LGBT Superheroes Can’t Be Retconned Straight After Saving the Comic Book Industry

GayNrd Editors August 28, 2021

2021 saw record numbers of comic-books sold, with the vast majority of new titles featuring characters that reflect LGBT representation. Chief among them is the new Superman, the son of the original, Jonathan Kent and the third character to wear the mantle of Robin, Tim Drake.

If this is Justice League Queer, I super want it. pic.twitter.com/VedfM1K41Q
— Wandering Writer (@lessiehanamoray) June 9, 2021

In June alone, the big two industry heavyweights DC and Marvel Comics published a record number of titles featuring LGBT characters to commemorate Pride Month in June that included an all queer Justice League.

Out Magazine: Other queer heroes in the anthology that weren’t featured in this Justice League Queer include transgender superhero Dreamer, Alan Scott’s Green Lantern, The Question, John Constantine, and of course, our favorite chaotic comics couple Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy.

The other best part is that the story isn’t just about queer superheroes, it’s by a queer creative team, just like every other story in the book. LGBTQ+ creators included in the anthology span from writers like James Tynion IV, Mariko Tamaki, Sam Johns, and Steve Orlando, to artists like Rachel Stott, Trung Le Nguyen, Amy Reeder, Stephen Byrne, Sophie Campbell, Kris Anka, Mildred Louis, and Kevin Wada.

Batman: Urban Legends #6 (Tim Drake’s Coming Out) goes into 2nd Printing. “Go Woke, Go Broke” they say.

Batman: Urban Legends #6 (Tim Drake’s Coming Out) goes into 2nd Printing. “Go Woke, Go Broke” they say. And while Red Hood swearing off guns and Zealot’s history with Wonder Woman being slowly revealed may have caused interest, it was worldwide attention on a story that Bleeding Cool ran some time ago, that DC Comics was going to have Tim Drake, Batman’s third Robin, reveal himself as bisexual. It wasn’t entirely there in the text, but DC Comics’ own publicity soon confirmed it. And even TMZ found a new take, quoting the granddaughter of the founder of DC Comics, Dana Wheeler-Nicholson in favour of the move. And now DC Comics has sold out of the comic in question, decided that there may be more demand, and has sent Batman: Urban Legends #6 to a second printing. No cover revealed yet, but odds are it will have Tim Drake and Bernard Dowd on the cover…

DC’s December solicits show that Megan Fitzmartin will return for Tim Drake’s next story in Batman: Urban Legends #10.

A bunch of TimBer fanart (Tim Drake x Bernard Dowd).

But still many LGBT fans are pessimistic that once the new queer heroes save the industry with record sales numbers, they may callously tacitly push them back in the closet.

This so called Crisis on Infinite Laundry cannot be allowed to occur.

A reminder about how much people know about being bisexual.

September will see the debut of Aquaman: The Becoming #1. You can pre-order it now:.

Jackson Hyde aka Aqualad has seen better days. His mentors, community, and a cute guy he’s interested in Amnesty Bay fall away after half of the Atlantean palace got blown up. Standing amongst the wreckage of Aquaman’s private training facility, Jackson Hyde must prove his own innocence and still figure out how to graduate out of Aquaman’s sidekick status.

That’s where Aquaman: The Becoming takes us in the new series launching September 21st. Written by Brandon Thomas and drawn by Diego Olortegui, along with artists Wade von Grawbadger, Scott Koblish, Skylar Patridge, and Adriano Lucas, the six-issue series is Jackson Hyde’s first-ever series. Along the way, Jackson Hyde will confront the destroyed and abandoned West Coast Titans Tower, enter the fight of his life with the mysterious villain Deluge, and more.

More importantly, is he ready to become Aquaman?

In a statement sent to AIPT, Thomas explained this is not only a coming of age story but a story about Jackson Hyde transforming from Aqualad to Aquaman. “When the series begins, Jackson has everything he’s ever wanted—acceptance, respect and a strong web of found family and friends around him. He and his mother are finally on the same page and his training with Arthur Curry (with an assist from Batman) is going extremely well. The shadow of his father Black Manta still looms, but he’s refusing to let that completely define him and his life. Everything is perfect,” Thomas said.

So naturally, we spend the entire story challenging and damaging everything he’s created, forcing him to fight for it and prove himself worthy of even having it. Jackson’s spent so much time trying to distance himself from his infamous father, but if he’s going to endure what’s ahead, he’ll need some of that darkness, that commitment to survive against all odds.”More about Aquaman: The Becoming can be found here.

Midnighter 2021 Annual #1: Midnighter traveled into the future to help get himself out of a jam, only to swap places with his future self.

The big finish to the adventure starting all the way back in the conclusion of Future State: Superman: Worlds of War.

Midnighter traveled into the future to help get himself out of a jam, only to swap places with his future self. Now, the Midnighter from the future finds himself trapped in a paradox, working his way back to his onetime present to swap places again. Don’t worry if you’re confused-so is he! The key to this whole thing is Andrej Trojan, the nefarious industrialist who tried using Superman’s mission on Warworld to his own end. Midnighter has been carrying Trojan’s robotic skull with him, hunting for the 2021 iteration of the man, and shutting his whole company down before any of this trouble even starts. Finishing the serial, which runs in the back of Action Comics, this time-travel escapade also leads into Superman and the Authority!

Midnighter & Apollo being all gay and sexy.

When LGBT worlds collide!

We got gay jokes.

ABOVE: Gay Couples and Blonde Hair. 1). Midnighter & Apollo(b)- DC 2). Tim Drake & Bernard(b)- DC 3). Wiccan & Hulkling(b)- Marvel 4). Nico Di Angelo & Will Solace(b)- Percy Jackson 5). Charlie & Nick(b)- Heartstopper. 6). Iceman & Christian Frost(b)-Marvel.

Marvel Comics presents an exclusive preview of The Last Annihilation: Wiccan & Hulkling, by Anthony Oliveira and Jan Bazaldua.

Marvel Comics has given CBR an exclusive preview of The Last Annihilation: Wiccan & Hulkling #1, by Anthony Oliveira, Jan Bazaldua, Rachelle Rosenberg and VC’s Ariana Maher. In the preview, Billy Kaplan/Wiccan realizes Dormammu’s attack has an even more sinister purpose.
The Last Annihilation: Wiccan & Hulkling #1 is part of the titular crossover, which has seen Dormammu possess Ego the Living Planet. From there, the classic Doctor Strange has set out to conquer five planets, including Skrullos and Hala. Earlier in the crossover, Wiccan left to protect Skrullos, while Teddy Altman/Hulkling remained to defend Hala.
The Last Annihilation: Wiccan and Hulkling #1 Preview. Comes Out September 1st. Pre-order now. Get a copy/copies From Your Comicbook Shop. We Need A (Wiccan and Hulkling) ongoing.

Anthony Oliveira Talks Wiccan and Hulkling, the House of M and More.

When Anthony Oliveira made his X-Men Monday debut ahead of Marvel’s Voices: Pride‘s release this past June, there simply wasn’t enough room in the interview for all the X-Fan questions AIPT received. Anthony’s popularity and thoughtful answers (not to mention his eXcellent Iceman story) made it clear he wouldn’t be a one-time X-Men Monday guest.

When would Anthony return, though… that was the question.

And then, Marvel dropped unlettered preview pages for The Last Annihilation: Wiccan & Hulkling #1 — featuring Avalanche — and it was clear: The time had come for Anthony to get his very own edition of X-Men Monday.

Are Billy and Teddy considered X-Men characters? Does it matter? Anthony’s back and we once again received so many eXtraordinary questions, you’ll find this X-Men Monday’s a bit lengthier than usual. So we better get going!

AIPT: And I hope you get to do just that eventually. Now, switching gears to a few of the many Billy and Teddy questions we received — X-Fan Joe was wondering what you think makes Hulkling and Wiccan such a wonderful couple for Marvel.

Anthony: They were the blueprint. They truly were. When I was a kid, I couldn’t believe what was happening when I was buying those comics — I truly believed I was making it up, that it was wishful thinking. Two scions of pillars of the Marvel Universe — the sons of Scarlet Witch and Captain Marvel themselves! An heir to two empires, and to the Avengers legacy! — built into the heart of its stories, and unabashedly in love. So fully three-dimensional, with so much chemistry and affection. It was magic. It still is.

AIPT: X-Fan Az (@transbillykplan) wanted to know what your favorite qualities are about Billy and Teddy’s dynamic.

Anthony: I think above all, their patience and kindness with each other. They are each other’s favorite person, and they are endlessly fascinated and delighted by each other’s strange quirks, odd turns, passions and frustrations, and fears. They’re two sweet nerds who found one another, against all odds, and then also happened to find out they also have superpowers. That is a rare gift — it is not something everybody gets.

AIPT: X-Fan Taylor John said there have been times when it’s felt like Billy and Teddy lose their individuality and act as a unit. How did you find navigating their personalities and bouncing them off each other?

Anthony: Actually, this is precisely the joyous challenge of The Last Annihilation. In the present day of the story, Billy is on Skrullos, Teddy is on Hala; they never speak to each other.

And so the issue is full of flashbacks throughout their lives, and we see how much impact they have had on each other, how much they have chosen to commit to each other. And meanwhile, in the present day, they are confronted with the same question: who, then, are you alone? And the forces confronting them rush to tell them what they are, that they are not enough, that they are monstrous or compromised or weak.

And I think importantly, the point was not to say: you must be strong enough to stand on your own. The point was to think instead about what kinds of strength a relationship this giving and generous and loving can provide. I think that is a question a lot of newlyweds have to ask. When they parted in Emperor Hulkling, they promised each other they’d never be alone, no matter how lost they felt — I wanted to think seriously about that promise, the radical generosity of it. “Love dares the self to leave the self behind,” as Anne Carson said. This is a story about that dare.

AIPT: X-Fan guilherme | @poisonwiccan on Twitter wanted to know who you identify with the most: Billy or Teddy.

Anthony: Oh, that’s hard. There are pieces of me in both of them. I have Billy’s unsureness about himself, his anxiety, his tendency to retreat into fantasy and geeking out, and we both channel that anxiety into a need to be perfect, to study hard and get it right and impress our will upon the universe until it looks the way we want it to look. And so the flip side of that is the wild, creative parts of himself — but also the tendency for the world to go white, and for him to wonder what just happened, and to deal with the fallout.

And I think in Teddy I see the part of myself that wants to give the world its trust; that wants to risk being vulnerable to see if something greater can come of it. We built the spine of Emperor Hulkling around a motto I hold very close — be brave enough to be kind, which ended up being a large part of his arc as he came into his kingship in Empyre. It takes radical hope and risk, but I think it is risk worth taking. Teddy has lost so much, been asked to do so much, and it would be easy to let that embitter or harden him. He does not let it. I aspire to that.

AIPT: A fun question from X-Fan Christopher Fokken: Which of Billy’s lewks do you enjoy the most? This, of course, applies to his costumes or civilian wear, but more importantly, his HAIR.

Anthony: Haha I would never presume to pick a favorite costume (though I miss his dorky gay messenger bag from his first appearances, which as a messenger-bag-gay I also have, and which we brought back for a cameo in this comic), but my favorite civilian outfit we’ve ever given him was this cute pajama look from “Brunch with Loki” with his ratty old Dazzler concert tee. I absolutely want that shirt, and Nick Robles is a MASTER of curly rumpled hair.

OK, final question. X-Fan Stephen Simon asked, what advice would you give to queer writers trying to carve out their own path.

Anthony: Find your peers, and lift them up — you will all rise together. Find your mentors, and listen carefully. Surround yourself with talent you admire. Be generous with your time, careful with your trust, and thoughtful with your words. Build a platform that is yours — you will need it. Be compassionate to those you work with and those who came before you. And when they give you the ball, kick it as far as you possibly can. It won’t be all the way. But someday someone else will kick it farther.

Remember that they will always resent queer art. They will try to bully you and stifle you and when you succeed beyond your wildest imaginations, they will belittle you and wonder why you didn’t do more or go further and complain that you’ve ruined something that was not yours to ruin. When this happens, remember your imperative.

And so this above all: to thine own self be true. And be brave enough to be kind.

AIPT: Well said. Anthony, this was as wonderful as I eXpected it would be — thanks for taking the time to answer all these X-Fan questions! And X-Fans, you can help Anthony by picking up a copy of The Last Annihilation: Wiccan & Hulkling #1 when it goes on sale this Wednesday!

Speaking of, here’s an eXclusive look at one page, featuring pencils by Jan Bazaldua, colors by Rachelle Rosenberg, letters by Ariana Maher and, of course, words from Anthony!