Old news, that's my news. So with the blindfold on I lucky-dip some news article, and it happens to be homosexuality in comic books.
But... but, that isn't new at all. Same sex gender preference has been in the funny books for ages. (Hello, Alan Moore, Howard Chaykin)
Ah, but it's the big two, Marvel and DC making a frackin' spectacle, now for some reason it matters?
Does it also garner more attention because it's gay males in the spotlight? Like lesbianism is a bit old hat?
Maybe it's that male mentality that if you lock two females in an elevator for over five minutes, they'll be involved in raving passionate love-making before you can get the power back online?
Like we can fill a movie screen with bums and breasts, but chuck a penis in the mix and censorship will push the classification rating right up.
Oh. Come. On, Earth 2012!
Ancient cultures could depict total nudity in sculpture and art and still get the cows in on time.
"Yes, that's a big wooden dick on the mantelpiece."
"Yes, it's a fertility symbol."
"Yes. Now please stop staring at it, man from the future. I have crops to plant."
Big deals.
You know I'm always blown away by how hung up on sex modern humans are.
I suppose this is a good time to add I have no qualms with people's sexual orientation. To quote a certain disfigured cowboy anti-hero, "It makes no difference to me how you sit in the saddle."
And although true, I will resist the urge to write, "some of my best friends are gay." Really strikes me as a cop out line. Especially since I heard a radio interview with a politician, where he used said line, only to follow it up by referring to homosexuals as "those people" for the rest of the show, and ranting on about core family values, oh so threatened by the queer community.
For certain there are dysfunctional homes with core family value problems - abuse, alcoholism, poverty.
How much of this can we really blame on The Village People, is my question?
Of course, there's such a thing as being too PC, where it steps into the territory of becoming heavy handed and patronizing.
There lies my nagging discomfort with this latest high profile comic trend to occur.
Look, it is nice. Totally respect the idea that a same-sex couple in prominent pop culture might be of great comfort to a young gay person who isn't getting adequate support at home or from their peers.
I guess I'd just rather take it all in stride. Easy for me to say, after a healthy handful of decades schmucking around on earth, I don't have a sexual identity crisis or suffer discrimination in that vein.
So my beef? Four words. DC. Reboot. Alan Scott. Reboot. Did I mention reboot?
Relying on reboots is like introducing yourself every time you start a conversation, or like brushing between bites.
People get sick of you awful quick and your apples go brown before you're halfway through.
Uh-hummm. I smell my beef. It's the reinvention that buckles my rails. DC should perhaps change their name to 'Re-reimagine Comics'.
The term "If it ain't broke don't fix it" doesn't seem to exist in DC's writer's minds.
Aww, me grumpy, but honestly I even hate the word 'reboot' as it applies in story writing. DC are more notorious for this than Marvel. (though Wolverine became a metrohead teenager with a bum-fluff goatee at one point)
To me this reboot suggests writer's cowardice. An existing character couldn't simply come out of the closet?
A new character couldn't be created to bravely hold this torch? Nope, there's money involved, better play it safe and use a fan favourite. Even if it is in name only.
Next.
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| Northstar gets his own cover? Thats news in itself. |
Awright. I can appreciate this more. Why have I always been such a bigger sucker to Marvel's treats? I may never know.
Marvel have always done romance and wedding covers nicely - Peter Parker and Mary Jane-Watson, Scott Summers and Jean Grey - they're near photographically stuck in some corner of my mind.
Something that's been done right here? Northstar has been openly gay since 1992. Huzzah! Marvel need not unravel their entire world just to have a gay character stand in the spotlight.
So, there'd be no problem if the Big Two weren't, once again, head butting.
The old Man-Thing/Swamp-Thing headache.
Hammering for hype, clamouring for kudos.
Just glanced at that cover again and I really do dig it.
But, what's this? Am I irritated by something else I read in the article that lead me here?
Oh of course I am.
Not only is it a same-sex marriage, or a human-mutant marriage, it's...
"...comics’ first interracial, same-sex (and mutant-human) marriage."
Oh, for %*#!! sake. "Interracial"?! Thanks mainstream media. I actually. Hadn't. Noticed.
And I don't think anyone should. That's what I mean by too PC, folks.
It's the popular girl at school who exploits wheelchair-boy, and engages on her self-initiated "awareness campaign", shamelessly stacking up some more appeal for herself in the process.
All friggin' heart.
Interracial indeed. Captain Kirk can get jiggy across the heavens with blue and green girls, since 1966, and there's no PC word for that.
Unless you count inter-spacial, ahem.
Time Eric Powell's Hobnail Tennessee boots met the groin of the Big Two.
Suggestion. Read Issue #39 or die tryin', folks.
Aww, mangroves, I gotta' wrap this up. Apparently 4:24am constitutes daylight where I am. Groan...sound of life... occurring.
Basically, having a good storyline which features a compelling gay character is very cool.
Having a contrived storyline, pulling out the gay-card and compiling a two-dimensional, 2nd hand character around that? Just to earn points? Not very cool.
We need to take a lesson from the Japanese here. No, I'm not talking about having your school uniform explode. I mean letting your characters be heterosexual, homosexual or bisexual, because that's what people are.
You shouldn't have to stop the press.
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| Tee Hee. Inter-spacial. |
"I never met a cat I didn't like, it's true.
To say I never met a cat that didn't like me, is just arrogant." - Rihia2k
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