G.I Joe? That's not a quote generally attributed to that comic book.

[quote="DOOM"]I honestly don't care for comics or movies with paganism or heavy religious themes (see: Spawn, Ghostrider, Constantine, stuff with Dormammu (whatever), Son of Satan).
But I sure don't have any right to suggest they shouldn't be allowed to make them![/quote]

To paraphrase an issue of G.I. Joe, I may never agree with what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it.

I'll be on the lookout for that when I get to that point in the Order.

well, it was subtext for a long time. They hit at Northstar's preferences in the backup story on like, Alpha Flight #5 (v1).

That I was unaware of.

Yea, although I think the first gay character they introduced was a guy....they didn't make a big deal about it though. Not like the whole wedding business.

It makes sense to introduce that into continuity with women first. Like you said, most men won't have a problem with lesbians. From there, a gay male or two won't be such a big leap.

I have been reading some comics from the mid 2000s lately, and I am noticing a lot of other gay characters, although they are all girls. I guess while gay men aren't acceptable, no one has problems with lesbians..

I buy that. I definitely agree with their audiences generally being pro gay marriage, or at least not against, so for marvel, it's a no brainer. Plus they know it's good for some publicity.

I'm not even sure it's a political statement any more. Equal marriage is a reality in New York and in other US states, and in more and more countries around the world. It's just depicting things as they are.

More to the point, I think it's sound business sense. I don't know a lot about polling in the US, but in Australia and the UK, generations X, Y and Z are very strong supporters of marriage equality and, in Australia, over 60% of the [i]total[/i] population supports it as well. The audience that Marvel wants to gain and keep is made up of a large majority of equal rights supporters, so it makes perfect sense to capitalise on this. Sure, Marvel might lose a few homophobes, but I really doubt it's going to be statistically significant, especially as there have been openly gay characters for a while now. Just as we now look back on the 1960s comics and laugh (and gasp) at their dated representations of women and other cultures and races, one day people will look back on the current era and marvel (ha) that it took this long for the GLBTQ population to begin to be represented.