Sexuality in Batverse: Ghost Maker

[sarahnewlin]

Its not really news per say (I await the day where all sexualities are a normal part of life, accepted by everyone without anyone having to "come out" per say and it being a big deal) but a new DC character has been confirmed bisexual. From Batman #107 Its Ghost Maker!

Comments

[shakalooloo]

I dunno, Ghost Maker says it was meditation rather than physical pleasure, so it's possible that he felt no actual attraction to either party here.

[cyberghostface]

Bleedingcool confirmed he's bi.

https://bleedingcool.com/comics/confirmed-ghost-maker-is-batmans-new-bisexual-buddy/

[shakalooloo]

They cite anonymous sources, and post merely these pages - which I myself would not take as proof, based on the dialogue - as evidence.

BC continues to be driven more by click-bait headlines than anything else.

[cyberghostface]

BC is usually accurate with their inside scoops, they’re not wegotthiscovered. And either way there’s not much clickbait in announcing a character seen having sex with a man and a woman is bisexual.

[icon_uk]

A guy leaves a naked man and a woman, discussing having had carnal bliss with them, and complimenting the man for being handsome, whilst he's getting dressed.

The fact he uses the physical activity as a form of meditation doesn't mean he's NOT bi, and the physical evidence suggests he is.

[tinygaylaura]

He's definitely bi or pan

[shakalooloo]

I dunno, I kinda thought he used them to distract his physical body and allow his brain to be free to crack them crime cases. He tells them that his mind wasn't on the job even, and I (and yeah, it's only me doing so) read that emphasis on CARNAL BLISS as sarcasm. The smile on his face falls the moment he turns his back on them...

I can accept that he is bisexual, but I myself would have drawn that conclusion from these pages. I thought him acting so detached was drawing attention to him being not being interested in sex in itself.

I freely admit that I totally misread this scene. :P

[deh_tommy]

His computer is giving out about how he (Ghost Maker) indulges in base human pleasures at the cost of precious time. If that alongside just about everything else doesn’t spell that out, I don’t know what does.

[shakalooloo]

And he straight-faced refuted its claim right away, showing that he's smarter than the computer, which had been unable to compute what he was doing in anything other than the simplest, basest manner. Most people don't tend to equate meditation with enjoyment.

Clearly I'm wrong, but that's how I saw the scene. I clearly need things written out for me in giant, flaming letters.

[elf]

Agreed.

If there had been two women in the bed, nobody would be arguing, "well, that doesn't prove he's straight."

Unless they were providing counterpoint evidence that he's bi.

[thanekos]

" If you add ninjas, make sure they're, like.. sex ninjas. I don't care about the robot - it can be a Lexotron, or whatever. "

[beyondthefringe]

At first I was oh like "Ghost-Maker? Yawn. He's an edgy Batman-wannabe who kills and doesn't think Batman is murdery enough."

Now I'm like "Ghost-Maker? He's a bisexual badass from Bruce's past who has a flying radar-invisible fuck-palace where he engages in meditative threesomes before fighting martial-artist man-alligators and shit. Daaaamn. Comics are wild."

In other words, I don't hate him as much as I thought I would.

[icon_uk]

There's something so completely over the top about him he reminds me of Grant Morrison's original take on Fantomex.

Which I'm not sure I think is a good thing as I found Morrison's Fantomex insufferable, but it's a thing.

[beyondthefringe]

At least Ghost-Maker isn't French, or faux-French. That's a point in his favor.
I've always found Fantomex to be smarmy and a bit of a weasel. Which is entirely in character for him, but still.

[silicondream]

Batman's Nemesis, you might s--that is a ROAST HEADCRAB on that table

[deh_tommy]

Something I really like about the Tynion run so far is the supporting cast he’s been building for Batman. Punchline’s been getting the most time in the spotlight, but I’ve been enjoying Clownkiller and Ghost Maker a lot more than I thought I would.

[spider_man6]

Same! I think the reason I warmed up to both is that Clownhunter is a lot more three-dimensional and seems to have an arc planned out for him, and Ghost Maker is more of a competitive rival instead of the stereotypical "I'm better than you by killing people" new vigilante.

[mastermahan]

Me as well. Clownhunter is an complex and sympathetic character, and the relationship between Batman and Ghost Maker is interesting.

Still don't give a damn about Punchline, though.

[beeyo]

His costume is pretty cool too

[tinygaylaura]

I'm loving Ghost Maker

I like that the story subverted expectations and didn't make him a villain just because he disagrees with how Bruce does things

[shadowpsykie]

He seems less murdery.

[deh_tommy]

Cool, but why is this news? To paraphrase Knuckles from Sonic Boom, doesn’t treating this like this is headline-worthy only draw attention to the fact this isn’t the norm, further enforcing the idea that this is expected to be the exception and not the status quo?

[beyondthefringe]

There are few enough bisexual superheroes, much less -male- superheroes, much less ones appearing in flagship titles like Batman, that a new one on the scene is still going to be noteworthy.

I mean let's face it, anything other than the default cis white male--be they Black, Muslim, trans, disabled, or any other marginalized identity--is news in some form or fashion, especially to the larger world who aren't as attuned to the depths of the genre as readers like us.

[tinygaylaura]

It's news because to many LGBT fans representation matters.

It matters to me. In fact it is the thing that matters most. I had absolutely no intention of buying Batman until I found out there were two bisexual heroes (Ghost Maker and Harley Quinn) appearing in the supporting cast of the book

In fact whether or not a character is LGBT is the thing I care most about. Every character I am a fan of is either canon gay/lesbian/bi/pan/trans or can be easily headcanoned as such. And the news that there's a new bisexual character out there is exciting and happy news to me and to many other LGBT people

[reveen]

This guy has a radar invisible cross-continental private jet with a fucking loved lounge he can just fly wherever he wants, what the hell is he doing trying to play anime rival with Batman? Is it just a Seto Kaiba vs Duke Devlin style rich boy beef?

[beyondthefringe]

Look, just because he has a flying fuck-palace doesn't mean he's fulfilled.
Clearly, Bruce is the one man he's always loved but never had, and it haunts him inside.
The true ghost is his unfulfilled longing.

[scorntx]

Well, then clearly the only sensible solution is to try and murder Batman's one true love to get his attention.

By which I mean Superman.
(or maybe Batman.)

[deh_tommy]

”Who else drives you to one-up them the way I do?”
“Bane.”
“No he doesn’t...”
“Superman.”
“Superman’s not a bad guy!”
“Then I’d say that I don’t currently have a ““bad guy””. I am fighting a few different people.”
“...what?”
“I like to fight around.”

[deh_tommy]

Kind of? Ghost-Maker sees crime-fighting as an art form. Batman sees his crusade as a grim necessity. Ghost Maker was old friends with Bruce and wanted to prove to him that his form of justice was better, but he was promptly humbled and now he figures he could stand to learn a thing or two himself.

[silicondream]

Ghost-Maker's dialogue feels very Mark Millar-y. I suppose that's appropriate!

[mrstatham]

I think the character would have to be at least 40% more of an asshole to be properly Millar-esque; that said, even Millar isn't quite on par with early Millar anymore, where everyone was hitting either the 'edgy' or 'obnoxious' button several thousand times an issue.