As you might recall, one of the major difference between Marvel's Ultimate X-Men and the regular X-Men titles is that Colossus is gay and currently dating the Ultimate version of the iconic Northstar. Colossus and Northstar play a large role in the current storyline on the title, the first by Heroes writer Aron E. Coleite ... though the latest cliffhanger is certainly raising a few eyebrows. Do gay comics fans have reason to be up in arms over the next development?

A spoiler-filled look at the story so far, after the break...

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."

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.

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.

With Marvel announcing that they were making an online archive of their comics available to subscribers, I though it'd be worth noting the company's significant moments in its history with gay characters. Since Marvel doesn't have a complete list of all the comics available to subscribers, I can't tell if any of these comics can be read through the new service. However, if the service succeeds, hopefully it'll get more content to offer. (I'd be tempted to subscribe in that case -- there are plenty of "So bad it's good" stories from the grim 'n gritty era that I might enjoy reading but wouldn't care to own.) There's a little bit of good, a little bit of bad and a lot of "Well, it was progress at the time." In order to keep the best moments above the cut, let's start with the most recent events:

Hulking and Wiccan's (semi-)botched coming out
From: Young Avengers #7 (2005)

A lot of the buzz on the early issues of Young Avengers focused on the relationship between Hulkling and Asgardian. Their banter sounded a lot like a superhero couple, but since the early issues of Young Avengers didn't show the team's downtime, there was plenty of room for debate (including speculation that Hulkling would turn out to be an young woman drawn to look sexually ambiguous) if they really were a gay couple. Part of the confusion came because superhero comic readers still aren't used to seeing same-sex couples written the same as an opposite-sex couple, so when a couple of gay characters were introduced without fanfare it was still surprising. Soon after the relationship between the two young men became clear, the team decided they had to let their parents know about their superhero activities. However, Billy and Ted's attempt at coming out was mistaken for a more typical kind of coming out. The title would later go on to be one of the few Marvel titles to win a GLAAD media award, which frequently goes to independent or DC titles.

Ultimate Colossus is finally outed
From: Ultimate X-Men #65 (2005)

When Marvel introduced the Ultimate Universe in 2001, it introduced familiar characters and stories with new perspectives and twists. For years Ultimate X-Men readers got hints that the Ultimate version of Colossus was gay -- most involved Colossus playing to stereotypes or teammates making snarky comments about Alison Blaire's chances with him (she had an obvious crush). When we finally got confirmation of Colossus' sexual orientation (in the form of him accepting a date with Northstar) it was a pretty welcoming moment, especially since the mainstream version of Colossus was a character that straight, male readers of X-Men titles identified. A safer choice could have been made for a mutant to be re-imagined as gay, but Ultimate X-Men creators happily picked Colossus.

Things get a little more bitchy after the break:

In 1999, the Women in Refrigerators list (also known as "WiR") spurred discussion in superhero comic fandom about the treatment of female characters. Assembled by a group of fans that included Gail Simone — who'd later go on to write superhero comics herself — the list drew reactions from superhero writers and artists and had a lasting effect on readers. The term "Women in Refrigerators" has taken meaning outside of comics as well, like when Television without Pity editors used the term to criticize one season of CSI.

Perry Moore, the author of Hero, takes a similar look at the treatment of gay characters in superhero comics with "Who cares about the death of a gay superhero anyway?", a list of over 70 lesbian and gay characters that was inspired by the 2005 death of Northstar.

Moore notes, "Yes, bad things do happen to all people, gay people included. But are there positive representations of gay characters to counterbalance these negative ones? Who cares about the death of a gay superhero anyway?"

Moore also takes a "by the numbers" approach to gay characters in superhero comics. Here are a few highlights:

• 65 The number of “Ultimate X-Men” issues it took for the hero Colossus finally to come out of the closet, thus alienating teammate Nightcrawler.
• Ages 4-10 The age-correlated sizes in which Wolverine Deluxe Child Costume is available for children for Halloween. Available with muscle torso, jumpsuit, boots, mask, and pair of claws. Northstar costume not available for impaling.
• ZERO. Number of straight X-Men that the most popular X-Man, Wolverine, has killed.
• ONE. Number of gay X-Men that the most popular X-Man, Wolverine, has killed:
• ZERO. Number of boyfriends Northstar has had since his coming out in 1992.
• TWO. Number of times Apollo has been the victim of male bondage and rape.

I'm definitely curious to what trends others see in the list Moore has assembled. For our superhero comic readers, I'm also curious to hear your overall perspective on what it's like to be a gay comics fan and how you react to (positive and negative) developments with gay characters.

Do you feel accepted by the major publishers as a part of the superhero audience? Do you watch for z-list characters who are gay or find hints at minor characters' orientation? When you see a positive development, do you worry that it will be undone?

Comic writer Mark Millar isn't thrilled to learn that his story was the breaking point that inspired Perry Moore to tell a positive story of a gay superhero. A 2005 story by Millar was brought up in Sunday's New York Times profile of Moore:

But things work out relatively well for him, which makes sense given Mr. Moore’s distaste for how some gay comic-book characters have been treated. His hackles still rise at the death of Northstar, a mutant hero who made headlines in 1992 when he uttered the words “I am gay” in the pages of a Marvel comic.

In 2005 Northstar was killed by a brainwashed Wolverine, which enraged Mr. Moore. He thought the murder of Marvel’s biggest gay hero by one of its most popular characters (in comics, films and merchandising) sent the wrong message.

“I thought I was going to have to stop buying comics,” he said, but instead, “I waged my own little jihad.” He visited a comic store armed with Post-it notes, which he affixed to copies of the “Wolverine” series (first on the covers, then, more slyly, on interior pages). They asked questions like “Can there be a gay superhero?” “Homophobic?” and “Ask yourself: equal rights?”

Death is rarely final in comics, so it’s no surprise that Northstar came back to life. “They couldn’t bother to mention he was gay,” Mr. Moore said of Northstar’s most recent appearance in “X-Men.”

Taking a cue from Gail Simone, a comic-book writer who first gained notice as a fan with her Web site, “Women in Refrigerators”, detailing the mistreatment of female heroes, Mr. Moore created his own tally. “Who Cares About the Death of a Gay Superhero?,” which he has delivered as a speech, includes more than 60 gay and lesbian comic book characters who have been ignored, maimed or murdered.

“Yes, bad things do happen to all people,” he wrote in it. “But are there positive representations of gay characters to counterbalance these negative ones?”

Not nearly enough, Mr. Moore said, and that’s one reason he wrote “Hero,” for which he already has ideas for future installments.

Millar wasn't thrilled to see a story he wrote mentioned as a low point in superhero comics' treatment of gay characters, and he reacted on his website:

Oh, tell him to f**k off.

He didn't die because he was gay. He died because he'd been brainwashed by The Hand.