It’s taken a while, but comic books are finally beginning to reflect the diversity of every day life. True, many heroes are still white, straight, American males in their 30’s and 40’s, but men and women from all walks of life are now leading their own comic book series.
Unfortunately, superhero movies still have a lot of catching up to do. Millions flock to theatres every time a new comic book movie is released, so basically every day, yet how many cinema-goers actually see their own lives reflected on the big screen?
We live in a world where female superheroes are still perceived to be box office poison by many Hollywood executives. If 50% of the population still have to fight to be represented in comic book movies, what chance do LGBT audiences have of ever seeing a gay superhero succeed at the box office?
This is not about shoehorning LGBT characters into movies needlessly, and it’s certainly not about promoting a political agenda. At the end of the day, superheroes are there to pull us out of our daily lives and inspire people. Comic books feature a huge range of relevant and exciting LGBT heroes that could easily work on the silver screen, and to pretend that sexual diversity doesn’t even exist sends out a damaging message to the millions of people who obsess over these movies.
Marvel’s head honcho Kevin Feige claims that their cinematic universe will feature a LGBT character soon… although it’s hard to imagine a more vague outline, so let’s give him and other Hollywood bigwigs a few ideas.
Join us as we count down 10 LGBT superheroes that we want to see up on the big screen in the near future.