[Vigilous]

Riverdale's first Openly Gay Student Arrives

Three things I can't help but think off:

First, the fight between Banky and Hooper X regarding the underlying gayness of Archie.

Second, the hilarity that this will cause when this new character must decide between Archie or Jughead.

And finally, the further hilarity that will ensue when the psychotic commentators and idiotic politicians and senseless Americans exclaim, with no proof of effect, "OH FUCK!!! THE GAYS HAVE TAKEN ARCHIE!!! FROM BEHIND!!! FAMILY VALUES ARE DEAD!!!!" Beck will wheel out his chalkboard to demonstrate how a gay supporting character in Archie will undermine parents raising the children. And that somehow, the Nazi Communists are trying to destroy America from within by concocting this monstrosity.

[Wildstriker]

What the fuck is Archie?

[MrReinhardt]

funny since Xmen have included gay characters for years.

[Vigilous]

Yeah, but the X-Men were never consider to be "wholesome, American family entertainment." Besides, I wouldn't consider X-Men to be truly groundbreaking for the gay community. While Marvel was the first to introduce a gay character in mainstream comics, Northstar was quickly re-closeted and, in fact, never seen again for several years after he was outed. The only other gay character I can even think of is Beast, which is pushing it considering he only "dabbled" in what can only be described as a gross publicity stunt by Marvel. And it turned out his only fling was online and actually a female X-Villian (either Mystique or Emma Frost, I can't remember).

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What the fuck is Archie?

Other people's fucking kids, I swear.

[Keylime]

Hah ha. I use to read Archie as a kid. That shit was straight lace by any conservative's values. I never thought I'd hear that Archie added a gay character. Begin the relig-o-nuts countdown to zealotry.

[pathwriter]

My interest is largely in how they choose to present this. Considering the rather young audience of Archie comics, I am wondering if they'll actually use the term "gay" and, moreover, if it is appropriate to do so. Considering how tribalistic elementary school students are, labels are generally a bad thing, at least in my experience. I can't really say that I'm surprised, though, as for all that Archie comics are deliberately nostalgic and family friendly, they have had a certain investment in being somewhat up-to-date. The notable lack of non-white characters destabilizes that notion (which is unfortunate as I'm pretty sure I know more black people who read Archie than white people), but I'm sure this new character will be a throw-away token, anyhow.

The only comic artist I've seen treat homosexuality as just a (largely meaningless) aspect of his characters is Alan Moore, and even then, he tends to sneak it in under the rug onto minor characters. On the other hand, having seen the abominations created by gay comic artists, I'm not sure how a gay character can be portrayed in a reasonable light right now. The cardboard relationship between Cyclops and Jean Grey would probably be more interesting if it turned out Cyclops was closeted and Jean was his clueless beard, but Marvel would retcon it instantly lest all their fans who beat off thinking about eye lasers be forced to question their own predispositions.

[Kleiner]

In one of the marvel universes, Colossus is an openly gay X-man.

One of the big points behind the creation of the X-men was to encourage racial tolerance. Gay characters were bound to pop up..

as for the gay guy in archie, it's actually pretty subdued. He gets persued by one of the female characters, and jughead convinces him not to break the news to her, because jughead wants to watch the fireworks.

Also, yes, path. They use the term Gay. The character outs himself to Jughead, while explaining why he's not interested in the female character. his exact line is "I'm gay!"

This post has been edited by Kleiner: 24 April 2010 - 11:42 AM

[Vigilous]

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In one of the marvel universes, Colossus is an openly gay X-man.

Openly? He kept that a closely guarded secret along with his drug abuse. Hell, Storm was his beard and the team only found out when they caught him with Northstar.

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The cardboard relationship between Cyclops and Jean Grey would probably be more interesting if it turned out Cyclops was closeted and Jean was his clueless beard, but Marvel would retcon it instantly lest all their fans who beat off thinking about eye lasers be forced to question their own predispositions.

Supposedly, they killed Jean off for good a couple of years ago, and he started dating Emma Frost soon after (the two had a "psychic affair"). The only people who would questions themselves are the truly ignorant. In An Evening With Kevin Smith, Smith elates a story where he sat in on a test audience for Chasing Amy. One man commented that finding out the character he most identified with (Banky) was gay, pissed him off and left him wondering what that said about him. The obvious answer is that it said nothing.

Unless of course he felt sexually attracted to Ben Affleck.

[Kleiner]

Got the openly wrong then. My mistake D:

[Vigilous]

Eh, it happens. The comic nerd in me is compelled to correct at times.

[Kleiner]

While i enjoy comics, i can't say i always know what i'm talking about. I knew he was gay, didn't know he hid it. I live the comic nerdery to my friend sean, and just borrow his stuff

[spira]

hurray for gender equality.

gonna be funny how they handle those guy-on-guy-ugh-wtf jokes now.
then again I haven't read Archie in over a decade and i'm told its more serious now.

anyway people have always assumed jughead was kinda gay cos of his aversion to women lol and betty and veronica could easily pass off as lesbians in quite a number of stories..

but everything changes once you declare it, of course. its just the perspective really.

[MrReinhardt]

I don't see it as a big deal. I imagine most kids who are old enough to read through Archie know what homosexuality is.

[Avatarius]

MrReinhardt, on 24 April 2010 - 02:24 PM, said:

I don't see it as a big deal. I imagine most kids who are old enough to read through Archie know what homosexuality is.

It's a big deal to Vigilous, since vigilous is gay / loves gays.

[Vigilous]

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It's a big deal to Vigilous, since vigilous is gay / loves gays.

Ignorance at it's finest. And I don't mean ignorance of equality, I just mean you're fucking stupid.

[Khorvis]

This reminded me of a Betty and Me (Archie spin off) cover.

[pathwriter]

I'm not seeing the year, do you happen to know when that was published? I find it very hard to believe that was an accidental quip, given the term "beat off" as a euphemism for masturbation is attributed to at least the 1960s.

[Khorvis]

pathwriter, on 24 April 2010 - 07:22 PM, said:

I'm not seeing the year, do you happen to know when that was published? I find it very hard to believe that was an accidental quip, given the term "beat off" as a euphemism for masturbation is attributed to at least the 1960s.

Volume #: 16
Variant: A
Printing: 1st
Cover Price: $.12
Publish Date: SEP 1968


Yeah, I thought that the time frame put it well into the common slang for that era.

[Corrderio]

So how long til Westboro hears about this I wonder.

[Vigilous]

Seems they haven't gotten wind of it yet. But I doubt anyone there reads comic books anyway. It doesn't jive with their whole obedience rant.