Marvel comics has always done great by the LGBT community…this is just another great highlight. Are Wiccan and Hulkling the first great gay Marvel couple? Nope…but they resonate louder than Northstar and his man or the couple from the now defunct X-Statics team. BTW, young avengers is a great read. I highly recommend it. The issue for this epic kiss is in The Young Avengers: The Children’s Crusade # 9.
After The Avengers were dissolved, a new team of young heroes debuted, all appearing to be younger versions of more famous heroes. They included Hulkling and Asgardian (Wiccan) who seemed to be young versions of The Hulk and Thor. From the beginning, the two seemed like a couple, with banter reminiscent of The Avengers’ past superpowered couples, like The Vision and The Scarlet Witch or Hank Pym and The Wasp. The relationship was quickly confirmed to readers by the end of the first story arc. Most of the team turned out to have a different history than initially was suggested, including Hulkling and Asgardian. (I’ll save that surprise for those of you who might pick up a Young Avengerstrade.) When it became clear that Asgardian had no connection to Thor, a teammate suggested he change the code name to avoid inspiring homophobic jokes, prompting a name change to Wiccan. (Ass-Guardian LOL…Get it?)
One of the memorable scenes for this couple comes when the team decided the all had to tell their parents about their extracurricular activities. Hulkling and Wiccan’s attempt was derailed when their parents mistake the discussion as an attempt to come out as gay — they learn that their parents have known and approved of their relationship for some time as they waited for their sons to be ready to discuss it with them.
Has this been the first gay couple in any comic book publication. Definitely no! There has been many. However, Marvel Comics really brings them to the forefront more than any other publication. The other thing I like is Marvel really does not put much emphasis on intolerance to LGBT groups and people. Mostly due to the fact that mutants (such as the X-Men) are getting the blunt of malicious like right wing hate, for being different than the rest of humanity. However, the stories told for them are usually along the same lines as civil rights issues and fight for your rights type of things.
Now back to the topic at hand hehe. This kiss event is important for many reasons, but the biggest one is that there is not much of a wow factor. Now I do not mean the story or comic is not good…trust me it is. I just mean in the world of Marvel it is a low key “Yay!” or “Cool!”….or “Finally they got to smooching in between fighting aliens.” This is the kind of non-outrageous reply to such an act I am hoping shows up in the real world everywhere, unlike the senseless protesting crap from idiot hate groups, like One Million Moms and American Family Association, had done with Archie’s Comics’ gay wedding and smooch event. A sane human being can only hope. :)
For more info on LGBT characters in the world of comics, you can look at an old article I wrote on my blog a couple years back.
http://djinsyx.blogspot.com/2010/08/ten-of-coolest-gay-superheroes-you.html
