Batwoman is a Lesbian

DC Comics recently announced that they were bringing back the fairly unknown character Batwoman. Oh yeah, and she’s going to be a lesbian.

Women superheroes have kind of been a rarity to begin with. Most notably, there’s Superwoman; and most people associate that character with TV’s Linda Carter. But Superwoman was a fairly prominent DC comic book before Carter turned her into a household name. Other than that, you’ve got Hawkgirl and Invisible Girl (Fantastic four); and the couple of chicks from the X-Men series; hardly well known figures who, as far as I know, were all straight.

Apparently, in fringe comics (comic books with a small but loyal buying audiences) there have been gay characters for years (usually not the main characters though). There’s even a website for gay comic book fanatics (gayleague.com; I now believe there is a website for anything and everything).

Let me make something extremely clear: I am down with gay Batwoman. I actually think the world has waited too long for a gay Batwoman. In fact, I would go as far to say that the Bat-franchise as waited too long to go into the world of gay.

It’s no big mystery that gay things sell (despite all the bickering over social issues like gay marriage). People, even Midwestern, red state types, love their gay shit. There’s Will & Grace and Queer Eye for the Straight Guy; just turn on any MTV dating program and you’re likely to see some man and his trophy wife trying to find a replacement for their son’s deadbeat boyfriend (Parental Control).

Gay is everywhere; and if people still say they are uncomfortable with it, well, it probably just means they need to work out some repression issues.

I do, however, commend DC Comics for this development. Though it’s not that big a deal to me, it takes some amount of courage to do what they did. Soon enough, there will be gay marriage; and maybe then gay Batwoman can have a proper marriage issue.

I can’t wait for that day; that truly gay day.