Gay justice league
Justice League Of America – The Ray
Steve Orlando
Stephen Byrne
DC
$2.99
Contributed by Levi Raab
DC has made large strides in queer representation in recent years, giving long-established characters like Batwoman more prominence, and elevating the status of somewhat lesser-known characters like Midnighter and Apollo, such as with Steve Orlando’s solo Midnighter novel from the DC You initiative. And as much as I enjoyed reading Midnighter and seeing a gay man in a starring role, I couldn’t fully identify with him. The gritty and aggressive vigilante and I might’ve shared the same orientation, but that’s where the comparison stops. But in Orlando’s “The Ray: Rebirth” I feel like I’ve finally found a mainstream comic character that really represents me.
“The Ray: Rebirth” introduces the latest version of the Ray, a member of the novel and more inclusive Justice League of America. Ray Terrill, in his journey of becoming the Ray, explores and forms his own personal identity as well, overgoing a sort of “coming out” over the course of the issue. But Ray never has to outright tell that he’s gay, his sexuality is presented as a given, with nothing drawing special attention to i
Liberal Revolution points us to this story about Stan Lee creating the “world’s first gay superhero.”
Here we go again. A rare years ago the characters Apollo and Midnighter from The Authority were declared as the world’s first superheroes (how about this for a lamentable headline: “Holy cow! Men in tights turn out to be gay“). However, the media only noticed two years after the series had been running – and then only because of a censorship row. Back in 1986, Watchmen – the film version of which (court case notwithstanding) is likely to be out on general release a long age before Stan Lee’s try gets filmed – featured a lesbian superhero (Solitaire) and a gay superhero (Hooded Justice). Going even further back, the creators behind X-Men and its spin-off titles were writing gay characters, although they weren’t allowed to “out” them until a small character called Northstar got his chance in 1992 (this being the enlightened eighties, one storyline featured him getting AIDS with the intention of killing him off, but plans changed and he “got better”).
One way or another, we’ve h
Young Justice: 15 Characters Who Are Members Of The LGBTQIA+ Community
Young Justice is an animated series that follows the many sidekicks of the DC Cosmos as they work to prove themselves as full-fledged heroes in their control right and balance the struggles of teenage animation. Unlike similar shows DC Super Hero Girls and Teen Titans Go!, Young Justice takes a more serious approach and tackles mature themes of grief, PTSD, performance-enhancing drugs, and more.
During the first 2 seasons on Cartoon Network, the series needed to meet the standards of the kids' network, only allowing the series to touch on the more mature themes it wanted to. After being canceled in 2013, the reveal was brought back as a DC Universe First and HBO Max Imaginative for its fourth season. The move from a cable channel to a more mature streaming service allowed the creators free-range to explore the characters in ways they couldn’t before. Something Season 3 highlighted was the enormous diversity within the larger DC Universe, not only across characters of other races and species, but also in gender and sexual orientation. In addition to the many heterosexual couples on the demonstrate, it w
I Want To See A Gay Character On The Justice League: An Interview With Steve Orlando [Flame Con]
Writer Steve Orlando's career has gone from force to strength thanks to his work on critically acclaimed books such as Midnighter, Undertow, andVirgil. He's now working with some of the most fascinating heroes in the DC universe in his new progressing Supergirlseries and the upcoming Midnighter & Apollo, and he was recently announced as the new journalist on Justice League of America. But he continues to balance these books with more personal projects, like the four-issue Boom fantasy miniseries Namesake, about a dude hopping worlds to bury his two fathers' remains.
ComicsAlliance sat down with Orlando at Flame Con in Brooklyn last month to talk about queer heroes, the market for marginalized fans, and building bridges between creators and their critics.
(Note that this interview took place before Orlando was named as the new penner on Justice League of America.)
Comics Alliance: What does it mean for you personally to be at a convention like Flame Con?
Steve Orlando: It’s stimulating for me,
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