Date: Thu, 28 Apr 1994 00:11:43 CDT Sender: COMICS Discussion List <[COMICS L] at [UNLVM.UNL.EDU]> From: Bill Hayes <[IANR 012] at [UNLVM.UNL.EDU]> Subject: Volume 4 Issue 15 Part 2 April 27, 1994 The Comics List Weekly Vol. 4 No. 15 Pt. 2 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Date: Mon, 25 Apr 94 12:59:14 PDT From: [j r d] at [frame.com] (James Drew) Subject: Re: Northstar and other gay characters K.J. Hall ([R 2 K J H] at [AKRONVM]) writes: >In a related, but more general theme, can anyone tell me about other gay, >lesbian or bisexual characters in mainstream comics? Will a newspaper article help? The following was published in the most recent issue (4/19/94) of OutNOW!, a gay and lesbian newspaper serving Northern California (especially the Silicon Valley area). Copies may be requested for $1.00 each from: OutNOW!, 45 North 1st St. #124, San Jose, CA 95113. Jim ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ cut here ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The text of this article is copyright 1994 by Jim Drew. Please include this copyright notice on any transmission, duplication, or other use of this article. Queer as a Three-Dollar Comic Book (or at least $2.25 plus tax) --------------------------------------------------------------- Truth. Justice. The American Way. These are the ideals that American comic book superheroes have aspired to for more than fifty years. Things don't get much more conservative than that. On the other hand, comic books are American pop culture. As such, they reflect trends and viewpoints of all sectors of the American populace. So where is the gay and lesbian presence among the four-color superhero crowd? And what about bisexual and transgender? While Jimmy Olsen has been known to wear a dress from time to time, don't expect to see Superman abandoning Lois any time soon. And if anything had ever been proven about Batman and Robin, NAMBLA would have a lot easier time of things. Joking aside, there actually is a growing trend toward characters representing facets of the world other than straight white Christian males. The first place to look for gay and lesbian superheroes are in the comics produced by the community. The most accessible of these is Gay Comics #20, the recent superhero issue. In its pages can be found the likes of Andy Mangels' character Sentinel, Joan Hilty's Immola, and several one-shot heroes and heroines. Immola also appears regularly in the pages of Oh-, along with her superheroine friends Diabolique, Cuffs, and Sphinx. Also of note are Robyn Scott's Homozone 5 and a comic called Dragnett by "Hedda Lettuce", both of which feature teams of drag queens with super powers. Among mainstream comic books, the largest publisher is Marvel Comics, home to the best known of the gay and lesbian superheroes: Northstar. This French-Canadian mutant superhero came out in the Alpha Flight comic book in 1991 and is currently starring in his own mini-series. Although earlier stories had made his orientation plain to anyone able to read between the lines and the character even briefly had an unnamed deadly disease (read: AIDS), Marvel Comics was apparently surprised by the attention the media paid to the character's pronouncement. As a result, the company backpedalled away from the subject of lesbian and gay superheroes. Only in the last month has the apparent ban on gay characters been lifted with Hector, a supporting character in The Incredible Hulk, written by fan-favorite Peter David. Marvel Comics also once had a female supervillain couple, Mystique and Destiny, although again they were only lesbians if you read between the lines. Destiny died a few years ago, and recent romantic interests point to the shape-changing Mystique as bisexual - although her real gender is by no means certain. Over at DC Comics, the second largest comic book publisher, the record of openly gay and lesbian characters is slightly better, even putting the heroes in leadership roles. Most prominent are Shrinking Violet and Lightning Lass, a female couple in the futuristic Legion of Super-Heroes. Shrinking Violet currently leads the superhero team. A former leader of the Legion is Element Lad, a bisexual superhero whose lover Sean Erin - now head of New Earth's Science Police - was originally introduced as a woman but has now changed back into a man. (It's a long story.) Longtime supervillain Lightning Lord - Lightning Lass' elder brother - may also be gay, although nothing has been said beyond a couple of hints. DC's first openly gay character was Extran~o, from the New Guardians comic; the character is generally considered to have been poorly written and is best forgotten. More recent characters have been better done, however. DC's Flash comic features a gay character called the Pied Piper, a reformed supervillain who now works with the homeless. In Wonder Woman, many of the immortal Amazons of Paradise Island "find pleasure in each other." Even the Justice League has a gay member, the furry Australian known as Tasmanian Devil. Milestone Comics is a relatively recently started company, dedicating itself to publishing comics with a multicultural focus. Most of the lead characters are black, like the founders of the company, but there is a smattering of all races and economic levels. All of Milestone's titles have been critically well received. Milestone's most controversial comic is Blood Syndicate, literally about a gang, all of whom have super powers. Among these are Masquerade, a shape-changing man who is really a woman, and Fade, an intangible gay man. Blood Syndicate is written by Ivan Velez, Jr., known for his work on the incredible gay teen comic Tales of the Closet. Velez will also be writing a mini-series featuring Fade later in the year, in which the character will come to terms with his homosexuality and gain control over his powers. Milestone's second team comic, Shadow Cabinet, will start later this year. Among the featured characters will be a lesbian couple, the super-strong Donner and the super-fast Blitzen. Another recently started "universe" of superheroes is the Ultraverse, published by Malibu Comics. One of the core titles, Strangers, is based in San Francisco. One of the members of the team, Spectral, is openly gay. With his ability to burst into flames matching the colors of the rainbow, each of which gives him a different power, the term "flaming queen" must have crossed someone's mind at Malibu. Another of the Ultraverse's core title is Mantra. For hundreds of years, the warrior Lucasz has been reincarnated in a series of men's bodies to carry on the fight against the evil Boneyard. Now he is on his last body, and her name is Eden Blake. Mantra treads the line between making light of the situation and making serious statements about gender and sexism. The smaller comic book publishers have always seemed willing to be more daring with their characters. Brat Pack, a deconstructionist superhero comic from King Hell Press featured Midnight Mink, a parody of Batman. Eclipse Comics' critically acclaimed Miracleman series just recently started to explore the possibility that the Young Miracleman character is gay. Rhesus is a gay martial artist in Reiki Warriors, published by Revolutionary Comics. Are there any superheroes infected with AIDS? Yes, but other than Northstar - who got better - none of them are gay. Lightning Comics' Bloodfire and the Shadowhawk and Chapel characters from Image all received the HIV virus via infected needles; most readers attribute the use of AIDS/HIV sales tactic rather than any deep desire to tell important stories. On the flip side of the coin is breast cancer for women superheroes. It has yet to happen and probably never will, so long as oversized breasts are deemed a selling point for superheroines. Just two years ago, Andy Mangels, editor of Gay Comics, said: "Certain writers are pissed that there are not gay characters. They find that gay and Lesbian characters provide them with much more story potential than others." Only a handful of these characters even existed at that time. For all the conservatism in comic books - this is an industry that censored itself for decades, after all, prohibiting even such minor things as the word "crime" in comic book titles - there seems to be a trend towards breaking out of the "for kids" image and tackling more controversial issues. Pop culture not only acts as a rearview mirror to show us where we've been recently. Sometimes it shows us where we should be going. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 25 Apr 94 16:54:22 -0400 From: [TomHelio RV 08] at [rvdc.unisys.com] Subject: Super Hero Groups Message Id: RV08-0035733 Posted Date: Mon Apr 25, 1994 4:42 PM David Gehring writes: > Is it just me or does every ( or almost every ) super hero team have one >or all of the following: > - Square jawed, serious leader type. > - Buxom, perky female > - Large, big guy who shows intelligence on occasion > - Wild, untamed guy usually has claws or violent streak > - Abnormal looking guy possessing at least one strange, physical flaw > ( i.e. wings, varied skin color, fur, glowing eyes, etc...) > My point is that almost all super groups are made up of these types. >Does anyone else out there see this and agree or disagree with me. I've noticed that phenomenon too. My theory is that all super-hero groups are now modeled after the X-Men. Let's face it, every group MUST have a Wolverine (the wild untamed guy with claws mentioned above). Look at Cyberforce's Ripclaw, WildCats Warblade. In particular, I've noticed that Jim Lee's WILDC.a.t.s team very closely resembles Jim Lee's X-Men team. Come ... let's take a closer look :*) *Lord Emp = Charles Xavier This is the founder of the group who usually doesn't accompany the team on combat missions. There is a physical handicap which prevents or excuses this founder from combat. With Professor X it's the wheelchair, with Lord Emp ... well uh ... he's a cigar chomping dwarf who used to be a wino?! *Spartan = Cyclops The combat leader (Square-jawed serious type). Has a super-power which involves some kind of energy-blast. (Cyclops shoots optic-blasts from his eyes, Spartan shoots "bio-blasts" from his clenched fist). Is resented by some members of the group: Spartan because he is a humanoid and therefore has no empathy for humans, Cyclops because he is a square-jawed serious type and has no empathy for humans. *Void = Jean Intelligent, beautiful, serious female with some real powerful mental abilities. *Warblade = Wolverine Claws on his hands, always pissed at something, uncontrollable. Warblade's claws are "liquid metal", Wolverine's are Adamantium (or used to be). *Grifter = Gambit A loner, a lady-killer, and has a power that rarely comes in handy, but looks great in scenes where he is jumping through the air about to attack a bad guy. (Gambit throws elecrified items, Grifter just shoots at people) *Zealot = Psylock A female, highly trained in some form of combat-art. Rarely lets her guard down, and has trouble opening up to others. After this, the match up starts to fall apart. The X-Men never real had a huge dumb guy like Maul. Collosus may be the strong man but doesn't fit the stereotype. Voodoo could be compared to Jubilee, theye are both newcomers aand not sure if they like fighting for a living. If I've left out your favorite mutant (Rogue, Storm, Beast, Bishop) I apologize. There's just too many of these X-people. Despite the occasional sarcasm, I actually like both the titles I was comparing above (sorry X-haters and Image-bashers) and I love the idea that Chris Claremont is doing a WildCats saga. Tom Heliotis ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 26 Apr 1994 13:49:59 -0500 (CDT) From: Cynder <[teo 33398] at [uxa.cso.uiuc.edu]> Subject: Super Team Design Conventions > > April 23, 1994 The Comics List Weekly Vol. 4 No. 14 Pt. 2 > Stereotypes : Superhero Teams - Hey! Who's the goofy guy in the back? > > Is it just me or does every ( or almost every ) super hero team have one > or all of the following: > - Square jawed, serious leader type. > - Buxom, perky female > - Large, big guy who shows intelligence on occasion > - Wild, untamed guy usually has claws or violent streak > - Abnormal looking guy possessing at least one strange, physical flaw > ( i.e. wings, varied skin color, fur, glowing eyes, etc...) Actually you've hit on one of the things that my friends and I have noticed about comics (any many cartoons too) and their team composition. As we identified them there are three main stereotypes used the one you mentioned above is the Five-Team. It consists of: The Leader, who is noble and makes all the right decisions The Rebel, who is reckless and disobeys orders but saves the day with his wild ideas (and learns a lesson, to boot!) The Big Guy, the everyman, ususally not too well educated, but great machines The Princess, who needs a lot of rescuing, screams a lot and is often the subject of alien abduction. May also have a useful talent or two. The Weirdo, or Prankster, immature and/or physically young, this is the quirky member of the group. Usually has a highly unusual ability or specialty. Then there's the Four-Team. The Four-Team is much like the Five-Team, save that one member is missing. The Leader, Princess and Big Guy are usually present, but they can also take on Rebel and Prankster aspects, if the team is lacking one. The major differences are: The Leader is not particularly combat ready, and is mostly in a position of leadership by default. The Four-Team Leader has more in the brains department than the power department. The Big guy is usually uncomfortable about his situation because, in most cases, he is a monster or freak of some sort. Also there's often tension because of feelings for the Princess. Then there's the Duo. A duo is pretty simple because it gives the writer a lot of room to play around with opposites. Most of these are thus centered around dichotomies. For example: Good/Evil, Nasty/Nice, Light/Dark Male/Female, Science/Technology, etc. Anything that has polar opposite (and the gray areas to be explored therein) could make a great Duo. Of course, I would just be blowing a lot of hot air if I didn't provide some examples. (Course, this may be a load of hot air NEway.) So, for popular Five-Teams we have: The original X-Men, The cast of Voltron and Battle of the Planets (nearly identical actually), and to bend the rules a bit, the original New Mutants (X'ian: Leader, Danielle: Rebel, Sam: Big Guy, Rahne: Princess, and Bobby: Prankster). For Four-Teams you've got the Fantastic Four (the archetype of Four- Teams if you ask me), and the original Doom Patrol, even though they became something unique under Grant Morrisson. With Duos you can have just about anything from Hawk&Dove to Cat&Mouse to Cloak and Dagger. Anyway, these seem to be the most stable team designs, or at least the ones that authors feel the most comfortable with. Of course, no model fits reality perfectly, so there are bound to be differences with every team. Discuss... Theo... ------------------------------------------------------------------------- End part 2, more to follow...