Homosexuality and the Superhero Dialectic

Not sure if the newest superhero comics-to-prose book, Hero from Hyperion Books will attract the praise from fanboys/girls that Michael Chabon's Kavalier and Clay or Austin Grossman's Soon I Will Be Invincible did, but I suspect folks will be talking about it, particularly after Monday's New York Times piece.

Perry Moore's name won't ring a bell, unless you read movie credits like Ms. CEO and I do (he's exec-producing the Chronicles of Narnia films), but the subject of his first prose work -- a high-schooler who comes to grips with his budding super powers and homosexuality -- will hit home for some.

Moore's book is a personal "jihad" aimed at the poor treatment -- that's at the very best -- of gay superfolks by mainstream comics publishers, and in particular, the most famous one of them all, Marvel Comics' Northstar who was killed by fellow Canadian Wolverine, albeit very temporarily.

Considering the best revenge in life is success, it's all the more fitting (to me anyway) that Alison Bechdel was one of the major guests at July's Comic-Con International: San Diego where her celebrated memoir, Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, won an Eisner Award for Best Reality-Based Work.

No question, mainstream comics, as a medium, is capable of capturing all the richness and diversity life -- gay or straight -- has to offer. Shouldn't this industry be encouraging more of it? Or, do you believe "reality" encroaches way too much into your hobby already?