Cartoon: "The Great Gay Arms Race"

Posted 6/14/12 5:16 pm EST by MTV Geek in Comic Books

Over the past few weeks there’s been a battle for a demographic who, traditionally, don’t get much attention in mainstream comics. The homosexual community. Perhaps it’s a sign of the times. There's been recent political moves on both the left and the right to push for legal gay marriage or ban to it altogether and comics can't ignore that.

In comics, we had the announcement of an all-gay superhero team, Archie Comics introduced Kevin Keller, and featured his wedding. And in the biggest moves Marvel married Northstar and Kyle Jindu in "Astonishing X-Men" #51, and DC Comics reinvented Alan Scott, the original Green Lantern as gay.

What's it like in these behind closed doors when companies make decisions to shake up traditions, change the lives of characters, and merge real-world headlines with the fictional realities of superheroes?

It might go something like this: