For all the 'respect' comics have gained in the past ten years, there are times when you wonder if things have really changed in the reporting of comic stories. Remember a year or so ago when DC Comics had Superman declare he was a protector of the world, not just the U.S.? Well it was a small 10 page story in an issue of Action Comics and, of course, Fox News went crazy over it and that caused other outlets to go crazy over it. The big takeaway from that and other stories in recent years about comics (think about the 'radical' changes going on in the Archie Comics world) and the thing I realize is a reporter, who might research tensions in the Middle East, the intricacies of Washington politics, even who will take the time to research all the former lovers of Madonna or Lady Gaga, the same reporters will figure if they read a comic book in high school they have all the knowledge they need about comic books and their history. It also seems, to further their agenda, some news organizations (yes I'm talking about Fox News) will exploit the publics lack of information to push their world view agenda.

Could Superman Be Gay? That was the blaring statement on the Fox News Features and Faces section which is on the front page of their website. I saw this at 3pm PDT on May 21, 2012. There was also a link to the story if you scrolled down to their Entertainment headline section, just below the headline story about the final episode of HOUSE. I bring up the little details about when and where I saw this because no doubt the page will change to promote more recent news.

When you click to the link you find a shot article that, again, promote the idea Superman might be gay, but in reading the story you see that Dan DiDio, co-publisher of DC Comics, does say a prominent DC character will come out as gay. He doesn't declare Superman will be gay, he doesn't mention which character will be gay other than his original statement.

Of course, by putting the suggestion out there that Superman might be gay, Fox News probably caused a lot of its conservative readers to do some conspiracy theory work worthy of The Question. OK, for those of you out there, this would of course be The Question of the Justice League Unlimited TV show.

Now, there in lies the rub for me. I saw a couple of mainstream stories about this issue, and like an idiot I've read some comments that have been posted. Like I stated in my first sentence, it surprises me with all the information about comics out there, supposedly, people only know surface information about comics books and seem surprised about changes made to characters they think are new. The way that Fox News and other outlets have done this story, you would think this was the mid 90s when Northstar came out of the closet. People outside of comics had a fit about it, for about 10 minutes. By the way, the reason why I did the aside about the Question is if a reporter had done a bit of investigation, meaning a Wikipedia search, the conspiracy issue was part of the animated Question character, but the Question, in the comics, not only has been a woman for the past few years but is a lesbian who had a relationship with . . . hold on to your hats . . . Batwoman. Not only has Batwoman been a lesbian since her reintroduction a few years ago and in her relaunched book (which for some reason didn't cause anyone in the mainstream media any alarm) but she also mentioned the Question quite a bit, except using her 'civilian name.' Oh, and for anyone interested, look up the Superman animated series and check out the big Darkseid story which had Dan Turpin's death. Dan's partner, the woman in the bed with the other woman holding her hand, she becomes The Question and yes, that is her lover holding her hand, but that isn't Batwoman.

I know money has to be made, issues have to be addressed, but please news reporters and mainstream media giants, can't we stop trying to sensationalize comic book events that might have some controversy when you don't take the time to research the material? While I can say Fox News was leading it's readership into a frenzied response by suggesting Superman might be gay, I don't recall anyone at Fox News going crazy when Grant Morrison, just a month ago, did an Earth 23 Superman who was for all the world Obama. Even with the knowledge I have about comics someone had to correct me and say the Earth 23 Superman was always black and from Final Crisis and the Earth 23 Superman was suppose to be a parallel of Obama as President.

Apparently so many reporters were linking or reporting on the story and making some incorrect accusations, BleedingCool.com, a website that was at the convention in London where the statement was made, had to do an education for reporters and people coming to the site, to effectively inform them there are quite a number of gay and lesbian characters in comic books. Here is what they update to educate the public and reporters on the issue:

UPDATE: Thanks to all the news organisations that have linked to this post. For your files, the first openly gay mainstream superhero was Northstar, reinterpreted as gay by his creator John Byrne in the eighties, but only officially stated as gay by writer Scott Lobdell in the nineties, and Marvel is expected to announce Northstar’s engagement to his boyfriend, Kyle,on ABC’s The View tomorrow. Lobdell recently created a new gay DC character in the recent relaunched comic Teen Titans. Image Comics and Wildstorm published comics in the noughties featuring gay couple Midnighter and Apollo, based on Batman and Superman, something that was played down and censored when DC bought Wildstorm, though eventually the pair were allowed to marry in the comics, in a ceremony conducted by a fictitious version of Ellen DeGeneres. Of late both Marvel and DC have significantly increased the number of LGBT characters, prominently in books such as Young Avengers, Batwoman, 52 and Astonishing X-Men, and even Archie Comics has featured prominent gay characters and earlier this year a mixed-race military gay wedding. And then there is the British superhero comic Spandex, featuring noting but gay characters!