Robot 6
Gay comic-book characters, from A to Z
Hulkling, Batwoman and Wallace Wells
Sean Brennan, who operates HeroesNHunks (NSFW!), has put together an impressive clearinghouse of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender characters in comic books.
Called QueerSupe, it contains more than 230 names to date — most with images and links to profiles — from Apollo and Midnighter of The Authority to Hopey Glass of Love and Rockets to Tim Gunn of Project Runway and Models, Inc.
(Of those characters, 45 are dead, but, hey, some of the living ones actually appear in books on a regular basis. So, that’s … something. Right?)
QueerSupe seems like a nice, and nicely organized, successor to the Gayleague’s character list, much of which was lost earlier this year when the website was hacked. (That list has begun to reappear, but in a less user-friendly format.)
9 Comments
Kurt Busiek
October 29, 2009 at 11:10 am
It managed to note that POWER COMPANY was a Marvel Comic, and that Astro City’s Flying Fox appeared in the Vertigo series ENIGMA.
But maybe things’ll shake out…
kdb
Gunslinger
October 29, 2009 at 11:25 am
Dawnstar is gay. WOW!
The Ugly American
October 29, 2009 at 1:22 pm
Since when?
Andrew Collins
October 29, 2009 at 3:23 pm
Since when?
In Geoff John’s recent JLA/JSA storyline where he ‘reintroduced’ the Legion, it’s strongly implied that a girl the groups meet on Thanagar is Dawnstar’s lesbian lover.
The theory of her being a lesbian has floated around in the LOSH fan community since the 70′s, when a panel of her crawling into a bed that was just occupied by her female roommate was published in an issue of Superboy & The LOSH.
I haven’t read any of the Legion back-up stories in the new Adventure Comics yet, so I don’t know if more has been done with it. But from what I’ve seen, it’s a throwback to the many wink-wink nudge-nudge gay/lesbian overtones that the old Legion stories were full of, such as Element Lad and Shrinking Violet/Light Lass…
Sean Brennan
October 29, 2009 at 4:21 pm
Thanks SO much for the shout out. I’ve been staring at this thing for weeks now so it’s sometime easy to miss the obvious (i.e Flying Fox and power Company – already fixed). I appreciate any and all feedback so PLEASE comment here or at the list if you spot a mistake or think of someone who is missing.
RE Dawnstar…. it actually makes sense if you think about it. Her big romance was with Wildfire who was basically sentient energy in a bag. I believe he gained a physical body at one point only to have their relationship fail. Hmmm.
Andrew Collins
October 30, 2009 at 6:12 am
It would also explain why she rejected her parents’ attempts at arranging a marriage for her and why she was always having trouble finding her “pre-destined soulmate” she was always talking about. Though she did fall in love with a man in a Tales Of The LOSH story (around issue #319) so maybe we could count her as bisexual…? Or does that story not count anymore? I Can’t tell what’s canon and what isn’t with the Legion these days…
Joe Palmer
October 30, 2009 at 8:21 am
Hi, Kevin,
Just a note to say thanks for the mention and also to acknowledge the listings are now in a less user friendly format. This will change, thanks to an offer from a librarian. One of the recurring comments on how the listing was presented before was that it pigeonholed various characters into categories that weren’t completely relevant to them.
Joe
David Ramsey
December 8, 2009 at 9:04 pm
yeah everyone is forgetting the comic book called Runnaways its in the Marvel universe
a super heroine who justa happens to be a rainbow colored alien is a lesbian and she ends up marrying a skrull who shapeshifts into a girl just for her
Sean Brennan
January 6, 2010 at 3:15 pm
Not sure who forgot about Karolina Dean. She’s been on the A-Z LGBT Comic Book Character Superlist since the beginning (listed under Dean, Karolina). Xavin is there too.
I wanted to update you to let you know there are now OVER 300 characters on the list!