Marvel Comics Outs A Founding X-Man As Gay

Godzillarich(aka tf2godz)

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Fanghawk said:
Marvel Comics Outs A Founding X-Man As Gay


OT: I don't have a problem with this in theory, the execution is weird and kind of fucked up. they should have at least have a story arc foreshadowing it instead of having Jean Grey being a jackass and invading his personal privacy but I'm not the biggest comic book fan so whatever.

I will enjoy this thread being on fire now.
 

Redd the Sock

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MonsterCrit said:
Okay I am calling BS... BS I tell you. I'm guessing that fling with MYstique was just a cover eh? Not to mention the other ladies Bobby's chased after over the years.


Dear sweet Gods will these people stop trying to pander to the LGBT community already. Either do it for real or don't do it at all.
It's the sad reality of the situation: characters like Northstar and Karma are already gay X-men, but only the big names count, hence lame retcon.
 

Areloch

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LifeCharacter said:
Areloch said:
LifeCharacter said:
Ukomba said:
Um, doesn't this push the idea that being gay is a choice? I mean, if the older him chose to be straight...

Does this all seem lazy grab for notoriety to anyone else?
I'm fairly certain they didn't mean he actually stopped being homosexual, he just chose to act as though he wasn't. You know, like lots of gay people do in the real world before they manage to come to terms with it.
That'd make sense if the comic didn't also say - via the psychic with a obvious pension for reading people's minds whenever she feels like it - that adult Iceman isn't gay.
Well, I'm not overly familiar with the X-Men, so maybe someone else can correct me, but does Jean Gray read everyone's minds all the time to the point where she knows their sexualities? Regardless, I can say that she most certainly did not say that adult Bobby was straight, and actually talks about how badly he was at dating women. So we can assume that Jean didn't read adult Bobby's mind to find out his sexuality and/or wants the younger one to talk to the older one about it, or we can assume that Marvel is saying you can will away the gay.
Maybe. I'm not too familiar myself, just going off what's presented here.

The conversation makes it sounds like she's pretty confident in it (again, coupled with the fact that she just decided to read young iceman's mind about this topic, so I honestly wouldn't be surprised if this version of her does it whenever).

Bobby: "But my older self ISN'T. We've met him"
Jean: "I know"
Bobby: "So..."
Jean: "Buy you-"
Bobby: "Stop"
Jean: "Are"

That's Jean - for whatever her knowledge on the adult version is worth - stating that she knows he isn't gay, but young Bobby is.
 

Travis Fischer

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https://a.disquscdn.com/get?url=http%3A%2F%2Fcdn.meme.am%2Finstances%2F500x%2F61488439.jpg&key=E0NI7KkJc7AlrWmJMUrU4A&w=800&h=544

This pretty much sums up my feelings on the matter.



LifeCharacter said:
Well, I'm not overly familiar with the X-Men, so maybe someone else can correct me, but does Jean Gray read everyone's minds all the time to the point where she knows their sexualities?
Well. Yes. Actually.

In fact, this team can't seem to get through an issue without somebody slapping Jean's hand for poking around in other people's brains.
 

Erttheking

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Fox12 said:
I won't lie, I hate it when they retro-actively decide to change a character like that. I don't keep up with comics, was this ever foreshadowed, or was he always straight until now?

Also, that's one of the worst, heavy handed explanations I've ever seen. "I can't be gay and a mutant, so I'll just stop being gay now." I mean, what? That's some really weak revision. And it's a little bit offensive. Why didn't they just introduce a new character or something?

Props for the dialogue, though, it was actually pretty snappy. And Jeanne's body language was adorable.

"Do you think Angel is gay?"
"No."

lol.
Let's be honest, character in comic books is something that's changed constantly at the snap of a finger, they've been getting shit on for decades. People just selectively get mad about select things.
 

CaptainMarvelous

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o_O this could have been done a lot easier if they had some weird bullshitty 'a telepath made me straight' excuse rather than "No, Iceman's always been closetted, and that time Emma Frost shared his brain for months she never made any indication of this despite knowing his innermost thoughts." It's just... kind of a shitty retcon, they could've executed it better if this was going to be their decision.

Plus, what was so bad about him being bi? I thought he was one of the only male bi characters I could think of (top of my head though). I dunno, I mean, it's a story? I guess it's good to be supportive it's just as a story it seems really f*cking inept?
(related note: Anyone else think Bendis has a very weird thing for Kitty Pryde? He seems to always write her into relationships outside the X-men ala Ultimate Spiderman. I mean it works but Star Lord X Shadowcat? That kind of came out of nowhere.)
 

Areloch

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LifeCharacter said:
Areloch said:
The conversation makes it sounds like she's pretty confident in it (again, coupled with the fact that she just decided to read young iceman's mind about this topic, so I honestly wouldn't be surprised if this version of her does it whenever).
To be fair, she probably spends more time with young Iceman and his constant overcompensation probably prodded her along.

Bobby: "But my older self ISN'T. We've met him"
Jean: "I know"
Bobby: "So..."
Jean: "Buy you-"
Bobby: "Stop"
Jean: "Are"

That's Jean - for whatever her knowledge on the adult version is worth - stating that she knows he isn't gay, but young Bobby is.
Eh, I can see that "I know" being less of an "I know he's straight" and more of an "I know it's hard to believe" or "I know this is hard," though it could, like you said, just be inconsistent writing. Maybe it'll get cleaned up into something less weird if they still have the chance, but, if not, it's not like this would be the first instance of dumb writing happening in a comic.
Yeah, I can see how you could interpret it that way.
 

Deathfish15

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It is like they're trying to pander to a group that they don't even understand. Waving a banner of "we have a gay X-men now! Buy our comics and 'flame on'!". What a douchebag move. If the character's sexuality was never part of their backstory, who they are, why they are, what they are, then it really shouldn't be slapped onto them as a label in such an obtuse way.
 

Hero in a half shell

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Spot1990 said:
The Wooster said:
A gay character confirmed as actually closeted? A difficult topic and it'll be interesting to see how they handle it. That being said, The sample pages make it look clumsy as fuck, and while I'm always happy to see more gay characters, this seems a little out of the blue. Then again, that kind of describes every Marvel retcon ever.
That's what I'm wondering, will older Bobby's sexuality come up or is this just a one time hand waving to explain away young Bobby being "full gay".
You see, he was "full gay", but then he had a "gay eclipse" which means there was no more gay. But now that he is out again he is a "new gay", causing Wolverine to howl at him every night.
 

Thorn14

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This wouldn't be so horrible if Bendis's trademark garbage writing and Jean acting like an insufferable jerk didn't ruin it. "What if I'm bi?" "NOPE EVERYONE SAYS THEY ARE BI, YOU FULL GAY." seems REALLY insensitive to bisexuals too.

Also I'm pretty sure Bobby has been macking on women for a while now, so this just seems more of a "look we're retconning someone as gay look how progressive we are!" than it is someone actually coming out of the closet.
 

Parasondox

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Full gay? What about those who are half gay or 3/4 gay Marvel? HOW DARE YOU ALIENATE THEM MARVEL!!!
 

Redd the Sock

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LifeCharacter said:
Well, I'm not overly familiar with the X-Men, so maybe someone else can correct me, but does Jean Gray read everyone's minds all the time to the point where she knows their sexualities?
Jean is rated a very high telepath that originally had to suppress her ability due to a lack of control I wasn't a regular X-men reader, but her ability is much like hearing conversations in the background: you always hear them, but she tries to block things out by being focused on other tasks. However personal mental exhaustion can lower her barriers or loud thoughts get through.
 

MonsterCrit

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Redd the Sock said:
MonsterCrit said:
Okay I am calling BS... BS I tell you. I'm guessing that fling with MYstique was just a cover eh? Not to mention the other ladies Bobby's chased after over the years.


Dear sweet Gods will these people stop trying to pander to the LGBT community already. Either do it for real or don't do it at all.
It's the sad reality of the situation: characters like Northstar and Karma are already gay X-men, but only the big names count, hence lame retcon.
Hence why I call it BS. They have Gay characters. Karma, Northstar , SHatterstar, etc, all badly in need of page-time . They could also create a new character. but nope, rather that do it for real. Oh we've featured a Gay character aaaaalll along so we're retroactively progressive now without having had to actually do anything.
 

Redd the Sock

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MonsterCrit said:
Redd the Sock said:
MonsterCrit said:
Okay I am calling BS... BS I tell you. I'm guessing that fling with MYstique was just a cover eh? Not to mention the other ladies Bobby's chased after over the years.


Dear sweet Gods will these people stop trying to pander to the LGBT community already. Either do it for real or don't do it at all.
It's the sad reality of the situation: characters like Northstar and Karma are already gay X-men, but only the big names count, hence lame retcon.
Hence why I call it BS. They have Gay characters. Karma, Northstar , SHatterstar, etc, all badly in need of page-time . They could also create a new character. but nope, rather that do it for real. Oh we've featured a Gay character aaaaalll along so we're retroactively progressive now without having had to actually do anything.
They'd have had to have done that with Karma anyway. She'd been around a long time before they would have even been allowed to out her.

It's all about what will get attention, and thanks to the movies, people know who Iceman is, while even comic fans may not know Richter, x Shatterstar.
 

Ramzal

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I just thought of something:

Wouldn't it be so messed up if they made it so that Jean had made him believe he is gay by messing around with his mind while she's in there? Given how poorly this was written, I wouldn't be surprised.
 

Travis Fischer

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Ramzal said:
I just thought of something:

Wouldn't it be so messed up if they made it so that Jean had made him believe he is gay by messing around with his mind while she's in there? Given how poorly this was written, I wouldn't be surprised.
Now that would actually be an interesting twist.
 

Grahav

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Polemical Bait to sell comics.

FemThor, prejudice is bad mkay blah, blah, blah...

Not worth it