Posted in: Comics | Tagged: bunker, Comics, gay, teen titans

Brett Booth And Scott Lobdell On The Creation Of A New Gay Teen Titan

Published Sun, 18 Sep 2011 13:14:01 -0500

This morning Bleeding Cool posted the news that the Teen Titans relaunch by Scott Lobdell and Brett Booth will feature a new gay character, Bunker.

On his blog, Brett quotes Scott, describing the character to him in the Teen Titans script;

His real name is Miguel Jose Barragan. He was raised in a very small Mexican village called El Chilar. He was very loved by his family and the village as well — and they were as accepting of his homosexuality as they were to his super powers when they first manifested. To that end he grew up in an angst-free environment. He was born out of the closet and so he has a very refreshing outlook on life.

In response to some criticism, Brett then talks about the approach to the character;

So Bunker has been out of both closets since the get go. Why the more flamboyant look? Well it's complicated. I've seen all the other gay superheroes out there, Ok maybe not all. They look just like regular heterosexuals, they act like regular heterosexuals, they just happen to have sex with people of their own gender, under the covers and in the dark. Sure you might get a kiss on a page, but that's all (an no we won't be doing any sex scenes in TT, get your minds OUT of the gutters;)

We wanted to show an interesting character who's homosexuality is part of him, not something that's hidden. Sure they are gay people who you wouldn't know are gay right off the bat, but there are others who are a more flamboyant, and we thought it would be nice to actually see them portrayed in comics. Did we go over the top, I don't think so. I wanted you to know he might be gay as soon as you see him. Our TT is partly about diversity of ANY kind, its about all kinds of teens getting together to help each other. It is a very difficult line to walk, will he be as I've read in some of the comments 'fruity'? Not that I'm aware of. Will he be more effeminate than what we've seen before, the 'typical' gay male comic character, yes. Does it scare the shit out of me that I might inadvertently piss off the group I want to reflect in a positive way, you're damn straight (pun intended!)

The Pink shirt has been changed to blue, it's only pink because his costume is actually showing a bit, we didn't want too many different colors. But I think the blue works just as well. I would have used that image but I don't know if I got that change in my files…

As for the children.. Most simply don't know or don't care. It's not like Migg's is going to be doing a one man gay pride parade. I don't think we even mention that he's gay, you see him, you know it, no need to harp on about it. He's just a happy fun loving guy! He won't be wearing anything that I haven't seen at Walmart. Well maybe Target;)