Thanks Rob Liefeld for helping create one of my favorite comic book character’s and thanks to all the writers who pad tribute to ShatterStar but please let is hair grow back and give him is pads back! thanks guys you all rock in my book.

Sadly, I am absolutely not surprised at Rob’s response to this. I was a member of his discussion board for a while in the mid-2000s, and I had to leave it due to the homophobic vitriol. The members of the board justified their behavior by saying it was simply their religious view. How do you respond to that? I do hope some day they will truly come to accept that there is nothing shameful or emasculating about being gay.

Being a penciler – ok, in my spare time… sh** – myself, I know quite well that your preferences often find a way to get through your hand and to the paper… and you don’t even recognize them until a friend points it out.

The ones drawn by Liefeld looked that, more so than others.

So, Rob shouldn’t be so surprised because, for me, the strange is not that Shatterstar has evolved in that direction.

The strange is that some of the other characters he created when he was at Marvel didn’t.

He comes off as a child in a game of cops and robbers that screams “Nuh-Uh, You missed me”. Liefeld intends to undermine all the hard work that other artists put into these characters for 20 something years. That’s… just not not fair or right.

Yes, when he created the character he might have had his own opinions about what kind of character he was supposed to be. He left the book 20 some years ago. The character has developed for years under the pen of other writers. When he created the character he was initially asexual. That’s fine. But the character doesn’t belong to him. It belongs to Marvel and is controlled by other people. Not him. And over the years Shatterstar developed as a character.

When he wrote the book, the character demonstrated no signs of being heterosexual or homosexual. He showed confusing and interest in the idea of human social interaction and matings, but as he had no personal experience, he was a “work in progress”. Like so many gay and lesbian and bisexual teens, Shatterstar was trying to figure himself out. Turns out he’s bisexual, which makes sense for someone who was never limited by social and gender “norms”. Which honestly is a very smart approach to the character, which despite what Liefeld thinks, fans seem supportive off. And I know the LGBT community appreciates it.

So how is this not a positive move in the fans eyes? Particularly since nearly everyone is saying “you know it makes sense.”

Rather than state you’re going to cry about it and try and undo it first chance you get, why not act like a real creative mind and find away to work with that idea to tell an even better story? Although if his true intent is to just undo it first chance he gets it might be for the best he not be given the chance.

I seriously hope Rob Liefeld will never have his hands on ShatterStar storyline again (especially since I can stand his ridiculous style).

You guys are spouting off about Greek gods and real life Spartans when the subject at hand is A FICTIONAL COMIC BOOK CHARACTER FROM ANOTHER WORLD! Liefeld simply stated that being gay wasn’t his intent when he created the character but he quiclky recognized that he doesn’t own the character. you guys blew this up into some homophobic debate.

I have never liked David’s work. I stopped reading X-Factor when he took over with #71 of the original series. I’ve never been a fan of the Hulk so I didn’t read his run there either. But I appreciate him having an opinion. But him forcing his opinion on people is no better than this “homophobia” that many of you are accusing Liefeld of.

This wasn’t “national news”. I didn’t even know about it until this week(a year and a half later!). Mr. David may be blowing smoke up his own ass. You nerds need to get out of the basement more. National news? Tiger Wood’s divorce was national news. Lil Wayne going to jail was national news. Peter David grasping at straws to mmake people care about what he’s writing isn’t national news. Its not “all over the internet”.

This is a disagreement between Liefeld and David that the haters were soooo quick to jump in. I mean, you guys are bashing this guy over Shatterstar for crying out loud! Shatterstar!!! You same hypocrites were buying up anything Liefeld related in the early 90s and loving it. He wasn’t selling a million copies of his books to himself.

I don’t know Liefeld personally. Maybe he’s an asshole. Maybe he’s the nicest guy ever. I don’t take personality in consideration when I buy my comics. But you guys are looking for any reason to jump on the guy. And for what? Having an opinion?

Well here we are, a year later, and NO ONE IS TALKING ABOUT WHETHER SHATTERSTAR IS GAY OR NOT. National news my ass. Grow up David or PAD or whatever your fart catchers on this board call you.

Liefeld said that he couldn’t wait to “undo” Shatterstar’s sexual orientation.

I’m sorry, but there is no way to interpret that other than in the negative.

As has been pointed out, if Shatterstar were a ladies’ man, or had a dedicated female relationship besides his breeding partner, I could see the point – but he’s been asexual at best, and winkingly acknowledged as Rictor’s boyfriend for a long time. PAD didn’t do anything but continue that story along logical lines.

There are a lot of gay readers who are happy to see a coule that speaks to their lives rather than the hundredth iteration of Scott and Jean – what could be negative about that?

However, the issue isn’t with homosexuality – it’s in the arrogance of a “writer” assuming that he can change something about a character that might resonate with a lot of fans simply because he doesn’t like it – and that this change is something that doesn’t change – I’m sorry, but if you think anyone “goes gay,” you are a fool. People in the real world are born that way. Deal with it.

I would never wish violence on you, Rob, but you are an even bigger douche than I imagined. I pray you don’t ever get your hands on this character again, and it just annoys this piss out of you. In fact, I hope that every character you ever created for Marvel shows up in X-Factor and begins going down on Shatterstar like there’s no tomorrow. I hope that this becomes Shatterstar’s mutant power – to make Liefeld-created characters as gay as Christmas.

Rob Liefeld, I can understand someone is dissapointed when a character he created turned out different than its creator originally intended. But when you work for a company who owns the characters you know that can happen all the time when you not write the character yourself anymore (I don’t say you don’t know that).

Personally I think before you attempt to undo anything you should first pay attention to the response of the readers/fans about Shatterstar being gay and as far as I know the response was mostly/overall very positive.
I don’t say a writer may not take unpopular steps, but especially by retconning or undoing something big I think you must realize a lot of readers will be very dissapointed if you do.
I don’t think disagreeing with another development of a character you created should be the major motivation to change or undo things, I think telling a good story should be. And for the moment I think Peter David is telling a good story and to me Shatterstar is not acting out of character.

And the arrogance of thinking you would be allowed anywhere NEAR a writing job for anything you aren’t publishing? The day that pouches and puffy headgear went out of vogue is the day your presence became unnecessary in popular comics.

- I didn’t get a homophobic vibe off of Liefeld’s comments at all. Seems to me that he created Shatterstar with the intention of making him some sort of organic android, with very limited emotional capabilities. Giving him any sort of sexual alignment at all would be like giving sexuality to a hand grenade. Perhaps not the most engaging character concept, but that’s what he intended. That he didn’t complain when changes were made to Cable and Deadpool doesn’t necessarily make him a homophobe either – maybe he feels that the identity of Cable’s parents doesn’t directly contradict what he’d originally imagined for Cable as a character?

- It’s pretty funny to me that comics has become a medium in which an aspect of a person’s personality (ie. sexual preference) is considered impossible to alter, while the annihilation of the person altogether could be undone without anyone raising an eyebrow. If this is meant to be Shatterstar “growing up” emotionally, couldn’t he simply “grow” out of it? Them’s fightin’ words, I know, but what I’m saying is that tons of young people experiment as a result of their pubescent confusion. I wouldn’t be surprised if many of the “rehabilitated gays” were actually just confused straights.

- Peter David be hardcore trollin’. “It was just a thought. Maybe you’ve got a thinking problem!” Do these two have a history?

- Liefeld uses “‘s” (apostrophe s) to denote both plurals and possessive nouns. This annoys me.

- As some people have said, the key issue should be whether Liefeld dislikes what’s been done because it makes Shatterstar homosexual (or maybe bi?) or because it gives him a sexuality at all.

Well, this might explain the scenes that took place in Issue #200, where Rictor and Shatterstar are watching (*drumroll* you guessed it) “Gladiator.” Could just be a set up for Guido to make “Airplane” jokes, but on the other hand, I find this a wholly amusing coincidence.

to my point> i didn’t create shatterstar, but i sure do have a lot of comics with him in them, and never once did he strike me as having gay undertones.. ever.

now the smug PAD, who obviously thinks very highly of himself and his ideas (people who deal in imaginary worlds shouldnt have any trouble creating them for themselves), comes along and swipes a page from scott lobdell’s (i think) handbook, and makes an existing, previously un-gay character, gay.

the controversy begins.

now, who believes PAD did this in respect for the character of shatterstar, as a logical progression of his story?… ooorr

who thinks he did it to A) irk homophobes and shatterstar fans (i bought 2! action figures) and B) to get people talking and maybe increase sales?

id bet money that PAD isnt as pro-gay as he is pro-money.

as a creator of the character, no one besides liefeld has more say on what the original intention of the character should be, so to bash him for his opinion AS A CREATOR is just as foolish and silly as labeling him as a bigot and homophobe..

which brings me to what irks me the most about this entire thread..

how is it ok to be of the mindset that “gay is totally cool and everyone should love it” but its NOT ok for anyone to have any opinion that differs from that at all without name-calling ensuing?

i’ll tell you why, everyone wants to seem so “modern and progressive” and so “unhateful” and “full of diversity” that real discussion is bogged down by people jumping on the “pro-gay, all the way!” bandwagon and won’t let any comment even remotely to the contrary pass without cries of “bigot!” “homophobe!”

gays are fine, find love however you want and dont hurt anybody and i’ll do the same..

but hack writers DO piss me off.

i guess im a “hack-ophobe”

I read Marvel from the early1970s for 20 years, but stopped in the 1990s because the stories and the art were appalling. Mr. Liefield was one of the worst offenders, but not the only one. Turning his characters over to competent writers can only be considered a step forward.

As for Shatterstar’s original asexuality, it makes sense in that he was created by the nutjobs of the Mojovererse with only one mission — to entertain them by killing people. It makes sense that they would make him childlike in outlook but with an adult body. All children start out asexual in outlook. He wasn’t meant to survive long enough to “grow up”. But he came to the main Marvel Universe and lived far longer than he was supposed to — long enough to discover his sexuality. Where’s the problem?