f13.net

...as a lesbian.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/5030518.stm

That's great and all, but do they really need to use it as a promotional tool?  How about making her a kick-ass heroine then make details of her orientation a part of the story?  You know, saving the damsel in distress, asking Catwoman for a date when she gets out of the pen, or whatever.  It can be a part of her without having to turn the concept into her going around proclaiming, "I'm Bat-lesbian!" all the time.

Maybe marketing ploys have made me bitter and the writers will handle it better.  (After reading the reviews in this section I don't have much hope for that though.)

Its a PC world now Lantyssa. And of course the marketing department feels that the best way to get this message across is with a big neon billboard sign which says, "Hey LESBIANS! We have a comic just for you!" Then do the samething for Hispanics, or Chinese or whatever other group they are targeting.

I hope her archnemesis is a hot female super-thief named Snatch.  Cue puns.

Batwoman is out to get Snatch!  Will Snatch be licked in the end?  Read on as Batwoman goes out in the night, on the prowl for Snatch!  Come along, sidekick, this bar looks like a great place to look for Snatch!

God, this will own.

I knew they were bringing back Batwoman (she's pictured in the last issue of Infinite Crisis) but didn't know it'd be Montaya's chickie. Of course, letting out advertorial stories on the character that focus on the fact she's gay is bad mojo. It stinks of publicity stunt.

It's not for the benefit of the lesbians (again, if marketing has any clue...).  I can see it for the guys that fantasize about being caught in the middle (sorry, not gonna to happen), but it's not for the ladies, and I don't know that it will be all that popular with the lads either.  I suppose that will depend on how well the writers do.

If I hear after the fact that the story is good I might look into it, but an article like that instantly turns me off wanting to buy it and leaves me not wanting to spend much effort to change my initial impression.

WUA,

You win!  :heart:

Here is my question - is the publicity coming from DC or the media?

Maybe DC just wanted to create a lesbian character. Why? Honestly a lot of costumed super-hero females WOULD be lesbians. Look at the WNBA. Realistically a large percentage of female heroes would be butch lesbians.

I don't see anything wrong with creating a character that is actually realistic. If DC is going around everywhere saying "HEY, BATCHICKY IS A LESBO" that's bad but if it's third-party media running with the story you can't blame DC for it.

My theory it is the media.  They'll get the story about all the diversity and ideas DC is doing and they'll latch on to a few things, hence the lesbian thing.   It sells papers, ratings, etc etc.

I do hope that is the case.

In the end, it doesn't really matter. Batwoman is a lame and unpopular character.

I didn't even know Montoya was a lesbian.

Lo and behold, I go out and catch up on what's been released of 52 so far and there she is lesbianing it up.

Lesbianing is a good word, but difficult to pronounce.  I keep wanting to say "Lesbianining", and that's just ridiculous.

Except they already have a lesbian character, the aforementioned Renee Montoya. Now, I didn't know she was a lesbian until 52, but she's been a decent part of Batman mythos for a few years (I think she was originally on the Batman animated series and was brought over to the comics), and there were no big stories about her preference for the ladies. So my guess is both the PR guys at DC and the media wonks who masturbate furiously over such juicy advertorial saw a good opportunity here.

I just saw a video on ABCnews where they focus on this.  My hope is fleeting.

Poor Northstar. No one gives a shit that he's gay, and he's been gay for longer than this Batwoman's even been a rumor on the Internet.

Ha ha I forgot all about that. Was he in Alpha Flight or something like that?

learn2wikipedia

Plus, Angel was gay in 1602.

Hell, if they really want to make something controversial, make mainstream Angel gay.  He's named Angel and is supposed to be this quasi-religious symbol of divinity for mutantkind.  That'd make some steam come out of some ears, I'm certain.

(Too bad he was already nailing Psylocke.  That's way too straight a thing to do for him to later be gay.  Maybe bi.)

They tried to make Beast gay in the comics... sort of. He was actually just saying he was gay to piss off his ex-girlfriend because she outed some sort of mutant story. It was mentioned once or twice then just dropped.

He was also French-Canadian,  and a member or former member of some radical Quebec separatist group.  At least,  in the 80's he was.

The headline for this should be "Batwoman comes out, Bat-universe now 100% Gay". 

She has no effect on the "Bat-universe". No one cares if she's a lesbian or not. She's just a step above one of those promotional characters you'd find in a Boy Scouts fire prevention comic.

Can't say I'd blame DC if the publicity was coming from them.  Mention lesbian and people start talking apparently.  This thread having more replies than 90% of the other topics in this sub-forum and in short span of time is proof of that.

Edit:  From now on I'll just review books that prominently feature Lesbian characters so you fuckers can respond.

We're talking, but is anyone in this thread going to actually BUY the books because of it?  I'm certainly not.

There are others mentioned in threads I didn't reply to that I would, however, consider.

Are you a JTHM fan (just asking because of the Zim avatar)? If not, then consider that.  :-)

[edit]

Uhh....

JTHM = Johnny the Homicidal Maniac btw

JTHM didn't age all that well.  It still has moments, but it's best when you're a teenager with a chip on your shoulder.

I'm 28, and read it a little over year ago. I didn't like it that much myself, but for some reason, some girls I knew did (all around my age). One of them even stole my copy.

I think Squee aged a lot better, and still makes me laugh to this day.

Squee's much better, cause it's much less teen-angsty.  I think Jhonen made the right choice in refusing to do any JTHM again.

I haven't read enough of it to know for sure.  My impression is that it was a little to much senseless violence for my tastes, but I'll probably borrow a friend's copy some day to see.  Squee does sound more interesting, but I have not read that either.

The Tak icon was prompted by someone making a worm-baby quote but couldn't remember what it was from until I reminded them.

Me.  I said worm-baby.

I thought it might have been, but my memory is not so good at times.  I didn't want to unfairly accuse someone of forgetting a Zim quote.