Dan Didio changed his tune this past weekend at London’s Kapow! con. What to? Well, previously he had stated that only new characters would come out as LGBT and that we wouldn’t see any orientation switches, but now? It seems that not only is someone coming out, but it will be someone fairly prominent.
Now we could just wait and find out who it is, but where’s the fun in that? We’re going to be laying odds on who is going to be pulling a switcheroo in the New 52, and even though it has been suggested that it likely is someone that we haven’t seen yet, we’re going to include characters who have been introduces. Just because it’s more fun this way. So here is our list in descending order from worst odds to best odds.
Slash fiction writers have provided roughly a metric ton of story lines for DC already for these two (or so I’ve heard…), so really, the hard part is already done with these guys. Plotting by the Internet, scripting by Scott Lobdell. It’s a match made in heaven, yes?
But no, sorry shippers. This likely will never fly due to their prominent role in the Batman/Superman universes. But you keep on writing and maybe one day, ONE DAY, their time will come.
How do you make the return of the Watchmen property even more of a firebrand, short of having Dan Didio crapping on copies and mailing them to Alan Moore? Make arguably its most notable character, Rorschach, someone who is as passionate about men as he is about cans of beans and pummeling evildoers.
Of course, when you have a constant compulsion to beat people half to death and solve crimes, it doesn’t leave much time for a love life of any variety. Alas, it may never be.
Out of all of the characters who have yet to be seen in the New 52, probably the one whose absence has most upset readers has been Wally West. And why not? The guy is an awesome character who has a lot of history that has made him a character many connect to.
But DC has seemed pretty dead set on keeping him in the closet simply because, well, it just doesn’t seem they like him that much. What bigger eff you could they come up with for his fans than bringing him back and completely changing the character by, amongst other things, bringing him out of said closet. It really wouldn’t make the character that much different, but man, I’d pay money to be at that con panel. There’d be a borderline riot, I’d wager, as Wally West is introduced as Pied Piper’s new boyfriend. Still, it seems unlikely that they’d do such a thing if only because of the reaction it’d garner.
His name is Martian MANHUNTER isn’t it? Maybe in the New 52 his lust for oreos can no longer sate his alien desires. However, as MC EIC suggested when we were in the discussion stage, “Can Lobo and Martian Manhunter come out as gay? Considering they are aliens, I mean. Wouldn’t they just be, like, martian-sexual or czarnian-sexual?” So he’s not too likely.
We haven’t met Ted Grant yet in the DCnU. Is it possible that his grizzled ex-boxer character could now be gay? Who knows. In the first issue of “Earth 2,” Jay Garrick was a young kid and Alan Scott was some rich dude on a plane. Everyone in the JSA could be on this list because they comprise a large amount of the list the remaining characters to reveal. That said, I could see Grant if only because it’d be such a large change for the character and because he is such a cornerstone for the JSA. This would be a legit choice.
A member of the DC Trinity this high on the list? Really? Well, if they wanted to make a major splash, this would be the way to do it. Diana’s never really had the relationship connections Bruce Wayne or Clark Kent have (particularly the latter), and if any of their writers could handle it, I’d say Brian Azzarello might be the clubhouse leader. Plus, what happens on Paradise Island stays on Paradise Island.
Continued belowUntil it doesn’t!
This is my pick. For sure. The character hasn’t appeared in the New 52 yet. Check. He has his intense religious background to rebel against. Check. He’s the fierce outsider of the Batman family. Check. Jean-Paul Valley easily could be their choice. The biggest strike against him is the fact that they already have Kate Kane in JH Williams III and W. Haden Blackman’s very capable hands AND he’s quite possibly not prominent enough. But maybe. Just maybe.
Look at this picture that Matt shared with me. You’re not getting money from me, my friends. 1 to 1 odds.
“He’s very plutonian in the sense that he’s wealthy and also in the sense that he’s sexually deviant,” Grant Morrison tells Playboy Magazine.
“Gayness is built into Batman. I’m not using gay in the pejorative sense, but Batman is very, very gay. There’s just no denying it. Obviously as a fictional character he’s intended to be heterosexual, but the basis of the whole concept is utterly gay.”
If I was a real Vegas bookie, there is no way I’d actually allow betting on Batman. The guy who was the most prominent writer on the character over the last decade said himself that the character is “very, very gay.” At the same time, it’s not really going to be true, but we can’t allow betting on it anyways.
