First, lesbian Hellions,...

[Farframir]

... now THIS! (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/05/31/entertainment/main1673093.shtml)

[Malibu Sally]

Cue for Esbat in 5.... 4.... 3.... 2....

[MajorMarvel]

while Marvel has over 30 homosexual characters already. though we care why?

[Masked Revenger]

while Marvel has over 30 homosexual characters already

Alpha Flight has that many characters in it? :P

Chris

[MajorMarvel]

Ultimate Colossus, Northstar, Flatman, Electro(Bi), 1601 Archangel, Karma, Hulkling, Wiccan, Mystique(Bi), Exiles Sunfire, Black Cat(Bi), Destiny, Mephisto. I can go on :P

[Masked Revenger]

Ultimate Colossus, Northstar, Flatman, Hulkling, Wiccan, Mystique(Bi), Black Cat(Bi), Destiny, Mephisto. I can go on :P

Yes, I'm actually aware of most of those. Also, Bi doesn't coun't, we're talking about here (and I say this because of Bis I know that HATE to be lumped in with the homesexual community).

Still, I didn't realize they were all on Alpha Flight. :P

Chris

[Farframir]

Anyhow, it looks like DC's getting a little further into the tokenism pool with this one. Maybe they've been afraid that the public that grew up on Bugs Bunny would start calling them AC/DC? :look:

[UnSub]

Ultimate Colossus, Northstar, Flatman, Electro(Bi), 1601 Archangel, Karma, Hulkling, Wiccan, Mystique(Bi), Exiles Sunfire, Black Cat(Bi), Destiny, Mephisto. I can go on :P

Yes, but how many of the above characters are meaningfully gay (by which I mean are actually shown to be romantically linked with people of the same gender)? It's easy enough for writers to play the gay card as a trait for a character and then ignore it evermore.

[Farframir]

::snip::It's easy enough for writers to play the gay card as a trait for a character and then ignore it evermore.

I agree. It's all part of small minded people's need for labels. Call a character "gay" and you don't have to write seven or eight more lines about their personality traits.

[Masked Revenger]

The more important question is how many of them will stick around in a book for more than a year?

Let's face it, this Batwoman will be interesting for a while, but even if she get's her own title at the end of 52, I'm betting it won't last past 12 issues.

Chris

[Noble]

For some reason I can see this new Batwoman as being a bondage queen.

[razoras]

If there isn't a lesbian bondage love slave scene, then Batwoman can go to hell.

[Solario]

This absolutely reeks of token'ism. The character's defining trait, atleast according to this article, the one on Newsarama and God knows where else, is that she's gay. To quote Dan Slott ,primarily a Marvel Writer, discussing the early Marvel stuff: "For the longest time I thought having a bad leg was a character trait." Especially since DC has plenty of other gay characters. One of their most prominent "civie" for example Renne Montoya, a cop in Gotham.

And technically Batwoman wasn't a "classic" character. She was mainly a plot device invented to have more females in the Bat series, so Batman and Robin wouldn't look so "gay." Which is sort of funny considering.

In the end though, I'll wait till the story is out to completely judge the character as a whole. She's just sounding an awful lot like Luke Cage's, POWER MAN, creation in the 70's.

[The Icy One]

I don't know how Flatman does anything.. >>;

[Sun-Scarab]

you think batman would have TM his hero look by now in the comics. its like a sale on batarangs & the bat-fillers are just pouring out.

[Meltman]

One of their most prominent "civie" for example Renne Montoya, a cop in Gotham.

...who Batwoman slept with.

[Solario]

Exactly, so I don't get why Batwoman being gay is such a big deal.

[Morcalivan7]

Ink on paper.

[Valcarde]

Exactly, so I don't get why Batwoman being gay is such a big deal.

Because people in general are small-minded, easily amused plebes whose attention is easily grabbed by certain media catchphrases these days: 'gay' being one of them. It's a publicity stunt, nothing more, an attempt to drum up interest in their comic before it is even released, by pandering to the most hormonal urges of young men (and not so young men, and perhaps a few women) to see HAWT LEZB14N SECHS.

[UnSub]

HAWT LEZB14N SECHS.

zOMG!!! G-rated HAWT LEZB14N SECHS!!! I'll take 50 copies please!!!

[Randomus]

Lesbians are much easier to swallow than gay men in our society. If you'll forgive the unfortunate wordplay. Most people view lesbianism as a harmless college phase, so it's easy to dismiss it. Male homosexuality is becoming more mainstream with all the shows about it on TV, but still carries the stigma of the fact that men are not pretty.

[Malibu Sally]

Sounds hot. :P

[The Widowed]

I like what that one poster in the article said about ugly people. I remember reading an Avengers story with the Great Lakes Avengers years ago and seeing Big Bertha. "Oh, cool. A big, huge fat woman on a superhero team! Granted, she's probably the team's designated brick (and, of course, she was and still is), but it's a step in the right direction. There's really no reason pudgy people--or even morbidly obese people--couldn't have superpowers too, right?"

Then sometime down the road I read a Deadpool issue and found out that Big Bertha can shrink down into yet another supermodel.

Ah, well. It was good while it lasted. :|

Do the truly outlandish folks like the Thing and Caliban count for the Ugly Superheroes category? Or are we looking for someone who looks human yet is still unattractive? :think:

[Malibu Sally]

NOOOOOOOO! We must maintain the myth that physical beauty is the ONLY key to real life success or ability! :P

[Cryogentic]

NOOOOOOOO! We must maintain the myth that physical beauty is the ONLY key to real life success or ability! :P

yes and that wearing little clothing helps you some how fight villians :P

[Malibu Sally]

yes and that wearing little clothing helps you some how fight villians :P
And that high-heel thigh high boots are the ultimate in combat footwear! :P

[The Widowed]

It does my heart good to see that the Widowed has successfully defied all three of these conventions. :D

[Malibu Sally]

It does my heart good to see that the Widowed has successfully defied all three of these conventions. :D
BS! Widowed is hawt! Just ask Krypto... or Fate! :P

[The Widowed]

BS! Widowed is hawt! Just ask Krypto... or Fate! :P
...because she defies conventions, silly! It's all in that pale, one-eyed, head-to-toe-leather-clad combat-boot-wearing kinda-butch wouldn't-be-caught-dead-in-a-two-piece-bikini-with-thigh-boots mystique. :D

[Malibu Sally]

...because she defies conventions, silly! It's all in that pale, one-eyed, head-to-toe-leather-clad combat-boot-wearing kinda-butch wouldn't-be-caught-dead-in-a-two-piece-bikini-with-thigh-boots mystique. :D
:think:

:widdy:

!!!


>:]

[The Widowed]

:think:

:widdy:

!!!


>:]
:think:

:huh:

:hm:

[Morcalivan7]

The thing doesn't count, he's a male superhero. Male superhero monsters are no different than 'pretty ones' so to speak. Toxic Avenger? Could you imagine the thin little blonde switching spots with the avenger? *shiver* One of the few exceptions of course are shape shifting monsters. They do best as chicks, cuz they always manage to end up naked somehow.

As for having ugly superheroes in general, nah. Aside from the few freakish ones like TA, Spawn, Venom, etc. Superheroes are suppose to be super. It makes sense that they're also be better than us in the image department. Besides, just like no artist draws the heroes going to the washroom, or doing their taxes they don't wonna show'em picking their zits either. Superheroes are super, they're as much our fantasies as they are our imaginations. Just as all fiction is.

Note: Non-super characters in comics are getting uglier and uglier these days.

[Solario]

Brian K. Vaughan's Runaways has pretty diverse characters, personality and lookwise.

Oh and a great example of a great ugly character, who's not a superhero: The Goon by Eric Powell.

Oh how I love the Goon and Franky.

http://laurent.cujus.free.fr/the_goon/enfance_assassine_P2.jpg

Sorry about the french, but The Goon's all cultivated and bilingual now.

[iggy880]

Yeah, I laughed so hard that it almost broke the shock. 3 days later Leno picks it up and I end up having to be the one to affirm it to my family.

[The Icy One]

Then sometime down the road I read a Deadpool issue and found out that Big Bertha can shrink down into yet another supermodel.Yea.. but her powers still involve her appearing quite large. Just because during the day she throws it all up and goes from super hero to supermodel doesn't change that as a super hero she'd be considered a VERY obese one.. very.. and it'd ruin her if people found out she was Big Bertha.