Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Openly Gay Superhero in Teen Titans?


Yes.

From a piece about the superhero, Bunker, in Comics Alliance...

Miguel Jose Barragan, an openly gay superpowered teen from Mexico is joining DC Comics' flagship team of teenage heroes. As announced online by artist Brett Booth, the hero known as Bunker will debut in November's Teen Titans #3. Bunker will apparently come from an accepting background that's contributed to a slightly more flamboyant attitude than fans might have seen from other gay and lesbian characters in the DCU so far, including Batwoman, Apollo, Midnighter and more. According to writer Scott Lobdell, "He was born out of the closet and so he has a very refreshing outlook on life."

Bunker's powers, as described by Booth, include the ability to create small force fields that look like bricks. His costume is notably purple, though according to Booth that wasn't his first color choice given how that connotation might be perceived.

Working to positively portray a population that's as diverse as any in the world through just one character -- or even the growing, but still proportionately small number DC has -- is nearly impossible, but both Lobdell and Booth seem to be working to address issues of tokenism months before the character's reveal in comics.

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