Northstar, the X-Men’s Bossy Bottom, Has A New Boyfriend. Here’s What Comes Next
GAYS BE SHOPPIN’: Colossus is depressing, Wolverine’s straight, and Iceman’s giving Northstar the cold shoulder. So old Jean-Paul decides that life on Utopia is “uber-boring” and that he’s “totes not into it.” He then returns to San Fran for some “sun, fun, and bunz” with Kyle on a whirlwind spending sextravaganza! First they go for Brunch at the Mecca, then Northstar makes Kyle pick up some groceries from the Safeway—”Noooo, get the low-fat organic soy jelly. Do you wanna give me cottage cheese thighs like you, Kyle? Jesus.” After walking their Pomeranian at Dolores Pork, the boys go nude sunbathing at Baker Beach, and to an underwear party at the Ferry House. Meanwhile, bisexual X-men Mystique and Destiny lament the negative impact of Northstar’s stereotypical portrayal has on LGBT comic book characters and readers in general.
Speaking of gay mutants, there’s a couple in another X-book – Rictor and Shatterstar in X-Factor. For over a decade the 2 were shown in the comics as “best bros” and Shatterstar hasn’t been seen in years. When he returned to comics a few months ago, Rictor and him reunited with a passionate kiss.
http://www.afterelton.com/blog.....tar-rictor
And yes, if you do a web search, you will read all about how the creator of Shatterstar is pissed and can’t wait to undo this gay thing…
Maybe Northstar/Kyle and Rictor/Shatterstar can double date in an issue?
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I was never a fan of Northstar. And despite being the token queer in Marvel’s line up for a while, they treated him horribly.
It’s great they have more open and positively portrayed LGBT characters now… like Hulkling and Wiccan. Though I admit I’m a little pissed that Doc Strange didn’t make Wiccan the new Sorcerer Supreme. Would have been an awesome opportunity for Marvel to create an incredibly powerful, prominent, influential and complex and interesting character out of a young gay man who has a relatively steady following and is increasingly popular. Instead, they gave the position to a character nobody’s really read or cared about for nearly 30 years.
Wow…I’m such a nerd.
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@ No. 4 · CHIP1218
yeah, I heard that Rob Liefeld was pissed and said Shatterstar wasn’t gay. Whatever. I still don’t get that character and his powers nor any of Rob’s creations.
I’m still surprised that Rictor was gay. But, more representation is better for us. So cool beans.
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nerds. i feel like taking away all of y’all’s lunch money.
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As a collector of allt things X-Men since I was a wee lad…I’ve always felt that Marvel has mishandled the gay characters. Always thrown to the rear…written in typical cliche standards. Just read XFactor: Nation X and although getting better at it, there were still a lot of cliche gay sterotypes with Northstar, Shatterstar and Rictor. Hopefully someone can properly write these characters. I am thinking X-Factor series will end up touching more on it since the new status quo gay couple, Shatterstar and Rictor are in that title
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I remember a Marvel storyline (Alpha Flight 48-50) explaining Northstar’s origin as he was a member of a fairy clan and he was whisked away to fairyland. UGH ! I love comics, but….UGH!
Originally the storyline was that Northstar was gay and going to die of AIDS. Editor in Chief Jim Shooter (who infamously declared that there are no homosexuals in the Marvel universe) got wind of the storyline and forced the writer to change it to the ludicrous “Northstar is an Asgardian half-elf and dying from exposure to Earth” business. About 30 issues later, with a new writer and a new EIC, that storyline was repudiated.
yeah, I heard that Rob Liefeld was pissed and said Shatterstar wasn’t gay.
Marvel’s current EIC has stated unequivocally that under his watch Liefeld will never get his hands back on Shatterstar.
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Ultimate Northstar didn’t OD. In one of the last issues of the Ultimate X-Men run, he was shown sitting with Colossus watching the sun set. Actually, it was Northstar who kept Colossus from killing Wolverine. He was depowered, but wasn’t one of the mutants slaughtered at the end of the run, which was good. But it took both of them out of the book.
As for the current run, Northstar did make room in the Marvel Universe for Karma, Anoli, Wiccan, Hulkster, and Greymalkin.
BUT… quite frankly, despite the good, Northstar and the openly gay Karma are relegated to the bench most of the time, only to be dragged out of the closet when it serves the writers and sells books. Then back in they go.
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what?!?! Karma is gay?
I still remember her first issue where she was introduced. That writer made her so powerful. She possessed all of the FF and kicked Spidey’s ass. And then they never made use of her like Dazzler. Now that was back in the day, so I don’t know if she has been used or not in the last 10-15 years since I stopped collecting X-titles.
Anyway, funny. I can see Karma being a lesbian I guess. Rictor, IDK. Northstar, yeah, I guess. Doug Ramsey, absofuckinlutely.
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Karma was outed a few years back in the Mechanix limited series starring her and Kitty. The current run of Uncanny X-Men even introduced her one issue as “Karma: Psychic Possession, Digs chicks”, and another issue saw her in bed with another woman when San Fransisco was psychically attacked by one of the Mastermind daughters. She’s running with Cannonball, Magma, Magik, Mirage, and Sunspot in the newest incarnation of the New Mutants, but I don’t know how long the series will last. the first 4 issues were a rehash of the Legion story and the next few were a rehash of Warlock/Doug Ramsey. But Karma can still possess a slew of people.
Greymalkin faded out with the Young X-Men. He was around during Utopia, but not much has been done with him after he came out to Anoli in the Young X-Men. That was one of the reasons I stopped reading; between the regularly rehashed story lines and failure to actually do anything substantive with it’s gay characters, it got old.
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thanks for the update DR.
I stopped reading x-titles because it was too many titles and I felt greedy on behalf of Marvel. 10-15 years later, it seems there are more X-titles and more characters so Marvel must be doing something right.
i had thought about picking up the new mutants but am waiting for the TPB, methinks. IDK.
I just saw the preview for Nation X. And man, that artwork is TERRIBLE!!! I could never purchase a book unless the artwork and writing is up to snuff. Well, that’s not exactly true, I kept on with Liefeld back in the day of New Mutants but that was when I was a completist. And needed every issue. Now I just don’t care.
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What effect will the Disney buyout have? Disney certainly employs a lot of us and they _love_ all the folks that turn up for Gay Days but will they put up with gay characters?
An article about the aquisition (at http://www.lansingstatejournal.....004/NEWS03) says, in part:
“Disney’s biggest challenge in acquiring Marvel Entertainment will be to get people enthused about second-string superheroes to justify the price.”
and
“5,000 characters
Although Disney is constrained by the fact that big-name Marvel superheroes such as Spider-Man already are locked up in long-term deals with rival movie studios, Disney has had a history of successfully turning unknown talent such as Miley Cyrus, the actress behind “Hannah Montana,” into multibillion-dollar enterprises.
“With Marvel, it’s not just about ‘Iron Man’ and ‘Hulk,’ ” Caris & Co. analyst David Miller said. “It’s all about the other 5,000 characters that you and I don’t even know about yet.”
Disney shares already are being helped, having risen more than 20 percent since the deal was announced, partly on the hope for new character development and better use of Marvel heroes in movies, stores and theme parks.
The deal closed Thursday after Marvel shareholders gave final approval.
The deal already has spawned a bout of speculation in the comic book world about who will be the next big Thing.”
“The next big Thing.” um, well, I’m sure everyone above has their own suggestion…..
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YES! I have been hearing and seeing this for a YEAR!! He has been brought back from the wielders of ink and graphic novels as I know it. I swear if Jean-Paul is ‘killed’ or ‘disappears’ again…I don’t even know. Anyway, I am looking forward to purchasing this and taking in how he and his boyfriend are developed, and whether he his character will be given a fuller body
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this sounds cool. I remember Northstar back in days of Alpha Flight. And back then he was annoying. Hopefully, they’ll make this character more appealing, cooler and have him kissing and such.