It’s official, openly gay X-Man Northstar is getting married to his long time boyfriend Kyle Jinadu!
Written by Marjorie Liu (who previously wrote X-23) with art by Mike Perkins, the proposal took place yesterday in Astonishing X-Men #50 and the wedding with follow in next month’s Astonishing X-Men #51.
To say I’m looking forward to it would be an understatement. When I first expressed my excitement to see Lui write such a diverse team of heroes, not even I was expecting Marvel Comic’s first same sex marriage a mere 4 issues into the run.
The big wedding will take place in Astonishing X-Men #51 out June 20th!
Marvel has been teasing the wedding for a while with their “Save the Date” ads, but the news officially broke this past Tuesday on The View.
I must say, I really love Whoopi’s observation about the diversity of the cover.
Kyle Jinadu
Northstar (Jean-Paul Beaubier) is a mutant speedster with superhuman stamina, endurance, reflexes, and the power of flight who first appeared in X-Men #120 (1979). His homosexuality was then confirmed over a decade later in Alpha Flight #106 (1992). This coming out makes Northstar the first openly gay superhero by a major publisher.
Kyle has had a much shorter publication history and was introduced only three years ago three years ago Uncanny X-Men #508 (June, 2009). Unlike Northstar, Kyle is normal human and was a long time friend of Northstar’s sister Jeanne-Marie Beaubier before dating Jean-Paul.
Northstar proposes to his longtime boyfriend Kyle in this week’s Astonishing X-Men #50
Since taking over writing duty of Astonishing X-Men, Liu has been devoting a pleasantly surprising amount of each issue exploring the two’s relationship. If anyone writing for Marvel right now can pull this off in a respectful way, I have faith that it’s Liu. In just three issues, she has managed to take Kyle from a somewhat obscure supporting character to an integral part of the book.
While next month’s wedding may mark the first same sex in the pages of a Marvel comic, Northstar and Kyle certainly aren’t the first two gay comic characters to get hitched. Way back in 2002, Apollo and Midnighter were married in the pages of The Authority and just this past February, Kevin Keller and Clay Walker were wed in Life with Archie #16.
DC Comics, not to be out done by Marvel, has also announced this week that one of their major and iconic superheroes will soon be reintroduced as homosexual. It’s been an exciting week for the proponents of diversity in media.
Here’s hoping that these characters and their relationship with continue to be treated with the respect that they deserve and that they will be met by success both in their marriage and on the comic shelves.
Journey Into Awesome 
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