Holy lesbo, Batman!

Big thanks to the Hand Mirror for alerting me to an article in the Independent revealing that Batwoman is about to be unleashed, wreaking havoc on the homophobes and criminally inclined everywhere.

Two months after his untimely death, the creators of Gotham City’s crime-fighting superhero, Bruce Wayne, have finally unveiled his politically-correct replacement: a ginger-haired, lesbian socialite called Batwoman.

The comments at the site of the Independent are quite something.  My fave:

Can society get any more screwed up?. It would seem our western society is adicted to all things of an evil nature. Ps. Sorry, i wont apologies for not bowing to the political brainwashing that homosexuality is normal behavior. It is an identity related mental ilness just like anorexia is an identity related mental illness.

I’m kinda struggling with the dressing-up-in-a-batsuit is normal behaviour bit of this myself.

But seriously, all those years of straight comic book heros brainwashing us to believe opposite sex love was inevitable aside, there is something potentially exciting about a queer superhero.

In the American Queer as Folk series, two characters responded to a vicious gay-bashing by creating Rage, a queer superhero with powers:

greater than normal human strength and resilience, superhuman sexual stamina, martial arts training, psychically enhanced charisma and persuasiveness, and a mind-distortion ability that causes homophobic attackers to perceive each other as gay and to attack each other. He also has the ability to heal others’ injuries through sex.

No indication yet about how Batwoman’s sexuality will be handled in the comics – as a turn on for male readers, as just one part of her life, as forming her ideas about crime – but it will be interesting to see.  I’m sure she’ll be adored by women-loving-women.

I’m afraid, as a child of the 1970s, I was brainwashed into adoring superheros.  Despite the neo-liberal “individuals can fix everything just be being very strong” nonsense they undoubtedly promised, the idea of being able to do cool things like fly and move things with my mind has always fascinated me. In fact, I used to make up transforming potions from household cleaners and drink them in the hope I’d become suitably gifted. This probably explains a lot.

I’ll leave you with a superhero dating quiz, packed with insightful questions to ensure you end up with the right superhero girl or superhero boy to save the world.

Apparently I should be dating Psylocke or Peter Petrelli.  Sounds ok to me…