There’s interesting chatter in the comments following Heidi MacDonald’s link piece on Marvel’s track record with gay characters.
Chris Eckert provides a quick scan of the current state of LGBT representation in the Distinguished Competition:
“The thing I find more interesting is DC’s LGBT wing of its Diversity Initiative, which thus far has involved having as many chicks making out as possible in as many books as possible. Since the One Year Later jump, I am reasonably sure that the only male homosexual characters we’ve seen are a talking gorilla and his disembodied Nazi Brain lover. Meanwhile they’ve worked in two girls making out into at least four different titles. Which is totally cool, although one questions if a sensitive portrayal of diversity is the primary motive for this.”
Jordan White links to a response from Marvel Team-Up writer Robert Kirkman from the Image boards to questions about his decision to create (then kill) Freedom Ring, the latest gay Marvel corpse:
“In hindsight, yeah, killing a gay character is no good when there are so few of them… but I really had only the best of intentions in mind.”
Basically, Freedom Ring was cannon fodder who just happened to be gay, like Northstar from that Wolverine zombie ninja story. (I thought Marvel had covered the well-meaning-but-incompetent newbie territory with Gravity who, coincidentally or not, is both straight and breathing.)