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The X-Men comic book series takes gay content ever further:

The first truly queer comic book mutant came out in the early 1990's when Jean-Paul/Northstar of Alpha Flight burst out of the closet. Northstar has maintained his queerness to this day. He recently made his debut in X-men titled editions where he even jokes about his gayness with his uptight and often homophobic comic book teammates.

Northstar joined the X-Men at the request of Professor X, who suggested that Northstar join his mutant teaching institute as an instructor. Xavier refers to Jean-Paul's homosexuality with the interesting term of "sexual determination." He explains to Northstar that there are new arrivals sharing that same “determination” in need of support and guidance.

X-Men writer Chuck Austen has even decided to do an unrequited love story with Northstar falling for the straight Iceman.

As one might guess, it's not easy being a gay comic book superhero. They must somehow please gay readers yet not upset straight ones. Although Northstar fights the good fight with all manner of classic superhero bravado, he must forever be walking on eggshells regarding his sexual orientation. Indeed, both the X-Men comics and the X-Men films have been the object of protests by anti-gay groups.

For this reason one can find (somewhat contrived) examples of dialog where Northstar actually has to explain how he's not a sexual threat to young boys.

In one story, a mutant boy Northstar has just rescued tells him, "I'm not gay, you know." To which Northstar replies, "And I'm not into little boys. I prefer men with hair on their chests."

Ultimately, gays can applaud Marvel Comics' decision to include a gay lead super hero character like Northstar in such a major publication as X-Men. Just like cartoons and other forms of popular entertainment, comics mirror the times. It is a medium where we can be heroes (even super-heroes!) and not just victims - or worse yet - stereotyped villainous sexual deviants.

Furthermore, we can thus be integrated into an entertainment genre that, with its mainly teenage fan demographic, is highly influential to the sexually volatile, impressionable, and problematic male adolescent age range. In a world of super-heroes where homosexuals are acknowledged, it can help ease tensions, and also help breed familiarity between gay and straight comic book fans.

X-Men is not the only comic book series that has begun normalizing queers. Other mainstream comics that now include primary or supporting gay characters are Wonder Woman (whose new artist/writer is openly-gay Phil Jimenez). In one issue Jimenez has Wonder Woman doing some volunteering for AIDS work with her ex-manager's queer brother.

DC Comics best selling Green Arrow lives with an older gay benefactor who took him in from the street. Other queer lead comic characters have appeared in Young Heroes in Love, Starman, Top Ten, Alpha Flight, and Legion of Super Heroes.

Queer super-duo Apollo and Midnighter from DC/Wildstorm's The Authority even won a GLAAD award for positive representation of gays. One issue of this “army of lovers” type action/hero team has Apollo taking revenge on the bad guys for beating up his boyfriend.

The X-Men film saga cannot help but enlighten American culture on the marginalizing, dehumanizing effects that arch conservatism has on any number of subcultures, be they queer, African-American, Jewish, Muslim, etc.

As author Michel Foucault pointed out in his fascinating and now classic study Madness and Civilization, mainstream human society, in its curious need to ever define its own self as “mainstream”, always posits an “other” subclass of people as a kind of negative, opposite image that must be kept separate from the whole.

In ancient times it was banished lepers. In the dark ages it was burned-at-the-stake witches. In the last century it was the imprisoned, institutionalized “insane”. In our own era it has been the victims of AIDS and in our current climate of intolerance and political demonizing it may very well be homosexuals.

But the X-Men holds out hope for a world in the future where it may be possible for all of us—mutant and normal, straight and gay—to live side-by-side in peace and tolerance.

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