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"Young Avengers" #3: Another step forward
Yesterday, the latest issue of Young Avengers Presents arrived in comic shops. It focuses on gay Avenger Wiccan, who spends most of the issue getting to know his long-lost brother. The story also includes an early scene where Wiccan discusses his worries in his bedroom with his boyfriend, Hulkling. I can't think of a scene like that in superhero comics before, where a gay couple is shown in such an intimate setting while their relationship is in a stage that's still fresh and innocent. I talked with Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, who wrote the issue, about Hulking and Wiccan's romance: "It's not something we see a lot (in superhero comics)," he said. "You don't see a lot of young, blossoming gay love."
Gay characters in comics are usually either "barely there" gays or lead into a "very special issue". Seeing gay characters who are equal members of a team and whose sexual orientation isn't a surprising character twist still leaves superhero fans a little bit confused. The Authority's Apollo and Midnighter had a similarly subtle coming out, one that also left readers wondering if their gaydar was set to "oversensitive". There is one major difference between Hulkling and Wiccan and Apollo and Midnighter, however: The Authority is a title aimed at mature readers (primarily for violence) while Young Avengers is geared for the same age groups as the rest of Marvel's superhero titles. This wasn't without controversy; some Young Avengers readers might remember a frequent contributor to the letters column who kept insisting that the relationship would undoubtedly lead to sexual content that would be inappropriate for an all-ages title. Typically, when it comes to age ratings, any sort of gay content earns a higher rating, but Hulkling and Wiccan are presented as equal to any other relationship in the Marvel Universe. That a teenage gay male couple are shown sitting on the same bed without any apologies or worries is another quiet but solid step toward equal treatment for gay couples. Submitted by on Thu, 2008-04-03 08:50. |
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In terms of gay representation, Young Avengers has been a quietly revolutionary comic. Hulkling and Wiccan were outed without any fanfare: readers picked up that they were gay because their dialouge had a dynamic reminiscent of superteam couples like The Fantastic Four's Reed and Sue, The X-Men's Scott and Jean or The Legion's Val and Jekkie.
Hulkling & Wiccan
Hulkling and Wiccan are very possibly the best gay characters in comics ever. No, they don't makeout on-page or do anything like that. But what they do is reflect a growing reality in society. There are a lot more out gay teens nowadays than there used to be and I think it's great that they can not only see gay characters in comics, but gay characters their own age. When I was a teenager this would have been inconceivable.
It's even better in that the boys are both quite powerful. Hulkling has powers of shapeshifting and super strength, which make him a tough hand-to-hand fighter. This is a great departure from any notion that gays are weak "sissies". Wiccan has powerful magical abilities that are often essential to the Young Avengers. That they are both so useful to their team keeps them from being marginal characters.
As for "sexual content", well that one's always going to be subjective. Consider the lesson of Nuke. To a lot of people with anti-gay bias, any time two gays so much as touch constitutes a "sexual" occurence. It's the double-standard. If Hawkeye or Stature were to kiss a boy it would go right under the radar. But if Hulkling and Wiccan were to kiss each other it would be "flaunting homosexuality". That's just the way some people think and there's no avoiding that attitude from some.
Hopefully they won't go the way Apollo and the Midnighter did. While they were great characters in the early Authority comics they started to get very agressively drawn as gay, gay, GAY in later ones. Most nauseatingly shown as having a very frilly bedroom and I swear that Apollo's hair (and overall look) gets more feminine looking with each new depiction.
Even so, I do think that another positive milestone has been hit in that we're seeing more gay characters whose gayness is defined by their being a part of a couple. This is a sharp contrast to early gay characters like Northstar who were shown (after much buildup) to be gay, but whose romantic lives were completely unknown, thus furthering the idea that gay men were all loners who have only casual relationships. Now we see more gay characters whose coming out it is made tangible by their being in love with another man, and not just as a public statement. This was also the case with long-suspected gay DC Comics character Obsidian, who was outed in the pages of Manhunter when it was revealed he was dating one of the gay characters in that book (and kissed him on-page).
I think that this emphasis on gay relationships is a step forward.
Not only did Todd and Damon
Not only did Todd and Damon kiss on page, but they're also shown hanging out in bed post-coital (does coitus only refer to hetero sex?) embrace, which actually leads to one of my favorite scenes (Alan Scott beams into the bedroom while Damon is in the shower, hehehe). It's not really fair how Obsidian gets more and better use in Manhunter than in JSA, but his relationship with Todd is really great and I love when the whole group goes out to a club (and isn't Dylan Battles the best pseudonym ever?).
I think the chances of Hulkling and Wiccan sharing a kiss are better than Nuke's chance of a second kiss. Marvel and DC are so desperate for Big Events that Sell Comics I can just envision the "Hulking and Wiccan first kiss issue" being a major selling point. It will be called "Countdown to One More Homoseuxal Day Adventure" and it will sell a million copies and somehow reboot comics as a whole to the mid-70's.
I did adore Todd and Damon,
It just occurred to me that
How could you not mention
there relationship is NOT equal
there relationship is NOT equal to other marvel characters. it's no different than any tv show, or movie for that matter, that has toted gay characters but never had much of anything noteworthy other than a special coming out episode and some gay stereotypes as proof.
Teddy and Billy's relationship is more like that of a 4th graders hand holding, kissy face, note passing relationship. they don't do much of anything other than being spun on each other and it's glaringly obvious when compared to the relationships of other marvel characters, some who are even the same age as them. in the runaways Nico and Victor are shown post sex, as well as nico and alex wilder making out, on more than one occassion, nico and a vampire. they have karolina and the apparent mention by molly that they do have sex it's between to ladies and while that's progressive we all know it's two girls = hot, two boys = gross. and of course we can't forget about chase and gert who constantly made out and apparently had tons of sex.
just so i'm not all about the runaways the x-men have had tons of teen romances. surge and prodigy, a kiss between surge and hellion, hellion and wind dancer. and let's not forget some scandal when Elixir makes out with Rahne Sinclair, who was at the time a teacher. Along with that there was a love triangle between Elixir, Wallflower and Wither. while wither OBVIOUSLY never touched anyone Elixir and Wallflower were never shy in showing their romance.
so rather than keep on going on and on i'll just say cake? no crumbs? definitely and while i love marvel i'm pretty sure that's all we'll get especially when Anole is forcefully outted and is always the shy guy in the corner.
I think they deserve some credit
Teenage gay characters are, by their very existence, controversial. Teenage gay characters that are a couple are potentially very controversial. Teenage gay characters that actually makeout would probably provoke an even bigger AFA shriek fest than the furor over Nuke on ATWT!
Granted, I do want to see them kiss too. I hope that once the novelty of their existence has worn off that Marvel will move on to actually showing it. God knows any teenagers that are reading have already seen boys kiss on MTV.
I do not want to see it deteriorate like Apollo and Midnighter in the Authority where they go to extremes and we see them kissing in a frilly, queeny boudoir. There is such a thing as taking matters too far.
who said anything about a
who said anything about a frilly boudoir?
if marvel can portray heterosexual relationships, sex, and intimacy with tact, honesty and realism then i'm sure they can do the same when it comes to homosexual ones. it's not as though gay relationships are so bizarre and far removed from their hetero counterparts that they would have to resort to outlandish camp stereotypes to portray it. they've done similar things already with Karolina and Xavin but that was girl on girl now they just have to do the same with two guys.
my point here is we can't keep applauding and falling on our knees graciously just because they've taken a few baby steps. either it's equal or it's not.