America’s No. 1 comic house does it again…

Marvel is having a pretty good year this year, given the kajillions their Avengers film is making, not to mention all the glorious tie-ins, but another important event is set to drop in the pages of Astonishing X-Men this June – the long-awaited marriage of mutant Northstar (aka Jean-Paul Beaubier) and his human fiancé, Kyle in what will be a first for the comics giant.

Getting to the church on time…

Believe it, or not (and like it, or not) there are already quite a few gay and lesbian comic book characters in various publications from the assorted houses – no less the big two, Marvel and DC, and many of them are in relationships. There are several couples in the Marvel universe, Archie‘s Kevin Keller married his boyfriend last year, and even DC are hinting they will out one of their top drawer names in an upcoming issue. Northstar was Marvel’s first gay character, introduced in 1979 as part of Canadian superhero outfit Alpha Flight, but eventually he wended his way into the X-Men.

His powers are fairly run of the mill, for the Marvel universe that is. He can run at near light speeds, has super stamina, advanced agility and reaction time etc etc. He is also gay, and this started being made known in about 1992. Since then he has come out (in the multi-best selling Alpha Flight No. 106), left Alpha Flight, joined and re-joined the X-Men, adopted an HIV-positive baby, mentored a few other young gay mutants, saved the world a bunch of times, written a book about all of it, and most recently, asked his boyfriend Kyle to marry him – a ceremony that will happen in the upcoming Astonishing X-Men No. 51 out at the end of June.

Northstar (on the right) was Marvel’s first gay superhero, and is also their first to get married to a same-sex partner. Your move, DC…

The team at Marvel behind the new edition of Astonishing X-Men that features the wedding are adamant that in both the Marvel universe, and our one, the time is right for this to happen. Even Marvel’s Editor-in-Chief, Axel Alonso, is on board, telling the Huffington Post,

Recent events in North Carolina and President Obama’s statement of support for gay marriage underscore that this is a topical — and controversial — issue. And we’d be doing the story a disservice not to reflect this.

Daniel Ketchum, one of the co-editors of Astonishing X-Men agrees, pointing out that Northstar and Kyle were the perfect pair for this event, more so for the differences they share, than their intimacy,

Northstar and Kyle were the obvious choice for this story. We’ve seen their relationship grow over the past few years, across a number of titles: Uncanny X-Men, Nation X, and Alpha Flight. Whereas foisting this story upon another character would have been a forced step in their progression, we’ve been building toward this exact place with these two for about a year now, since gay marriage was legalized in New York State, making it a natural development. And, looking ahead, the marriage of two gay characters opens a number of avenues for future stories, and Northstar and Kyle are the characters best suited to explore them.

Marriage equality is a hot button topic in America right now, with much dissent on either side of the issue. Comic books have always been a platform for artists and writers to explore difficult issues facing society, and Marvel is no stranger to courting controversy. Here’s hoping that the reaction inside the Marvel Universe (let’s hope the Sentinels don’t crash the wedding) is as positive and constructive as that in the real world.

[Source: Huffington Post, Disneylist, Sliverofice]