"What are you looking at?"
Posted on 08/13/2002 4:47:15 PM PDT by USA21
Green Lantern Fights Gay-Bashing
NEW YORK (AP) - The comic book company that created Superman and Batman has a cutting-edge new story line: a gay teenager is the victim of a hate crime.
DC Comics' "Green Lantern" No. 154 hits newsstands in September — with main character Terry Berg beaten almost to death on a street.
Terry actually emerged as a gay character in 2001 in issue No. 137, which was cited by the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation ( news - web sites) as the year's best comic book. Terry is a sidekick to Kyle Rayner — aka Green Lantern — whose emerald ring gives him supernatural powers that keep New Yorkers safe.
"Terry came out because he had a crush on Kyle. Who wouldn't? He's tall, with all those muscles," says cartoonist Judd Winick, who created the gay character at the suggestion of DC comics editor Bob Schreck, also responsible for the "Batman" series.
Schreck "knew I'd be pretty sensitive to gay issues," says Winick, 32, who is married and lives in San Francisco.
He was a cast member of MTV's "Real World," a documentary-style show that detailed the lives of a group of people living in the same house.
Winick's "Real World" roommate was Pedro Zamora, a nationally known AIDS ( news - web sites) activist who died in 1994. Their friendship inspired Winick's comic-book story "Pedro and Me."
If there's a lesson in dropping gay issues into "Green Lantern," one of DC's flagship titles, "it might be that it would be great for young people to see that the Green Lantern doesn't care that Terry is gay. He's a person," says the cartoonist.
"Terry represents acceptance. And now, in this hate crime, we're discussing the worst side of the gay issue."
In issue No. 154, the teenager and his boyfriend are walking down the street when three men start yelling out a derogatory anti-gay word and chasing them. They catch up with Terry, who's brutally beaten.
Though he's a main character whose gay lifestyle is a running thread in the comic series, it's not the first time the comic book industry touches on gay issues.
The 1993 coming-out of Marvel Comics' Northstar, of the Canadian X-Men group Alpha Flight, was a sensation. X-Men characters Mystique and Destiny had an implied lesbian relationship, and the Green Lantern features lesbian supporting characters Lee and Li.
Personally, I don't think any Freeper could last a week on the real world. Normal men usually get kicked out of the house. ANd the only relatively normal males on that show are the black guys, and they get kicked out, too.
God, I despise MTV. It started out cool in the 80s, but all they do now is push the fag/freak/feminazi agenda. And I'm really disappointed in DC comics.
But don't you ever, ever compare the symbol of "TRUTH, justice and the AMERICAN way" to Bill Clinton.
Not Ever.
;-)
How about Johnny Storm, The Human Torch?
Every time he gets excited, he yells "Flame on!"
-PJ
"Didn't they also change the Green Lantern from a white guy into a black guy?" The premise was that the old Green Lantern retired and his young "ward" (wink, wink) replaced him. And we know who else has a "ward".
There have been six different Green Lanterns from earth (usually at least two or three at a time) and one of them is black (John Stewart). They picked Stewart to be on the new Justice League cartoon because they wanted a black, and they wanted to try a different spin on him. Stewart was NEVER a "ward."
How straight can a guy be who goes around in leotards and an opera cape? Is flying though the air without wings a subtle hint of being "light in the loafers"? It seems to me all these so-called "superheroes" are a bit lavender.
Trust me, if they were, most readers wouldn't touch them.
Lois loves Superman. He saves her from the bad guys, but he never even asked her for a date. Why do you suppose that is?
Lois and Superman are married. My biggest problem with comics these days are they are too sexual. Aquaman and Green Arrow have illegitmate kids, for pete's sake. Even Aqualad, Aquaman's "ward" had to get married.
I'm not gay, and you take comic books way too seriously.
I stopped following Superman before 1992. Straightened up did he? That's good. Any kids yet?
Salman, I'm sorry. I meant GUYS. I really did. I don't know why I said "gays." I wasn't referring to just you. Every time comic books come up, all these smartalec gay comments pop up about Batman and Robin, etc., and it bugs me.
Really. I meant guys. (Sheesh. I gotta get a life.)
Sorry.
True, Ace and Gary, the Ambiguously Gay Duo, have been fighting that fight for years...
far sider, male lesbian
Ah, the only slightly amusing "Real World" there ever was. Puck made idiots of both of these twerps.
"What are you looking at?"
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