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.

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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.

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With the recent reveal that Cable will be returning after 'dying' during X-Men event, Second Coming, we now have some more information about the direction that his return will take. It seems that Cable will be taking on The Avengers in an attempt to safeguard his 'daughter', Hope, and her future prosperity. With this mini-series being written by man of many lives, Jeph Loeb and drawn by fan favourite Ed McGuinness I pose the question; Is Cable the new RULK?

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Back again for the final update with Logan's teams now complete. First question I have is this Beast The Dark Beast or our very own 616 Beast? I've always been a big Beast, whichever universe he's from so I'm happy to see him back in the X-fold. Is that Rachel Grey/Summers looking all hound-like backing up X-Men: Legacy? Pretty cool if it is. How long has X-Factor has such a large team? Not read it in a while but the ranks seem to have swelled quite considerably since I last turned those pages. Seems more like a Detective Army rather than Agency.

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Now, many of you may have noticed that when discussing gay characters in superhero comics, I rarely discuss Northstar, perhaps the first and most well known out gay superhero in mainstream comics. In fact, the few times I have mentioned him have been pretty disparaging.

This is through no fault of the character. I think Jean-Paul is a fascinating character, all bluster and rudeness, and yet a good man at his heart. The problem is that no one seems to know what to do with him. And once he came out...well, that was pretty much it for the character.

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Choosing which comics to have in your pull list can be a strenuous thing given the sheer amount of comic books released on a weekly basis and coupled with the price means you can pretty much bankrupt yourself if you are not careful.

From discussions on the interweb and in forums its clear to be seen that very few people can get every comic they want which leaves us all with the age old comic book collector question, to pull or not to pull?

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Fortune raises up and fortune brings low both the man who fares well and the one who fares badly; and there is no prophet of the future for mortal men. - Sophocles

Wise words from ancient Greece there, in the real world it does seem impossible to predict the future but we're not concerned with the real world, we're concerned with comics and the future of far more than mortal men, we're talking X-Men. What I propose to do in this series of propheciesposts is take a look at what is going on in the X-Men Universe right now, mix that up in the atomic-randomizer I call my brain and see what comes out. Today's topic: Will Emma Frost and Scott Summers have a baby?

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Maybe no one remembers this, as it was a few years ago now, and some comics geeks can have very short memories, and require references and pictures and concrete statements from creators. But for a while, there was discussion in the X-Men comics about Beast’s sexuality.

As it turned out, he wasn’t really gay. It was a malicious lie he told the human girlfriend who dumped him by telephone because he now looked like a big cat; one that got away from him and returned to bite him on the ass. This all happened, of course, in Grant Morrison’s epic and unbeaten New X-Men run.

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Who loves Magneto? I count all of you. He’s easily one of Marvel’s best characters, neither hero nor villain, but something in between. He’s fought the X-Men as the leader of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, and he’s also fought as one of them for periods of time. He’s Professor Xavier’s best friend and worst enemy all at once. And he’s one of the most powerful mutants around to boot.

Magneto’s screen appearances were largely limited to various Marvel related cartoons until the X-Men films, where he was portrayed by Ian McKellen (the winner of your vote for the best Magneto ever, by the way). The problem is, since the release of X-Men in 2000, most of the actors who have played the part in computer games and animation have all sounded like they’re trying to do an Ian McKellen impersonation, to one degree or another. Some have been more successful than others, and many of them are fine actors in their own right, but I personally would rather hear their own take on the Master of Magnetism. You may disagree with me, and I encourage healthy debate, so please let me know if I miss your favourite Ian McKellen off the list. On we go...

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We may have fallen on hard times on The Sidekickcast with the whole #Sidekickcivilwar but there were moments, even in the throws of separation, of sheer genius. We pretty much guessed that one of the Age of Apocalypse characters were coming back to the 616 Marvel universe and we guessed Nightcrawler (with the possible inclusion of Jean?!). Don't believe me? Check it out here.

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