• Out of Outsiders:
  I haven't brought up the controversy over Batman and the Outsiders #1 so far because the situation has seemed a bit too complicated to fit after a bulletpoint. However, Lisa Fortuner does a good job putting it together. (As always when visiting Newsarama, I recommend avoiding the comment threads.) Basically, was DC deliberately trying to draw attention to the relaunched title (one of the few featuring gay characters) by handing it to a writer widely regarded as homophobic? Have they sunk to gay baiting as a way to get people talking about the title (one previously written by Judd Winick who has been honored by GLAAD multiple times) before its release?

• And to think that I'd never be disappointed in news about Fable or NiGHTS:
  Two notable news bites came in for gaymers this week. First, the gay-inclusive RPG Fable 2 is getting a release date ... kinda. The game is scheduled not to become available until "late 2008". Hm, I guess I have time to play catch up, then. (I still haven't finished my copy of Planescape: Torment myself.)
  
  Equally frustrating, it was announced that the Playstation 2 version of the campy classic NiGHTS into Dreams is currently planned as a Japan-only release.

• In this version, when you win we all lose... or maybe it's the other way around:
  Back in May, bloggers at Girl-Wonder introduced the Anti-Feminist Comics Bingo Card which put together every cliched argument that comes up whenever a discussion of female characters in Western comics comes up. It was a humorous way to note all the arguments that come up again and again -- usually from people who think they're the first ones to bring up such an idea. 
  
  The idea was one that resonated with a number of bloggers who created versions dealing with other areas of geekdom. Now, inspired by a post containing enough cliched anti-gay arguments that people weren't sure if it was serious Girl-Wonder's Kate Fiztsimons has created the Queer Comics Controversy BINGO card:
  
  
  
  
  
  I do think one common argument is missing from the BINGO card -- the one which tries to claim that LGBT people don't make up a big part of the population so there's actually a sufficient number of gay characters in comics. Sigh.

• After all, pretty elven men is the natural order of things:
  One arena where I still see homophobia in video game forums is the discussion of designing male and female avatars. I still encounter attitudes that believe that attractive female avatars should be normal and common but there's something wrong about a player who wants to have a good looking male avatar. After the brouhaha over same-sex marriage in the game, I was intrigued to hear that Lord of the Rings Online doesn't follow that trend. You can't make an elven male less pretty by giving him a macho scar and hobbit women have all the unglamorous hobbit features.

• Nomination summation:
  The Young Adult Library Services Association just announced its final list of nominations for Great Graphic Novels for Teens. I'm pretty pleased to see Dead High Yearbook (which is edited and includes a story by out creator Ivan Velez, Jr.) as well as Fumi Yoshinaga's very gay friendly YAOI title, The Moon and The Sandals on the list. (Pictured, a panel from Dead High.)

• Errors, regretted:
  Last week, I pointed to a New York Times profile of Gail Simone and repeated the Times' discussion of Simone as the first female writer to get an ongoing gig on Wonder Woman. That claim was the topic of debate at Comics Worth Reading, where CWR readers brought up runs by Mindy Newell and earlier writers. Simone makes an appearance in the comment thread to confirm that she doesn't see herself as breaking ground that way. For what it's worth, Simone is the first ongoing female Wonder Woman writer (Jodi Picoult did a fill-in run earlier in the year) since the Amazon was revamped in 1987.

• Link of the week:
  There's a new home for the LGBT (and LGBT-friendly) players of City of Heroes: City Folk offers a community where gay fans can plan events, recruit for supergroups and otherwise make connections. I can't really say if City of Heroes really is the most gay friendly MMO as Gay Gamer's Fruit Brute says, but the gay community of Paragon City is easily the best at getting the word out about their activity. If you sign up, tell 'em Lyle sent you!

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?