The best-selling title in comics specialty shops across the nation this week depicted the first “gay” wedding from industry leader Marvel Comics in which super-speedster Northstar married his long-time partner, a non-super black character named Kyle Jinadu.
Although the announcement regarding Astonishing X-Men #51 drew extensive press coverage back in May, the actual release received surprisingly little media attention, which came almost entirely from websites on homosexuality and comic book news, as well as a few cities where specialty stores hosted special events.
At Vanity Fair, writer Julie Miller called the increase of homosexual characters “an attempt to promote equality and tolerance.”
The author also pointed to the recent announcement that Alan Scott, one of DC Comics' many Green Lanterns, has been rebooted as a gay man.
Miller said that Marvel, DC's main competitor, “upped the open-mindedness ante by planning the medium’s first same-sex, interracial wedding in a major comic series.”
The story on the topic at sosogay.org was entitled: “When You Wish Upon a Northstar, Dreams Come True.”
Along with selling copies of the new issue, a number of specialty stores marked the occasion by hosting same-sex wedding ceremonies in their shops.
The largest ceremony took place at Midtown Comics in New York City where Scott Everhart, 39, and Jason Welker, 33, from Columbus, Ohio, were chosen from more than 50 applicants to take part in at its downtown location.
“It was a wedding for the books—comic books that is,” wrote Candace Wheeler of the Village Voice.
“One reason Welker and Everhart were chosen was that they live in Ohio, where same-sex is not legal,” Wheeler stated. “They will have a private ceremony for friends and family when they return.”
“Midtown Comics co-owner Gerry Gladston said he was happy to help promote acceptance and tolerance,” she added.
Also celebrating the occasion was MaximuM Comics in Las Vegas, Nevada, which held parties at its two locations on the day of the comic's release.
According to a report by KTNV-TV, store owner James Bosworth (who's gay) and his employees wore tuxedos during the celebration and stated that the parties were held to help customers “celebrate the equality issue” regarding same-sex marriage.
“The Marvel Universe has always reflected the world outside your window, so we strive to make sure our characters, relationships and stories are grounded in that reality,” Marvel Editor-in-Chief Axel Alonso told Jason M. Volack in one of the few articles on the event in the mainstream media.
“We’ve been working on this story for over a year to ensure Northstar and Kyle’s wedding reflects Marvel’s ‘world outside your window’ tradition,” Alonso added in the ABC News report.
“The story of Northstar and Kyle is universal, and at the core of everything I write: a powerful love between two people who have to fight for it against all odds,” writer Marjorie Liu said in the same article.
“This is the quintessential Marvel story, one that blends the modern world with the fantasy of super heroes in order to tell an exciting story that begins with a wedding—and continues in ways you can’t imagine,” she added.
As NewsBusters previously reported, liberals have taken the first step in the culture war on “intolerance” by not allowing those on the other side of the issue to express their views.
One of the organizations protesting the inclusion of homosexual characters in comics is One Million Moms, which referred to the Marvel characters' marriage as “shocking” and “ridiculous.”
According to that group, homosexuals “want to indoctrinate impressionable young minds by placing these gay characters on pedestals in a positive light.”
As a result, comic-book companies “are heavily influencing our youth by using children's superheroes to desensitize and brainwash them into thinking that a gay lifestyle choice is normal and desirable.”
