Marvel Comics Outs A Founding X-Man As Gay

[Areloch]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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

 

[Redd the Sock]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

Polemical Bait to sell comics.

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

Not worth it

 

[DudeistBelieve]

I'm kinda annoyed that Grey just decides to drop a truth bomb on a closeted kid, and he's perfectly okay with it. I don't feel like a closeted person would react that way to a Telepath insisting that they're gay, in fact that seems like something that would back fire in a major way.

 

[DudeistBelieve]

This wouldn't be so horrible if Bendis's trademark garbage writing and Jean acting like an insufferable jerk didn't ruin it.

Seriously, who forces a person to come out like that?

"Maybe I'm bi"
"No, I've read your mind and you're full gay."

No joke. That was seriously my first thought.

"You like dick."
"But-"
"Fucking deal with it dude. I'm a telepath."

Grey comes across like a fucking dick.

 

[happyninja42]

Hah, I love that awkward silence where she's waving her arms, and he's just dumbly staring at her and says. "What's happening?" xD He has zero clue what she's trying to get at. That was pretty funny.

As to him being gay, don't care. The sexual orientation of the characters is irrelevant to me one way or the other. Comic book writers have changed so many damn things with so many damn characters, in order to tell their particular story, getting worked up over them deciding to make an X-Man gay isn't even a blip on my radar. I just hope the story is actually good for the people who read it. Beyond that, don't care one bit who he wants to sleep with, or any of them for that matter.

In the words of whoever that other X-Man was. "I choose to eat". So yeah, getting dinner, they can have their talk all they want.

 

[CrazyBlaze]

This has got to be one of the biggest fuck ups I have ever read. You know what might have been interesting? Both bobbies sitting down and talking it out. No. Instead we get Jean Grey mind raping Bobbie and forcing it out. Not cool.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

Teen-Gay. Adult-Straight.

Those "reorientation camps" must have telepaths that make Professor X look like John Edwards.

 

[camazotz]

DC handled this better with the introduction of characters that were gay to begin with, or for whom no prior record of obvious straightness was out there (such as Bunker on the Titans, Earth-2's Green Lantern and also the Avatar of White, Appolo and the midnighter, Cassandra Kane....)

Marvel takes a character who has been all about awkward young teen angst with girls and turns that into "I'm secretly gay and pretending I am not." Which is a fine character concept but kinda sorta not the character they did it to. But that's fine, they could have picked a more exotic choice for conversion I suppose....like Iron Fist or Johnny Storm or something. Guess the jokes would be really bad then....

 

[The Bucket]

This has got to be one of the biggest fuck ups I have ever read. You know what might have been interesting? Both bobbies sitting down and talking it out. No. Instead we get Jean Grey mind raping Bobbie and forcing it out. Not cool.

X-Men writers love leaning on psychics as a crutch in place of actually having believable development

 

[Grabehn]

So I guess that makes Iceman... flaming?

OT: Cool stuff, can't complain. Just wondering how long it'll be until they reboot this and make it non-canon

That joke... At least in the movies, Iceman always looked as if he wanted to bang Pyro, go figure.

 

[Nurb]

Oh come ON. This was one of the most ham-fisted ways to do it.

I'm bi and this is just a tad embarassing