Pride Month is currently at its peak and is celebrated around the world and here in Israel with a variety of events and parades. Even in the world of comics, which is known as a breach of conventions and paves the way for quite a few changes, Pride Month is an opportunity to highlight quite a few characters who have come out of the closet and proudly declared that they are part of the LGBT community.
To name all the tidal characters would be a difficult task (DC alone has 94 heroines and heroes who came out of the closet one way or another) so we chose a number of prominent characters, who you may not know were part of the community. One name that did not make the list is John Kent, the son of Superman Clark Kent, who was introduced as a bisexual last October.
1. Wonder Woman
Already with her first appearances, Wonder Woman’s name has been associated with the proud community, mainly because of the many allusions planted in her plots by the character’s creator William Marston. However, after his death in 1947, DC chose to downplay the allusions and made it a slightly more “traditional” character. Only towards the end of the 80s did the character’s plots return to hints of her true sexual orientation.
From the Israeli angle, actress Gal Gadot has previously spoken out on the subject and was open to the idea of presenting Diana as a lesbian, especially in light of her years in the company of women only on the Amazon island, but did not limit her love to women only. In 2016 the character was canonically portrayed as bisexual.
2. Homelander
The main villain of the series “THE BOYS”, which is also based on comics from DC, is presented as a straight in the series, but according to the canon he is not completely straight but bisexual. It now remains to be seen if one day he will also be portrayed as such in the series.
3. Peace-Maker
Christopher Smith, a pacifist diplomat who is committed to the idea of peace to an extreme level, which leads him to act violently under his altrago. The cinematic version of the character is played by John Cena, who played her both in the movie “Suicide Squad” and in the “Peace-Maker” series, in which he starred in the lead role. Without revealing spoilers about the plot of the series, towards the end of the first season it was revealed that Smith defines himself as bisexual.
The idea was suggested, by the way, by John Cena. On this the creator of the series James Gunn said: “John made the character of Pismaker an open sexuality. I was surprised, but I guess it makes sense that this guy would not be one-dimensional.” Cena himself said that during the research on the character he realized that “a pacemaker would be willing to do anything to some degree”.
4. Mysticism
The mutant that can change its shape to look like any person you want was introduced as early as 1978 in Marvel’s X-Men plots. Unfortunately, the company refused to show it at the same time as a lesbian, as it was then banned under U.S. comic book laws. A plot line in which she will change herself into a man in order to have sex with her partner at the same time (Destiny), which will lead to the birth of the superhero Nightcrawler.
From the Wikipedia page of the character “Mystic” (Photo: 1939-2022 Marvel Characters, illustration by: Shannon Maer)5. Halkling
A member of the “Young Avengers” and the partner of the Mottano Vikan, Theodore “Teddy” Rufus Altman is an alien from the Scroll race, who grew up on Earth. As part of his abilities, he is able to impersonate others and mimic the abilities of the green giant. Throughout the plot, Halkling and his partner retired from the Young Avengers group to develop their relationship, but were forced to return to save Vikan’s brother – Speed. The relationship between the two is even considered one of the most notable at Marvel for gay superheroes.