Oh, please.
Minutes after expressing my love for Young Avengers, I see Fanboy Rampage’s link to that message board thread that’s left Ed in a state of rage. And you know what? Young Avengers will be my favorite comic ever if only writer Allan Heinberg will deliver all the godling-on-gamma-irradiated-monster action I can handle, in the Mighty Marvel Manner.
First, what are the chances that will actually happen? Frankly, I’ll need immediate cardiac care if Marvel allows them to so much as hold hands.
Second, this is what worries the retailer from the thread? The possibility of a gay relationship being portrayed in an all-ages mainstream book?
What about a young, brainwashed woman gouging her own eye out on panel in Teen Titans? What about another young woman being systematically brutalized, then murdered, over the course of the “Gang War” crossover in the Batman books? What about Hank brutalizing Jan on-panel in Ultimates? What about an entire family — including a baby in a high chair — being murdered on-panel in JSA? What about women being coerced into prostitution, then brutally assaulted on panel in Catwoman? What about Identity Crisis, for fuck’s sake?
Get some goddamned perspective.
Great. Now I’m grumpy. And I’m swearing. Please excuse.