# Homosexual Superheros



## Shouden (Feb 5, 2009)

The great comedian Jeff Dunham once mentioned there should be a gay superhero. I think it's a novel idea. In my current superhero series "Cityscape" my protagonist is bisexual and in the same series I have a lesbian superhero. I like them and think they're pretty cool characters.

So, what's your opinion on Homosexual Superheros?


----------



## Beastcub (Feb 5, 2009)

i remeber that act with peanut "and his butt would whistle as he flies ....THWhoooooooooooo"


----------



## kitreshawn (Feb 5, 2009)

I hate them, but really only because they end up being played as camp gay more often than not.

Basically the whole thing devolves into a comedy where "look, he is a super hero but his wacky gay hijinx lead to all sorts of misunderstanding!"

I am sure there are gay superhero's out there played straight but I've yet to see it.


----------



## M. LeRenard (Feb 5, 2009)

The only gay superheroes I'm even remotely familiar with are The Ambiguously Gay Duo, which is a skit I never thought was all that funny.
So I voted indifferent.  I tend not to care what a person's sexual orientation is.  I mean, unless their gayness somehow had something to do with their superpowers.  Then it might be kind of cool.  I would think that would be tough to pull off artfully, though.


----------



## Aden (Feb 5, 2009)

Who needs to know? I don't watch superhero movies for romance.


----------



## TakeWalker (Feb 5, 2009)

More than likely, the character would end up just being a posterboy, "Look, gays can be heroes too!" sort of character, with such a focus on the collusion of sexuality and goodness that any other, more important, characteristics would be lost in the melange of political correctness. Sexual orientation can't be the focal point of a character, or else the entire story just becomes porn (c.f. overpowered characters thread).


----------



## duroc (Feb 5, 2009)

I believe there are several superheroes in comic books that are gay.  There is a series called "The Authority" were two of the male characters are in a open relationship, though I've never read it.  Kyell Gold has also touched on the subject with his stories, "Don't Blink" and "Third Date".  But to me, if the fact that the character or characters being homosexual doesn't advance the plot in some way, I don't really see the point.


----------



## Grimfang (Feb 5, 2009)

There are gay superheroes though. Ever hear of Apollo and Midnighter (DC) ? I believe those were their names. Well, there are tons of gay and lesbian superheroes, but I don't think so many are from major publishers. You also have Northstar (Marvel). I don't know too much about them, but I don't think they suffer any kind of poster-boy-syndrome. I do think if a character is gay though, it should/could be a focal point in a story (so long as it isn't intrusive or dominating or the whole plot/universe, heh). You can't throw it out there just because of the fact, but it shouldn't be overly obscured either. It's a pretty common story element to have a complication related to a characters personal life arise, like "Oh no, arch nemesis stole my girlfriend," so if a homosexual theme does wind up being out in the open, I don't think it's being abusive in its nature.

As to the original question: Yes. I'm thinking of a stereotypical, muscled-in-spandex superhero guy, only with homosexuality thrown in.. and I don't have the inclination to feel disturbed by such imagery.


----------



## Shouden (Feb 5, 2009)

Well, the whole "if it's not used to advanced the plot, then it's not important," point is good. Although, I don't see why it can't just be a character trait, though, if I were to use it as simply a trait, it would be a fleeting mentioning. I know in my Cityscape series the bisexual orientation of the main character is relatively important and it does advance the plot. But, Laura Graives probably isn't the best poster-girl for homosexual rights. If fact, her methods are so crude that the other superheros in the series have tried to kill her more than once.

But I do agree, on has to be careful not to make the sexual orientation of the characters the story.


----------



## Kindar (Feb 5, 2009)

if you give me a well told story where the super hero simply happens to be gay than I'd probably enjoy it.

unfortunately like Lakewalker pointed out they tend to be used as gimmick rather than to tell good stories


----------



## Xipoid (Feb 5, 2009)

I find it difficult to work the sexual orientation of a main character into a story because once you throw it out there, people are going to expect you to use it in some important manner. Unless you have some sort of plot that essentially mandates the character's sexuality to be a certain way, it makes no real sense to just disseminate that.


----------



## Shouden (Feb 5, 2009)

Xipoid said:


> I find it difficult to work the sexual orientation of a main character into a story because once you throw it out there, people are going to expect you to use it in some important manner. Unless you have some sort of plot that essentially mandates the character's sexuality to be a certain way, it makes no real sense to just disseminate that.



True. It is hard, and when there's no real point to do so, there's no point to do so. You could squeeze it into a character description and that could end up being the only time you mention it if it weren't a more important part of the story.

With my two superheroes in Cityscape (I have a few other homosexual characters, but for the furry community, I'll use Cityscape). I think I use it as a way to deepen the plot a little bit and the main character, as sleeping with other women is sort of her way of coping with the pain in her life.

There's one series that I have were the sexual orientation of the main characters was really the focus of the story but I think it was still a good series.


----------



## TakeWalker (Feb 5, 2009)

Shouden said:


> I think I use it as a way to deepen the plot a little bit and the main character, as sleeping with other women is sort of her way of coping with the pain in her life.



But why does she need to sleep with other women? (Here I'm asking as a means to get into your authorial processes.) Why not men? Why not animals? Why not furniture? Why not just anything that has a pulse? What you're getting at is not a matter of sexuality, but use of sex -- intercourse, specifically -- by the character as a means of stress relief/coping. _That_ then becomes the focus, and not her sexuality.

As other posters said, there have been gay superheroes. You shouldn't feel a need to force this sort of character out, or, indeed, even make one unless a plot calls for it.


----------



## Satoshi (Feb 5, 2009)

for some ungodly reason, i think the silver surfer was gay too.
or i could be like totally off ):

they exist.

so
no big deal if someone did another gay superhero/heros.
what we need is a LESBIAN one.
there's probably one ): i don't care much for american comic book heros.


----------



## Shouden (Feb 5, 2009)

TakeWalker said:


> But why does she need to sleep with other women? (Here I'm asking as a means to get into your authorial processes.) Why not men? Why not animals? Why not furniture? Why not just anything that has a pulse? What you're getting at is not a matter of sexuality, but use of sex -- intercourse, specifically -- by the character as a means of stress relief/coping. _That_ then becomes the focus, and not her sexuality.
> 
> As other posters said, there have been gay superheroes. You shouldn't feel a need to force this sort of character out, or, indeed, even make one unless a plot calls for it.



Well, she's a wolf, so, she probably wouldn't get into animals. and it's women because when she was five, she witnessed her father kill her mother and sister and her best friend helped raise and comfort her for most of her life. But if you really want to get into my processes, maybe you should hit me up with a private message or something so it doesn't side track this thread.


----------



## Term_the_Schmuck (Feb 6, 2009)

Haven't we already accepted that Aquaman is the gayest of gay superheroes?


----------



## Shouden (Feb 6, 2009)

I don't know, Batman was the first one to take a young, strong male as his sidekick...and they don't even have any superpowers.


----------



## FrostByte421 (Feb 6, 2009)

Wait!!! now way is Batman gay!  Yeah, sure, he took another ill fated person under his wing, but Batman is way to badass to be gay.  not saying that homosexuals can't be bad ass, but come on... BATMAN!!!


----------



## Shouden (Feb 6, 2009)

nah, I'm just messin' with you all. Although, Batman seemed to have some serious million dollar counseling session bill issues. I mean, his parents die and it locks himself in a cave with a bunch of bats then dresses up in what's probably the cheesest costume ever (not even Christian Bail can make that suit look good.) and goes around killing people. (well, fighting crime, although, he does strike me as the punisher type) That dude is messed up and not someone I'd want to piss off.

Okay now, we can get back on the subject of this thread.


----------



## DarknessHaven (Feb 6, 2009)

Actually the original Batman had serious controversy around his relationship with boy robin, They changed everything a lot for the movies.

As everyone else has been saying, Sexual orientation isn't really that big of a thing with super heroes, I'm currently working on a design for a hero/villian type person and naturally like almost all of my characters he's going to swing towards guys. Really if it doesn't advance the plot in anyway then leave it out.


----------



## Term_the_Schmuck (Feb 6, 2009)

Shouden said:


> and goes around killing people



Batman doesn't kill, no matter how much he beats people within an inch of their lives.

On-topic:  It doesn't really matter.  DC or Marvel will do what they will.  They've already introduced AIDS (a version of Speedy from Green Arrow), alcohol abuse (Tony Stark/Ironman), and being physically disabled (Barbara Gordan/Oracle).  An openly gay superhero wouldn't be THAT ground breaking, but it only seems logical that one would eventually make their way into comics.


----------



## TakeWalker (Feb 6, 2009)

Shouden said:


> Well, she's a wolf, so, she probably wouldn't get into animals. and it's women because when she was five, she witnessed her father kill her mother and sister and her best friend helped raise and comfort her for most of her life. But if you really want to get into my processes, maybe you should hit me up with a private message or something so it doesn't side track this thread.



This then brings up "nature vs. nurture" issues, which I don't really want to get into. But I don't think this is a side-track, it's a good illustration of how one should or should not approach sexuality in the superhero genre.


----------



## Shouden (Feb 6, 2009)

yeah, I always love how people will completely ignore the fact that it's a work of fiction and bitch about every little thing about it. I figure, if you don't like it, don't read it.

I wouldn't put it passed Stan Lee to do it. He's like the comic Hugh Heffner. I mean, he created Striperella (btw, the worst comic series ever...or at least one that I've read.) Dark Horse Comics (currently owned by Marvel) have a couple bisexual characters (I think Major Motoko from Ghost in the Shell is bi. Yes, GITS is with Dark Horse.)


----------



## Jelly (Feb 6, 2009)

Northstar?

Oh, somebody else already posted it. c:


----------



## kitreshawn (Feb 6, 2009)

Term_the_Schmuck said:


> Batman doesn't kill, no matter how much he beats people within an inch of their lives.



I don't read comics so I am not really sure if this is true or not, but I was always under the impression that this was not true early in the series (and in some of the incarnations).  I do know that he was one of the first anti-hero type characters.  In fact wikipedia even says:



"Batman was originally written in the style of the pulps",[14] and this influence was evident with Batman showing little remorse over killing or maiming criminals and was not above using firearms.



Basically initially (and actually, currently once more) Batman was not so much as a good guy as a guy who wasn't as nasty as the bad guys.


----------



## Marodi (Feb 6, 2009)

Burnt face man is awesome.


----------



## TakeWalker (Feb 6, 2009)

Marodi said:


> Burnt face man is awesome.



But he's not gay! D:


----------



## Term_the_Schmuck (Feb 6, 2009)

kitreshawn said:


> Basically initially (and actually, currently once more) Batman was not so much as a good guy as a guy who wasn't as nasty as the bad guys.



Since the topic seemed to be on current generation comics, I figured the point was valid.  But yes, it's true, Batman, at one point in his history, did carry a gun and has a body count.


----------



## Shouden (Feb 7, 2009)

as does the newest iteration of Batman. Although, in the original Batman movie, he killed the Joker. and in the new stint, he killed Scarecrow, (and didn't he kill the Joker in The Dark Night?) I think a less moral batman is a cool idea. I think the kinder, gentler Batman is kind of out of character for him.


----------



## TanukiOfYaoi (Feb 7, 2009)

I think it would be unique to have a gay superhero with some substance and actually have it be serious instead of just a comedy. I've thought about making a gay superhero.  I had thought of one time, but I forgot his name now and its gonna kill me D8


----------



## Term_the_Schmuck (Feb 7, 2009)

Shouden said:


> as does the newest iteration of Batman. Although, in the original Batman movie, he killed the Joker. and in the new stint, he killed Scarecrow, (and didn't he kill the Joker in The Dark Night?) I think a less moral batman is a cool idea. I think the kinder, gentler Batman is kind of out of character for him.



If I remember correctly, it's more like he failed to save the Joker in the first movie.  He lost his grip and the Joker fell.  Now of course the way they shot the scene there's debate on whether or not he did, but I'm pretty sure it was written so that Batman just lost his grip.

And no, he didn't kill the Joker in The Dark Knight.  He was left hanging upside down at the construction site.  And no, Scarecrow isn't dead.  I'm pretty sure he was seen in a recent issue of Gotham Underground?

I'd argue this more but in lieu of derailment, I'll leave it at that.


----------



## Shouden (Feb 7, 2009)

What would be more interesting would be if you had a homosexual married couple for heroes. I did that in one of my series. The two ladies weren't necessarily heroes (although, they were assassins hired to take out criminals that the police couldn't normally get to. But, being as they were both slightly crazy, and never really killed two people in the same way, I wouldn't put them in the hero category.) I found it an interesting exercise.


----------

