Posted in: Comics | Tagged: avengers academy, batman and robin, Comics, dc, gay, gen 13, lesbian, lgbt, marvel, patrick gleason, rainmaker

When Letters Pages Go Anti-Gay

Published Fri, 24 Feb 2012 16:00:25 -0600

by Rich Johnston

Last updated Fri, 24 Feb 2023 21:43:29 -0600

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The letters page above has been doing the rounds online, with Christos Gage answering reader concerns over the presence of gay characters in Avengers Academy. It's a long and considered letter, as is the response. But the Bendis Board found another, less considered back and forth from Gen 13 #5 back in the mid nineties. Sent by a Patrick Gleason no less, who would go on to be a professional comic book artist, currently drawing Batman And Robin… Patrick tells me;

"Yeah, people have brought this embarrassing bit of trivia up to me at conventions in the past. How long ago was this? Fifteen years or more? Anyway, it was mid 90's I'd guess and at the hight of the books popularity. What appears in the letter column is just the over dramatic, poorly positioned, poorly worded, nerd-rage of a Gen-13 fan. Someone who really didn't want his new favorite book changed for what was perceived as mere shock value. The response received by the youth from the letters editor was particularly place-putting and well deserved."

My own embarrassing letters are, I think, confined to X-Men #4 and a piece of fan art in Spawn #10. No, don't look…

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