ComiXtrips News: Shatterstar and Rictor Out of the Closet Officially
July 1st, 2009
ComiXtrips News: Rictor and Shatterstar “Outed” at Marvel Comics on 12seconds.tv
I won’t lie… when I read that Shatterstar and Rictor came out of the closet (officially) via Topless Robot (that gives me more than a healthy dose of LOLs per day) I was shocked. Not that they were gay exactly, but that it took FOURTEEN YEARS to make it official. I actually stopped collecting X-Force back issues at #42–an issue before the heavy insinuation concerning the deeper romance between the two “close friends”. It laid the groundwork for more mature readers to catch the point but remained subversive enough to have it become meaningless.
Shatterstar was introduced in New Mutants #99 by Rob Liefeld, and became one of the founding members of X-Force before starting to flicker in and out of important titles throughout the 90s until he was all but forgotten for the last 10 years. He was the EXTREME character from a future alternate world ruled by a media tyrant, Mojo, trained as a perfect warrior… oh did I mention HE WAS EXTREME! His manic seemingly homicidal nature was subdues when in Rictor’s presence. Rictor was an old school New Mutants, then X-Force, then whatever else until disappearing a while, who got played so many times that his trust issues and anger management became strong character traits… except around buddy Shatterstar (this is where the hints WOULD have started).
Why “out” these two lovebirds now? Maybe it’s all the news and hype DC for Batwoman being lesbian? Who knows–but on that topic–It’s interesting to note, that today as well, I noticed a tweet by JimSalicrup concerning Batwoman that pointed out: “Dr. Klock at Comic Book Club noted the irony of Batwoman being a lesbian: she was intro’ed in the 50s to make Batman and Robin seem not gay.” Since CNN seemed to find this character’s lesbianism more important than the launch of this character’s new solo title, Marvel might’ve figured: Why not “out” a couple other characters over at Marvel while the flame is hot? As Topless Robot points out: Marvel still doesn’t have a gay character in their own book though.
Regardless of the matter, I find that both companies are actually pretty active in bring comics to a stage that makes them more accessible by a broader readership. Many past male characters are being “female-ified”: Loki mischievously changed his sex to female, a copycat Daredevil hater becomes Lady Bullseye, multiple women taking on the Black Panther uniform, Mr Sinister getting recloned as a female, Kraven’s daughter taking the name… hmmm wait? Is this a Marvel trend?! DC is so saturated with girl, boy, lad, woman, gal suffixes that I guess they don’t need to play with gender swapping at this point in time.
But then… DC Comics did give Power Girl her solo title–and let me tell you: That character can’t get more male-targeted, no siree! Here’s the promo image, great reference to her Kryptonian heritage by putting her in a playful pose mimicking Clark Kent ripping his shirt off to display the crested S when turning into Superman. The homage is direct. Yet, here there is no golden S–just an eyeful of goo-goo-gaa-gaas to keep the geek fanboys drooling and dreaming. I mean her real super power are the size of her boobs right? I mean, the size of two moons for crying out loud. Go girl power! Am I right? Am I right?
Update, July 7th, 2009:
Comics Alliance, “Rob Liefeld Says Gay Shatterstar ‘Sucks,’ Plans to ‘Undo’ His Sexuality”
Awesomed by Comics, “Boys Nite Out” (possible Rob Liefeld retcon scenerio)
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