The moral alignment of Marvel's GLBT characters

[transemacabre]

As I mentioned in this post, it's striking and somewhat depressing how many of Marvel's GLBT characters are villains, anti-villains, or spent a substantial period of their career as villains. I feel this came about because of two reasons: firstly, that media has a long history of allowing villainous characters to display controversial or 'wicked' characteristics such as homosexuality, which would be unthinkable for heroic characters (think of all the lesbian vampires in film that appeared LONG before any lesbian could take center stage as a heroine); and secondly, because like one-fourth of these characters were outed during Fabian Nicieza's tenure on Thunderbolts, and not only is the cast of Thunderbolts comprised entirely of villains and ex-villains, Nicieza LOVES his gay characters. Seriously, if Nicieza's writing it, somebody's gonna be gay.



Just to illustrate my point, all the characters outed or implied to be GLBT by Nicieza will be marked with an asterisk (*).

VILLAINS and ANTI-VILLAINS

Electro (bisexual)
*Shinobi Shaw (bisexual)
Daken (bisexual)
*Gypsy Moth (bisexual)
*Joystick (bisexual/bicurious)
*Man-Killer (lesbian)
Machinesmith (gay)
Mystique (bisexual/bigendered)
Destiny (lesbian/bisexual). Note: Had at least one child, which implies a prior relationship with a man, but this is not neccesarily proof she was not truly a lesbian.
*Andreas von Strucker (bisexual). Note: Confirmed bisexual by Word of God.
Mephisto (bisexual/omnisexual)
*Deadpool (bicurious/bisexual)

Possibly GLBT, but not outright stated category:

*Blizzard (gay? Could definately be read as gay in his Tbolts days, although Nicieza said he really hadn't thought about it one way or the other for Donnie).

The uncategorizable category:

The Void, who on one ocassional passionately kissed his opposite number (and splinter self), the Sentry.
Purple Man, who sexually assaulted at least one male (Andreas von Strucker), but is a sexual sadist and would likely assault anyone in his thrall.

EX-VILLAINS

Moondragon (lesbian/bisexual)
Xavin (bigendered alien). Note: Only an antagonist for like half an issue.
Living Lightning (gay). Note: had prior relationships with women, so might've been bisexual, but confirmed gay by Word of God.
Kismet (transgendered).
Cloud (bigendered alien). Note: only briefly a villain.
Black Cat (bisexual)
Victoria Hand (lesbian)

HEROES and ANTI-HEROES

Phyla-Vell (lesbian/bisexual)
Karolina Dean (lesbian)
Northstar (gay)
Freedom Ring (gay)
Wiccan (gay)
Hulking (gay)
Bloke (gay)
Destroyer (gay)
Union Jack II (gay)
Flatman (gay)
Anole (gay)
*Shatterstar (gay)
*Rictor (bisexual)
Victoria Montessi (lesbian)
Nash (lesbian)
Amy Chen (lesbian)
Doop (bisexual)
Firelord (bisexual)
Hector (gay)
Julie Power (lesbian)
Phat (gay)
Vivisector (gay)
Karma (lesbian)
Greymalkin (gay)
Jennifer Kale (bisexual)
Marlo Chandler (bisexual/bicurious)

Possibly GLBT, but not outright stated category:

Storm (bisexual? Her relationship with Yukio suggests yes)
Hercules (bisexual? Hinted at by Northstar's reaction at his funeral).
*Gambit (bisexual? Certainly willing enough to kiss Courier).
Jazinda (bisexual? Seems to be in love with She-Hulk)
Thundra (lesbian? Finds it "a pity" that She-Hulk and Jazinda aren't together)

The uncategorizable category:

Korg and Hiroim (definately in a relationship, but as Korg is an alien from a monogendered species, I'm not really sure what this would be classified under. Maybe just queer?)
Courier (male mutant, currently trapped in female form. Apparently straight, but kissed Gambit quite willingly one time.)
Starhawk II (actually two beings, a male and female, simultaneously sharing a single body. Tough to classify)
The Sentry (see: The Void)

Comments

[harmonyangel.livejournal.com]

Re: the Rictor and Shatterstar categorizations, I think they may actually be reversed -- I don't think we can say Shatterstar is gay with how many women he keeps making out with/having implied sex with in X-Factor, and the way Rictor's been written there (though it hasn't been stated one way or the other), it's possible PAD is writing him as gay-but-in-denial-before.

[transemacabre.livejournal.com]

Good point! I always perceived Julio's feelings for Rahne as genuine, but he could be established as firmly gay at some point. Of course this is all provisional, as stories in the future could and probably will reveal things about various characters' sexualities.