Given the success of Brokeback Mountain the archetype of the "cowboy" has received more attention in the media than it has for years. From large scale films and television to new books the genre has seen, if not a come-back, at least a big blip on the radar. Last Friday, Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Joe Quesada discussed an upcoming summer 'event' in which the comics line would be drawing from their stable classic western comics characters. What was notable in this announcement though, was the absence of one cowboy - a gay one.
In 2003, Marvel published The Rawhide Kid, a mini-series about a gay gunslinger. The books received wide attention in both the gay media and the main-stream press and received moderate critical recognition. The story essentially was that a large gang of outlaws had overrun a town and that our hero came to town to clean up, fairly typical western fare with the twist that the hero was gay. The story was fairly humorous and dependent much on double-entendre with no violent or sexual content. The book was labeled "MA", directing retailers that the book was not for children.
Explaining why Rawhide Kid would not be joining Two-Gun Kid, Kid Colt and the Black Rider for the summer western showcase, Quesada explained, "if we were to go with the gay Kid we would have had to label the books MAX and that's not what we wanted for this event". Essentially a comic featuring a gay character is required to be noted as "Adults Only".
Other comics, however, have featured gay characters that did not include the adult rating. Prominent among them is another book from Marvel, Northstar, a mini-series about a gay mutant published long before Rawhide Kid. Published before the Bush administration took office and the christian right's emboldened offensive, the book carried nary a warning.
Not all publishers seem to see gay as an automatic ticket to "Adult Content". A new lesbian character is rumored to be coming soon from DC comics, and it won't be a some minor character. The new homo-heroine is part of the large Bat-family of characters and her name should be an eyecatcher: Batwoman.
So the question is that if straight characters can be shown jumping around in tights and if Clark Kent and Lois Lane can be shown in bed together (yes they are married, but a mention of more minor characters, say Starfire and Nightwing, would label your writer as a total nerd), then why, oh why, can't a gay cowboy play shoot-em-up without his publisher proclaiming prurience?
