Superman is bisexual now!

19-10-2021 4:00pm

God you are calling my bluff there a little as while I know a few - there are many people here who would PM you a lot better suggestions than I can give you. My knowledge is relatively limited. The Walking dead original GN was good. V for Vendetta was a good GN. Hellboy was really good too - to the point I still cant work out how all the movies were so objectively awful :) The Sandman by Neil Gamon is up there too.

19-10-2021 4:02pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118043001#Comment_118043001

Ha. No worries man. Thats plenty to work off. Will give them a look. Thank you.

FunLover18 · 19-10-2021 5:10pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118042935#Comment_118042935

I think that's too nuanced a discussion for boards though :D but I'll give it a go; it's only seen as either pandering or empowering because Superman (even if it is Jon Kent) is one of the most iconic superheoes, the "S" logo has to be one of the most recognisable symbols in the world, so personally even though I don't read the comics and have no intention of reading them, I think it is a big deal for that symbol to be worn by a member of the LGBT community. As has been mentioned this has been done with other characters but Superman is by far the biggest superhero to be LGBT and it is a new version of the character, ie not Clark. I think it says a lot though they didn't make him homosexual, as a bisexual they can still have love stories with the opposite gender which may go towards keeping certain people somewhat satisfied. At the same time there is of course an element of pandering (for lack of a better word), the world is diverse and the big corporations are slowly learning that diversity sells and that's all they care about in the endgame. I don't know if it will last but I think it's a step towards normalising these issues and hopefully we can get to a point where it won't be a big deal.

Wibbs · 19-10-2021 5:11pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118042105#Comment_118042105

I like Doom Patrol myself. It's the only superhero genre thing I would watch(though the latest episodes are not so good in my humble). It's wonderfully bonkers on a few levels.

19-10-2021 5:13pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118043385#Comment_118043385

Any chance of a cliff notes or a jump on point? Sounds interesting

Wibbs · 19-10-2021 5:19pm

It's about a group of superheroes, anti superheroes really who are forced to work together as a group by a mad scientist fighting various oddball foes. They don't really like each other much, their superpowers are not the usual and each one of them is a Freudian wet dream and the stuff they come up against would tax Salvador Dali's imagination. It's very quirky. Put it this way one of the foes they encounter are a swarm of arses with legs and teeth and one of their friends is a Gay street/village who is reduced to a single brick after he had a bad day.

19-10-2021 6:03pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118043385#Comment_118043385

I'm not up to speed on season 3 yet. Legion sounds like it might be similarly interesting, just haven't gotten to it.

EmmetSpiceland · 19-10-2021 7:11pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118042574#Comment_118042574

That’s it. Seems to be an “issue” for those who don’t have a problem with the LGBTQI+ people, just with how they are promoted. Aren’t racist, just don’t agree with how racism is being fought. Have no problem with feminism just with vocal women calling for equality.

And so on and so forth.

19-10-2021 7:27pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118043445#Comment_118043445

Well **** me. I'm sold.

CGI_Livia_Soprano · 19-10-2021 8:03pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118044156#Comment_118044156

It looks to me like homosexuals are your “kryptonite.”

19-10-2021 8:11pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118044342#Comment_118044342

I wish.

Nah. I've no issue where anyone wants to put their privates as long as it's legal and consensual.

It's the people who falsely shout bigot is what my kryptonite is.

gmisk · 19-10-2021 8:19pm

https://www.theonion.com/bisexual-superman-ruins-comic-for-fan-who-preferred-smo-1847848016

Haha

Potential-Monke · 19-10-2021 8:33pm

Gotta love boards for picking and choosing certain sentences and making your own mind up about the meaning of it.

I may not have read the comics, but I loved the animated series based on them. And at no point, do I remember anything sexual being front and centre in any of them. Yes, the women were sexualised in appearance, but everything was in the 90s across all media. Some characters may have kissed even. But I don't remember any of that, I remember the fights, the detective work, the good guys beating the bad guys. That's what superhero comics should be about, because they're superheroes, not real, we don't need to see their daily struggles because comics/cartoons should be escapism.

Re: The Last of Us, I haven't played it because, as I said, I believe

they kill Joel half way through, and he's the character I want to play as. So you apparantly play the rest of the game as Ellie, who for some reason has this big lesbian relationship taking front and centre in the middle of a fecking zombie apocalypse.

First game was narrative driven, but was still good. I'm not hearing the same about the second. I want a game to play a game, not remind me of how crap life is. Same in all my entertainment, I want escapism, not reminders of reality. Same if Kratos gets killed off in God of War and Atreus takes over, I most likely will stop playing, because I play those games to play as Kratos. If it's not Kratos, it's not God of War imo.

And I've already said, I don't care what sexual orientation or otherwise characters are, just make them that, but don't make that the centre of the story, which is exactly what is happening. Making a big hoohah about their sex, imo, makes sure people realise it's different, rather than just being and getting on with it. As people said, aimed at teens and young adults, so why get hung up on the sexuality. Just be whatever and do superhero stuff. Not much to ask. But I see this requirement for everything to be based on reality these days. Pah! It's why anime is way better than cartoons anyway.

Wibbs · 19-10-2021 8:37pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118044164#Comment_118044164

😂 I did say it was quirky.

FunLover18 · 19-10-2021 8:42pm

Superhero stories have dealt with daily struggles in the past, Spider-Man is always struggling to balance his vigilantism with his love life/studies, basing these characters in real life and give them daily struggles is what makes them relatable.

Ten of Swords · 19-10-2021 8:42pm

@EmmetSpiceland and @[Deleted User] drop it and move on please

CGI_Livia_Soprano · 19-10-2021 8:43pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118044528#Comment_118044528

“And at no point, do I remember anything sexual being front and centre in any of them. Yes, the women were sexualised in appearance, but everything was in the 90s across all media.”

So nothing was sexualised, except every woman depicted but that’s grand? What? Utter rubbish.

19-10-2021 8:47pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118044564#Comment_118044564

There's quirky and then there's QUIRKY. I'll certainly be doing my research (in incognito mode)

Penn · 19-10-2021 9:02pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118044528#Comment_118044528

You seem to want comics to be something they haven't been in about 50-60 years. They always use a mix of "super" and "human" in their storylines. Same with TV shows, movies etc. You cant just have 'good guy punches bad guy' because that's f*cking boring after a while. Hell even look at the old Batman cartoon from the 90's, it had some amazingly rich, complex and human stories.

Also, there's no indication they're using his sexuality as a huge part of the story, simply that he starts dating another guy. The reason it's gotten so much traction in news is because he's Superman's son. There are numerous LGBT characters already and it's not a big deal.

the_syco · 19-10-2021 9:19pm

Superman is flying around one day when he spots Wonder Woman laying on the beach butt naked. He thinks to himself "I'm faster than a speeding bullet, I could fly down there, take care of my business and be gone before she can blink an eye". So he swoops in, does his thing and disappears into the sky. Sensing the commotion, Wonder Woman cries out "What was that?". Invisible Man replies " I don't know, but all of the sudden my ass hurts".

So you're saying Superman enjoyed it a hole lot more than usual?

Potential-Monke · 19-10-2021 9:29pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118044608#Comment_118044608

I'm sorry if 12 year old me didn't cop on to that. He was more interested in the fights... Christ on a bike, you'd swear kids are super intelligent and hyper aware. If everything was sexualised so it was the norm, how can a kid pick that out?

Why can't cartoons be cartoons and leave the real life crap out of it! I don't remember any of that. Maybe people are just smarter and better than me?

Fuk it, i'm out.

MrStuffins · 20-10-2021 11:00am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118044390#Comment_118044390

Starts a thread saying subject is not worthy of discussion

Still discussing subject entire week later 😂

mondeo · 20-10-2021 1:17pm

Batman will come out of his cave soon to with news on his sexuality, Robin wasn't just a side kick.

Dyr · 20-10-2021 7:58pm

I see the colourist for the superbi comic has now quit DC because he's sick of them ruining characters.

20-10-2021 8:32pm

Which characters have they ruined though? I have not followed the comics for a few decades :) Bearing in mind that this thread is about a relatively new character. So how can you "Ruin" a character not that established?

On a completely unrelated note I just watched the movie where Batman meets the Teenage Mutant Turtles tonight with my 7 year old son. It was actually really good. A good mix of dark and funny.

Surprised at least one of the turtles has not come out as gay or bi yet. My guess if they ever do it it will be Raph or Leo, not Mike or Don.

FunLover18 · 20-10-2021 8:35pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118049928#Comment_118049928

https://bleedingcool.com/comics/gabe-eltaeb-not-coloring-superman-son-of-kal-el-5-after-dc-comments/

Sounds like a very sensible guy, DC supposedly don't have the right to tell new stories about their own characters.

jill_valentine · 20-10-2021 9:08pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118047567#Comment_118047567

It's funny you say that.

One of the things that kicked off the moral panic in the 1950s, and subsequent censorship drive, about comics was a crackpot's book called "Seduction of the Innocent" -

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seduction_of_the_Innocent

He was absolutely obsessed with what he imagined was homosexual subtext everywhere*, particularly in Batman and Robin, which he thought was turning kids gay. He manipulated and altered research to shore up his notions, and it was eventually picked up by some political noisemakers. The Comics Code wound up coming about for fear the government would enforce censorship on publishers if they didn't volunteer to do it first.

In the meantime though, one of the ways DC tried to distance themselves from the "Batman's gay for Robin" allegation was to invent a new love interest for Batman, Batwoman. She never quite took off and was mostly sidelined fairly quickly, but when the character name was revived a few years ago they figured turnabout was fair play and that's why Batwoman's now a lesbian, it's a kind of elaborate comic history in-joke.

*Wertham had a load of other crackpot theories about other comics too, but to be fair to him he was accidentally right about Wonder Woman's association with bondage.

And to be fair to Wonder Woman again, there were far more explicit fetish comics on the go before she came along anyway - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nights_of_Horror

buried · 20-10-2021 10:31pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118050476#Comment_118050476

You seem to be very knowledgeable on the history of comic books J, is this a subject that you have a general interest in?

Dyr · 20-10-2021 10:45pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118050204#Comment_118050204

If bleeding cool are doing a hit piece on him then he probably is a very sensible guy. He must have lost his ethnic diversity armour and is now a bigot 😂

buried · 20-10-2021 10:55pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118050204#Comment_118050204

A lot of the characters that 'DC' "own" have no claim to the actual origin and genesis of the characters that the actual Creators of those character's wrote, imagined and created. Ask Alan Moore. DC just want to own the image and the brand. The 'Character' doesn't come into it.

FunLover18 · 20-10-2021 11:07pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118051150#Comment_118051150

I'm not going to debate the true ownership of the characters, Disney are currently fighting a lawsuit against the children of Steve Ditko and other comic creators about a similar thing. But DC own the copyright and they make Superman comics so they absolutely have the right to do a story with a bisexual Superman (not Clark Kent btw so who owns Jon Kent is a completely different discussion), Eltaeb's claim that they don't is nonsense, he's just whinging because they're doing something with the character he doesn't like.

Dyr · 21-10-2021 12:51am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118051150#Comment_118051150

Stop, you'll have this poor person defending the way the comic book companies screwed over creators at that rate. 😂 It ironic that these people always find themselves on the sides of the corporations

I pointed it out earlier in this thread, that the only that arguments the bleeding cool types make are reliant on them preteding to be literal or obtuse to an autistic degree. Once you realise that you start seeing how silly it all sounds.

FunLover18 · 21-10-2021 1:20am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118051446#Comment_118051446

The way comic book companies screwed over creators is irrelevant and off topic and I absolutely wouldn't defend it but if saying "I don't mind that a version of Superman is bisexual" = taking the side of big corporations, then fine, so be it.

jill_valentine · 21-10-2021 2:02am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118051013#Comment_118051013

Yeah, I used to be a huge Marvel nerd, when comics were cheaper and I had much more disposable income, lol. That branched out a little from there, but I'll always have a place in my heart for old school X Men... I do find the whole history of comics interesting, in a wikipedia rabbit hole kinda way, because a lot of the figures involved had surprisingly nuts real lives.

I'm out of the loop now, but I still keep a toe in the water a pick up a random trade paperback now and then.

storker · 24-10-2021 10:38am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118047567#Comment_118047567

Batman taking a Bat-dom from his utility belt. Of course, it has a bat silhouette on the wrapper...

Superman is bisexual now!

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