X-Men - Part 6

[Colossal Spoons]

Once he's done moping because of his death touch, perhaps he'll become a regular in an x-book like Rockslide, Hellion, and Anole.

 

[Havok83]

I havent read it but its making the rounds on the news sites but apparently Bendis just revealed that in All New X-men, [BLACKOUT]teen Bobby is gay.[/BLACKOUT] WTF?!? That is so stupid.

 

[Fanged-Hunter]

I havent read it but its making the rounds on the news sites but apparently Bendis just revealed that in All New X-men, [BLACKOUT]teen Bobby is gay.[/BLACKOUT] WTF?!? That is so stupid.

It sounds particularly stupid from what I understand:

Spoiler

Because apparently the same issue where Jean says she knows Bobby is gay she also says adult Bobby is straight.

You want to expand that aspect of an original X-Man? You want to offer new angles for different readers to identify with? How about just revealing Bobby is and has always been bisexual? At least it keeps your continuity somewhat sensical.

Instead, the gay teenage Bobby and straight adult Bobby makes me dread the possibility of "imposter Iceman, where is the real Robert Drake?!" storyline. Because that worked well for Peter Parker/Ben Reilly in the 90s.

 

[KevanG]

And then they clone both of them.

 

[Havok83]

It sounds particularly stupid from what I understand:

Spoiler

Because apparently the same issue where Jean says she knows Bobby is gay she also says adult Bobby is straight.

You want to expand that aspect of an original X-Man? You want to offer new angles for different readers to identify with? How about just revealing Bobby is and has always been bisexual? At least it keeps your continuity somewhat sensical.

Instead, the gay teenage Bobby and straight adult Bobby makes me dread the possibility of "imposter Iceman, where is the real Robert Drake?!" storyline. Because that worked well for Peter Parker/Ben Reilly in the 90s.

thats why I think its stupid bc they want to have it both ways. [BLACKOUT]You dont start off as gay and change your sexuality as you get older. If someone is gay, then they are gay. You can be in the closet and want to suppress your feelings but deep down, you are still gay. The only way out of this mess is to say that the O5 were plucked from an alternate timeline, not 616 proper, hence making teen Bobby a different character.
[/BLACKOUT]

 

[KevanG]

[BLACKOUT]Which would mess with previously established stuff like when Cyke went poof when younger Cyke almost died.[/BLACKOUT]

 

[Havok83]

Considering what Marvel is about to do with Secret Wars, I dont really think they care all that much about their continuity. They are going to use that mess to explain away stuff that makes no sense and/or is a contradiction

 

[Marvel]

thats why I think its stupid bc they want to have it both ways. [BLACKOUT]You dont start off as gay and change your sexuality as you get older. If someone is gay, then they are gay. You can be in the closet and want to suppress your feelings but deep down, you are still gay. The only way out of this mess is to say that the O5 were plucked from an alternate timeline, not 616 proper, hence making teen Bobby a different character.
[/BLACKOUT]

Unbelievable. I'd say this is more PC horsecrap from Marvel but it's actually not politically correct because Bendis is clearly writing it as if the homosexual lifestyle is a choice. If he's going to do that, I hope he sticks to it and depicts it as a preference. He can't have it both ways. Adult Bobby has years of being straight storylines. (Polaris/Havok/Ice Man triangle was always big in the books) So, this is clearly a dumb move any way you slice it.

 

[Cain]

Christ. As if that book wasn't enough of a chore as it is lol

 

[spideyboy_1111]

as a gay man, here's my thoughts on it..

I think this is terribly forced and terribly executed.. I'm not a fan of changing a well established characters race or sexuality to push an agenda on diversity.. not only this, but by default this makes older bobby gay as well... but piggy backing off a name recognition to try to be more PC rather than create new characters that are amazing.. just seems very petty, and very cheap to me.

if they wanted to "change" a character let an always ambiguous character who hasn't had a well established romantic history come out as gay... honestly, i'd process this a lot better if the time displaced bobby, in a new, more accepting world.. secretly walked into a gay bar.. or started showing signs of things.. Maybe it was always back in his mind, but it wasn't as accepting at the time so suppressed it. Or just at least actually build the character up to it... not just out of the blue do it... or at least come up with a better story arch for the character than getting mind raped by jean grey... (and i might add, Bobby Drake has been surrounded by telepath's his whole life... but no one picked up on this ? It took a younger jean grey and a younger iceman to have this come about?

i would have had him build up a guy crush that actually lead to something.. and he realize he was gay. IT happens.. there was a lovely story about a year ago of a straight guy who fell in love with his best friend.. and they started a relationship.. it's all about the build up, i think the mind rape is just such a terrible execution.. if you want to be ground breaking.. why not do so by telling a story that is relate-able to many of us? i'd say a massive majority of gay men coming out is all about self-discovery and secretly finding out about yourself and experimenting.. why not tell that story? i think sexuality is fluid.. and not so black and white.. ive met straight men who've claimed to have been attracted to a guy before. And i know gay men who've been in love with women before.. attraction is a funny thing. I think people in general needs to spend more time in falling in love with a person.. and less time labeling things black and white. The Kinsey scale always made a lot of sense to me.. though, i'm 100% only sexually attracted towards men. This is just so terribly forced and lazy to me

And yeah, lots of gay guys have hidden there sexuality.. and dated and slept with many women.. some even marry them and have kids.. that much is believable.. but comics allow us to go into there personal thoughts, and see what the people around them might not be seeing... so there's really been no indication or hint towards bobby being gay..

honestly.. this situation is similar to Rictor.. i mean, it was always hinted at with Rictor.. but they handled his self discovery believably, wonderfully.. and it was not forced at all

What's also funny is that it comes across as she is saying that the older Bobby isn't gay not that he hasn't come out but just isn't gay...which doesn't make sense at all... and indicates one isn't born gay either... but decides it.. if it were an alt universe (Which we know it's not via when young cyked died, older cyke began to fade away) then i'd be fine with that.. but there's nothing logical or thought out about any of this.

This is a poor execution which is the issue.. if you're going to change the sexuality of a character who was always believed to be one way... you have to tell a cohesive and well written story arch for that character.. not flat out force it.. also.. And this logic is soooo incredibly complicated because there's no way the younger bobby can be gay, but not the older....

 

[spideyboy_1111]

Unbelievable. I'd say this is more PC horsecrap from Marvel but it's actually not politically correct because Bendis is clearly writing it as if the homosexual lifestyle is a choice. If he's going to do that, I hope he sticks to it and depicts it as a preference. He can't have it both ways. Adult Bobby has years of being straight storylines. (Polaris/Havok/Ice Man triangle was always big in the books) So, this is clearly a dumb move any way you slice it.

as a gay man ive been in a few straight love triangles in my youth.. so that's not so much proof of him being straight. what is however.. is the fact comics allow us to see what a character is thinking, and feeling.. internally. and we've never had any indication of adult bobby being interested in guys.. in fact.. he'salways basically been an Ice-powered version of Johnny Storm

 

[BoredGuy]

Another PC headline grabber from Marvel, with piss poor storytelling behind it

 

[Scarecrow_King]

Bendis: ignoring everything every writer before him did since whenever the hell he started writing.

 

[KevanG]

Half the stuff writers do these days reminds me of hack writers doing fanfiction. "And then THEY WERE GAY!" *DUNDUNDUN*

 

[Mad Ones]

This is glorious wonderful and perfect.

Sexuality is complicated, people. Deal with it!

This is actually something I wanted to have happen since the start of ANXM.

 

[Obsidian Idea]

Half the stuff writers do these days reminds me of hack writers doing fanfiction. "And then THEY WERE GAY!" *DUNDUNDUN*

Hi-lar-i-ous!

 

[Hellion]

as a gay man, here's my thoughts on it..

I think this is terribly forced and terribly executed.. I'm not a fan of changing a well established characters race or sexuality to push an agenda on diversity.. not only this, but by default this makes older bobby gay as well... but piggy backing off a name recognition to try to be more PC rather than create new characters that are amazing.. just seems very petty, and very cheap to me.

if they wanted to "change" a character let an always ambiguous character who hasn't had a well established romantic history come out as gay... honestly, i'd process this a lot better if the time displaced bobby, in a new, more accepting world.. secretly walked into a gay bar.. or started showing signs of things.. Maybe it was always back in his mind, but it wasn't as accepting at the time so suppressed it. Or just at least actually build the character up to it... not just out of the blue do it... or at least come up with a better story arch for the character than getting mind raped by jean grey... (and i might add, Bobby Drake has been surrounded by telepath's his whole life... but no one picked up on this ? It took a younger jean grey and a younger iceman to have this come about?

i would have had him build up a guy crush that actually lead to something.. and he realize he was gay. IT happens.. there was a lovely story about a year ago of a straight guy who fell in love with his best friend.. and they started a relationship.. it's all about the build up, i think the mind rape is just such a terrible execution.. if you want to be ground breaking.. why not do so by telling a story that is relate-able to many of us? i'd say a massive majority of gay men coming out is all about self-discovery and secretly finding out about yourself and experimenting.. why not tell that story? i think sexuality is fluid.. and not so black and white.. ive met straight men who've claimed to have been attracted to a guy before. And i know gay men who've been in love with women before.. attraction is a funny thing. I think people in general needs to spend more time in falling in love with a person.. and less time labeling things black and white. The Kinsey scale always made a lot of sense to me.. though, i'm 100% only sexually attracted towards men. This is just so terribly forced and lazy to me

And yeah, lots of gay guys have hidden there sexuality.. and dated and slept with many women.. some even marry them and have kids.. that much is believable.. but comics allow us to go into there personal thoughts, and see what the people around them might not be seeing... so there's really been no indication or hint towards bobby being gay..

honestly.. this situation is similar to Rictor.. i mean, it was always hinted at with Rictor.. but they handled his self discovery believably, wonderfully.. and it was not forced at all

What's also funny is that it comes across as she is saying that the older Bobby isn't gay not that he hasn't come out but just isn't gay...which doesn't make sense at all... and indicates one isn't born gay either... but decides it.. if it were an alt universe (Which we know it's not via when young cyked died, older cyke began to fade away) then i'd be fine with that.. but there's nothing logical or thought out about any of this.

This is a poor execution which is the issue.. if you're going to change the sexuality of a character who was always believed to be one way... you have to tell a cohesive and well written story arch for that character.. not flat out force it.. also.. And this logic is soooo incredibly complicated because there's no way the younger bobby can be gay, but not the older....

I agree with this, spideyboy just said it way better than I could...

 

[Mad Ones]

There's some great fan fiction out there where queer people and minorities actually exist!

About time "professional" comics caught up.

 

[Mad Ones]

I thought the execution was great! It wasn't sensationalist at all (the leak is unfortunate, it would have been great to read it on Wednesday). We should be past the days when Northstar coming out and getting married are events.

Most comic fans have always speculated it for a while now. Usually as a joke, or some hope by someone wanting at least a B-list gay character.

Jean and teen Bobby speculate themselves that they don't know adult Bobby's true orientation. But if you've ever read Judith Butler you'll know there are gender and sexuality theories that talk about unpredictability of sexual orientation.

I thought from the minute they came to the future that it would be so interesting to read about a closeted character from the past experiencing the "future."

I could defend this forever, but I won't because I know most people will hate it. But I LOVE this!

 

[spideyboy_1111]

This is glorious wonderful and perfect.

Sexuality is complicated, people. Deal with it!

This is actually something I wanted to have happen since the start of ANXM.

Lets not pretend this is real life and not a comic book... you know, wheee we aee peoples thoughts , private moments and deep inner monologue

 

[hippie_hunter]

Dear Marvel Comics,

Congratulations of miraculously offending both blue and red state citizens.

Love,
hippie_hunter

 

[Mad Ones]

Lets not pretend this is real life and not a comic book... you know, wheee we aee peoples thoughts , private moments and deep inner monologue

What did I just read??

 

[Primal Slayer]

I just want to know what he was thinking making teen Bobby gay and adult Bobby straight. Did time traveling change him or something? It makes zero sense.

 

[Fanged-Hunter]

I just want to know what he was thinking making teen Bobby gay and adult Bobby straight. Did time traveling change him or something? It makes zero sense.

Well it's been a while since they've dragged Xavier's character through the mud, so maybe they'll reveal he was a homophobe and forced Bobby to think he's straight with some mind tampering, but since he's actually "pure gay" as Jean says, he never could keep a relationship for the long term despite the tampering. -_-

 

[Fanged-Hunter]

What did I just read??

You read a horrible typo... I believe he was saying:

"Lets not pretend this is real life and not a comic book... you know, where we see peoples thoughts , private moments and deep inner monologue"