President Obama’s support of same-sex marriage may herald an age of acceptance for the LGBT community, but what’s more important is that the president’s attitude has finally allowed a major comic publisher to out one of their most popular superheroes. We’ve come so far!
At a panel at the Kapow Comic Convention in London on Sunday, DC Comics co-publisher Dan DiDio revealed that one of DC’s biggest heroes will become "one of our most prominent gay characters." The decision comes a year after an interview with The Advocate in which DiDio announced plans to introduce new gay characters rather than switch the orientation of old ones, a policy that DC’s Senior Vice President Bob Wayne explained “has evolved.” (What is it about everybody using that word?)
Openly gay characters aren’t exactly new to the world of comics. Marvel’s Northstar has been out since the ‘90s, and his upcoming engagement is apparently important enough to warrant an official announcement on The View. Hell, even Archie introduced a gay character two years back, and saw him marry his boyfriend this past January. And when Archie gets his old-fashioned milquetoast hands on something, it officially loses all shock value and sense of impact.
So of course there’s nothing left to do now but speculate. Batman would be far too obvious, and would rob us of a rich tradition of “boy ward” jokes. A gay Superman would be a bold choice, though considering all she’s had to put up with for seventy-some-odd years, Lois Lane deserves far better than to be Clark Kent’s beard. But if DC really commits to the idea and doesn’t just decide to switch the orientation of some lesser superhero like Martian Manhunter (or, God forbid, Booster Gold), then I’d have to put my money on Aquaman.
It has to be Aquaman, right?
I mean, come on. It’s Aquaman.
