But that's how you get publicity for this moribund form these days - you just add a bit of gay.
Archie's done it, X-Men, Batman, Spider-Man...
Whoever next?
Walter The Softy?
PS Despite a teasing PR teaser campaign, Dredd doesn't come out - another character does. Cause that's all gay men do in storylines, right, come out?
Update: The Guardian thought this was all so fascinating they also gave over Monday's tittersome Pass Notes to asking; Is Judge Dredd gay?
Erm... no, he's not, but thanks for asking.
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I would like to add that Marvel Comics even back in the 80s have always had a strong and supportive message for people who are gay and different. Even back in those dark times the whole pretext of their mass market titles such as XMen and especially series such as New Mutants was that some people are different and will be persecuted and treated like shit by the mainstream. Growing up in the 80s the only messages from my media that I consumed that it was ok to be gay were occasional subtextual messages in Smash Hits and the storylines of comic series such as the New Mutants and XMen. Now of course we do see gay characters being used to hype sales, but the mutant Northstar for example has always been gay even before he came out. It was not just in the characterizations and stories that where often messages that being a gay teenager was ok and you where actually better than the mainstream bullies this message was coming across strongly in the letters pages Marvel Comics have always stood up for the bullied and ostracized in society. They knew who their readers where and stood up for them as best as they where able in their cultural time. Yep im a nerd but im an alive nerdy old man now and back in the 80s marvel comics helped me get to become an old man rather that a forgotten teenage suicide statistic.
ReplyDeleteWell said!
DeleteAnd if Fagburn thinks comics are a moribund form then he's talking out of his bumhole!!!
Seriously, do you know anything about comic books, Fagburn???
Not really, no.
DeleteThe geeks are inheriting the earth.
DeleteHa! Fagburn never lets little things like facts get in the way of his predetermined rants...heavens, no! What a funny bourgeois notion!
ReplyDelete