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New Batwoman writer: 'DC Comics Isn't Anti-Gay'
New Batwoman writer: 'DC Comics Isn't Anti-Gay'
Gay writer says DC stopped lesbian hero's wedding over age, not homophobia.
September 20 2013 8:41 AM EST
February 05 2015 9:27 PM EST
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New Batwoman writer: 'DC Comics Isn't Anti-Gay'
Writers JH Williams III and Haden Blackman cited "creative differences" when they left the DC Comics title Batwoman this month, and one of those major "differences" was that DC Comics won't let lesbian Batwoman marry her gal-pal, Gotham City detective Maggie Sawyer.
"DC has asked us to alter or completely discard many long-standing storylines in ways that we feel compromise the character and the series," the men wrote. "...Most crushingly, prohibited from ever showing Kate and Maggie actually getting married." Many assumed DC Comics, the long-running publisher now owned by Warner Bros, was trying to keep gay marriage out of its pages. But new Batwoman writer Marc Andreyko, who is gay, insists that's not the case.
DC Comics did reject Batwoman's wedding, yes, but not because that wedding was of the lesbian variety. The company just revamped its entire line to grab younger readers and weddings are for old people, he said.
"It was absolutely not an anti-gay thing. It was just a creative overview that marriage right now, at this point in the DC Universe, is not something they want to explore. And that's a completely viable thing," Andreyko told the website Newsarama. Considering that this "new 52" line of comic books only launched two years ago, marriage seems premature to DC editors.
"Any claims of homophobia against DC are completely ridiculous. I've been an out gay creator my entire career, and I've had nothing but support -- and, if anything, pushing from DC to do more. So no, they've been one of the most consistently great places for not only LGBT characters, but for creators as well. They're ahead of the curve with the country, as far as that goes."
While Batwoman and Sawyer won't be getting hitched anytime soon, Andreyko reassures readers that he'll continue exploring their relationship and its complications. "As far as Kate's sexuality and her relationship with Maggie, that's going to be explored in great depth. But it will be the same way that, when Peter Parker was dating Mary Jane, their sexuality was explored." Readers will note that Peter Parker and Mary Jane did eventually get hitched. Of course, then Spider-Man had to erase the wedding from continuity to save the world, so...
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