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...

In this week's Gay Geek column, I lamented that when gay characters appear in the big name, top-of-the-sales-chart titles, they usually end up as backburner characters. When gay characters do get prominently featured in a title, it's usually in a title that debuts on the cancellation bubble.

However, here's some hopeful news: it's time for DC's Justice League franchise to get its once-a-decade revamp and renumbering. This time, the initial team includes lesbian heroine Batwoman as well as the bisexual alien Starman (Mikaal Tomas). This Justice League series is being written by James Dale Robinson, who dragged Mikaal out of the obscurity of First Issue Special #12 and who was nominated for a GLAAD media award in 1999 (though Robinson lost to Peter David work on Supergirl) for the way he handled Mikaal.

If memory (and Wikipedia) serves me correctly, it's been a while since we've seen Mikaal, who hasn't had a major appearance since the critically praised Starman series wrapped up in 2001, so it should be interesting to see what he's been up to since Jack Knight (the lead character in Starman and another hero to take up that legacy) retired. Robinson teases that Mikaal has been reconnecting with the "war-like aspects of his race," making him a man who is savage in battle and elegant in civilized society.

This isn't the first time a Justice League title has been inclusive of LGBTQ characters. During a period most superhero fans would rather forget, the mid-90s League included the bisexual Ice Maiden as well as Obsidian, who had begun openly questioning his sexuality during his time in the League (he eventually come to terms with his sexual orientation in Manhunter a few years ago). However, this is the first time the League has included LGBT characters in its lineup as it headed towards a high-profile relaunch under a big name creator, a hopeful step forward for gay characters.

(And if you can't wait to find out more about Mikaal, you can check out his Gay League profile page or check out the collected Starman books.)

This installment of Avatar of the Week is a round up of cartoon hero avatars.

First up is AsA3DollarBill, who is (as you might have guessed by the moniker) a gay person. Beyond that, 3Dollars's details are sketchy. All we get from his/her profile is that he/she lives somewhere in the U.S. and will be celebrating a thirtieth birthday this year. From the avatar pic itself we can also reasonably deduce 3Dollar has a thing for power women. (I believe this is Wonder Woman, but the red pant suit is throwing me off a bit. Can anyone positively identify?)

One last thing we know about 3Dollar - he/she has an eagle eye for continuity errors and recently called me out for misidentifying one in my most recent Brothers & Sisters recap.

Second up is tsalagiguy, a 28 year old teacher and activist who says he's "happily in love with my boyfriend of a little over a year.”

His profile lists his favorite TV character as “Bree’s kid on Desperate Housewives.” I think he’s talking about Andrew Van de Kamp (Shawn Pyfrom), who I like as well but hate that lately he’s stuck sweeping floors at the Scavo pizza parlor. But I digress.

Back to tsaligiguy – love the avatar pic, though if I had to guess I’d say he and his boyfriend are into some serious nipple play.

This week’s winner is sosuperduper, a.k.a. Brian Anderson, who lives in San Francisco “with his sexy boy toy of 6 years." He gets the nod this week because not only does he have a cartoon superhero avatar – but he drew it himself! Brian has recently published an independent comic called So Super Duper:

"So Super Duper is a cute tale about an everyman superhero named Psyche, who isn't quite as super as his powerful teammates. He slowly learns that his lack of super abilities isn't the only thing that makes him different, as everyone (but himself), knows that he is totally gay!"

You can check out a preview of Brian’s work at www.sosuperduper.com

That's it for this week. Congrats to runners up AsA3DollarBill & tsalagiguy, and a special tip of the hat to winner sosuperduper!

• Global Viz:
  As expected, there were a good number of announcements at the New York Comic Con last weekend, but the ones that floored me involved manga publisher Viz working with western creators. First off, Stan Lee will be writing a series for Jump SQ magazine (a Japanese manga magazine published by Viz’ parent company) with Shaman King creator Hiroyuki Takei, Ultimo. With that team, it sounds like a sure bet Ultimo will make a quick hop to our side of the pond.
  However, the bigger news to me is the announcement that Viz is planning on publishing original graphic novels. I’m feeling pretty hopeful about this initiative, when Viz’ competitor Toykopop started publishing their “global manga”, we got some great gay-inclusive titles like OffBeat, Steady Beat and the incredible 12 Days. Then again, Tokyopop was publishing titles like Fake and Gravitation long before they started accepting submissions. (And I’m having trouble of thinking of any Viz titles with gay characters, aside from The Gentlemen’s Alliance Cross.)
  
  
• Hughes Vogues:
  Easily, the most buzzed-about piece of swag from the NYCC was this promotional fashion magazine-inspired poster featuring the Women of the DC Universe by Adam Hughes. I am just in awe of this piece, especially how you can identify most of these characters through the personality they display on paper and with subtle clues to their trademark costumes in the different gowns. Can you identify who’s who without checking the caption?

  
  From left to right: Catwoman, Oracle, Zatanna, Black Canary, Power Girl, Wonder Woman, Supergirl, Batwoman, Vixen, Poison Ivy, and Harley Quinn

  I’m pretty pleased to see Batwoman is a part of the group. Considering how many times her solo series has been put off, I’m happy to see some acknowledgment of Ms. Kane.
  The poster has inspired Johanna Draper Carlson to announce a contest (timing and prizes TBA) for someone to do a version featuring the men of the DCU. Do you have a feel for how Dick Grayson or Kyle Rayner would wear a suit differently?
  
  
• Time for a catnap:
  In other news of lesbians in the DC Universe, DC announced at the NY Comic Con that the GLAAD award-winning title, Catwoman would be ending. Considering how this has been one of DC’s most mainstream queer-inclusive titles since it began, that’s disappointing to hear (though isn’t Holly off being a goddess – literally – these days?). On the other hand, another lesbian-inclusive series, The Secret Six, will be making a return with Gail Simone continuing to handle the concept. Under Simone’s pen, we got a Secret Six that was run by Scandal Savage and a newly hunkified Catman, I hope that continues:

  

  Which brings this bulletpoint full circle.
  
  
• Spending your gay geek dollars:
  You might have noticed a story in the news about GLAAD pulling out of a San Diego Pride event at the Manchester Grand Hyatt in your news reading this week but I thought it would be worth bringing up to gay geeks that the Manchester Grand Hyatt is a popular option for those attending ComicCon. I know a hotel room for ComicCon is harder to get nowadays than a copy of the Star Wars Holiday Special, but would knowing about Manchester’s stances make you pause about getting a room at his hotel?
  
  After the break, find out which classic BBC sci-fi series might be getting a revamp, check out the trailer for Mortal Kombat vs. the DC Universe and more!

From our perspective the most frustrating thing about this year's New York Comic Con wasn't the already-anticipated lack of gay characters in any of the big comic, film, or video game presentations or booths. After all, we weren't expecting much. Sadly, though we were thrilled to have a panel of our own, our biggest frustration was with the gay panel discussion, for which we had higher hopes.

Check out the descriptions of two panel sessions listed in the Con program, and see if you can spot our frustration...

In one room a session titled Disguised as Clark Kent "explores how the Jewish backgrounds of the creators of the best-known superheroes helped make them our most familiar pop icons." At the same time and right next door is a session called Sticky Pages: NY Comic Con Super-Queero Edition!, which looks at "What's good, bad, and ugly in the industry today... Featuring a visit from Special Guest CAPTAIN CONDOM!"

The sexualized program name alone put us at odds with the event; what message does this send to the comics industry, the press, and the thousands of fans attending the con? The panel was made up of a good mix of independent and corporate comic book artists, writers, editors, and publishers. And the very talented members of the perhaps overbooked 9-person panel had interesting insights to queer representation in all areas of the comics world. It was difficult, however, for us to not be distracted by Captain Condom, who stood on the stage with arms folded behind the moderator for the entire event.

Hulk not happy with poor gay representation at Con
(and did someone try to stuff a dollar in his pants?)

Also unfortunate was the extension of the sexualized discussion into the panel discourse. Half the moderator's questions seemed out of place and we wondered whether the session next door was also asking its panel what characters they thought were hot, if they'd rather have Supergirl or She-Hulk, and whether the writers and artists would sleep with their fans?

Interestingly, none of the audience questions were even remotely sexual. The audience wanted to know how receptive publishers were to gay storylines, whether being gay ever created career obstacles, and how public reaction affected editorial decision-making in mainstream comics.

The talented folks on the panel had some very interesting insights to offer on these topics. Among them we learned that employees, writers, and artists of mainstream publishers don't find being out very difficult. The discussions at the mainstream publishers are less about whether there should be new LGBT characters, but rather how they should be formed. At the same time the panel acknowledged that mainstream houses tend to look for very 'vanilla' LGBT characters in their search to appeal to the broadest possible audiences. And of course that progress in LGBT representation is very slow.

YAOI, or "Boys' Love" comics, are becoming more popular Stateside

We, like the audience, were interested in all these questions and lines of discussion. And it was heartening to see so many talented LGBT editors, artists, writers and publishers out there giving us these great gay characters and storylines. But walking away from the panel we couldn't help but feel a little bummed about how this came across to the industry professionals, press, general audience, and LGBT attendees at Comic Con.

More pics from the Con after the break! 

• What's gay at the NY Comic Con?
  Who's attending the New York Comic Con, this weekend? Queer comics advocates Prism Comics will be helping to bring some gay sensibility to the gathering. On Sunday, Ivan Velez, Jr. leads a "Gays in Comics" panel that asks, "Glorified, Gentrified or Ghetto-Sized?" to a group that includes Phil Jimenez, Tim Fish, Stephen Sadowski and Jose Villarrubia. And on Saturday, don't miss the acclaimed Ariel Schrag's appearance at Jim Hanley's Universe.
  
  
• 8 Years, 100 Million, 35 titles:
  Electronic Arts bragged this week that The Sims franchise has sold over a hundred million units. There are a lot of reasons behind the game's popularity, I think one important factor is that you can't find a more gay inclusive video game (though it's probably just as important to note how gay friendly its fanbase is). I still remember the thrill of picking up the first Sims game on the release date and figuring out that, yes, you could have same-sex romances. That gets me thinking to how a gay couple in the first game could only move in together, while The Sims 2 let same-sex couples become unioned and enjoy the same wedding ceremonies... I wonder if any more equality will be seen by gay sims in the upcoming third game.
  
  
• Old Kingdom, New Screenplay:
  While I'm not sure if the devoted fanbase for Garth Nix' fantasy novel Sabriel includes a gay segment, I always figured that to be the case -- don't gay geeks have a weakness for brainy heroines from Nancy Drew to Barbara Gordon? Sabriel fans this week got some promising news this week as Nix announced that he's working on a Sabriel screenplay with gay ally Dan Futterman. Normally, I'd be worried about getting the tone right but considering the last time Futterman adapted a novel into a screenplay we got Capote, I think the project is starting out on solid ground. On and since I've got an excuse, here's the handsome Mister Futterman:

  

  Any Sabriel fans out there? (And who would you cast to play the young, hunky and easily befuddled Prince Touchstone?)
  
  
• Raise your hand if 'Huh?':
  Well, here's a very surprising bit of news, the next game in the Mortal Kombat series will be a Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe game. Honestly, I'm having a hard time imagining this working out to either brand's advantage -- Mortal Kombat wouldn't be the same without the fatalities (even the repetitive ones from Armageddon) while the idea of The Flash (sadly, Wonder Woman is now an inapt example -- thank you very much Infinite Crisis) punching off his enemies heads doesn't sound like the DC game I've been waiting to play. On the other hand the idea of Dick Greyson battling Johnny Cage does have its appeal (or how about Black Canary versus Mileena). What do you think?
  
  
• "Get out of the house and play (in someone else's house)!" :
  I only just saw this year-old ad for the pen & paper Dungeons & Dragons and I'm curious what people think:

  

  (In case the image is too small, the ad reads, "If you're going to sit in your basement pretending to be an elf, you should at least have some friends over to help. Get together. Roll some dice. Have fun.") It feels a bit full circle to see the P&P RPG calling another type of game anti-social. That gave me a chuckle, at least.
  
  

In this week's episode of Angry Puppy, Marc and Lee talk about breaking movie news (keywords: Jake Gyllenhaal!), George Takei's Secret Talent, Jack and Ianto's Weevil-hunting clinch, some new X-Men books, and much, much more.