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Posted in: Recent Updates | Tagged: Mark Millar
Yet Another First Gay Superhero
January 1992
Chicago Sun-Times: The comic book, long a purveyor of childhood fantasies, has taken a step closer to the adult world as one prominent "superhero" acknowledges he is gay.
The superhero is Northstar, billed in Marvel Comics' "Alpha Flight" as "Canada's Most Eligible Bachelor," and he comes out of the closet in the current issue to help fight AIDS.
"I am gay!" Northstar shouts…
February 2000
The Mirror: TWO Scottish cartoonists have created the worlds first homosexual superheroes. Apollo and Midnighter, a pair of lycra-clad gay…
December 2002
The Independent:
Coming (out) soon: the world's first gay superhero. The Rawhide Kid, killed off by Marvel Comics in 1979, is back from the dead. And how.
January 2009
Daily Telegraph: It was only a matter of time before we had our first gay superhero. And if there is one man who can make him a success it is Stan Lee…
February 2009
Daily Telegraph: DC Comics have unveiled their first openly gay superhero – a sapphic socialite called Batwoman…
November 2009
The Sun: World's first gay superheroes…
For the record, for the clip files, for lazy journalists (and will amend for the bits I get wrong or miss out)…
The first closet gay comic strip character was Krazy Kat in 1916, the first transvestite hero comics character was Madame Fatal in 1940, the first out gay hero comics character was Harry Chess in That Man From A.U.N.T.I.E in 1964, the first lesbian comics character was Sandy, Wimmen's Comix 1971.
The first openly gay superhero was Gay Guy, created by John Byrne, for Candian college newspaper strip The Emery Weal, 1971.
The first mainstream gay superhero character was Northstar of Alpha Flight – who first appeared in Uncanny X-Men #120 in 1979, but creator John Byrne decided he is gay for Alpha Flight #1. 1983. The character Northstar outs himself in an Alpha Flight story written by Scott Lobdell in 1992.
The first gay superhero with his own book was Enigma by Peter Milligan and Duncan Fegredo, initially polanned for Disney/Touchmark but picked up by Vertigo in 1993.
The first superhero team in comics was Joan Hilty's Luna Legion appearing in Oh! magazine in 1992, and Pride High was the first gay superhero team comic book, published in 2007.
The first gay superhero couple was Apollo and Midnighter, first appearing naked in bed together in Stormwatch by Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch, in 1998, adding in comments later when the characters appeared in their The Authority comic.
Yes, Apollo and Midnighter are, in the debased English parlance, up each other. So what?
but they would only be properly publically outed by Mark Millar in The Authority in 1992. At the end of his run on the book, they were married on the page by Ellen DeGeneres. Midnighter wore white.
And there is no news as to whether the owners of the Spandex TM trademark will seek to defend it, after the considerable publicity given the current title!
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