Major DC Character To Be Outed As Gay

[PNGwynne]

I think Ballet-man was an applicant in the (very funny) Mystery Men film.

[Chippupperty]

The joke on one of the sirius sattellite channels, was that it was going to be Ballet-man!

[PNGwynne]

Batwoman isn't what I'd call a kids book on any level. Even if she wasn't gay, it's a very dark book. But you're right, her sexual preference shouldn't matter and hopefully one day it wont matter to anyone. It doesn't matter to me beyond that it is a part of who she is as a character. It effects her decision making, her personal life, her friends etc. So if they want to write stories about more then just her beating up bad guys, then yes, we need to know if she likes boys or girls. It's going to come up. Take Superman for example;

Superman is more then fighting bad guys. He's in love with Lois Lane. It's a HUGE part of the story. His relationship with her effects his personal life, his decision making, etc. He's straight so nobody even bats an eye at it. His story is one of love. In the movie, when Lois dies in that car, I cry every time I see it because Superman is crying. He loves her so much!

Why can't Batwoman love someone that much? She can.

Thank you.

Regarding Scott, I hadn't quite realized (as I'm out of the New 52 loop), that he's a different character.

I guess I'm interested to see how this progresses. It's still kind of venal, though--DC can say, "Look how trendy we are--our alternate & obscure" GL is gay. But don't worry--our iconic, merchandized GL of screen & cartoon still kisses Carol Ferris.

[hedrap]

I have no real problem with this, but, the whole process just reeks of desperation.

Total Jealousy of Marvel.

I think Dido and Johns are going to be out of jobs in the next year.

[wayne foundation 07]

Even with Mr Carilson's infamous turkey drop on WKRP the pot holes in the asphalt were there for quite a few weeks so at least people would have to walk around them and be reminded of the event

"As God as my whitness I thought turkeys could fly!"
Best laugh ever on TV

[Earth 2 Chris]

Since this "Earth-Two" is totally new with only the names the same, this doesn't bother me as much. It's an alternate take on an alternate world. If they had reintroduced Alan as was, and just made him gay, I'd have been really upset, just because it contradicted everything we knew about the character before.

I wonder what Roy Thomas thinks about this?

Chris

[jimsmegos]

blah, blah, blah... and "yawn"

Just be kind of ironic if a retcon to make a character gay also eliminated another.

Maybe the new outed version of the character can meet up with the former non outed version of himself in a parallel universe situation, fall in love with themselves(literally) and the whole universe implodes due to a space time continuum thing.

Honestly I think with al the pre hype DC has goofed. By the time the announcement does happen, everyone will collectively go either "I was right" or "I didn't see that one coming" and then no one will care after that particular days news cycle. No books sold, no long term interest generated.

Even with Mr Carilson's infamous turkey drop on WKRP the pot holes in the asphalt were there for quite a few weeks so at least people would have to walk around them and be reminded of the event

[thunderbolt]

Just be kind of ironic if a retcon to make a character gay also eliminated another.

[The Toyroom]

If it is Alan Scott, does that retcon out Obsidian and Jade? Or did he still have his brief marriage with Thorn?

Seems like all of that stuff belongs to the old Alan Scott and the old Earth 2. Everything they're doing so far with the reboot (and there's only been one issue of that so far) is "new". These JSA members are younger and seem to be contemporaries of the DCnU JLA in age, albeit on an alternate earth.

But I like to think that with a multiverse out there there's still a JSA that was forged during WWII and had their sons and daughters found Infinity Inc. in the 80s...

[thunderbolt]

If it is Alan Scott, does that retcon out Obsidian and Jade? Or did he still have his brief marriage with Thorn?

[ctc]

>why do I need to know what sexual preferences a comic book character has in the first place??

That ties in with the problems superheroes have with long term fans. As a kid it’s not an issue ‘cos kids don’t know anything about “grownup” relations, sex, stuff like that.... nor do they care. But as you get older and the hormones kick in that sort of thing becomes increasingly dominant in your thinking, and it’s natural that it’d spill over into your entertainment. Not because of any weird fetishism.... but just because as an older person the physical aspects of a relationship become a concern. It’s natural, and when superhero fans moved on after a few years it wasn’t something you had to deal with. Since the 80's you’ve had an increasingly aging audience.... and to maintain any sense of plausibility for them this becomes an issue.

But it forces you to take the characters places they were never designed for, leading to all kinds of awkward stories. Add to that the problems of perpetuality and preconceptions of your audience and the result is stories too questionable for the usual crowd, and too weak for non superhero fans to care. Which I suspect is one of the reasons Marvel and DC have been swapping the same audience members around for over a decade now.

....as an aside: one of the advantages of gratuitous T&A isn’t just sales to adolescent boys (and those who think like them) it’s that you put the possibility for a “grownup” physical relationship into the heads of the readers, without actually having to come across with anything. So the story has a kind of veneer of adultness, without having to deal with the consequences story-wise. One of the advantages of a movie is that you see real people, which lends a bit of credibility to this, and the over the top action and violence; overriding the cognitive dissonance of audiences who’d normally sneer at a comic. (Or cartoon.)

Don C.

[boynightwing]

Batwoman isn't what I'd call a kids book on any level. Even if she wasn't gay, it's a very dark book. But you're right, her sexual preference shouldn't matter and hopefully one day it wont matter to anyone. It doesn't matter to me beyond that it is a part of who she is as a character. It effects her decision making, her personal life, her friends etc. So if they want to write stories about more then just her beating up bad guys, then yes, we need to know if she likes boys or girls. It's going to come up. Take Superman for example;

Superman is more then fighting bad guys. He's in love with Lois Lane. It's a HUGE part of the story. His relationship with her effects his personal life, his decision making, etc. He's straight so nobody even bats an eye at it. His story is one of love. In the movie, when Lois dies in that car, I cry every time I see it because Superman is crying. He loves her so much!

Why can't Batwoman love someone that much? She can.

[PNGwynne]

^Wow, I didn't see that coming. In reference to retroactive changes, I don't know much about Scott's original backstory.

I think, regarding temperament/vocation, Hedrap makes an intereting suggestion regarding Raynor.

[hedrap]

Looks like it's Alan Scott.

I thought it would be him or Jay Garrick. You have to differentiate the multi-characters somehow.

Kyle Raynor makes the most sense from an artistic standpoint. If comic artists want to make a character gay, why not the one who represents them? Becomes a sort of meta statement, but it works.

But I thought they would change one of the old guard as a way to not follow Northstar.

[JediJaida]

I just wish they'd leave stuff alone.

Comic book characters are kinda sexless anyway, no matter how many people they end up banging off panel.

Look at Bruce Wayne; he's been with HOW many women in his lifetime? And not just the 52, I'm talking about his entire run.

He's been engaged to I don't know how many women without getting married; he's been in love/lust with Catwoman for decades; has had a flirtation going with Wonder Woman; Zatanna has a thing for him (I think anyway). Heck, even Harley's got a thing for him, and she's mostly caught up with the Joker and Poison Ivy!

Still, he's sexless. He's not making any kind of emotional connection with anyone, simply because his life as Batman takes away from his ability to do so.

And I am waaaaaayyyy overthinking this.