DC and Marvel celebrate Pride with queer superheroes

What better way to celebrate the month of Pride than with super queer super heroes? Marvel and DC are paying homage to LGBTQ+ fans across the globe.

DC and Marvel superheroes celebrate Pride
Image: Images from DC and Marvel's websites

Pop culture guru David Ferguson is back with a look at the Pride offerings from DC and Marvel.

DC and Marvel have made a lot of noise in relation to LGBTQ+ characters in the last year. The unveiling of a bisexual Superman in an image released on National Coming Out Day 2021 caused a furore of excitement from fans and parts of the media. It was the character of Jon Kent, son of Clark Kent, who came out. The released image showed Kent kissing reporter Jay Nakamura in an interesting twist on his father’s relationship with the reporter, Lois Lane. You’ll be able to catch his adventures in Superman: Son of Kal-El.

This comes after Robin (Tim Drake) was revealed to be bisexual last summer, with a new chapter in his story being released this month as part of the DC Pride collection. A much more recent development from this year is that Conor Hawke (son of Green Arrow) is asexual. This is detailed in an eight-page story, Think of Me, and in this year’s DC Pride anthology. 

Marvel’s Pride contribution comes in the form of a Marvel Voices: Pride 2022. In 2021, we saw the debut of a new character Somnus, who has since been added to the X-Men book Mauraders. He is being written by the queer writer Steve Orlando but he is far from the only LGBTQ+ character on the team. 

Marvel is also promising the release of another new character in this year’s anthology – and this character will be sticking around. Marvel Voices will also bring with it the return of the Young Avengers, a team that features a number of queer characters, one of whom made her MCU debut in Doctor Strange 2.

 

Both DC and Marvel will be releasing their Pride Anthologies with limited-edition rainbow covers.

A recent wholesome tweet from Kevin Conroy, the actor most well-known for his role as Batman in Batman: The Animated Series, has thanked fans for their response to his story in this year’s DC Pride anthology. Conroy wrote a personal story called ‘Finding Batman’, detailing how his portrayal of Batman made him more confident living as a gay man. 

The coming-out story was drawn by J Bone and lettered by Aditya Bidikar. DC announcing Conroy’s involvement in the book led to the discovery by a lot of fans that Kevin Conroy is gay, something that he revealed in a 2016 New York Times interview.

You can check out more of David Ferguson’s pop culture musings here.

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