Up until recently, DC's policy was to introduce new characters and have them already be homosexual, as opposed to their standard policy of pretending Obsidian was just, like, totally too busy for dates and just wanted to keep his private life private, OK? Also, Maggie Sawyer was kinda sorta "roommates" with another woman, but yeah.
To be fair, the retconning has had upsides and downsides. Rene Montoya was such a disaster (mostly because of the horrible, horrible way that people who really should have known better were writing her) that they actually just freaking killed her off. Meanwhile, when they introduced a new gay character in her own book, after hemming and hawing about it for what felt like decades, that book turned out to be "Batwoman", one of the best written and flat-out beautiful books of the New 52.
And now, according to Dan DiDio, they're going to out a "prominent" character. Uh, yeah, Dan. Sure, whatever. We want to believe this is true...but this is DC. "Prominent" probably means "b-lister". There's no way Superman is coming out of the closet. Here are some of the "prominent" characters we suspect might be getting an outing.
This we could see actually working very well: after all, part of what makes "Supergirl" a great book is the fact that it's about a young woman struggling to define herself, something the underrated Mike Johnston has done a great job of making a quiet underlying theme to the book. Struggling with her sexuality would add a nice dimension, especially if it's handled with some sensitivity.
Again, they've got a prime opportunity: "Earth 2" is rebooting the entire JSA in the modern era, and honestly at this point it'd be a little weird if one of the JSA's members didn't turn out to be gay. And they're definitely prominent in that the company was built off these Golden Age characters.
Similarly, James Robinson has never been shy about discussing sexuality; in "Starman", Mikaal was openly bisexual, and Opal City had its share of minor gay characters.
You in the back, keep the cracks about his outfit to yourself: there are more awful costumes from that time period.
No, we're guessing Vibe is going to be gay for a simple reason: DC is suddenly all about bringing him back, when he's possibly one of the most loathed characters they've ever conceived of. He's not just featured in their Free Comic Book Day issue: he's actually getting his own deliberately cheesy short in "DC Nation" on Cartoon Network. And he's being put into Justice League, DC's most successful, and least diverse, book.
This is pretty straightforward DC: they love to play it safe on this stuff. Firestorm is big enough to be a big deal, but minor enough that they can quietly bury it if the book bombs. So Ronnie or Jason turning out to be gay is a likelihood for them. If it's written well, we'd love to see it.
Just rebooted, newly introduced, and no real romantic history. We're fifty-fifty on this one: it'd be easy to pull off, but DC would, not unreasonably, catch some flack for introducing a character so similar to Batwoman.
The only downside to this one is that their book is turfed after issue 12. But it's practically canon already, so DC should just pull the trigger.
Again, close ties with Batman, but not so close that it might "alter the brand" (we hate typing words like that, but this is how accountants think). And it would give Bunker somebody to actually, you know, have a romantic relationship with who wasn't basically Terry Long all over again.
It would also make this panel incredibly awkward, which is why we chose it.
Again, this is a horribly cynical choice, but let's face it: it's the kind of choice DC will gleefully make.
DC would never have the chutzpah to make Guy Gardner gay, and having an officially gay Lantern who isn't some sort of alien copout would do wonders for one of the flagship books. In addition, considering that Stewart is a former Marine, expert sniper, and arguably more powerful than Hal Jordan, he'd be a good choice.
This is one of the more likely ones, but frankly, DC, let's go the opposite direction. We know this has been unofficial canon for years, and only recently, thanks to Harley Quinn, have we seen it reversed, but at this point in human history, depicting a homosexual as a completely psychotic homicidal maniac is...how do we put this...absolutely awful.
So, let's ditch this. The Joker is supposedly dead right now, but we all know he's coming back. This is a reboot, so, let's retcon him as straight and never speak of it again, shall we?
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The most obvious (outside of one of the Robins) would seem to be Wonder Woman. But again, so obvious that I don’t see the point in it.
I’m not sure who DC considers to be “Prominent”. Obviously the JLA are. Outside of that, they’re comic-book prominent as compared to pop-culture prominent.
I am leaning towards Vibe on this one due to both factors, to be honest.
The name just seems to scream it.
Honestly when I heard about this announcement during the weekend I just rolled my eyes. I’m cool making a character gay as long as it feels organic, but I’m not cool with making a character gay just for the purpose of selling comics. Yet, I know that with all the recent political headlines, Gay is the the new Black Hispanic, so DC will drain every drop of press attention that they can get.
With that said, I’m going to wager that it’ll be a member of a team (JSA makes sense) or someone who hasn’t been reintroduced into the continuity (for some reason, Donna Troy or Ted Kord comes to mind. Again, I just hope the handle it better than their revamping Starfire or Catwoman.
Yeah, this is either going to go pretty well or careen straight off a cliff.
The Flash!
P.S. I have no idea who is DC and who isn’t.
I could see them doing that with Bart Allen (aka Impulse/Kid Flash). I think it would be harder to do with either Barry Allen or Wally West because both of those have been portrayed of not only straight but in very serious monogamous relationships for most of their adult lives.
Have they even introduced Wally yet? The last I heard, he was benched.
Aquaman.
OK I’m gonna say it.
Gay Jesus.
I don’t know what they’re doing with the Wildstorm continuity.
Constantine. He’s already bi in Vertigo.
Good point.
Why can’t we make the Joker gay? What is with all of this over-kill with the P.C. nowadays? Gay people are ONLY nice? Gay people can’t be homicidal maniacs? Why not? I mean, if we are going to shove it in everyone’s face, why not go all the way and show true diversity. I think it would only be fair to introduce some good guys AND some bad guys that happen to be gay as well.
The Joker will *bang* anything. Get it? GET IT?
Actually, Brad Meltzer had a great little sequence in his Justice League run about how there’s an underground of gay supervillains, but they have to stay in the closet because, well, other supervillians are insane and homophobic.
Perry White!
let’s think critically about this:
they’re DC, so they’ll pick the dumbest possible outcome at all options. they already have approximately 3000 lipstick lesbians in their books, so the stupid thing to do would be to have it be another woman.
they said reintroducing, and that they’ll be making him or her “prominent”: the dumbest possible outcome here would be someone who doesn’t exist in the new 52 yet, but has been getting play in other media and has to be someone who was in the DCU before the reboot.
It also won’t be a villain–villains aren’t positive role models.
SO, characters meeting these qualifications:
Miss Martian (offhand reference in an early titans issue). adding a second gay character to the book would be a terrible idea, so i’m saying 7 to 1 odds.
Artemis: doesn’t exist in the new 52, and is primarily a villain in the comics. odds: 20 to 1
Hawkwoman: possibly in earth 2, been featured in young justice, but johns had her love for hawkman be a big thing. he wouldn’t let them change that. if they were smart, odds would be 3 to 1. they’re not. 50 to 1
Amethyst: HAHAHAHAHAHAHA 75 to 1 on her being introduced, 35 to 1 on her being gay if she actually makes it.
Donna Troy: IT ALL FITS. She’s in the beloved Super Best Friends Forever, aimed at an audience so young they giggle at the word “sexuality” because it has sex in it. she’s not a villain. people would go APESHIT. and the dumbest part about making her the gay isn’t that she’d be gay, but that 1. the continuity would be even DUMBER once they introduce her back–they’ll make her the avatar of lesbianhood, or weeja dell or something, and 2. she’d go in red hood and the outlaws and give them an excuse to do something EVEN DUMBER THAN THAT when starfire bangs her. Odds: i’m not taking bets on something I know I would lose. like, negative 32 to 1.
DC characters who should be “outed.”
Red Hood
Poison Ivy
Bane
Doctor Polaris
Ambush Bug
Peacemaker
Sinestro
Human Bomb
Marvel:
Spider-Woman
Beta Ray Bill
James Rhodes
Wolfsbane
Goliath (Erik Josten)
Mr. Hyde
Beta Ray Bill?
Power Girl: This seemed to be heavily hinted at with her relatinoship with sidekick Terra during the Palmioti/Gray/Connor run on the series.
Yeah, that’s a possibility.
It is someone that hasn’t been in the New 52 yet and it is going to be a guy. They didn’t say prominent character will be gay, they said it will become a prominent gay character.
They said flat out it will be a male character
There is no compelling reason to ever have Vibe appear anywhere for any reason. Ever.
Ever.
Ever.
Ever?
It’ll be Deathstroke and it’ll include an awesome retcon on how he lost his eye.
You know what? Gay Deathstroke would be kind of awesome.
It WOULD finally explain those boots…
He lost it when his late (and ex) wife Amanda Kane put a .45 ACP slug in him after the incident where the thug slit Joe Wilson’s (Jericho) throat, rendering him mute.
Im not the biggest comic book fan, but this is a little silly to me. If it is someone popular (i.e. Superman, Batman, even Robin) it gives everything about that character a very different connotation. Secondly, Omar in “The Wire” was gay, he was a bad guy, and he was fierce!!
Heroes: Raven (Titans), Beast Boy (Titans), Jericho (Titans), Red Star, Negative Woman (Second Doom Patrol), Booster Gold (JLA), Blue Devil, Hawkgirl (JLA).
Villains: Phobia (Society of Sin), Deathstroke, DeSaad (Minion of Darkseid), Amanda Waller, The Enchantress, Harley Quinn (soon to be jilted ex of The Joker), Darkseid.
Don’t Go There: Starfire (Titans), Wonder Woman, Superman, Batman, Aquaman–get the picture?
–RKJ
Just to put the kibosh on most of this, DC’s confirmed the character is male, a hero, was previously straight and hasn’t been reintroduced yet. And ‘iconic’.
It’s mostly down to The Atom (Ryan Choi), The Flash (Wally West), and Vibe (haha. ‘vibe’). Vibe makes the most sense because the character’s about to reintroduced anyway and Johns and Lee said this’ll all be revealed “in the next few weeks”. I don’t think anyone knows was “iconic” even means anymore.
PLEASE LET IT BE DEATHSTROKE! like seriously! How many men does he have to flirt with! Wintergreen. Batman. Dick grayson. Green arrow. Sneaky into beast boys room claiming love for his son. And the fact he doesn’t mind beating the crape out of women which isn’t gay but counts to some people needing more convincing. And the fact that Jericho was suppose to be gay and if the gay gene exist. Well all know where it came from.
though it wouldn’t change the fact that everyone he sleeps with will try to kill him. He possibly even trusted (love) Wintergreen more than Adeline! Even Pat trayce thought they were gay! -^U^-