250 GAY AND LESBIAN THEMES
his sexual orientation during the 1980s. In 1987, Northstar was stricken by an illness
featuring symptoms similar to those of AIDS. Bill Mantlo, who replaced John Byrne as
the main author of Alpha Flight after issue #28, did indeed intend for Northstar to die
of AIDS, but was prevented from doing so by Marvel. Instead, Mantlo came up with an
elaborate explanation whereby Northstar’s illness was due to the fact that he was, of all
things, a fairy. Northstar’s coming out generated much publicity, and drew both praise
and criticism from a wide variety of individuals and organizations. A similarly mixed
reaction greeted Pied Piper’s declaration of his homosexuality in DC’s Th e Flash #53
in 1991. Pied Piper, a reformed villain, came out to Flash during their discussion of the
Joker’s alleged homosexuality.
Th e fi rst decade of the 21st century was marked by a signifi cant increase in the
number of gay and lesbian characters in Marvel’s, and even more so DC’s, titles. Th e
most publicized of those characters was Rawhide Kid, an old Marvel character who
was reinvented as a homosexual in a miniseries in 2003. Other signifi cant gay and
lesbian characters from recent years include Midnighter and Apollo, who came out
as a couple in DC’s Th e Authority #7 (by Warren Ellis ) in 1999 and married in
issue #29 (by Mark Millar ). Terry Berg, a character in Green Lantern , came out
to his friend Kyle in issue #137 and became the victim of a vicious gay bashing in
issue #154. In 2003, in the “Half Life” storyline in DC’s Gotham Central series, detec-
tive Renee Montoya was outed as a lesbian by the villain Two-Face, making her one
of the few lesbian characters in mainstream comics. DC additionally announced in
2006 that the obscure Batwoman would be featured prominently as a lesbian charac-
ter in future comics. Marvel’s Young Avengers series, begun in 2005, featured two gay
teenage characters, Hulking and Asgardian (later Wiccan). Homosexual themes have
also been featured in more mature fare, such as Y : Th e Last Man and Ex Machina.
Th e appearance and/or outing of virtually all of the above named characters caused
controversy, but Marvel’s and DC’s increasing willingness to feature gay and lesbian
characters, however uncomfortably, in their comics is an indication of the extent to
which homosexuality, while by no means always accepted, has become an increasingly
irrevocable part of mainstream society over the last few decades.
Gay and lesbian themes continue to become more prominent in comics, due in
large part to the Internet, whose resources have eff ectively collapsed the diff erence
in distribution between independent and mainstream publishers. Many artists, such
as Greg Fox, the creator of Kyle’s Bed & Breakfast , have found success by publishing
their work online, thereby making it available to a potentially vast readership. Simul-
taneously, a broader, increasingly more diverse comic readership in combination with
greater tolerance of homosexuality has created an environment more favorable toward
gay and lesbian characters in comics.
Selected Bibliography: Felton, Cosmo. “Homosexuals in Comics.” Lonely Gods: Minor-
ities in Superhero Comics (2006). http://www.lonelygods.com/; McAllister, Matthew P.,
Edward H. Sewell Jr., and Ian Gordon. Comics & Ideology. New York: P. Lang, 2001;
