Comic Book Heroes Never Really Die

Comic Book Heroes Never Really Die, by Nick Feitel and Michael Lipkin at gcn.com: "For years, comic books have dealt with issues fantastic and foreign, from alien invasions to demonic possessions. Comic books have long been symbolic of the wildest and most daring dreams of our culture, pushing the boundaries and imaginations of young boys and asking them to think big. But in this excellent and increasingly lauded medium, in a format that can acknowledge the whole universe, there has been historically little room for homosexuality.

Recently, DC Comics made news when it announced that the new Batwoman, Kate Kane, would be rewritten as a “lipstick lesbian” for their best-selling series “52.” Akin to the playboy lifestyle of Bruce Wayne (Batman), Kane would have numerous romantic entanglements with women. What was so shocking about the announcement, however, was not that an LGBT character—the most prominently featured one to date in the comic world—would be appearing in the seemingly sacrosanct pages of DC, but that this portrayal was considered to be honest."