“I’m sad for [those audiences]. And I’m proud of Marvel for refusing to cut those scenes out. I still don’t understand how we live in a world today where there’s still [people who] would not see the family Phastos has and the beauty of that relationship and that love. How anybody is angry about it, threatened by it, doesn’t approve or appreciate it is ignorant.”—Oscar-winner Angelina Jolie, tearing into censors and homophobes unwilling to exhibit or see her new film Eternals. The Marvel Studios movie is the first to feature a gay superhero in the character Phastos (played by Brian Tyree Henry). Already several countries in the Middle East have banned the film outright, and the ratings board in Singapore slapped it with an adults-only rating. In the United States, bigots have also “review bombed” popular critic aggregators RottenTomatoes and MetaCritic to lower the audience score in protest over the film’s inclusiveness.
Michael
Don’t worry America, as they usually do, the execs made sure to make the gay guy the least physically appealing as possible so don’t you unsettle your pretty little heads. But, ya know, the hetero characters are buff and pretty so, um, yeah.
PQ
I loved that the gay character is an overweight POC. He is appealing because of his sensitivity and his intelligence. He is also quite handsome. Just because his body isn’t appealing to you doesn’t mean it’s not appealing to others. The way you equate attractiveness with muscles is tired and boring. How lovely to see a queer character who is not linked to sex or glorified for his weirdly unobtainable body.
Max
true comic fans as well as a space opera buffs know there are have always been characters of diversity and sexualities in the universe. portrayal of such is not unusual.
THAT Steve
Ongoings with gay leads are few and far between tho. Batwoman and Midnighter are the most recent two and it’s been years. Marvel Comics’ gay eunuch couple Hulkling and Wiccan get one shots and are occasionally part of groups. Sales does not support gay leads. Now, if you meant the DCEU and MCU, before Loki it was just one random non-super-hero in the MCU and someone in Runaways on Hulu and Constantine, who’s only been bi in a character bio sense.