This may not seem entirely comics related, but hey, it’s my column, so shut up, bear with me, and we’ll see where this goes.

This week sees Heroes and Star Trek actor Zachary Quinto come out of a frankly transparent closet and announce to the world that yes, he is gay after all; to which the world replied with a collective “Well, duh, but thanks for finally being open with us anyway.” Now, I by no means mean to belittle his statements, nor do I feel any ire at him for taking so long. I can understand the situation he was in. However, I do heartily commend him on making this move of being open and letting the world know another member of the LGBTQ community is out there, and is someone they’ve welcomed into their homes and Cineplex’s with joy.

Read more »

Recently, it’s been announced that Teen Titans, as part of its New 52 reboot/relaunch, will be seeing a new gay member, in the form of the awkwardly named Bunker:

Bunker, real name Miguel Jose Barragan, is also Mexican, Catholic and camper than a row of tents (at least visually, as we have yet to see him in the pages on the comic actually speaking). He creates some kind of weird purple energy/telekinetic barriers, and his homosexuality is apparently a fundamental part of his character, so it will be focused on and dealt with, whilst still showing that he is heroic and a badass new member to the team.

But wait, what was that one word I used to describe him?

Camp, flamboyant, a flamer, queeny, gayer than the day is long, out and proud and throwing his hands around in such a fashion that there’s a genuine danger they could fling off him and cause a major traffic accident.

Hell, we can see it in one of the first images shared by artist Brett Booth, where Miguel appears to dress when out of his costume in a style of fashion not a million miles away from current famous gay teen, Kurt Hummel of Glee.

Bright, colourful, and a definite statement, it’s still an improvement on his rather garish superhero costume.

Read more »

So, last week’s column saw me looking at Stormwatch #1, finding myself left wanting with the obvious lack of mention of Apollo and Midnighter’s sexuality, or in fact any way of differentiating them from Superman and Batman in their now shared universe; and also, looking briefly at DC’s claims of improving diversity.

Then, last Wednesday, DC finally released Batwoman #1. So, today’s column is very much a sequel to last week’s, as we again delve into DC’s diversification claims, and look at somewhere DC are actually doing it right.

Read more »