So Iceman is Gay Now

[Thaluikhain]

If people can call out lazy writing for being sexist

Er...the laziness is a separate issue than the sexistness, surely?

They need to stop haphazardly changing characters' traits in the name of diversity.

They haphazardly change character traits for all sorts of reasons, why is it a problem when diversity is increased?

Jean Grey looks like she's trying to hold in puke and is frantically waving her arms in a bid to run to the toilet.

Cannot unsee!

 

[Queen Michael]

Well, retcons are like that. OTOH, isn't the reveal that he was in the closet the whole time? That's not really a retcon, is it? It changes lots of things, but doesn't necessarily contradict established - look at her arms! What is she doing there? Did they get frozen in time for a few panels?

There are speedlines. She's meant to be moving them.

And it is a retcon, since it contradicts the previous canon of him being straight. Yeah, sometimes it's kind of hard to tell what contradicts extablished canon. F'r instance, does deciding that Kitty Pryde was replaced by a skrull for about two panels during her first appearance contradict established canon when they never explicitly said she wasn't a skrull? But still, as long as you were meant to assume that something was true, a story where they suddenyl decide it isn't counts as a retcon in my book.

 

[KissingSunlight]

If people can call out lazy writing for being sexist

Er...the laziness is a separate issue than the sexistness, surely?

They need to stop haphazardly changing characters' traits in the name of diversity.

They haphazardly change character traits for all sorts of reasons, why is it a problem when diversity is increased?

Jean Grey looks like she's trying to hold in puke and is frantically waving her arms in a bid to run to the toilet.

Cannot unsee!

I really don't want to dive too much into the Anita Sarkeesian's argument. Relying on tropes is lazy writing. Tropes can reinforced negative stereotypes about people. Therefore, people like Anita can complain that tropes are sexist. That was what I was referring to. So, yes, you are right. Being sexist is mostly a separate issue to lazy writing.

Writers should not haphazardly change character's traits at the expense of the story. Regardless of their reasons for doing so. My concern is not the reason for the reckless disregard of their story. It is the fact that they are showing reckless disregard of the story.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Writers should not haphazardly change character's traits at the expense of the story. Regardless of their reasons for doing so. My concern is not the reason for the reckless disregard of their story. It is the fact that they are showing reckless disregard of the story.

Ah, ok, I seem to have misread you there.

 

[CeeDotGreen]

If people can call out lazy writing for being sexist

Er...the laziness is a separate issue than the sexistness, surely?

They need to stop haphazardly changing characters' traits in the name of diversity.

They haphazardly change character traits for all sorts of reasons, why is it a problem when diversity is increased?

Jean Grey looks like she's trying to hold in puke and is frantically waving her arms in a bid to run to the toilet.

Cannot unsee!

This: I don't get what all the hubbub is about, comics haphazardly change stuff all the time with varying degrees of success. If anything Iceman's sexuality shift is even more innocuous compared to actual narrative train wrecks like the Spider-Man Clone saga from the 80's.

 

[hermes]

It is not such a big deal... people are just making it a much bigger deal than it is (the link is to CNN, for Christ sake)

But really, I think its better handled than the big reveal DC pulled a couple years ago:
- A huge twist, one of our big characters comes out of the closet.
- Big characters? Batman? Superman? Flash?
- No... wait for it... Green Lantern.
- Wait, there are a million of Green Lanterns. Which one? Hal Jordan? John Steward? Kilowog?
- No, no... He is not one of those Green Lantern. He is the old one: Alan Scott. You probably don't know him because he was never in any of the popular TV adaptations, or movies, and we had to retcon him fifty years ago to make him part of an alternate universe, and then later to make him younger and closer to the "other Green Lanterns". Sill, pretty cool, right?
- So, one of the "big ones"? sure...