writer John Byrne was forbidden from openly stating that the character was gay due to Marvel Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter‘s policy against homosexual characters. Byrne was restricted to leaving subtle clues here and there hinting at the hero’s sexuality. It took more than 13 years before writer Scott Lobdell was allowed to give Northstar the famous speech bubble that said the phrase, “I am gay”.

Previously, Alpha Flight, the comic series that featured Northstar, had a sub-par run. But Northstar’s coming out caused the issue to sky-rocket into popularity. The famous issue, #106, sold out in just a week! It’s a shame that no other major mention of the character’s sexuality was made for the rest of Alpha Flight‘s run, but that doesn’t mean that Marvel was brushing it under the rug completely. In 2012, Northstar married his long-time partner Kyle Jinadu in New York City as a tribute to the real-life event of New York legalizing and recognizing same-sex marriage.

 

1. Batwoman

Batwoman is possibly one of the most well-known lesbian characters in comic fandom. If you thought Batman had a complex history, don’t get me started on Batwoman (thanks, Infinite Crisis!). Prior to the events of the Crisis, Katherine Kane was a costumed crime-fighter who took up the Bat-name because of her attraction to Batman and her dedication to altruism. After Crisis, she was revived as Kate Kane, an openly gay super-heroine who had a brief relationship with the aforementioned Renee Montoya. As you could expect, there were mixed reviews about the change in Batwoman’s sexual orientation, with some people praising it and others fuming over it.

Despite the outrage, the writers kept pushing forward and continued portraying Batwoman as a lesbian for the next several years. She eventually proposed to her girlfriend, Maggie Sawyer, and the two were intended to be married soon after. Unfortunately, there were some issues regarding the fate of these characters’ relationship due to DC’s unwillingness to allow a gay marriage to appear in their comics. Batwoman‘s run ended just a few short months ago. At least it was fun while it lasted.

Some gay and lesbian comic book characters were able to enjoy long-lasting relationships, while others were forbidden from their true love. This reflects the true lives of LGBTQ people in the real world. Now that the Supreme Court has ruled in favor of gay marriage, we can only hope that we see many more happy endings for the LGBTQ community, both in real life and in fiction.