The Gay Geek (May 28, 2008)

It turns out that gay superheroes do exist in the Watchmen movie universe
You might recall that last week, someone asked the AfterElton Flying Monkey about the seeming absence of gay characters Captain Metropolis and Hooded Justice in the upcoming Watchmen movie. Since the characters primarily existed as part of the comic's very detailed backstory, it wasn't particularly surprising or upsetting that the movie didn't find room for them.

However, a new publicity photo for the film has come out showing the 1940's superteam, The Minutemen — including Captain Metropolis and Hooded Justice. So, they definitely exist in the world being created by Watchmen director Zack Snyder:

The Minutemen: (left to right) Silhouette, Mothman, Dollar Bill, Nite Owl, Captain Metropolis, The Comedian, Silk Spectre and Hooded Justice

It'll be interesting to see if there will be more to the picture than... well, just a picture. This could turn out to be an image we only see briefly in the film. On the other hand, a companion DVD will arrive in stores just as Watchmen opens in theatres. The main feature of the DVD is an adaptation of the "Tales of the Black Freighter" comic-within-the-comic, but it will also include a mockumentary feature that will explore the characters backstories — will that include Captain Metropolis and Hooded Justice? We'll see.

Still holding out for a gay Hero on TV
More good – or, at least, hopeful — news came out for gay superhero fans late last week with the word that a TV series based on Perry Moore’s novel Hero is being considered for a small-screen adaptation by a couple of different networks. Even better, comics legend Stan Lee is co-producing the series.

A Hero series would be pretty welcome for those of us frustrated by the lack of gay inclusiveness on Heroes, but it'd certainly be interesting to find out which networks are considering the series.

A-V Freema
The Onion’s AV Club interviewed Doctor Who's Freema Agyeman recently and, while there’s plenty of interesting bits to the whole piece, my favorites are the parts revealing how out producer Russell T Davies runs the franchise. For example, Agyeman never was told she was auditioning for the part of Martha Jones:

I was told it was for a regular in Torchwood, but every time I went to the audition, they never had a script, and that was obviously because it was never for that in the first place. I was always auditioning for the companion, which I didn't know. When I got to the audition, they asked me to read [the part of Rose Tyler] from episode one of series one, which was called Rose. The second time, [they asked me] to read for the part of Gwen Cooper... again saying "We haven't got any scripts for your part."

That leaves me tempted to muse about how Gwen might be more likable with Agyeman in the role, but really it's the way Gwen is written that bothers me. For the record, I did like Eve Myles as Charles Dickens' servant when she appeared in Doctor Who.

Overall, I find it interesting to hear that Davies and crew tested Agyeman in other everyman-type's of roles. Perhaps that's because the development of Martha would turn out to be a collaboration between Agyeman and the Who writers:

What I noticed throughout the series is, the scripts would start to sound like the way I speak — you know, they were written in the way I talk, and that came over time, with the writers getting more familiar with my representation of Martha Jones. When I was filming the first episode, the director would say, "How do you think she would react to that?" It was just all there in front of me to give as input as I wanted, and at that stage, I was saying, "Ooo, I'm not sure, because I don't know her." But by the middle of the series, I knew exactly how she would behave and who she was, and I was very readily giving my input. Russell [T. Davies] was always available at the end of the phone to talk about anything, and run something by. He's never said to me, "No, I disagree."

Here is an additional tidbit for you gay pop culture obsessives: Agyeman also appeared in the finale of the saucy gay-inclusive soap Mile High as one of the customers at the beachside bar being run by Janice Steel and her former rival Will O’Brien.

While we're on the topic of Davies' Doctor Who, there's a trailer out for the rest of the current season. Watch out for spoilers, of course!

Oooh, now that it's official that this is Davies' final season I'm getting really excited about the big companion reunion.