Anonymous: Do you think that readers don't notice that while the X-men are breaking down barriers with gay characters, you guys are completely ignoring them in the Avengers? I guess your corporate overlords are much more open minded with their movie cash cows when it comes to racial diversity rather than diversity of sexual orientation and gender identity. And no, Young Avengers, a book not even published anymore, does not count.
brevoortformspring:
I don’t think you’re wrong on this score, although you are absolutely wrong when you conjecture about why it might be that way.
I think it’s tougher to find opportunities for characters of diverse orientations in AVENGERS because the set-up of the series is that those characters are most often drawn from the ranks of other titles–and the core of the Avengers membership were all created in the 1960s. Heck, it’s difficult enough just to field a legitimate Avengers team that isn’t all blond-haired white guys.
It’s more likely, for example, that Iceman could eventually one day become an Avenger than it is that we’d create a new gay character and put them on the team–the latter almost never works, as the audience rebels against any brand new character being placed onto that team if they haven’t earned their legitimacy elsewhere. And that’s regardless of race or sexual orientation.
But it’s something we need to continue to work on.
