Marvel makes progress with LGBTQ+ heroes
Photo courtesy of: Freedom to Marry/ Flickr
NorthStar is one of the first gay marvel heroes to come out since his coming out in issue 106 of Alpha Flight in 1992, and had the first same-sex wedding in mainstream comics when he married his husband Kyle Jinadu in issue 51 of Astonishing X-Men.
For many years, Marvel Comics has celebrated diversity among its characters. Ranging from Cloak and Dagger, the first bi-racial couple in 1982, to Ms. America, also known as America Chavez, who is the first openly lesbian Latina and team leader of the Ultimates, the company has always embraced different kinds of people. How has this affected the readers though?
Seeing Karolina Dean, who glows rainbow fighting crime with her girlfriend, Nico Minoru, shows young lesbians how strong they can be. Other lesbian couples such as Wakandan warriors Ayo and Aneka, and Asgardian warriors Sera and Angela also inspire LGBTQ+ youth.
In X-Men, the wedding of Northstar and his husband was taken as seriously as other weddings of heterosexual couples from the team. Ice-Man came out as gay in 2015, 52 years after his first issue’s debut in 1963. Many of the X-Men have turned out to be queer, such as Roxy, a proud lesbian, Psylocke, an openly bisexual woman, Anole, who is gay, and more.
Bisexuals and pansexuals are represented through Deadpool, whose civilian name is Wade Willson, Thor’s second-in-command Valkyrie, Prodigy from X-Men, Nico Minoru from Runaways, and numerous other characters. This representation in mainstream comics helps spread positivity about the community. Additionally, with the rumors of a lesbian couple being in Thor: Love and Thunder (MCU), Valkyrie has been getting a fair amount of attention for her sexuality. Along with Valkyrie, there has been a rumored return of Korg, who is also queer, in the upcoming Thor movie.
“Gender rebels”, non-cis identities, are represented through Loki, who is genderfluid and bisexual, the Beyonder and Phoenix Force, who are agender, Xavin from Runaways who is a transgender woman, and Sera, a transgender lesbian Asgardian warrior from many Thor issues. Unfortunately, there is less representation of other gender identities in Marvel.
There have even been same-sex parents represented in the Marvel universe in X- Men, with Irene Adler and Raven Darkholme, also known as Mystique, who raised Rouge. They are the first same-sex parents of the Marvel universe and are some of the oldest characters.
These are only a few of the many LGBTQ+ characters in the Marvel universe. Every day more characters are coming out and being written. Marvel is changing from a cisgender/heterosexual default, and they are doing a Marvel-ous job.
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