James Robinson addresses one of the sorer points of "Cry for Justice"

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Spoilers for the Starman/Congorilla team up one-shot

Readers of Cry for Justice were witness to many, many arbitrary fridgings, but one irked me more than a little.




Now I now Tasmanian Devil was a D-lister, I don't even particularly care that he was a happy, gay hero, many characters were fridged in CfJ regardless of orientation, so I genuinely didn't think it was homophobically motivated.

Readers of the Starman/Congorilla team up one-shot will be aware that the plot involved the blue skinned alien Starman, a Lazarus Pit and a certain dead Australian hero... who now isn't so dead any more, and has a new, blue boyfriend.

Robinson discusses this in an interview with Newsarama here

Here's an excerpt

Newsarama: James, now that the Starman/Congorilla special has been released, what motivated you to tell this story?

James Robinson: The Starman/Congorilla one-shot is one of those stories that I've been meaning to tell ever since Cry for Justice – well, actually, I knew this was coming even when I was writing Cry for Justice.
Plus it involves a hunt for the Lazarus Pit and the Fountain of Youth, and Rex the Wonder Dog, and all these different, interesting, bizarre aspects of the DC universe, which is something that I enjoy messing around with.
But it was always a story that was leading toward the return of Tasmanian Devil, who will be Starman's boyfriend.

Nrama: You were the one that killed off the Tasmanian Devil in Cry for Justice. Was it always your intent to bring him back?

Robinson: Absolutely. I was hoping to write it immediately. Because I killed Tasmanian Devil off rather cruelly in Cry for Justice.
I always intended for that to be the case, that Starman would eventually have Tasmanian Devil as his boyfriend. Congorilla finding his friend was going to be sub-plot that I was going to use, and tie it in with the apparent murder of Tasmanian Devil. I had to put it off for a while, but I found a way to fold it into the Omega storyline.
And I had always planed that it would lead toward Starman finding love with Tasmanian Devil. They're two of the main gay characters of DC Universe. So I wanted to bring them together.

Nrama: I think it's safe to say that nobody saw that coming.

Robinson: Not when I've apparently had one of them skinned! [laughs] And in a rug on the floor. No, not at all. But I didn't want to reveal anything.

Nrama: But didn't you get some flack for killing Tasmanian Devil?

Robinson: Yes. People online were like, "James Robinson hates gay people" and all of this. Which is utterly ridiculous, and it was a little bit hurtful, considering the gay friends I have here in San Francisco and other parts of the world.
It's ironic because in Starman – and I believe this to be true. And I’m willing to be called a liar. I’m not 100 percent sure of this. But I think within mainstream comics, be that Marvel and DC basically – I think in Starman, I had the first main, male gay kiss ever. So for me to be called a gay hater is ridiculous.
Comments? Opinions?

Comments

[neev]

Yeah, definitely. I mean, personally, I don't think I would have immediately jumped to HE'S A HOMOPHOBIC ASSHOLE AND MUST DIE, but I guess I can see how people would? I think my issue here is that I just get so tired of people responding with "But but but I'M NOT THAT WAY" without acknowledging that maybe, uh, they came off that way. Cause I'm sure not ALL the people who had an issue with killing Tasmanian Devil were responding to it with blind frothing at the mouth.

I definitely agree with you over all that having the whole comic be a slaughterhouse is in general a much bigger issue. Although in some respects, it's not hard to see why people might not give him the benefit of the doubt for that very reason. It's would hardly be surprising that someone who thinks KILL EVERYONE is an interesting way to drive a plot might also be a bit homophobic. It's just so dang hard to tell "are you just a bad writer or are you REALLY an asshole".

[icon_uk]

"But I'm not that way" is actually a pretty understandable human reaction to an unfounded accusation as well as an overly defensive cover up of an unpleasant truth. That's where the tricky part comes in, telling the difference.

[neev]

Yeah, they just never seem to get OVER that initial reaction. It's not like he needs to put up a public apology or something, just a little thoughtful discourse would be nice.