Marvel's first 9 gay kisses (plus one honorable mention)

[transemacabre]

I was inspired a while back to try to figure out what was the first gay kiss shown on-panel in a Marvel 616-verse comic book, and that in turn led me to collecting a list of 9 gay kisses to date. My criteria were as follows;

1. That the kiss be on-panel
2. That it be lip-to-lip, and have either an implied or blatant sexual/romantic/erotic element to it
3. That it be between two members of the same sex



1. Gambit/Courier (with the latter in female form) [Gambit #24, Jan 2001]
2. Bloke/his boyfriend [X-Force #118, Sep 2001]
3. Moondragon/Marlo Jones [Captain Marvel #32, May 2002]
4. Karl Coven/Rick Jones [Captain Marvel #9, May 2003]
5. The Sentry/The Void [The Sentry #8, Apr 2005]
6. Karolina Dean/Xavin [Runaways #6, Jan 2009]
7. Moondragon/Phyla-Vell [Guardians of the Galaxy #12, Mar 2009]
8. Rictor/Shatterstar [X-Factor #45, June 2009]
9. Daken/Bullseye [Dark Wolverine #84, Mar 2010]

Honorable mention: Nash/Victoria Montesi [Darkhold: Pages from the Book of Sins, 1992], who shared a kiss on the forehead, which may be the first on-panel kiss of any sort shared by a canonically gay couple.

Some stats:

Peter David wrote 3 of these (Moondragon/Marlo, Coven/Rick, and Rictor/Shatterstar)
Fabian Nicieza wrote 1 (Gambit/Courier)
Paul Jenkins wrote 1 (Sentry/Void)
Terry Moore wrote 1 (Karolina/Xavin)
Marjorie Liu and Daniel Way wrote 1 (Daken/Bullseye)
Peter Milligan has written 1 (Bloke/his boyfriend)

Interesting facts:

Despite the fact that, counting Nash/Victoria, there's ten kisses, there's only SEVENTEEN distinct individuals! That's because Moondragon appears on the list twice, and because technically The Sentry and The Void are the same person (and you thought your slash was kinky. Amateurs).

Marlo and Rick Jones are the only married couple to have both kissed or been kissed by people of the same sex.

Out of the nine liplock-on-panel entries, FIVE are male/male, and FOUR female/female -- or, depending on your perspective, four are male/male, one is male/male-trapped-in-female-body, three female/female, and one female/bigendered person.


I've noticed that a disporportionate number of Marvel's GLBT and queer characters are or started out as villains. This holds true here, as no less than FIVE of the seventeen total individuals are villains, anti-villains, or were villains for a substantial period of their career. These five are Moondragon, Daken, Bullseye, The Void, and Karl Coven. I could almost count Xavin, but I figure Xavin was only an antagonist for like half an issue, so I'm not gonna.

Of the nine on-panel liplocks, at least two have dubcon-ish issues. One is clearly forced (Karl Coven/Rick Jones) and one is ambiguous as to how forced or unforced it is (Sentry/Void). The Daken/Bullseye and Gambit/Courier kisses are clearly surprise kisses, but neither Bullseye nor Courier fight the kisses in any way.

Lastly, it's entirely possible I missed some kisses somewhere. If you know of any, please comment! (and scans or it didn't happen).

Comments

[manicr.livejournal.com]

Happy you poted this. :)

Hasn't Wiccan and Hulking ever kissed? I dunno, just wondered...

[strawberispring.livejournal.com]

No. The most they've done is been shown sleeping fully-clothed in the same bed with Hulking's hand resting on Billy's chest. And some hugs and forehead rubs. :\

[mizzmarvel.livejournal.com]

Hmm, Northstar and Colossus never kissed on panel in Ultimate X-Men? That's a bleeding shame.

[transemacabre.livejournal.com]

I'm not counting non-616 stuff like Ultimate or the Buffy comics -- it's a worthy effort, but I don't know anything about them, so I'm sticking purely to the 616-verse.

[thescratchman.livejournal.com]

The Gambit/Courier kiss always made me wonder... of course, Courier was never seen again...