Alright, before I get into this post I'm going to point out a few things:

- I no longer follow such comics and I get most of my information via a friend who still does and various secondary sources.
- I know that both makers have become notorious for doing this to just about every character at some stage or another, and that those killed are usually brought back to life in a couple of years.

Right now with that out of the way i'll begin. There has been a very distinguishable link betwee a number of homosexual heroes within both comics in the recent years and their various fates, namely how they have not had a chance to heroically sacrifice themselves or even die with dignity:



Now, look at these by comparison:

BATMAN
Dies taking Darkseid (evil dark god) with him

COLOSSUS
Sacrifices himself in order to release a cure to stop a major plague ravaging the world

PSYLOCKE
Stabbed to death trying to stop a seemingly unstoppable villain from killing a teammate


I simply find it rather strange that almost every single gay character has either been written to turn evil, die horribly or be driven out of the groups they are part of. And when you consider one of these companies in question are those who own the X-men, heroes opposed to racial and species prejudice, this becomes somewhat hypocritical.

Why do we search phobics in every thing?

If you're going to quote Perry Moore's articles, link to him.

He is, incidentally, wrong in an awful lot of ways that I don't have time to go into.

Do you want them to come up with a super-goody gay character now?

Could you give me a link, I was E-mailed the quoted section.



No, but giving a few of them better deaths could be an improvement.

Marvel and DC are all about maintaining the Anglo-American paternalistic global capitalist empire.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:LGBT...cters_in_comics

You could scroll through that and find out the fate of all the gay characters.

While I think it could be argued that they're homophobic since all the lesbian/gay/bi/transexual/whatever characters are minor (although with relatively high profile characters like the question and batwoman being lesbians that certainly has lessened in recent years), saying that they're homophobic because they don't treat minor characters the same as major ones is a bit silly.

it's like saying that DC is racist for not giving the death of pantha the same respect as the death of superman.

Is there a market for LGBT comic readers?

Yes, and quite a considerable one. They tend to get catered to by independent comics quite a bit.

With regard to the main article, I think it's possible to take any mainstream entertainment and cherrypick examples to say it discriminates against basically anyone you choose. In response to this, here's a rundown of what I consider to be the best things that DC and Marvel are doing with regards to gay and lesbian characters and writers:

DC's second longest running title, Detective Comics, currently features a lead story that focuses on prominent gay character Batwoman, and a backup story that focuses on... prominent gay character The Question.

DC's bestselling ongoing title, Batman And Robin, is written by Grant Morrison, possibly the most gay-friendly writer in mainstream comics (read The Invisibles and tell me otherwise)

Maggie Sawyer, the head of Gotham City's Major Crimes Unit, is openly bisexual and consistently shown as an effective and incorruptible officer.

John Constantine, the lead character in Hellblazer, the longest running Vertigo title, is openly bisexual.

Scandal Savage, leader of the Secret Six, is openly gay and usually played as the most effective member of the group.

The Brotherhood Of Evil is led by the gay couple of Monsieur Mallah and the Brain.

In DC's Wildstorm universe, the two most effective superheroes are Apollo and Midnighter. They are also the first same sex couple in comics to get married.

I'll do the Marvel half of this later when I can recall more about Marvel, but I will offer some corrections to the OP:

Ice is currently alive again.

Northstar is no longer a "murderous zombie assassin" but rather a prominent and beloved member of the Uncanny X-Men

Powers wasn't a marvel title.

Obsidian was both a full member of the Justice League and a full member of the Justice Society.

Wiccan, Hulkling and Karolina all managed to survive in their respective books while popular characters like Gert, Alex, and Chase were killed off

Oh, and an amusing sidenote to the mention of Colossus in the OP:

In the Ultimate version of the Marvel universe, Colossus is 1) gay and 2) dating Northstar

And Lamuella destroys another "someone forwarded me this email" thread.

I can't describe how good he is at it, did he sell his soul to the devil?

I also must point out the glaring error that Batman did not "die", per se. He was sent back in time to the Stone Age (he watched Anthro die, for example), though his current body is dead.

Complicated, but in the end: not dead!

I would consider that coincidence.

well, we don't know whose body that was that Superman was carrying in Final Crisis. it didn't rise from the dead (yet) in Blackest Night.

Well, it's not going to rise since Black Hand already desecrated his grave and took Bruce's skull to unleash black rings upon Earth.

He licked his skull, and in most of the covers featuring Black Hand it shows ghostly versions of the trademark points coming out of the top of it.

Moreover, you should know better than to think the current status of Batman's Soul has anything to do with him becoming a Black Lantern