Corporate Stupidity: Exhibit A - DC Comics

[Mallus]

The latter makes him into a one-trick pony and is a singular reduction of an otherwise complex being.

A look at The Midnighter and Apollo from the Authority would go a ways to proving that homosexual comic book characters can exist apart from their identity as "gay" and that a mature look at the characters without the cynical hype can do more to mainstream the movement.

I don't know... as much as I like the Ellis/Millar Authority, the whole raison d'être for Apollo and Midnighter is no than "what if Superman and Batman were middle-aged lovers (who adopt! -- sorta) and the raison d'être for the series is "Left-of-center fascist superheroes -- or eff you, Frank Miller!". It's great stuff, but a festival of nuanced characterization --or anything, really-- it is not.

Also, consider that the gay Allen Scott isn't being written jointly by a pack of suit-wearing corporate vampire-squids jamming their feeding tubes down the throats (thanks, Matt Taibbi!) of the comic-reading public.

It's being written by James Robinson. A talented writer. Who should eternally be given the benefit of the doubt for his wonderful work on Starman.

 

[Mercutio01]

I don't know... as much as I like the Ellis/Millar Authority, the whole raison d'être for Apollo and Midnighter is no than "what if Superman and Batman were middle-aged lovers (who adopt! -- sorta) and the raison d'être for the series is "Left-of-center fascist superheroes -- or eff you, Frank Miller!". It's great stuff, but a festival of nuanced characterization --or anything, really-- it is not.

I suppose. But I picked up and read Authority before I had an inkling that the characters were gay, and it wasn't really the selling point of the book or the marketing strategy of a whole company.

IIt's being written by James Robinson. A talented writer. Who should eternally be given the benefit of the doubt for his wonderful work on Starman.

Never read that book. That was around the time that I gave up comics (except for a few Vertigo titles--Sandman and Preacher, and later Hellblazer). When I got back into comics around 2002 or so, I pretty much stayed with DC's Vertigo, Marvel's Max, and Dark Horse (and a few WS titles like Authority). It wasn't until Blackest Night and Brightest Day that I started reading mainstream DC again.

 

[Mallus]

But I picked up and read Authority before I had an inkling that the characters were gay, and it wasn't really the selling point of the book or the marketing strategy of a whole company.

Yeah, the selling point was "proactive, ass-kicking, left-wing superhero team, the Air America version of the Justice League/Avengers". With lots of widescreen violence.

Never read that book.

Give it a try, it's great. But the point I was making in the new Green Lantern is being written by a talented, well-regarded author, not a bunch of suits.