The Rawhide Kid

[Dano]

http://www.cnn.com/2002/SHOWBIZ/12/09/rawhide.kid.gay/index.html

Marvel Comics unveils their first openly gay title hero.  

A kids comic featuring a gay cowboy who shoots people with guns.

It'll be the first Christian Coalition - American Indian Movement - Gun Control alliance in history.  

I'm sure they're not doing it for the publicity though.

[J.R.]

I'm sure they're not doing it for the publicity though.

Oh, good heavens, no! They're only reintroducing a character that hasn't been seen since the 50's into a sagging comic market, they don't need publicity!

He's not the first major gay character. Batman keeps a young boy in a cave under his house.

[Squishy]

And there's that whole Captain America/Bucky thing. And Sandman and Sandy. A minor WWII character--the Shield, I think--had TWO little boys, named (I kid you not) Yank and Doodle. Oh my stars and garters!

(Okay: "gay" does not equal "pedophile"--but geez, old-timey superheroes are f***ed up. Even without the gay jokes, they took unarmed kids into the middle of gunfights. At least Plastic Man and Green Lantern had adult sidekicks, and Captain Marvel and Billy Batson were the same person, I guess...but, dang. There's a "nice" '40s reprint somewhere out there where Batman goes crazy-ape-bonkers when Robin gets his dead caved in with a gun butt. Blood dribbling out of Robin's nose and mouth, Batman cries out "He's dead! ROBIN'S BEEN CLUBBED TO DEATH!!" How's that for sick? Batman proceeds to take six bullets in the chest before beating the bad guy to near-death with his fists. Naturally, both he and Robin make a full recovery--!!--and the doctor who patches them up doesn't even peek under the masks.)

The referenced article mentions "North Star"--Northstar, actually, but whatever--who was probably the first "openly gay" superhero in DC or Marvel's comics...and his history is pretty funny.

Oh, what brave plans Marvel had for him. When he first appeared, he was in the Canadian superhero team called Alpha Flight (currently, he's an X-Men member), and in issue eight of the original run of "Alpha Flight," his lover was murdered, sending him on a mission of revenge.

Except Marvel's editor-in-chief got cold feet--so the relationship was squirreled away and covered up. If you "read between the lines"--literally, in the narrative blurbs--you would see things like how his mentor/lover "taught him not to be afraid of certain feelings," but nothing outright.

Then Northstar got AIDS.

No, really. He was coughing his lungs up every five minutes and thinking about "the disease attacking (my) immune system!!"

Except Marvel's editor-in-chief got cold feet--so Northstar was turned into an elf.

No, really. He was written up as an elf from Asgard, Thor's "heaven"--who got amnesia or something, thought himself to be a human mutant, and was dying because he was away from Asgard too long.  

Then Northstar woke up one morning and Bobby Ewing was in the shower.

No, really (sort of). That entire storyline turned out to be a dream. He wasn't an elf after all, but a mutant human. As for the AIDS...well, like the guy in "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" says: "It got better." Why would he dream of being an Asgardian elf? Um, I think we got that answered...

I had quit reading Marvel by this time, and it wasn't until a while later--after Marvel changed editors-in-chief--that I saw a news article about Northstar actually and decisively coming out of the closet, while beating the crap out of a supervillian who was "executing" homosexuals. Now people hate him because he's a mutie AND he's gay.

Let's see the Rawhide Kid top that. Oh, he's SO "Village People"... :)

[Mofo Rising]

Well, let's hope they pander to homosexuals with all the same wit, warmth and respect they use to pander to heterosexuals.  I mean gay men have been deprived all these years, with nothing to go on but big muscly men in skin tight outfits and questionable attachment to young boys.  When you get down to the heart of the matter, what's been missing is flamboyancy and witty remarks about interior decorating and showtunes.  That's what it's like in real life, right?  Just like an episode of WILL & GRACE, but with cowboys.

Honestly, I was trying to picture the audience for the book and couldn't see it.  Hooper and Banky from CHASING AMY.  That's it, and I doubt they would even buy it.  Maybe a few gay men will pick it up for a lark, but who needs the hassle of walking into the faux machismo of your average comic shop to pick it up?  So it's all just a gimmick.  At least it's done in a tasteful manner.

Marvel you've done it again!

[J.R.]

The thing that always gets me is that when a character, comic book, TV show, whatever, is gay, there's a big broo-ha-ha, and it's widely publicized. If being gay really isn't a big deal, why is it made one? If you have to make a character gay, why not just make him like all the other characters, just gay, and act like nothing's changed?

[Dano]

JR wrote:  The thing that always gets me is that when a character, comic book, TV sshow, whatever, is gay, there's a big broo-ha-ha, and it's widely publicized. If being gay really isn't a big deal, why is it made one? If you have to make a character gay, why not just make him like all the other characters, just gay, and act like nothing's changed?
*****  JR, I suspect the answer is some people think they can capitalize on homosexuality to create a buzz - which is important in the entertainment business.  Problem (for the entertainment industry) is that I don't think it's all that big a deal to most people.  Some far right wing groups (and "parents groups" in the case of a comic book) get in a tizzy, but most of the population (even gay people) aren't going to watch or read just because Falwell tells them not to.  

Ellen Degenerous's show was sinking fast so she tried to cash in on the fact that she likes boobies.  And her show continued to sink - not because America hates gay people... but because her show sucked and was going under anyway.  Meanwhile, Will&Grace is a good show (or so I'm told by my wife - I don't watch it myself) and apparently it kicks ass in the ratings.  Not because gay buzz, but because of the writing and acting.

Personally, I don't think boys age 7-15 (Marvel's target audience, I would guess) will get into a gay comic book character.  I see a failure to grasp grammar school culture on the part of Marvel.  I imagine we'll either see a quick demise of the Rawhide Kid, or some hysterically fancy footwork like that described by Squishy in the case of Northstar.  Makes me glad I don't read comic books.

[JohnL]

>I don't think it's all that big a deal to most people.

I think it depends on how explicit they make it. If a character is just gay, that's ok, but I don't think a lot of the straight male audience really wants to watch two guys swapping spit or getting hot and sweaty together. I'm not sure women want to watch that either. At least guys like watching two women together.

[Dano]

I think it depends on how explicit they make it. If a character is just gay, that's ok, but I don't think a lot of the straight male audience really wants to watch two guys swapping spit or getting hot and sweaty together. I'm not sure women want to watch that either. At least guys like watching two women together.
*****  Yeah.  As a heterosexual, watching two guys grope around and kiss is a turn off.  Since the large majority of Americans are heterosexuals, a majority will be turned off by that.  And hence ratings will go in the toilet and the show would get cancelled or the movie will flop.  But being turned off by gay sex doesn't make a people bigoted against gays.  

As for comic books, when I have kids I would hope that the comic books they read don't have homosexuals OR heterosexuals swapping spit or getting hot and sweaty together.

[Megafury]

I'm still going to try to buy this just to see how marvel deals with gay characters for today's market. Being gay is just having different taste, I never try to see it as a big deal like the news does.

[Mofo Rising]

Dano wrote:
>
> As for comic books, when I have kids I would hope that the
> comic books they read don't have homosexuals OR heterosexuals
> swapping spit or getting hot and sweaty together.
>
>

Not all comic books are aimed at children.  I don't presume that Marvel is pitching Rawhide Kid at a children's market.

At any rate, there is a comic genre in Japan known as yaoi, which is comics featuring gay men who have sex with each other.  Yaoi comics actually have a large female following, for reasons I am not sure of.

[J.R.]

That reminds me of a Japanese video game called Choaniki: The Great Brother. The main character is a naked guy that flies around shooting enemies with penis missiles. He can power up and hop on the back of another guy.