Superheroes are the bad-ass, super-humanly strong, flawed children of our society. They are also some of the most traditional, creative topics of our generation. They’ve been written since as early as 1934, when every misogynistic practice was still in place; whether racist, homophobic or sexist. For this reason, superheroes have some of the most prevalent character ark developments I’ve ever seen.
Take Captain America: the perfect, male, heterosexual patriot everyone wished for during the World War. He even has the god damn American flag as a signature part of his uniform for fuck sake. It’s pretty obvious what he stands for. Would you remember, though, that Wonder Woman was part of the same war? Probably not. Wonder Woman is also canonically bisexual for the record.
What I’m trying to say is that when people think of superheroes, it’s the ‘recognisable’ superheroes they think of. Spiderman, Iron Man, Captain America, Thor… all the straight men. Have you noticed that? It wasn’t really until the early 2000’s that we started seeing superheroes who were canonically LGBTQIA+ being represented as they should be. Captain Marvel, for example, is my fucking hero.
Captain Marvel has several stand-out moments in her feature length film. She is also canonically gay in the comics, which is fucking beautiful. Every appearing woman in that film has a queer edge to them and it makes my heart sing. The point is, she is completely removed from all misogynistic values where possible and if she is faced with them, she absolutely destroys them. This is the kind of superhero we should be seeing more of. It makes me immensely happy that children will grow up watching Captain Marvel wanting to be ‘the strong woman in the awesome red suit’. Ain’t no one messing with those girls.
If you know me personally, you will know that my love for Harley Quinn knows no bounds. I even have her tattooed pinup style on my right arm. Now, I know she’s not technically a superhero because she’s a villain, but we’ll bypass that for now considering that she is the light of my life. She happens to be bisexual, which has now been proved canonical after the release of Birds of Prey and The Fantabulous Emancipation of Harley Quinn. The majority of her comic book plotline centres around the appearance and disappearance of The Joker, who characterises her as a physically and emotionally abused woman in a toxic relationship. This is, until, she meets Poison Ivy and becomes one of the hottest and badass bisexual comic book characters in existence (who is in a canon queer relationship with the OTHER hottest female villain, I mean come on).
This representation of queer comic book characters is something we see more of now, and something I am extremely thankful for. Even if a comic book character isn’t labelled as canonically bisexual, they are represented as significantly less heterosexual and more fluid, somewhat questioning and deliberately elusive when it comes to sexuality. In my opinion, this makes the character more open, allowing the fans to make their own decision and ship them with multiple people. Removing this innately toxic heterosexual structure from all superheroes allows those watching to know that you don’t need to be straight to be strong and respected. The comic book characters that are emerging now do this for us, Deadpool for example.
Hold on, Deadpool is gay? He’s pansexual, actually. You’re welcome. Ever wonder why he talks about balls AND boobs so much? He likes it all, he’s badass and insanely seductive. To top it off, he’s played by Ryan Reynolds who just happens to be the modern god of sex, so that helps. Many people speculate that he and Wolverine have some beautiful, brutal children running around in the forest somewhere. They run around in my dreams a lot, too. Deadpool is a big label anti-hero, too. Everyone knows who Deadpool is, but I’ll bet you didn’t know he was pansexual. The question is, would it change people’s image of the character? I’m arguing it wouldn’t. Here’s why.
People watch Deadpool because they love his character, he’s something else. He can fuck up three guys with one bullet. He chases down Francis mercilessly for years because he made his face look like a geographical map of Utah. He’s incredibly unapologetic in every way. His sexuality is a part of all of this, whether he carries around the pansexual flag in every scene or not. His reaction to seeing Negasonic Teenage Warhead with a girlfriend was no different than if she had fallen for a dude. He’s understanding, fluid and sexual. Just some of the things I would look for in a husband.
Oh, and for them to be Ryan Reynolds. Sorry Blake Lively, you’re damn fine too though.
Not every superhero is a Captain America waiting to happen. Some of them are damn fine, flawed, still recovering from nearly dying in a fire, being a ball of star energy and jumping from rooftops so hard that they break the road among other things. Most importantly, some of them are fucking queer as hell.
Do me a favour and go watch Captain Marvel. Then Deadpool, back to back. Remind yourself that being queer makes you a hero.
Or an anti-hero, you do you boo.
Kel x
-the voice of (bi)five
(bi)five 