“I’ve always said everyone needs heroes and everyone deserves to see themselves in their heroes and I’m very grateful DC and Warner Bros share. this idea,” writer in response to the reveal that Jon Kent, s🗹on of Clark Kent and current Superman, is bisexual. “Superman’s symbol has always stood for hope, for truth, and for justice. Today, that symbol represents something more. Today, more people can see themselves in the most powerful superhero in comics.”
Superman isn’t just the most powerful caped crusader - he’s a household name, a legend even your nan knows about. Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s a bisexual icon trailblazing through the sky. Superman writer Tom Taylor - along with Batman author Meghan Fitzman, who wrote 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Robin as bisexual - have opened a door that has never been opened; comic book characters coming out as queer is nothing new and we’ve seen it time and time again to the same rigmarole of backlash and hatred, but it’s often the side characters or the lesser-known heroes. Rarely - if at all - do we see 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:flagship heroes come out. Now, they ha𒈔ve, and it’s paving the way for bisexual representation that’s unseen in this space. Until now.
Only a couple of months ago, Tim Drake, the third Robin, came out as bi in Batman: Urban Legends. Batman’s sidekick is similarly a household name, an established mantle that, again, your nan knows about. These are the classics, the superhero foundations, the models that everyone who came after is based on to some degree. They paved the way for superheroes as we know them and now, they’re paving the way for queer representation. As Tom Taylor said, everybody should have a hero they can see themselves in but, for the longest time, the big boys were left to the straight cis men. No wonder so many don’t care about representation - they’ve had it their whole lives without question. But being bi is 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:constantly battling with erasure, but representation at the top - if continued - could finally turn 💎the tables.
Growing up, I had very little in the way of bisexual representation to look up to. It was confusing. I liked guys but also girls and there wasn’t really anyone I could relate to or empathize with, nobody to understand or 𝄹help me puzzle together this enigma of sexuality I found myself basked in. Was I gay? Confused? Did I really like women? Was I straight? It was a tough time.
When I first came out, I was met with ridicule so I backpedalled: “It’s a joke!” It wasn’t. Jump ahead a year and I’d spent the better part of 365 days dumbfounded, grappling with this confusion that left me feeling lesser. There was nothing to help me understand what I was goin🤡g through because queer representation was often the butt of a joke or overwhelmingly gay - a character that likes men and women was hard to find. If you did manage to find the odd needle in the haystack, they’d often be someone rampantly horny. Rarely did on-screen bisexuality feel in-depth or meaningful.
Representation is great because it helps you to feel welcomed, understood, and♛ accepted - you are normal, what you are feeling is normal, and what you want is normal. Without that, it’s like being thrown into the ocean as the boat drifts away. You frantically flail your arms around which just mak🐭es it worse until you submerge deeper and deeper, drowning. There’s nobody to lend a hand and nothing to grab onto. That’s what representation offers - it’s a life ring tossed into the water.
There was no way that Superman, the number one superhero in history, could have the same conundrum as me. Being able to see me, my own confusion, struggle, and feeling of 𒅌being an outcast in the original artefact is a feeling I can barely put into words. I don’t know what it feels like because it’s new. There’s a sense of excitement, a slither of pessimistic dread, but a lot of hope. Fitting, aye?
Superman and Robin are huge names, even if they aren't the original iterations. The mantle is what matters. Just look at what Miles Morales did under Spider-Man for the Black and Latino community. There’s a lot of potential here with what Taylor and Fitzman have done and DC would be remiss not to tap into it and push it further, to use it as a vehicle to revolutionize queer representation in comics. Hell, maybe 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:the films will learn a thing or two. It’s exciting to see, meaningful to read, and while I wish I had it when I was younger, I’m very glad i⛦t’s better for queer readers growing up today.
Featured image via , used with permission.