The Outhouse - The Greatest Comic Book Forum

by **LOLtron** » Fri Jul 24, 2009 5:55 pm

Once again I complain about the claims of racial agendas, this time with contrived homos! Hey look, gay and black superhero Josiah Power!

by **MrBlack** » Fri Jul 24, 2009 7:03 pm

I hope Marvel does turn Wolverine gay. It would shake things up at least.

by **Starlord** » Sat Jul 25, 2009 12:15 am

I'd kill for a gay Wolverine, just to see all those macho geeks suddnenly have a spasm and fall over. LOL!

Seriously though, excellent articile. Probably pone of the most enjoyable I've read in the years that I've been here. Really gave me pause.

Thank you.

by **Greg** » Sat Jul 25, 2009 12:16 am

starlord wrote:I'd kill for a gay Wolverine, just to see all those macho geeks suddnenly have a spasm and fall over. LOL!

Seriously though, excellent articile. Probably pone of the most enjoyable I've read in the years that I've been here. Really gave me pause.

Thank you.

Wow, that actually means a lot, Brian. And no, thank you.

by **fieldy snuts** » Sat Jul 25, 2009 1:47 am

MrBlack wrote::lol:

I hope Marvel does turn Wolverine gay. It would shake things up at least.

daken is the closest we'll get to that. he's bi.

by **vinnypic** » Sat Jul 25, 2009 8:21 am

shit Greg, fantastic read!

by **Greg** » Sat Jul 25, 2009 8:50 am

I'm glad you enjoy it, Vinny!

by **Punchy** » Sat Jul 25, 2009 8:52 am

I honestly don't think it matters, is Shatterstar now a better or worse character because he's gay? No, he's just as lame as always. Rictor is interesting, because he was previously shown to be involved with Wolfsbane.

The best gay character in comics is Wallace Wells from Scott Pilgrim, because he's hilarious and interesting, regardless of what he does with his dick. Karolina from Runaways too, as well as Daken, who is bi-sexual. I also like Apollo and Midnighter. Renee Montoya was a great character, we got to know her regardless of sexuality first, and then learnt it, pity Rucka fucked it up by making her a superhero.

I really don't like characters like Batwoman or Hulkling and Wiccan who seem to have no personality beyond their sexuality, they have the potential to be interesting, but they need more than sex. Northstar used to be the same, but Fraction seems to be developing him into something more than a token.

I can't believe the use of Black characters is still controversial in this day and age, I mean, I made jokes about Dwayne's JLA being a response to Dark Avengers, but it was just jokes.

by **MrBlack** » Sat Jul 25, 2009 9:30 am

Punchy wrote:I honestly don't think it matters, is Shatterstar now a better character because he's gay? No, he's just as lame as always.

The best gay character in comics is Wallace Wells from Scott Pilgrim, because he's hilarious, regardless of what he does with his dick.

I can't believe the use of Black characters is still controversial in this day and age, I mean, I made jokes about Dwayne's JLA being a response to Dark Avengers, but it was just jokes.

It's really silly. It doesn't matter whether a character is gay, straight, black, white, or Dutch (well, maybe if they're Dutch).

Three of my favorite "new" characters have been Jason Rusch (Firestorm), Jaime Reyes (Blue Beetle), and Ryan Choi (the Atom). Their ethnicities had nothing to do with me liking them because it was just a part of each character. What made me like them was the fact that all of their books were really well written and enjoyable. Likewise, I liked many of the characters in Manhunter just because Andreyko made them real, three dimensional people (although it did get a little over the top towards the end, when Kate was pretty much the only non-homosexual in the book).

If the stories are good, who cares?

by **John Q.** » Sat Jul 25, 2009 9:37 am

nice article man, you pointed out a lot of things that have annoyed me for quite a while.

by **SaturnKnight** » Sat Jul 25, 2009 3:42 pm

Best article I've read on The Outhouse yet.

Will comment in greater detail tonight or tomorrow. I look forward to reading more of your work.

by **Greg** » Sat Jul 25, 2009 3:45 pm

Yeesh, guys, seriously, thanks, heh heh. Spread it around to anyone who's interests it'd peak or those pesky nay-sayers still.

by **Old Man** » Sat Jul 25, 2009 8:29 pm

Quoting from the article:

"Now if you’ve followed my writing for this comic column way back around the time I first started, you’d know I’ve written a piece a while back about my frustration with a lot of comic readers due to feeling that black characters were being created or added to books simply to serve an agenda, especially if it were more than one black character."

Bluntly, if I owned a site, and somebody posted crap about too many black characters being introduced, I'd ban them. Well, maybe after a few tries at reasonable discussion trying to show the idiot poster why he is wrong. And I said idiot in lieu of saying bigot, because I figure there must be a few people who are just thinking incorrectly or are dense.

Comic book companies are stupit (intentional misspelling) if they don't try to appeal to as broad an audience as possible. We straight, white males are not the only audience with money. (Well, I'm old now, and it isn't as straight as it used to be. TMI?)

I look at it mathematically. The last census numbers I saw stated that Hispanics are 14% of the population, Blacks are 13%. There must be another percentage of minorities. Half the population is Female. 100-14-13-1=72% Half of that is 36%. That's 36% of the population that is white male. If the percentage of GLBT people is 8%, that's nearly another 3% from 36%, leaving roughly 33%. (36% times 92%=33.12%) And I do realize the percentage of GLBT might be higher or lower because of incomplete canvassing methods. Work with me here.

So the potential straight, white male audience for comic books (and most any product) is 33%. A company would be denying itself a huge amount of money by marketing a product to a limited sales base.

As to my personal opinion about minority characters, I really don't give a s**t as long as the comic tells a good story. My list of favorite characters is long, but somewhere near the top is Midnighter.