Tag Archives: gay character

DC Comics’ Universe “Rebirth” Introduces Black Gay Superhero Aqualad

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Aqualad

 

Aqualad, who was traditionally Aquaman’s teen sidekick, debuted in the DC Comic series in 1960. He was Garth, a mutant outcast from Atlantis who later joined up in a minor role with Robin, Wonder Girl and Kid Flash as the crime-fighting Teen Titans.

In 2010, DC introduced a new African-American version of Aqualad, Jackson Hyde, in both the comics and the Young Justice cartoon on Cartoon Network who could manipulate water and was the son of Aquaman’s evil foe the  Black Manta.

Now in the 2016,  DC Comics reboot of its superhero universe (once again) on Wednesday with DC Universe: Rebirth No. 1, we are introduced to a “new” Aqualad,  A young black man identified as “Jackson” who is confronted by his mother, who says what he does isn’t “normal.”

When he asks if she means what he can do in the water, she says “no, I’m talking about the boys.”

“It’s not boys, mom, it’s boy. As in my boyfriend,” he replies, staring into an aquarium. “And in all of this, its who I am—even if I don’t know why.”

DC comics recently has axed gay crime fighter Midnighter and their gay alternate universe version of the Green Lantern.

CW Network Casts Casey Cott As Popular Gay Character Kevin Keller on Upcoming Riverdale Series

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Casey Cott Cast As Kevin Keller In CWs Riverdale

 

Television newcomer Casey Cott has landed the role of Kevin Keller in  Riverdale , the CW Networks upcoming TV show twist on the long-runing Archie comics series.

Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, Chief Creative Officer of Archie Comics Publications, made the official announcement. He tweeted, “And last but certainly not least–KEVIN KELLER (@CaseyCott) joins the ever-expanding Riverdale universe!!”

Keller is the first openly gay character in the history of Archie Comics. He made his first appearance in Veronica #202 (September 2010). His debut was so popular that the comic sold out and Archie Comics did something it had never done before: issued a reprint. In February 2012, Keller received his own ongoing title, but it came to an end in 2014.

The CW describes the show: The live-action series offers a bold, subversive take on Archie, Betty, Veronica, and their friends, exploring small-town life and the darkness and weirdness bubbling beneath Riverdale’s wholesome facade. The show will focus on the eternal love triangle of Archie Andrews, girl-next-door Betty Cooper, and rich socialite Veronica Lodge, and will include the entire cast of characters from the comic books—including Archie’s rival, Reggie Mantle, and his slacker best friend, Jughead Jones.

The CW has already cast the rest of the core Riverdale line-up, including; KJ Apa as Archie, Ashleigh Murray as Josie, Camila Mendes as Veronica, Lili Reinhart as Betty, Cole Sprouse as Jughead

 

Casey Cott

GAYMER: ‘Mortal Kombat X’ Introduces the Series’ First Gay Character, Kung Jin – Video

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Kung Jin Martal kombat X gay character

 

The Mortal Kombat  video game franchise has come a long way since it’s creation 1992. The series is known for its high levels of bloody violence, including, most notably, its Fatalities (finishing moves, requiring a sequence of buttons to perform).

Now with the release of Mortal Kombat X,  NetherRealm Studios includes the  franchises first gay character Kung Jin.

And its done subtly.

Kung Jin’s place in Mortal Kombat X’s plot isn’t as the “gay character,” he’s a character that just happens to be gay

Jin’s sexuality isn’t a major part of his story; in fact, it’s only alluded to twice. The first time, thunder god Raiden briefly tells Kung Jin, “Self-loathing has always been an unfortunate part of your make-up.” Later, when Kung Jin says that he can’t join the Shaolin monks because “they won’t accept” him, Raiden answers, “They care about only what is in your heart; not whom your heart desires.”

Jin’s character  is a reformed thief, an archer, a monk, and a member of the Special Forces Unit.

With LGBT representation so lacking in the gamer world I applaud NetherRealm for the inclusion and the fact that his sexual preference is a part of his character and not the only thing that defines him.

Mortal Kombat X is the sequel to Mortal Kombat’s 2011 release and takes place  two years after the defeat of Shao Kahn.

 

The Walking Dead’s First Gay Character Finally Arrives: Aaron From The Alexandria Safe Zone Makes The Scene

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Aarton3-vert

 

After 5 and a half seasons and a lot of pushing from this website, last night The Walking Dead finally introduced it’s first gay male character.  Aaron from the Alexandria Safe Zone.

The Walking Dead over the years have had a veritable United Nations of characters but in the past have shied away from any of the comic’s gay content. (Season 3, Prison) without any explanation and a lot of blowback from this site.  Eventually after many complaints they added the role of the lesbian character Tara (a character not in the original comics and lesbians are more acceptable after all.  But now FINALLY the comics first gay character has arrived.

So last night Aaron shows up in the aftermath of the devastating storm at the end of a rather dull-ish English Patient type episode clean looking well-fed, dry, and inexplicably chipper. He mumbles something about “stranger danger” but assures Maggie and Sasha—both standing ready to shoot his brains out—that he comes as a friend with “good news.” He asks to speak to Rick, whom he (alarmingly!) knows by name.

In the comic Aaron and his partner Eric are recruiters for the Alexandria Safe-Zone, a walled-off community that our survivors have called home for several years now. He scouts potential new groups of survivors, watches them for some time, then invites them back to Alexandria if he deems them worthy.

Other than Aaron’s arrival in last nights episode Rick finally delivers the iconic comic book line, “We are the walking dead,” in an emotional speech about his grandfather, who fought against the Germans in World War II.

“Every day he woke up, told himself, ‘Rest in peace, now get up and go to war,’” Rick explains to his soggy, downtrodden group inside the barn. “Then after a few years of pretending he was dead, he made it out alive. That’s the trick of it, I think. We do what we need to do and then we get to live. But no matter what we find in D.C. I know we’ll be okay. Because this is how we survive. We tell ourselves that we are the walking dead.”

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*The Walking Dead Skips Season 3 Gay Storyline – Keeps Imperfect ZERO LGBT Character Rating

The Walking Dead Season 4 GAYWATCH: More Deaths, More Threats. But Any Gay Characters?

EXCLUSIVE – Walking Dead Exec Producer Scott Gimple Hints LGBT Character To Be Introduced

Ross Marquand Picked To Play Openly Gay Character of “Aaron” On AMC’s The Walking Dead

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aaron

 

(Allegedly) Ross Marquand, who was last seen channeling Paul Newman in a Season 6 episode of Mad Men, will be joining our band of rag-tag sruvivors in the second half of the AMC series The Walking Dead as Aaron, one of the  prominent gay character from Robert Kirkman’s Walking Dead comic series that will FINALLY make it onto the small screen.

Here’s the description of Aaron from Walking Dead Wiki:

Aaron is a character first encountered in Issue 67 of Image Comics’ The Walking Dead and is a resident of the Alexandria Safe-Zone community, formally working as a recruiter. He worked with Eric, who was his work partner and boyfriend.   Aaron spots Rick Grimes‘ group as they were traveling towards Washington and decided to see if they were worthy of joining the Safe-Zone.

In the 5 seasons so far, The Walking Dead has skipped gay characters and storylines up until this point.  The addition of the lesbian character Tara in the most part was motivated by Back2Stonewall’s previous reporting on how LGBT blighted the television version of the  TWD universe was.

 

*The Walking Dead Skips Season 3 Gay Storyline – Keeps Imperfect ZERO LGBT Character Rating

The Walking Dead Season 4 GAYWATCH: More Deaths, More Threats. But Any Gay Characters?

EXCLUSIVE – Walking Dead Exec Producer Scott Gimple Hints LGBT Character To Be Introduced

The Flash Television Series To Showcase Openly Gay Villan/Superhero The Pied Piper

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Pied Piper

 

According to TVLine, on the new CW television series The Flash,  the openly gay villian/superhero The Pied Piper, who will appear “at mid season,”

In addition to the likes of Captains Cold and Boomerang, at midseason we will also meet Hartley, a onetime mentee of Dr. Wells’ who lost his hearing in an accident and now is out to wreak havoc with an invention of his own. (Of course, you may know Hartley — who happens to be gay — as the Pied Piper.)

It’s long been assumed that Piper would appear in the show — partly because of the “prominent gay character” rumors and partially because he’s a key member of the Rogues, who are set to appear this year.

It’s also worth noting that the current version of Pied Piper in the New 52 isn’t deaf; that’s from a previous interpretation of the character.

EXCLUSIVE – Walking Dead Exec Producer Scott Gimple Hints LGBT Character To Be Introduced

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The Walking Dead Season 4 Poster

As many of you know I am a GayGeek and damn proud of it.  You may also know I have also had a huge bone to pick with AMC’s hit series The Walking Dead for the past 3 seasons of totally ignoring the fact that not only do LGBT people actually exist but they could also survive a the “walker”apocalypse.

There are many reasons that the television series has annoyed me so far.  In the past three seasons they have introduced every type of character imaginable. Young, old, black, white, Korean, Latino,  redneck, God fearing country folk, nerds, prisoners, and even the Irish!  But not one of these character have been LGBT and the only time that our community has been mentioned in the past four seasons is when one character thought another character was a lesbian because she had short hair! .To make matters worse the television series also actually CUT two gay characters and a minor gay storyline out of the Season 3 transition from the comic to television for the  prison arc.

Well now after 4 articles and some old fashioned bitching and tweeting to Executive Producers Gale Anne Hurd and Scott Gimple it FINALLY seems as though there will be an LGBT character introduced in Season Four.

After my latest post Walking Dead Season 4 GAYWATCH: More Deaths, More Threats, But Any Gay Characters? which I sent to Gimple I received the following private Twitter message.

 

Scott Gimble

 

So  it seems that this season a member of the LGBT community will now be represented among the survivors. The next question is which character yet to be introduced will it be?

Some of the possibilities from the roster of upcoming characters in Season’ Four:

Laura or Melody  -According to SpoilerTV, Episode 6 is called “Rise” and it will include two recurring roles, including “a single mother and former nurse named Laura” and “a tough and funny woman named Melody.”

Jack or Erin — According to TVLine, Season 4, Episode 4 is called “Indifference” and will introduce two new survivors named Jack and Erin; both are said to be in their 20s and described as easygoing and “extremely thin.” As for their personalities, TVLine said “Jack’s a bit of a joker, while Erin walks through life with rose-colored glasses.”

Mack or Patrick — According to SpoilerTV, Episode 7 will be titled “Dead Weight” and two brothers around age 30 are coming: “Mack is an aggressive wiseass and Patrick is fair-minded. Mack is recurring and Patrick is a guest role.”  ”

Wayne Kesey — Another recurring role announced at the same time, Wayne is described as “Early 30’s. Very smart and an experienced liar.”

Jordana Barraza — Third recurring character from the same SpoilerTV post, described as “Late 20’s tough, hispanic, and beautiful. Shamed about her past.”

And there is the off chance it might actually be Cesar Martinez (played in the television series by the humpy ) was meant to be homosexual  in the comic’s but according to TWD creator Robert Kirkman he never got around to writing it. (Shocking).  On the television show Martinez is still alive and well and at the end of last season rode off into the sunset with the Governor.  

Well whoever it is it FINALLY seems that this season there will be some LGBT’ representing when it comes to kicking some Walker ass on The Walking Dead.

And its about damn time.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer Comic to Get Gay Male Teen Slayer

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Buffy the Vampire Slayer comics aka Buffyverse is a popular comic that has been round since the series first season in 1998 to the present.

Now finally after featuring hundreds of teenage girl slayers the comics will feature a teenaged boy who has decided that they aren’t the only ones who can battle the undead

The new vampire slayer Billy, a gay teenager will be introduced in Buffy: Season Nine issue 14. The comic will not be changing the rules of the Slayer lineage itself. Billy is going to be a vampire slayer with a lowercase “s,” a character who battles vampires despite having no ancient superpowers.

According to Jane Espenson and Drew Greenberg who will be introducing Billy.

I thought, Gee, all the work we’ve done with Buffy is about being female, and how that doesn’t mean that you are lesser. It suddenly struck me: If being feminine doesn’t mean that you’re lesser, then liking guys also doesn’t mean you’re lesser. For very good reason, we’ve focused on the female empowerment part of Buffy, but I wondered, Did we leave something out? What if someone in high school is looking up to Buffy as a role model, and we’re saying: You can’t be a Slayer.

Joss Whedon has said in the past that  he would like to write a strong, openly gay male character and that he has a  book idea on the back burner featuring a strong, gay male character.  But until then at least with Billy we’ll finally see a positive gay male character running around in Whedon’s universe.

India’s Soap Opera “Maryada: Lekin Kab Tak” Comes Out Of The Closet With Gay Characters

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“I can never love you or any other woman. I am in love with a man,”

This is a line spoken by India’s first gay soap opera character on the popular show “Maryada: Lekin Kab Tak” (Honour: But at What Cost?)

The show focuses on a patriarchal, conservative family in small-town northern India, the Jhaakar clan, whose eldest son Gaurav is now gay.

Screenwriter Damini Shetty has said that “We wanted to break new ground with ‘Maryada’ and talk about issues that people typically shy away from.  It would have been easy to show a gay person in a hip urban set-up, but we wanted to show it in this context to show that it’s a reality in every society, in villages, in small towns, where people struggle, like Gaurav, to come out to their families.”

Actor Daksh Ajit Singh, who plays Gaurav, said he received a lot of fan mail from viewers who see their own lives reflected on the small-screen.

In addition to “Maryada”, supernatural teen drama “Pyaar Kii Ye Ek Kahaani” (This Is A Story About Love) featured a sub-plot involving a gay architect who developed a crush on his roommate.

in July 2011 Indian health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad referred to homosexuality as “unnatural” and “a disease which has come from other countries” during a televised speech.

Openly Gay Superhero Character To Join DC Comics’ Relaunched “Teen Titans” Series

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DC Comic’s artist Brett Booth has announced that an openly gay superpowered teen is joining DC Comics’ flagship team of teenage heroes in the relaunch of Tean Titans.

The newest hero known as Bunker will debut in November’s Teen Titans #3. Bunker will apparently come from an accepting background that’s contributed to a slightly more flamboyant attitude than fans might have seen from other gay and lesbian characters in the DC Universe so far.,  According to writer Scott Lobdell  “He (his character)was born out of the closet and so he has a very refreshing outlook on life.”  Bunker’s powers, as described by Booth, include the ability to create small force fields that look like bricks (As in making a Stonewall?)
 
We wanted to show an interesting character whose homosexuality is part of him, not something that’s hidden. Sure they are gay people who you wouldn’t know are gay right off the bat, but there are others who are a more flamboyant, and we thought it would be nice to actually see them portrayed in comics. Did we go over the top, I don’t think so. I wanted you to know he might be gay as soon as you see him. Our Teen Titan is partly about diversity of ANY kind, its about all kinds of teens getting together to help each other. It is a very difficult line to walk, will he be as I’ve read in some of the comments ‘fruity’? Not that I’m aware of. Will he be more effeminate than what we’ve seen before, the ‘typical’ gay male comic character, yes. Does it scare the sh*t out of me that I might inadvertently piss off the group I want to reflect in a positive way, you’re damn straight (pun intended!)

Well personally I am thankful for the diversity but I do hope that DC Comics is very careful and aware of what they do with Bunker’s character and hopefully writer Lobdell’s work has grown a bit.   I believe he also wrote Alpha Flight back in the early 90s when Northstar came out of the closet which really wasn’t handeled all that well.  But we’ll see in Novemember