Where are the Queer Superheroes? (43:05, 98.6mb)
Sophie Delmas spoke about Seduction of the Innocent and how the comics code forbade anything other than heterosexual relationships, then spoke a bit about the code revision in 1989 and how after that publishers could do gay superheroes, starting with DC’s Pied Piper (1991) and Marvel’s Northstar (1992). She also spoke about the practice of queer coding and queer baiting and gave several examples of both. She also gave many examples of how characters who were once revealed or at least strongly hinted to be gay or bisexual had that removed via retcons or reboots. Among the examples she provided were Marvel’s Rictor & Shatterstar, Eddie Brock and Venom, Cyclops, Jean & Logan, and DC John Constantine. She also showed examples of specific gay exclusion in the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Loki, Agents of Shield, and Guardians of the Galaxy. She discussed DC removing the Tim Drake coming out story from the Batman: Urban Legends trades, which was the only story from that series they didn’t put into the trade paperbacks. Sophie also gives receipts to specific creators and editors who did this using what they said on social media about the topic. Note: At the end, they read off ticket numbers for a raffle, I cut that part of the audio out.
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