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Netizens Go Berserk Over New Superman Coming Out As Bisexual

October 12, 2021

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Superheroes work as idols to many of us. To the young and impressionable minds to older readers too, superheroes kind of give us an idea of what makes a person a ‘hero’ someone others can look up to, admire and respect.

That is why representation and diversity in them is also extremely important. For a long time, this was missing, with most such superheroes being of Western origin with white skin colour and heterosexual.

This is slowly changing in the recent few years with women and people of colour superheroes also coming on board and now there is also growing LGBTQ+ representation.

Just a while back the character of Tim Drake, one of the Robin characters to fight beside Batman would be seen dating a man in a comic, while in March Marvel also revealed that for the first time in 80 years, they would have a gay Captain America called Aaron Fischer.

Bisexual Superman

As per reports the fifth edition of the “Superman: Son of Kal-El”comic series by DC Comics will see Jon Kent, child of Clark Kent and Lane, who is the new Superman involved in a romantic relationship with Jay Nakamura a male reporter.

This particular comic series shows Jon take on the mantle of being the new Superman of Earth and the struggles and obstacles he has to face after doing so. Nakamura has been shown to be a friend and source of comfort for Jon when his Superman duties get too overbearing ever since he first made his debut in the third issue of the series.

Now the fifth issue releasing in November will see a progression of Jon and Nakamura’s relationship after the former “mentally and physically burns out from trying to save everyone that he can,” according to DC.

This would also parallel Kent’s own parents’ love story where Clark Kent too fell in love with Lois Lane who was a reporter at the time.

Tom Taylor, a senior writer has commented on this saying “Superman’s symbol has always stood for hope, for truth and for justice. Today, that symbol represents something more. Today, more people can see themselves in the most powerful superhero in comics.”

As per a BBC report, he also stated that “There’s been a real shift over the last few years – ten years ago, five years ago this would have been more difficult, but I think things have shifted in a really welcome way.”

Taylor also commented on that while there was the expected backlash online there has been a more positive reaction than a negative one. He said “We have people saying they read this news today and burst into tears – people saying they never thought in their life that they would be able to see themselves in Superman… literally the most powerful superhero in comics.”

He further added that “You’ll always have people who’ll use the old line of ‘don’t put politics into comics’ – forgetting that every single [comic book] story ever has been political in some way.

People who don’t realise that the [Marvel comic series] X-Men were an analogy for the civil rights movement. We try to bring those people with us, but we are writing for the people who will hopefully see this Superman… and say ‘This Superman is like me. This Superman is fighting for things that concern me’.”

People have commented that finally, this is some good representation, since one it is not coming out of left field, feeling as if only done to get brownie points with the LGBTQ+ community or capitalise on them, knowing they will celebrate any crumbs they get, nor it is just an LGBTQ+ coded villain or a small underdeveloped character slapped on with the LGBTQ+ tag only to be killed off for any multiple reasons.

This is a full-on superhero, the very main character and thus shows how anyone can be a superhero, regardless of sexual orientation, gender, creed, colour and so on.

A lot of people reacted to this online with much jubilee and happiness. The fact that DC made the announcement on National Coming Out Day, an annual day where people from the LGBTQ+ community raise awareness around them, only further made it a cause of glee.