Marvel Comics announced that the “X-Men’s†openly gay member, Northstar, will propose to his boyfriend in “Astonishing X-Men #50â€, which hits stores Wednesday. It’s the latest in a trend of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender-friendly storylines in the medium. Click below to find out more.
The pair will make it official in the next issue, in a same-sex wedding in Central Park that has a who’s who of super heroes on the guest list. Northstar, aka Jean-Paul Beaubier, already became one of the first openly gay super heroes in mainstream comics, having come out in a 1992 issue.
“When a major comic publisher like Marvel not only includes, but publicly celebrates, the legal wedding of two of its gay characters, it reflects how supporting same-sex couples has become the new normal,” said GLAAD President Herndon Graddick. “Readers expect to see their realities portrayed in these fictional worlds and today that includes married gay and lesbian couples.”
Marvel senior vice president and exectutive editor Tom Brevoort says the company was planning Northstar’s nuptuals long before President Obama’s move on same sex marriage earlier this month.
“The real event that put the qustion on our radar was a year ago in June when New York state legalized gay marriage,†says Brevoort. “A lot of our Marvel super heroes live in and around New York City so it just immediately became an issue we started thinking about.”
Marvel’s bombshell news comes just days after Dan DiDio, the editor in chief of rival DC Comics, made the cryptic disclosure at a London comic convention that one of DC’s characters would soon bust his or her way out of the closet. The secret identity of the gay hero will be shrouded in mystery until the company unveils it next month, but its not expected to be one of the publisher’s top tier that includes Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman.
