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Hello and welcome to Queeroes! I had to skip last week due to finals and moving out and getting situated back at my own house for the summer, but here it is! The next post!

Last time on Queeroes, I wrote about Bobby Drake and how he was outed by Jean Grey. After writing about it, I went ahead and read some comics, you know for research. It makes reading his scenes 10x better when you picture him as a closeted gay man. Try it.

This week I’m going to write about:

Alan Scott!

Alan Scott is the OG Green Lantern in the DC franchise. I wanted to write about him because this is another example of how comics can take a character who never previously seemed homosexual and make them that. Because representation is awesome. Nice.

In 2011, Alan Scott was revamped as a gay superhero in DC’s Earth 2. He became an openly gay man dating Sam Zhao. The two were on vacation, Alan proposed, everything was hunky-dory when all of a sudden tragedy strikes: the train they were on crashes, leaving Alan as the only survivor. This is when Alan becomes The Green Lantern, as The Green appears before him and asks him to become the protector of the Earth.

Okay so Alan was revamped to be a gay man, which is great! There’s nothing to say he couldn’t be gay, so they went with it. But will DC ever do anything else with him?

Beyond appearing in Earth 2 comics, I doubt it sadly. I want the new Green Lantern movie to be about him, but it’s impossible to tell now, and I sadly have my doubts.

However, Alan is a great character and offers great representation. He’s well cared for by the writers, even if they killed his boyfriend. If nothing else, he’s amazing as he is. Even if I’m bitter and want more.

Alas, I’m not a huge DC fan, so I apologize for how subpar this week’s article is. If you have any suggestions, feel free to message me! Does wordpress have a messaging option? I don’t know. Here have my email in case it’s not public: abdicatedempress@gmail.com

See you next time on Queeroes!

Hello and welcome to the first update of Queeroes, a series where I will write about queer superheroes, though it will probably end up extending into all media. For now, let’s focus on superheroes.

And this week, we’ll be focusing on my absolute favorite: X-Men. X-Men is basically an allegory for most minority groups. Some people say race, some people say queer, some people say disabilities. While I love all these ideas, I’m going to talk about the queer allegory.

There are some mutants who are able to hide their abilities, such as Professor X and Magneto. However, other’s are stuck having their abilities out in the open, causing them to be judged and even attacked. This is similar to sexuality and gender.

Let’s say Professor X represents being gay. Being gay is something you can hide. (It’s a shame most people have to.)

But then there’s Nightcrawler. Nightcrawler can’t hide his mutation, I mean, he’s blue! This can be similar to transgender people. Lots of times, it’s extremely hard for trans folk to hide the fact they are trans (due to cissexist ideals on how people should look but I digress.) In this case, Mystique could be considered a trans person who “passes” or “blends.” She is able to hide her ability, but she is still a mutant and could still be found out due to any slip ups.

Onto the queer superhero of the week! While I’d love to go on about, say, the possibility of queer feelings between Havok and Darwin in First Class (though Havok/Banshee is the otp) or even the entirety of the relationship between Professor X and Magneto, I’ll be sticking to just one character.

And that character is:

*drum roll please*

Bobby Drake!

As you probably all know, it’s been revealed that Bobby Drake, or Iceman, comes out as gay in All-New X-Men #40.

After commenting on a female character’s “hotness” (in his words,) Jean Grey questions why he is hiding that he is gay.

While he’s basically outed, it’s still an awesome thing. Not only is Iceman a gay superhero, but he was one of the originals.

People were confused, as older depictions of Iceman identifies as straight, but I think it’s totally plausible. Often times, queer people have to hide it, so why couldn’t Bobby Drake be gay while saying he’s straight?

All-New X-Men writer Brian Michael Bendis commented on how the X-Men franchise is able to make this work. Due to time travel, there’s lots of ways a character’s story line can be developed past what we think we know based on installments from the future. In Bendis’s words, “This is just the first little chapter of a much larger story that will be told.”

So good for you, Bobby Drake! Even though Jean Grey outed you, I think it’s still awesome that you exist! Even if your future self has to claim to be straight, it’s still awesome to know the truth, because that in itself can be inspiring.

See you next time on Queeroes!