Day 16: Favorite LGBTQ character (Main Post)

[icon_uk]

I feel slightly disloyal when I say, quite sincerely, that I don’t really follow characters because they are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual, queer, aswexual (or anywhere in the glorious spectrum inbetween and beyond) or even straight. I follow them because I like the characters and want to see what happens next with them, and if they happen to be something other than hetero-normative in their preferences all I ask is that it’s treated with the same level of taste and decency usually reserved for straight folk.

I’m probably a little immunised to the concept by growing up reading a lot of Claremont X-Titles, where a little... grey area in characters sexuality was a given, what with so many deep and strong same-sex friendships that one had to wonder… Storm and Yukio? Rachel and Kitty? Heck, Kurt and Logan sometimes... and what exactly WAS the nature of the relationship between Doug and Warlock after they’d bonded at the molecular level a time or two?

Though I don’t actually like Mystique much, her relationship with Destiny was usually nicely handled, but like I said, I don’t care for Mystique in any other capacity.

A few more lesser known choices came to mind, the rather lovely “We’ve been married for forty years as far as we’re concerned” Jetman (formerly Jetboy, a WWII aerial ace based closely on Airboy) and fellow WWII airman Wulf, in “Top 10”, or the cute couple of Blue Comet and Fusion in the “Boy Meets Hero” webcomic, the new Jem comic will apparently have Kimber and Stormer as being in/having had a relationship, but that's not out yet.

Instead I went for a character whose emergence as a gay character was handled with admirable lack of brouhaha for the time it happened in… I mean Hartley Rathaway, better known as



At first a generic sort of a Silver Age Flash villain, falling into the category of “reliable bad guy if you want a plot centred around sound”, Hartley Rathaway was born deaf, but his rich parents developed a new sort of super-duper hearing aid which allowed him to hear and he became obsessed with sound and music in particular. He made the usual mad-science leaps in the development and came up with all sorts of high-tech gimmicks using his various pipes.

When the villains were retooled somewhat, post-Crisis, to be an almost convivial alliance of blue-collar villains, Piper was revamped the most, becoming more of a radical, law-breaking guy who commits crimes, but not for his own benefit, but to speak up for the disenfranchised. To the extent that he was no longer a Rogue per se, so much as an antagonist, and then a friend and ally to the Flash.



And as he and Wally West developed a friendship, rather unexpectedly, and before Northstar came out in much less impressive circumstances (IMHO), we got this scene…





Hartley knows that Wally isn't being a complete ass here, and finds it more cute than anything else, and Wally quickly realises he is being an ass,

And Hartley not only came out, he stayed out, even getting a boyfriend or two along the way (As someone noted when Archie Comics introduced Kevin Keller (another possible candidate for this entry), “It’s not the first gay character that’s the challenge (because a single gay character isn’t going to have the sort of scenes liable to cause upset and consternation amongst those looking for offence, like kissing or hugging them, or being in bed together) it’s when the SECOND gay character comes along and is in a relationship with the first.”

As the years went by Hartley apparently went evil again, though it turns out he didn’t, but wasn’t able to prove it… or some such… then he got promoted to major player again in the pages of “Countdown”, which culminated in him channelling the force of Darkseid’s infamous Anti-Life Equation to end the world with a performance of Queen’s “The Show Must Go On”…. Luckily the world in question was Apokalips, so….

Hartley is about to debut in the TV version of the Flash, pl

At any rate, that's my choice.... so over to you!

Comments

[big_daddy_d]

Personally love Renee Montoya...except for her portrayal on Gotham. Good god I like the show but her character on there is just... no. I hate her.

[drtechnobabel]

Yeah, I'm not really too familiar with Montoya myself, and even I found her portrayal in Gotham horrible and (as far as I know) almost completely OOC. She comes off as incredibly jealous and possessive of Barbara, to the point where it almost seems like that's her only character trait. She's such a one-note character that I can't really say anything else about her, other then it's really sad when I can't even tell whether her coming off like that was the intent of the writers or not.

[kamino_neko]

I think this may have been the very first Flash comic I read. Even without the context of Hartley and Wally's friendship, or even knowing who Hartley was, I rather liked this bit.

[ozaline]

Sadly I never came across the Piper until Countdown... which was not good.

[ozaline]

To be fair, I really blame a lot of it on Jim... I haven't seen the most recent episode, but when she thought Jim was a douche and a killer, he should have been more open and communicative both with Barbra, and Montoya (Who was clearly a good cop)... I don't feel Montoya is really that bad a character in the show, just that she was working with imperfect information for so long.

[drtechnobabel]

While it is true that Montoya's not corrupt (like literally every cop in the GCPD other than Jim) and working with incomplete and/or faulty information, to me the majority of her hostility towards Jim feels like it's based less on her actual opinion him and more to do with her wanting him out of the picture so she can get back together with Barbara. While she is pretty close to Barbara, Montoya and Jim seem to have had little to no interaction with one another at all prior to the start of the show (hell, it's not until the fourth episode or so that he finds out Montoya is Barbara's ex), so he has very little reason to trust her at all, especially since, again, pretty much the entire GCPD is at least somewhat corrupt and under the thumb of the local mobs. And even if he tried to explain what was going on, Montoya probably wouldn't listen, or just call him a liar trying to save his own skin.

I will say though that I think the main reason Montoya comes off so horrible to some people is because she is given very little screentime or characterization outside of her scenes with Barbara and hunting down Gordon. Given how many different characters the show is trying to juggle at once, and how many of their stories seem to take focal priority over hers, she ends up being a tertiary character at best, leaving her very little room for actual character development.

[chrisdv]

Piper's just outright awesome - he blew up a planet by playing Queen!

Personally, whilst I don't like his lack of page time in the New 52, I really like that the Rogues don't care that he's gay, but are just upset he's dating a cop.

[kamino_neko]

I'm a few issues behind...is he back in costume? I know they were implying he would in some of the bits with Singh early on, but last I saw he hadn't done so.

[ozaline]

It was pretty obvious right from the start that the MCU were exempt from the corruption plaguing the GCPD as a whole. I dunno if I was Gordon I'd have trusted her, because it seems very clear in the scenes she's interacting with Gordon that she is very concerned with dirty cops, and that she is not one herself.

And the fact that she saved Jim, apologized, and said she was glad to work on the same side with him erased all horribleness.

I don't even really blame her for sleeping with Barbara since Barbara left Jim...

I mean the show is being needlessly soap-operaesc about the whole thing, but I'm happy that she's there *I do hope she gets a whole episode to herself at some point*

[chrisdv]

He was back in the costume in the Forever Evil: Rogues' Rebellion mini. Hasn't been seen since, so I can't tell you if it was just for the mini or not.

[q99]

At least he managed to be the best part of it.

[janegray]

Yeah, Piper is awesome <3

[chrys]

I can't make a post but I point to my avatar. I like Shatterstar for several reasons, not the least that it shows you can take a character with a terrible debut and concept and reinvent him into a great one, but I rate his as my favorite LGBT because he's bi, doesn't show a preference toward any gender, isn't shown as using sex as manipulation and is depicted as preferring to have a non-monogamous relationship. I'm not aware of any other comic character that fits the last one, much less all of it, so I relate the most to an alien character from the future xD

[q99]

-that I don’t really follow characters because they are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual, queer, aswexual (or anywhere in the glorious spectrum inbetween and beyond) or even straight.-

I often do, because I find that *interesting*. Like the webcomic Validation is a very nice comic with a transwoman main character.

And heck, with comics, I'll mention IDW Arcee. Despite how her intro/origin story is actually pretty problematic, I still rather love her as a character.

[q99]

Good showings of bi characters are surprisingly rare.

[chrys]

Sadly that's true. Though recently Marvel did well with two bi villains with not a great track record: Mystique finally got an issue that did justice to her relationship with Destiny and Daken was shown being nice to a past male lover. My descriptions sound worse than the actual issues, though xD

[zapbiffpow]

Piper's currently playing Sixth Man for the Rogues, I think: refusing to take part in crime-ing, but will haul his old buddies' asses out of the fire if they really need it, like in Rogues' Rebellion.

[big_daddy_d]

Considering that corruption is such in Gotham that it is practically a way of life and Renee decides to focus her energy being on Gordon's ass, sorry but that does not endure me to her. There were so many officers, officials, etc, she could focus on and she pinpointed on Gordon. It really made her look petty.

[ozaline]

Eh, Gordon's the main character of course everything revolves around him, besides there was another reason for it to be personal for Montoya besides Barbara, and that's because it was her informant that she believed as killed, mucking up her case...

I mean Allen was coming down just as hard on Gordon, and he had no romantic stake in things.

[jekylls_salvation]

No celebration on the front cover? No big announcement on all the sites in advance? No parade? Huh.