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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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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Much like living gay culture itself, gays in comics have power couples, who lead the charge in visibility, finding acceptance and showing the world it’s okay to be gay (characters). But in comics, it’s pretty arguable that there are two major Power Couples (at least in terms of gay men, anyway). The Authority’s Apollo and the Midnighter, who pushed the envelope forward at DC around the turn of the millennium.

Followed, but quite possibly equalled, by Marvel’s own Young Avengers members, Wiccan and Hulkling.

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You may've noticed our last episode of Sidekickcast Presents... was ably hosted by a young Welshman by the name of Joe Glass, he kindly went to MCM Expo for us and reported back on all the fun with some great interviews. What you may not have known is that Joe is also a comic book writer in his own right, his book, The Pride was on the flip side of Stiffs which we reviewed just after Cardiff Comic Expo (incidentally, Joe also writes for Stiffs). We thought we'd take the opportunity to grab a 6 page preview of The Pride (scattered in order through the post) and run a few questions by Joe, especially regarding the more unique elements of the project.

Sidekickcast: Let's start at the beginning, what exactly is The Pride about?

Joe Glass: The Pride is a six issue comic miniseries. It’s a superhero story about the formation of a team, who then get drawn into a global threat, and they may be the only heroes capable of saving the day. Oh, and they’re all LGBTQ heroes…lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, trans, post-gay, queer, but all heroes.

The main thrust of the story, besides the obvious action, explosions and kicks in the face, is about representation. They’re not getting the best representation as heroes in their world, so they seek to change that by showing how great they are.

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