The Week in Gay Geek: The Legion canceled again, Jack Thompson's gayest hits and more!

THE LEGION CLOSES SHOP WITH NUMBER 50 IN YEAR 50:
Unfortunately, it's a familiar story to Legion fans: DC's long-lived, gay-fave franchise is canceled once more.

With an emphasis on diversity from its earliest days (though fifty years ago that diversity didn't look anything like it does today), a chosen family dynamic and strong iconic women (something still uncommon in superhero titles that don't get filed under 'X'), the Legion will probably always have a place in the hearts of gay superhero fans. Still, that hasn't stopped the franchise from seeing dwindling sales and enthusiasm.

A Legion pin-up by gay artist Phil Jiminez

There've been plenty of attempts made at failure analysis with the Legion: there's too much history for new readers to understand, fans are still divided over the abrupt change of the "five year gap" era, spin-off series like L.E.G.I.O.N. and Legionaries made things difficult for lapsed readers, weariness over having to emotionally connect with a new team every five years, etc.

The new Legion of Super-Heroes 1989 and 1994 revamps:

The franchise has also gone through various phases of gay inclusiveness. Paul Levitz set up the foundation for Lightning Lass and Shrinking Violet's relationship, which had a prominent role when the series moved focus onto the adult lives of the Legionnaires. The series had a minor gay relationship when Shvaugn Erin turned out to be Sean and longtime boyfriend Element Lad didn't blink.

When the series was restarted in the wake of Zero Hour, series creators revealed that one of the characters was conceived as gay from the beginning and eventually the title started dropping heavy hints about Lyle Norg, who appeared in a Secret Origins story that just overflowed with homoeroticsm. It turned out that Lyle was indeed meant to be gay, but when the series got a new editor attempts to out Lyle were stopped.

The new Legion of Super-Heroes 1999 and 2005 revamps:

The Legion currently is the focus of a Final Crisis tie-in miniseries, The Legion of 3 Worlds, which promises to end with just one incarnation of the team left standing. I'll certainly be interested in how that turns out and if any of the Legion's LGBT characters get another chance in the spotlight. It's a real shame that a franchise that connected so strongly with gay fans hasn't had any LGBT inclusiveness for over a decade.

The overwhelming hoyay of Secret Origins #47 inspired
the attempt to out Lyle Norg in Legionnaires #66

I'm curious ... the Legion was once one of DC's top titles but it's had a major fall in the past couple decades. What's the team's biggest issue in your mind? More importantly, what does DC need to do to get the team back at the top?

THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF DC FAILURE ANALYSIS:
I'm not sure if this bit of news will be much of a blip on the radar of AfterElton.com readers, but last week DC Comics announced that it would be shutting down its Minx imprint. The girl-focused line of graphic novels was partially aimed at the readers of shoujo manga titles like Fruits Basket and Nana which also have a following among gay readers, but apparently never succeeded well enough for DC's tastes in two years.

Minx's comics included works from creators with LGBT-inclusive histories
like Andi Watson and Mike Carey

While gay shoujo readers weren't the primary audience, I suspect we can diagnose Minx's problems just as well; did any of you ever sample any Minx graphic novels? I was always interested in the imprint, but every time I went to the bookstore I'd end up catching up on Beauty Pop or Absolute Boyfriend instead. Did any of you shoujo comic fans check out Minx titles, or was it even on your wish list?

WE WONT HAVE JACK THOMPSON TO KICK AROUND ANY MORE:
Late last week, it began to look like the light at the end of the end of the tunnel was in sight for gamers and the video game industry when longtime antagonist Jack Thompson was disbarred by the Florida Supreme Court.

Thompson is best known for his crusades against video games, a fight that took the place of his previous battles against rap acts like the 2 Live Crew and Ice T, but (unsurprising for a conservative activist) he had his anti-gay moments amidst it all. Since it's looking like we won't have Jack Thompson to kick around much longer, I figured it's worth taking a look back at Thompson's history.

After the break: The gay highlights of Thompson's career

Thompson's early cases of gay-baiting started when he ran against Janet Reno for State's Attourney in 1988. At a campaign event, he handed a letter to Reno asking her to specify her sexual orientation, among other cases of gay baiting. After losing the election, he railed against a group tied to Reno claiming the group placed "homosexual-education tapes" in public schools.

Bully fanart by ~owlet

Thompson frequently faced off against Rockstar, the company that put out the Grand Theft Auto games (which Thompson frequently tried to connect to various homicides). Thompson also campaigned against Rockstar's gay-inclusive game Bully, bringing up comparisons to the tragedy at Columbine in his efforts to stop the game's release. While he was unsuccessful in that effort, Thompson tried to get the game's Teen rating pulled after Bully players discovered the game's boy-kissing, claiming to have found "gay sexual content" in the game that would be harmful to minors. The ESRB responded that they were well aware of the gay content when they gave the game its Teen rating.

In 2005, Thompson took aim at another gay-inclusive game, The Sims, offended at nudity he found in the virtual dollhouse game. Most of his accusations against The Sims and the details of its sexual explicitness hilariously did not match the reality of the game, which turned out to be due to a prankster sending Thompson screen shots of a heavily modded version of the game. That revelation didn't deter Thompson, who moved on to declare that Electronic Arts should sue to shut down fansites that served the Sims' modding community or else have its rating changed from Teen to Mature.

At least that incident allowed for snarky comments like when EA spokesman Jeff Brown noted that, "Reasonable people understand the San Jose Mercury News is not responsible for vulgar things that people doodle into the margins of the paper."

The Sims 2

Still, easily Thompson's most hilarious gay moment came when he tried to discredit an ethics case against him by claiming that one person involved, gay activist Norm Kent, distributed "hardcore porn to anyone of any age" on a gay news website run by Kent. As proof, Thompson visited Kent's adult advertisers and included their images in his filing. That's right, he included gay porn in his legal filings ... and since he submitted it electronically, he basically set up the Florida courts as a source for gay porn.

Only time will tell if we've seen the last of Thompson, but at the least his future efforts are now blunted and, more importantly, the disturbing/entertaining aspects of his career have become less distubring and more entertaining.

EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN:
The fine folks at GayGamer.net alerts us to a promising new web venture, Good Old Game, a site that promises to sell classic PC games. What's exciting about a site that sells games that could just as easily be picked out of the bargain CD-ROM shelf? Good Old Games promises versions that are compatible with the latest versions of Windows (which is my excuse for not having finished Morrowwind and Planescape: Torment) as well as bonus features like a soundtrack and game art.

Fallout 2

The site has one classic gay-inclusive game, the Fallout series, in its catalogue, as well as a wish list feature. It looks pretty promising, save for the part of the site that says "Coming in September 2008".