If you're not familiar with the inner workings of the comic book world, there's a fair chance
there are more LGBTQ+ superheroes out there than you realize.
From the big screen to the small to the panels themselves, here are some of the LGBTQ+ superheroes
out there saving the world for all of us.
In 2017, the hit movie Thor: Ragnarok revitalized the thunder god's franchise with a new brand
of irresistible humor and a huge gladiator battle with the Hulk, of course.
Among the new characters introduced in Ragnarok was the tough, unapologetic binge drinker
Valkyrie, played by Tessa Thompson.
She reprised the role as one of the leaders of New Asgard in 2019's Avengers: Endgame,
eventually being named leader of Asgard at the end of the film.
And fans will be seeing her again in 2021's Thor: Love & Thunder.
"The Lord of Thunder sends his best.”
“The revolution has begun!"
Valkyrie's sexuality isn't addressed in the theatrical versions of either Ragnarok or
Endgame, but shortly after Love & Thunder was announced at the 2019 San Diego Comic
Con, Marvel Studios confirmed Valkyrie would be the MCU's first openly LGBTQ+ superhero
and that this would be addressed in the 2021 sequel.
Thompson even said Valkyrie was bisexual as early as 2017, lining the character up with
her comic book counterpart.
Ragnarok had originally highlighted Valkyrie's sexuality, but this scene was sadly left on
the cutting room floor.
Unfortunately, the comic book version of Valkyrie on which Thompson's character is based is
no longer around.
That hero, Brunnhilde, was killed by the dark elf Malekith in the line-wide event War of
the Realms.
The role of Valkyrie has since been taken up by Jane Foster, who Natalie Portman portrayed
in the first two Thor films and who is also set to appear in Love & Thunder, as Thor herself.
In the comics it's no secret that Wade Wilson, also known as Deadpool, is pansexual.
Longtime Deadpool writer Gerry Duggan has gone on record as saying the Merc with a Mouth
sets his romantic boundaries at "anything with a pulse."
So far, that hasn't really been reflected in his big-screen appearances, though Deadpool
2 certainly ramps up Wade's fixation on the ironclad mutant Colossus.
Since Ryan Reynolds has confirmed as much, it seems that Deadpool's new owners over at
Disney are working on a new movie featuring the character.
And if we do get a Deadpool 3, there's a fair chance Wade Wilson's pansexuality will be
expressed more explicitly in the films.
Reynolds himself has even said that he wants to see that side of Wade come out more on
the big screen.
At the 2018 San Diego Comic Con, the actor said one of the things he loves about the
Deadpool films is that they can go places other superhero movies can't or won't, and
he suggested LGBTQ+ representation as one of those places adding that he specifically
wanted to explore that through Wade.
Marvel Studios has made some truly unforgettable superhero films in the past decade.
And while opinions will always vary, the uneven quality of the X-Men franchise and the failure
of the last couple of Fantastic Four movies meant that a lot of fans were very happy when
Disney acquired Fox Studios in 2019.
Still, there's at least one important landmark the Fox films hit before Marvel producing
a movie featuring Marvel's first on-screen same-sex couple.
In 2018's Deadpool 2, it's revealed that Negasonic Teenage Warhead is in a relationship with
a young X-Men member named Yukio.
Not a lot is shown of their relationship, but the duo joins Wade and the rest of the
heroes in the film's climax.
The pair appear just in time to save Colossus from Juggernaut, and later contribute to the
latter's less-than-pleasant fate.
Curtis Holt, played by Echo Kellum, has been an openly gay man since his first appearance
on CW's Arrow but he wasn't always a superhero.
Holt has appeared regularly on Arrow since its fourth season, though initially he was
content to be the "guy in the chair," coordinating things from Oliver Queen's "Arrowcave," and
generally hacking into whatever needed to be hacked into.
But after he is attacked by street thugs in the show's fifth season, Curtis asks Oliver
to train him for some more hands-on work.
Borrowing the ring name of his favorite wrestler and using his ingenious gadgets to help fight
crime, Holt becomes Mr. Terrific.
But Holt's time as a vigilante doesn't come without cost.
Later in Arrow's fifth season, Curtis' husband Paul leaves him after discovering his hidden
crime-fighting life.
Fortunately, love finds Curitis once more in the form of Star City police officer Nick
Anastas.
Holt has since given up crime-fighting, but still helps Team Arrow in a guy-in-the-chair
capacity when they need it.
Presumed drowned after the wreck of the Queen's Gambit, Sara Lance barely survives and is
taken prisoner aboard the ship Amazo property of the mad scientist Dr. Ivo, who trains Sara
to become his assistant.
After reuniting with her former lover Oliver Queen and being presumed drowned a second
time, Sara is rescued by Nyssa al Ghul of the League of Assassins and recruited into
the secret organization of silent killers.
Nyssa and Sara soon become lovers.
"I've had better greetings.”
“Sorry I just didn’t know what you were going to do.”
“To be honest neither did I."
Sara has had both male and female partners since returning to Star City on Arrow.
She has also since become one of the regular characters on Legends of Tomorrow, and took
over the Captain's chair of the series' central time and space ship, the Waverider.and also
is in a long-term relationship with Ava Sharpe a genetically engineered clone from the 23rd
century.
The fourth season of the CW's Supergirl made a huge stride in LGBTQ+ representation by
introducing TV's first transgender superhero.
“I am both human and alien.
And I am a transwoman.”
Nia Nal, also known as Dreamer, is a trans woman of mixed human and alien heritage who
inherits her powers, which include being able to see the future, after her mother's death.
Nia's mother Isabel was from the planet Naltor, and used the title of Dreamer before Nia.
Naltorian Dreamers are women of extraordinary abilities, including often receiving precognitive
visions in their dreams.
A Naltorian Dreamer's power passes to her daughters, so when Nia's mother dies, Nia
is initially confused about the Dreamer abilities beginning to manifest in her because she wasn't
biologically born female.
It soon becomes clear that Isabel always knew it would be Nia, and not her sister Maeve,
who would inherit her powers.
Sadly, while Nia's family has appeared to be accepting towards her transgender identity
so far, the revelation that Maeve won't inherit her mother's abilities causes a lot of ugliness
to come out.
Meanwhile, Dreamer has been a close friend and ally to Supergirl since obtaining her
abilities, and has also enjoyed a somewhat rocky romantic relationship with Supergirl's
ally from the future, Brainy.
The CW's Arrowverse consists of a vast multiverse of various alternate realities.
One of those realities is Earth-X, where the Nazis won World War II.
The Earth-X alternates of the Arrowverse's heroes tend to be villains serving the Reich
on Earth-X: such as Overgirl instead of Supergirl, and Dark Arrow rather than Green Arrow.
In the 2017 CW crossover Crisis on Earth-X, characters from The Flash, Arrow, Legends
of Tomorrow, and Supergirl are brought to Earth-X.
Most are freed from a concentration camp by the Freedom Fighters made up of The Ray and
Leo Snart, also known as Citizen Cold.
It soon becomes apparent that Ray and Leo are in love, and that their relationship made
them a target of the Nazis.
In season 4 of The Flash, the heroes ask for Snart's help in transporting a metahuman to
A.R.G.U.S.
Upon arriving on Earth-1 and reuniting with his old comrades, Leo is met with cheers and
congratulations when he announces that back on Earth-X, he and the Ray are planning to
get married.
October 2019 saw the premiere of CW's Batwoman.
Set in the same narrative as "Arrowverse" shows that include Arrow, The Flash, and Legends
of Tomorrow, the new series stars Ruby Rose as the titular hero.
Behind the mask is Kate Kane, cousin to Bruce Wayne.
One of the more noteworthy differences between Batwoman and other superhero TV shows and
movies is that, in a crowded field, Ruby Rose is playing the first openly lesbian superhero
in a leading role.
The character first shows up in the Arrowverse in the 2018 crossover Elseworlds.
In the following year's massive crossover, Crisis on Infinite Earths, Batwoman takes
a prominent role in the conflict as the multiverse's Paragon of Courage.
This version of Batwoman was first introduced in the comics toward the end of the 2005 line-wide
event Infinite Crisis, though at first fans weren't sure who she was.
She was soon given her own solo series and became a prominent part of the Bat Family,
though Batwoman and Batman don't often get along.
Shortly after DC's 2016 relaunch, Batman invited Batwoman to lead his new group of "Batmen,"
in Detective Comics, though he gave his cousin her walking papers after she killed the reformed
villain Clayface.
The first time the bisexuality of John Constantine, whose name should be pronounced
Constantine if you're talking about the comics version,
“John Constantine.”
“Constantine.”
“Is it?
I don’t care.”
is brought up is in 1992's Hellblazer #51, and the reveal doesn't come with a lot of
fanfare.
Speaking of how he doesn't maintain many long-term relationships, Constantine's narration reads:
"Girlfriends, the odd boyfriend...
They all have the nasty habit of walking out on me."
Neither the 2005 film Constantine nor the 2014 TV series of the same name make any mention
of Constantine's bisexuality.
But when Matt Ryan's version of Constantine became part of CW's Arrowverse, his bisexuality
was explicitly addressed.
Constantine becomes a recurring character on Legends of Tomorrow in the show's third
season, and he is depicted in romantic situations with both men and women.
He and Sara Lance have a one-night stand, and later it's revealed that he and the Time
Bureau goofball Gary have had some kind of brief fling.
"Yeah, Constantine let me down easy too..
Something about a balance between good and evil."
Years earlier, Constantine was also in a relationship with a male bartender named Desmond.
In fact, Constantine is plagued with guilt over memories of his old lover, who he was
forced to send to Hell in order to banish the demon Neron from Earth.
When the DC Universe streaming service revived the Young Justice animated series, it included
the reveal that the show's new version of Aquaman was in a same-sex relationship.
Orin, the original Aquaman you may be more familiar with, retires from all things "super,"
and Kaldur, formerly Aqualad, assumes the name Aquaman as well as the leadership of
the Justice League.
In Young Justice: Outsiders, Kaldur is depicted as being in a same-sex relationship with the
Atlantean Wyynd.
It isn't clear whether Kaldur identifies as gay or bisexual.
In earlier seasons of Young Justice, Kaldur is shown to have romantic feelings for female
characters.
In particular, while still using the name Aqualad, Kaldur holds a torch for Tula, also
known as Aquagirl, and is heartbroken when she gets involved with his best friend Tempest.
It could be that he's bisexual, or that in those earlier instances he hadn't yet come
to accept his sexuality.
For a long time, it was one of DC Comics' worst kept secrets that Harley Quinn was both
bisexual and in a non-monogamous relationship with fellow Gotham City anti-hero Poison Ivy.
They'd been friends and more in comics, cartoons, and even video games for years trading innuendo
and hints all the time but for a long time there was no official word on the pairing.
But then Harley Quinn writers Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner confirmed Harley and Ivy's
relationship status in 2015, and fans finally got to see the pair share a kiss in 2017's
Harley Quinn #25.
Harley was understandably devastated when Poison Ivy died during the 2018/2019 DC miniseries
Heroes in Crisis.
Thankfully, by the end of the series, it's shown that Ivy had prepared for the potential
of her death by creating a plant-based clone of herself who then goes on to team up with
Harley in the Harley Quinn & Poison Ivy miniseries.
In 1992, Marvel Comics made history with its first openly gay superhero.
In Alpha Flight #106, during a battle with the World War II-era superhero Major Mapleleaf,
Northstar admits that he's gay.
Shortly after the fight, he opens up to the world at large, and his coming out is soon
on the front page of the Canadian newspapers.
Northstar's visibility in Marvel Comics has had its ups and downs ever since.
He eventually left Alpha Flight for the more well-known X-Men.
Northstar was a teacher at Xavier's Institute and was famously killed by a mind-controlled
Wolverine in 2005's Wolverine #25.
He got better, and more recently, Northstar and his sister Aurora joined the mutants of
Marvel on the island haven of Krakoa as part of Marvel's Dawn of X storyline.
Still, while he may not be a Marvel A-lister, his 1992 coming out issue wasn't the last
time the character made history.
Same-sex marriage became legal in the Marvel Universe's New York and the real world in
2011, and Northstar and his partner Kyle were wed in Marvel's first same-sex superhero nuptials
during 2012's Astonishing X-Men #51.
In 2015, Marvel Comics readers learned that Iceman, also known as Bobby Drake and one
of the original X-Men, was a gay man and the reveal unfolded in a manner only a comic book
could pull off.
When All-New X-Men was launched in 2012, the title was more than a little ironic.
The series opens with the original five X-men, including Iceman, being brought from the time
of their origin into the present, while they're still teenagers.
So when the teenage Jean Grey takes the teen Iceman aside in 2015's All-New X-Men #40 to
reveal that she knows he's gay, there is also an older version of Iceman out there in the
world who has been dating women for his entire adult life.
In fact, part of the reason teen Iceman has trouble accepting his sexuality is because
his older counterpart appears to be straight.
How could he be gay if his future counterpart isn't?
In Uncanny X-Men #600, the adult Bobby is confronted by the younger versions of Iceman
and Jean Grey, and admits he's been in the closet for years.
Since coming out, Iceman has enjoyed a number of short-lived solo series, and took on an
important role helping oppressed mutants escape to Krakoa in Marauders.
Like Harley Quinn, Renee Montoya made her first appearance not in the comics, but in
the '90s cartoon Batman: The Animated Series.
But it would be over a decade before the former Gotham detective would become a bona fide
superhero.
Montoya's first appearance in the comics was in 1992's Batman #475, in which she is introduced
working with Harvey Bullock inside Gotham's Major Crimes Unit.
She then stepped into the spotlight in 2002 with Gotham Central a comic focusing on the
Gotham City Police Department.
Fed up with the force's corruption, Montoya quits the GCPD and falls on hard times.
She drinks habitually and loses her girlfriend Daria.
The vigilante Vic Sage, also known as the Question, then recruits Montoya during the
series 52 to help him fight the criminal organization Intergang.
By the time that series is over, Sage has succumbed to cancer and Montoya has taken
up the mantle of the Question.
Despite a few revamps and reboots here and there, Montoya has remained the Question in
the comics.
More recently, Montoya has helped Superman's wife in the espionage thriller miniseries
Lois Lane.
Rosie Perez brought Montoya to life in the 2020 film Birds of Prey, and remaining
comic accurate her character was indeed a lesbian.
America Chavez is a lesbian raised by a gay couple and she's also one of Marvel's most
powerful superheroes.
She's super strong, she can fly, she has super speed, and she's nearly invulnerable.
And when her series America launched in 2017, she became the first LGBTQ+ person of color
to lead her own ongoing title in the history of Marvel Comics.
Originally known as Miss America - based on the character of the same name from the 1940s
- the present America... (the character) first appearing in the 2011 miniseries Vengeance,
Chavez gained a lot more attention as a member of the Young Avengers and during the 2015
line-wide event Secret Wars, when she was part of the all-female A-Force.
Along with her solo series, America joined the Ultimates and eventually became the team's
leader.
More recently, she was part of a new incarnation of the West Coast Avengers, led by the group's
founding member Hawkeye.
The heroes Hulkling and Wiccan enjoy one of the longest-running same-sex relationships
in comics.
They were introduced in Young Avengers #1, when both the heroes seemed to be younger
versions of the classic Avengers line-up, whose origins were shrouded in mystery.
What's particularly interesting is the actual characters these two were based on.
Hulkling, as his codename suggests, looks like a younger and smaller version of the
Hulk.
Wiccan, on the other hand, goes by the name "Asgardian" when he's introduced, suggesting
a connection to Thor.
So it was particularly interesting to base these two young gay men on heroes who are
known to regularly beat the tar out of one another.
But in the end, neither Hulkling nor Wiccan proved to have any significant connection
to those classic Avengers.
Hulkling's physical appearance is due to his mixed Skrull and Kree ancestry, and has nothing
to do with gamma rays.
Wiccan, meanwhile, eventually learns he's one of the twin sons born to the mutant Scarlet
Witch and the android hero Vision.
Hulkling and Wiccan have never strayed far from the spotlight of Marvel Comics since
their introduction.
Both recently appeared in the 2019 Death's Head miniseries, and Wiccan is one of the
members of the new team Strikeforce, which includes a number of occult-themed or otherwise
non-traditional heroes such as Blade, the Winter Soldier and Angela.
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