The LGBT Hero We've Been Waiting For?

The LGBT Hero We've Been Waiting For?
Showing posts with label comics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label comics. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 19, 2016

Comics Alliance: The Trouble With Character Ev-poe-lution

Phil Noto: Wedding Photographer
This passage from today's Comics Alliance article by Andrew Wheeler is just spot on:
Still, I cross my fingers and wish for a gay hero like Poe Dameron; for the kids he could inspire, and even the adults who never had that, and whose confidence could use a boost. But wishing won’t make it happen. It’s up to companies like Marvel and Lucasfilm, and their parent company Disney, to acknowledge and accept that same-sex relationships deserve to exist in their worlds. 
Maybe this time it’s real, and we exist, and we matter. Maybe Poe Dameron is our hero.
Wheeler makes the fair point that Poe was not originally scripted to survive TFA's first act, much less be gay. Nevertheless, the synergy between Isaac's charismatic performance and the surge of positive fan response could be capitalized upon and incorporated into Ep. VIII script revisions...
... if it wasn't for the Poe Dameron comic that comes out in just a couple of months. *sad trombone*

If it's true that Poe was not originally conceived as a gay character, is there reference to Poe's orientation built into the comic plot? If so, can Marvel feasibly accommodate a shift in Poe's character from straight to gay? Would they even if they could?

It'd be a shame if there was a consensus between the fans and the creative team to change Poe's character, but timelines and production schedules made it impracticable.

Thursday, January 14, 2016

USA Poe-day: Poe Dameron Comic Incoming!

Everyone shut up.


USA Today has reported an April 2016 release date for a Poe Dameron comic series! The title will cover the story of Poe's mission to find Lor San Tekka, so it picks up right after the end of Poe's story in Before the Awakening. 

It also will introduce a new villain from The First Order just for Poe. Perhaps it will be a nemesis TIE fighter jockey (sort of like a Snoopy-vs.-The-Red-Baron scenario?). Or will it explore the fan theories of Poe's Force sensitivity with a Dark Side villain?

And although I'm not getting my expectations up too high, I will note that Marvel, while not awesome about it historically, has been increasingly good about portraying LGBT heroes (Northstar, Richter/Shatterstar, Hulkling/Wiccan).

Hope springs eternal, right?