Introduction

If you know anything about the superhero genre you will probably be aware that the way marginalized people have been treated in these stories has rarely been positive. This is true for most stories, but it is particularly saddening because of the nature of superhero stories. Superhero stories have traditionally been used in two major ways. The first is for war or army propaganda, being used in soldier recruitment, war promotions, and to promote nationalism, especially in America. The second and more common modern use of superheroes in media is to inspire consumers to be better by instilling meaningful lessons, fueling fantasies of empowerment, and especially by being relatable to the audience. This has worked very well, superheroes at their best can be very inspirational, and can push people towards greatness. But by leaving marginalized people out of heroism in these stories of good vs evil superhero stories have often accidentally fueled hate and stigma even if the writers did not intend it or even fought against it. 

Marginalized people are arguably the groups that need heroes to look to the most as fighting back against evil people who are out to get them is their day-to-day, so the lack of heroic content marketed to them was noticed and stung quite a bit. Some people argue that the lack of diversity in superhero stories does not affect the real world as much as marginalized people say it does, but I disagree wholeheartedly. The stories we consume change whom we are especially those presenting a moral perspective or debate. If an example is needed look at how the creation of Superman and Captain America changed the course of World War 2, their popularity directly led to an increase in American soldiers enlisting in the military. Why would any other aspect of these stories be any different? After all, looking at something strong and good and seeing part of yourself is an amazing feeling that can be extremely motivational and change how you feel about yourself. 

Queer Coding in the Superhero Industry

  Though for most of Superhero history LGBTQ characters were not welcome in superheroic stories and it took a long time for any actual gay or transgender characters to debut in any comic books, many consumers of this content argue that Superhero media has had gay designs and themes since the early days. Superheroes emulate Queer people’s lifestyles in many ways, the most obvious being the secret identities. The concept of living a double life to maintain safety is one of the most prevalent differences between gay and straight lives and superheroes who keep their civilian identity secret from the public will always attract queer readers to the genre (Lacey, 1992). There’s also the fact that superheroes are seen as separate from polite society in most stories, and of course, their over-the-top manners of dress and speech patterns draw in an association. Unfortunately, despite the prevalent queer coding in superhero fiction, and the large gay fanbase that came with it, canon queer characters have only been made a thing relatively recently (Lacey, 1992). This means that for a long-time superhero and their queer fans have had a very one-sided relationship with each other and many queer people have not been receiving the inspiration or joy superheroes are supposed to create even if they have been consuming related content their whole lives. 

The First Superhero Coming Out Story

In 1992 the comic book company Marvel decided to publish its first official coming-out story. The story followed a character named NorthStar, who had been implied to be a gay man since his first appearance. Multiple writers had been trying to have NorthStar come out for a long time, and there were internal debates on what his coming out should look like. A big reason that the company wanted to have this coming out was to call attention to the then-ongoing AIDS epidemic, but there was a debate on how the disease should be implemented. In prior appearances of NorthStar, it was implied that he had AIDS and was dying from it. However, plans changed, and they decided to spread awareness and sympathy without having to kill the character (Goldsmith,2021). 

The coming out issue itself starts with NorthStar finding an abandoned 3-hour-old baby in a dumpster and taking the baby to a hospital where he is told by a doctor that the baby (whom he names Joanne) has AIDS and will not survive much longer. NorthStar adopts the baby and he and his teammates begin to speak out about AIDS because of the baby, and the public becomes very attached to the child. The plot shifts direction when an old friend of NorthStar’s voices dismay that the public is so concerned with the condition of this baby but remains uncaring towards the gay population who were also suffering, NorthStar agrees with this and decides that it was time he finally made his identity public. The baby, unfortunately, does die in NorthStar’s arms at the end of the book, and the character is still mourning the loss of the child in modern comic books, forever changed by his time as a father (Astonishing X-men, 2022). The issue was met with both praise and disgust, but it made a big impact on gay readers, and it made a huge difference in public perceptions of AIDS. In a more recent Marvel comic released for pride writer, Luciano Vecchio reflected on the historic moment and Its impact stating “Everyone remembers this moment, A cornerstone. NorthStar was the first superhero to come out to the public - - it was an activist statement, bringing awareness, starting discussions, and inspiring others . . . Because when our existence is relegated or coded, something as simple as a visible kiss can make history.” (Oliveira, Vecchio, 2022). To deny the positive effects of this issue both long term and short ignores the many people whose stories and identities were changed by this book’s publication, NorthStar’s coming out opened a door and because of it, many other LGBTQ characters have debuted over the years. 

The First Same-Sex Superhero Wedding

A little over 20 years after NorthStar’s initial coming out Marvel decided to celebrate the legalization of gay marriage in the US by giving the famous gay character a wedding. This event also got a lot of press and was quite controversial, but unlike the coming out issue, there was a different reason why some fans were not fond of this story. The book itself was ordered from corporate very suddenly, with writers not having much time to plan for it. NorthStar was set to marry his newly introduced love interest Kyle who had only been around a short time. When the wedding issue was published many journalists mistakenly reported on it referring to Kyle as if he had been around longer than he was, and that the relationship was in writing more often than it was. With newspaper writing “Wedding bells will ring this summer for Marvel Comics' first openly gay hero, super speedster NorthStar, and his longtime boyfriend.” (Moore, 2012). This painted the image that this had been a natural step for the character when to readers it did not feel that way.

As was briefly mentioned Kyle had only been introduced a few years prior and had only been dating NorthStar for a small fraction of those appearances, this alone was not the problem. Real issues arose because of the failure to communicate Marvel’s plans with their writers. Marvel writer Marjorie Liu was the writer for the wedding issue and some issues prior, she had no awareness that she was to make the characters get married, but she did feature the couple in her prior books, and they were not the happy couple news outlets would claim them to be. In issue 50 of Astonishing X-Men NorthStar proposed to Kyle just after a fight the two had, Kyle did not respond favorably specifically saying “I’m sorry, but I can’t marry you. If I did… right now, as things stand… it would be a mistake for both of us.. . . You just want to put a band-aid on our problems.. . . Oh god. GOD. Sweetheart. Nothing about this situation is what I want. You would know that if you’d been listening to me.” (Astonishing X-men,2022) Kyle breaks up with NorthStar and the issue ends with NorthStar feeling regretful. The issue directly after that opens with wedding preparations with no explanation as to what happened to not only bring the two back together but to change Kyle’s mind on the topic of marriage (Astonishing X-men, 2022).

The situation left a bad taste in the reader’s mouth. To make matters worse after the wedding writers were unsure as to how to use NorthStar as they had no idea how to write his relationship because of its unclear status. If they wrote it as a toxic relationship, it would look like they did not support gay marriage, but there was very little story to be found within the marriage beyond the toxicity, so writers were stumped on how to move forward with either character. The two being X-Men characters made this even worse, because the X-Men became famous for the prevalence of drama in their stories. Barring NorthStar from ever partaking in this drama hurt the character in the long run. Despite its rocky start recent writers have tried to fix the relationship and their dynamic is relatively cute now, but the rocky start is still haunting them.

Same-Sex Superhero Weddings Then Vs Now

Even though NorthStar’s wedding was fraught with issues, just like his coming out it did open the door for other, arguably better gay weddings. After the relative success of NorthStar’s coming out, Marvel was much more willing to introduce new gay characters when the writers pitched them. Two very popular examples are the gay teen heroes Wiccan and Hulkling, who were introduced as a couple and have been one consistently ever since. Eventually in a 2020 event called Empyre. The marriage was integral to the plot, and it served as a major point of conflict resolution in an already thrilling plot. This wedding was received much more favorably than NorthStar and Kyle’s wedding and it has brought a lot of gay fans who want to feel represented in the superhero genre (Ewing, 2022).

By comparing the two weddings we can learn a lot about what gay stories are received more favorably by Gay people, and why they are preferred. The clearest difference between the two weddings is that in the case of Wiccan and Hulkling both characters are active heroes with fleshed-out stories and struggles. For NorthStar and Kyle, only NorthStar is a superhero, while on its own having a superhero marry a nonheroic character is not a problem but beyond NorthStar, Kyle does not have much of a personality, he works at NorthStar’s company and beyond his relationship, he has no clear personality (Astonishing X-men, 2022). Publisher and podcast host Connor Goldsmith weighed in on this topic on his podcast Cerebro "I cannot think of a single interesting character moment that NorthStar has gotten out of this relationship post-wedding . . . Lois Lane is basically a superhero she's like the best reporter of all time . . . She was a character who could appear on the news, she did things in the comics. The fact that he works for NorthStar means that even at his job he can't do something interesting by himself, it's all NorthStar related . . . He has nothing else going on." (Goldsmith, 2:49:42 episode 040, 2021). Connor’s thoughts here reflect the stance of many comic fans, The wedding should have been a moment for us to celebrate but it became more of a funeral for the Character than any sort of empowering piece of literary progress.

Another important difference between the two marriages is how they were built, NorthStar’s wedding was included at an unexpected time that felt off for the characters. Wiccan and Hulkling’s wedding in no way feels out of character or unexpected, the two characters had been dating for such a long time that this felt like a natural next step for them. And to the same extent that NorthStar being married made it harder to include him in books, Wiccan and Hulkling were married in a way that connected them to other characters and stories that are also prominent right now, giving them a great boost in story presence (Ewing, 2021). To many gay readers having NorthStar get married felt like saying goodbye to him, whereas Wiccan and Hulkling’s wedding is approached like a beginning. Still, in terms of long-term impact, the NorthStar wedding has a much larger long-term effect, despite its flaws it did mean a lot to see a published celebration of gay marriage when it was newly legalized and Hulkling and Wiccan would not have the opportunity to profess their love so publicly if it was not for this impact. The main takeaway from this discussion should be that the real reason diverse firsts are important and exciting is not because of their contents, but because they create the possibility of a second, third and fourth time which can each experiment and entertain in different ways previously unimaginable.

The Erasure of Disabled Struggles and Triumphs

Disabled people have also widely been left out of superhero comics, and the ones who are present have a very prevalent problem in common. Superheroes are at their core power fantasies, so many superhero writers have trouble with the concept of writing an inspirational character whose struggles are an unignorable and constant part of their lives. For most superheroes, their struggles are part of their origin story and moved past after the origin is finished. “Superhero narratives are written by the body. Flip through the pages of any tights and flight book, and you will observe rippling biceps, massive hamstrings, and chiseled faces, all fighting for your attention. Vulnerability—physical, emotional, or mental—is rarely represented” (Smith, Chapter 3, 2019). The intense physicality of superhero stories did not just make it harder for disabled characters to be in Superheroic roles, but it also impacted the attitudes and powers of the few disabled people who were included.

When Disabled superheroes are included, they rarely have a positive or accepting view of their disability without it invalidating the struggles of real people with disabled experiences. The characters Daredevil and Professor X are both great examples of disabled characters whose disabilities are represented in harmful or reductive ways. Professor X for example spends a lot of time hating his disabilities and trying to cure himself of his paralysis at all costs, and sometimes he is depicted as intrinsically miserable because of his disabled body. In the cases where Professor x was shown able to walk, he is sometimes depicted as lacking problems or struggles when he is out of his chair, but as soon as he is in any way disabled, he is miserable and much less heroic (Smith, Chapter 5, 2019). Daredevil on the other hand rarely acts upset by his disability and he rarely struggles with it at all. This is mostly because daredevil is hardly a disabled character at all. Daredevil is blind, but the writers have decided that he can see because he has very strong hearing and smell. In this way, they depict him as being able to be a hero because he does not struggle in the same way another blind person would (Smith, Chapter 3, 2019). These portrayals of disability as a source of unending despair push a very clear anti-disability message to the consumers and that has led to a lot of disabled fans of superheroes wanting better from the genre, the writers should not be trying to avoid associating their disabled characters with disabled people and their struggles, that goes against the main point of representation.

The Upsetting Relationship Between Superheroes and Women’s Bodies

The way women have been shown in Superhero media is easy to compare to other marginalized groups who have also struggled for inclusion, but one important distinction is that women have been present as superheroes a lot longer than other marginalized groups. This is because within the masculine power fantasy of super heroics male characters are almost always shown as desired sexually and romantically by women (Pennell, 2015). And this sometimes invited the inclusion of female superheroes, for the express purpose of propping up male characters and making them look cool. These female characters also would attract male readers who found them sexually desirable. Because of this, superheroic women were usually shown showing a lot more skin than male superheroes, and while men’s costumes were designed to reveal their muscles and make them look tough, women’s costumes accentuated their breasts, butts, and small waists (Pennell, 2015).

The most talked about a character who has fallen victim to this is probably Wonder Woman, after all, she is the first female superhero. Wonder Woman has been consistently designed to reflect what male readers want from her. Her outfits change frequently based on what is expected of women of the era the story is published in and she rarely gets a chance to remain consistent or define her identity in the way male superheroes do constantly (“Wonder Woman’s Costume”,2019). These double standards for superheroes based on their gender is in no way exclusive to Wonder Woman, and there are examples throughout all of Superhero history that can make this disparity clear.

The Bloodstone Family: An Example of Double Standards

In the pages of Marvel comics, there is a group of characters that I think operate as the perfect example of the double standards male and female characters face in superhero stories and how those double standards have changed over time. The characters in question are marvel’s Bloodstone family, a long-running dynasty of monster hunters who have been fighting monsters and demons for thousands of years. There have been 4 named members of the Bloodstone family in Marvel comics, which have each been established relatively far apart from each other and have risen to varying levels of prominence and recognition. 

The first member of the Bloodstone family was introduced in 1975 with the introduction of the first Bloodstone whose name was Ulysses. Ulysses as a character was never very remarkable, he was largely just a play on common British monster hunter tropes and profited off their success. He was a power fantasy in every sense of the word, and he was for sure sexualized but only in ways that would make straight male readers feel tough for reading it. In appearance, he was an incredibly muscular man with long blonde hair and an open shirt, and he was always standing in a dominant position with a weapon over his shoulder. He was very rich and had many mansions across the world which he filled with his trophies, and he was established to have had many wives over his long life during his publication no children were mentioned specifically but after he lost prominence it would be established that he had several, but only 3 of them have been named. Eventually, the character was killed off and he has not appeared alive since.

Marvel decided to reintroduce the Bloodstone brand in 2002 when monster-based media had suddenly become popular throughout the world, especially monster hunters. This rise in popularity is mostly accredited to the hit show Buffy the Vampire Slayer which had risen to popularity at the time. For this reason, Marvel decided to reboot the Bloodstone IP by establishing Ulysses’ daughter Elsa Bloodstone. They published a miniseries to introduce this new character, blatantly trying to capitalize on Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s success. This miniseries was unpopular for a few reasons, but the main reason is that the book was basically pornography. the main character Elsa was depicted as almost naked in nearly every scene with multiple close-up panels of her butt and breasts. Her personality was a play on the spunky bimbo type with her acting sassy yet naïve and flirty, she had no idea who her father was growing up and had no training skills or expertise (Abnett, 2001). All these things infuriated fans, and multiple feminist groups campaigning that the character gets permanently retired as it relied on objectification and misogyny to sell. Fans of the show Buffy the vampire slayer were also outraged, the Bloodstone mini was viewed as a mockery of the beloved franchise, and the desired success among young fans of the show was not achieved. Marvel ultimately decided to scrap planned projects containing this character. They initially did not plan on involving the Bloodstone IP further after this blunder, but fate intervened. 

In 2006 a comic writer by the name of Warren Ellis pitched a book called Nextwave which would focus on a team of characters that were not considered valuable or useful to the company, he requested to use Elsa Bloodstone and Marvel agreed under the condition that he completely rework the character to avoid controversy. Through Nextwave the Bloodstone miniseries became considered not canon and the new Elsa had a completely different design, backstory, personality, and skillset. The new Elsa had Bright orange hair styled in a high Ponytail which was much more noticeable to readers than the blonde hair she had before. Her outfit was also mostly orange with her shirt being an orange tank top crop top which still showed off her breasts and waist but in a much less scandalous manner, specifically hiding cleavage much more than the old design. She wore knee-high stilettos and wore a flowy grey trench coat (one that each of the Nextwave members wore to match). Rather than finding out about her father after his death, this version of Elsa had been raised by him almost exclusively, she had been trained since infancy to kill with a comedic page showing Ulysses demanding 3-month-old Elsa to slay an imprisoned beast with a baby spoon and later she was seen again as a baby being expected to circumcise an ogre using the same spoon, she completed both of these tasks successfully even as a baby and her training only made her stronger from there (while still traumatizing her irreparably). She was shown to be an expert in monster hunting and the most successful hunter in the world (Immonen, 2015). This character became much more popular among wider audiences, most of whom had never heard of the original Elsa or her father. This Elsa would go on to appear in many different books and raise in popularity significantly, she never had many solo titles but the ones that existed were received favorably by fans. However, throughout many of these appearances the problems with her objectification remained, she was oftentimes depicted still in skimpy outfits and drawn to be gawked at by male readers. But as she became included in titles written by women this became less of a problem over time but is still an issue in the comics to this day, but the 2006 retcon to the character was considered a massive improvement because it gave her agency, power, and status in the same way her father had been given by default.

On October 7th of 2022, Elsa Bloodstone received a live-action appearance within the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the Werewolf by Night Halloween special. The character is largely the same as the more common depictions of Elsa but with black hair and a much better outfit, she still wears her famous orange but this time on a leather jacket, and her stilettos were switched out for knee-high combat boots (Giacchino, 2022). Live-action Elsa is in no way objectified or sexualized and her journey is one of the central driving forces in the plot. Hopefully, the comic book character will follow suit.

The next Bloodstone to be introduced would be Elsa’s long-lost younger brother Cullen Bloodstone established around 2012. Cullen was quickly established to have a crush on his best friend Aiden Gillespie after his introduction. Cullen’s story mostly revolves around how the man he is in love with is straight and can never love him back (Walker, 2018). It is telling that the heterosexual female child of Ulysses is depicted in a very sex-focused manner, but Ulysses’ gay son is depicted as the opposite, a small angry nerd who is actively restricted from affection and sex. Even now Cullen is depicted as a bitter loner with no romantic or sexual appeal. Though Cullen was depicted as angry and lonely he was still partly defined by his relationship with attraction and attractiveness, having most of his defining moments centered around his unrequited pining. It is interesting and quite revealing that they were willing to depict a male character as unsexy when they refused to do so for a woman, but it is upsetting that they felt the need to make this gay character so defined by his loneliness and misery.

The most recent Bloodstone was introduced in 2022 by writer Tini Howard. Her name is Lyra Bloodstone, and she has only one appearance so far. Lyra Bloodstone is interesting in that she is one of the only female characters in Marvel who is not treated in a sexual or objectifying manner at any point. She wears a unique outfit with a blue blazer on with skulls on the buttons, and small circular stones hanging from her jet-black hair (Howard, 2022). Her outfit is cute and unique and she has been received very well by fans. Tini Howard and other female writers at Marvel have made a lot of progress in terms of the depictions of women in comics and their efforts can be noticed easily by looking at how Elsa was treated when she was introduced vs how Lyra was treated when she was introduced. The problems in this industry are still prominent but through hard work and care, they are being solved. And if Elsa’s amazing and empowering MCU introduction is any indicator the future looks bright.

Female Superheroes as Feminist Symbols

Even though older female heroes were rarely portrayed in a manner that was meant to empower or embolden women many feminist groups still used them as symbols of social change. Wonder Woman was especially used as an icon inspiring people to fight patriarchal norms and separate themselves from male oppression (Steinem, 2019). Among these feminists there was a tendency to separate the character from the content, usually ignoring the problematic stories she was part of and the misogynistic views of the men who made her in favor of their own version of the character. Eventually, the comic book and movie Wonder Woman began resembling the feminist version more and more increasing her use as a symbol for equality (Steinem, 2014). The mere concept of a woman in prominent fiction who was strong and brave and good was so new and exciting that it did not matter what else was true about her, feminists were going to turn her into a symbol for justice. Today it is still widely debated whether she should be used as a feminist symbol or if her problematic history is more relevant than the potential these feminists saw.

Conclusion

The media we consume can affect so much about our lives, and when the characters which reflect our real lives do so in insulting or derogatory manners it affects our self-esteem negatively. This will always disproportionately affect the downtrodden in our society so writers need to be conscious of how they portray marginalized characters and think about how they can use their voice to make positive change instead of negative change. There are so many examples of how superheroes alone have been used for both progress and oppression, and the people who create these works should never underestimate the power in their work.

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