James Robinson Resurrects gay hero Tasmanian Devil
During last week’s WonderCon I was lucky enough to catch the PRISM panel discussion on “Writing Queer: Creating and Writing LGBT Characters.” One of the panelists was James Robinson… writer of Cry For Justice, Starman and the current incarnation of the JLA (which includes blue gay alien Mikel Thomas – a.k.a. Starman III). Robinson seemed a bit uncomfortable up there with a panel of queer creators. He looked either nervous or annoyed for portions of the panel, but held his own once asked questions. He discussed the backlash that happened after he turned Aussie gay hero – Tasmanian Devil into a throw rug in Prometheus’ hideout.
He admitted that he’d staged the death merely for the rug joke and said he hadn’t realized that Tasmanian Devil was one of the few LGBT heroes that exist in the DCU. As a straight writer – it just wasn’t something he considered, but he felt bad about it. So he decided to find a way to bring him back, and did just that in the pages of a book I overlooked at the time – Starman / Congorilla #1. Had I known about the gay content, It would have been my most anticipated book of that week.
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Between Congorilla telling Starman that his “trick” left and Starman explaining to Congorilla that just because two guys are gay doesn’t mean they’ll hook up, this book reads like an apology from Robinson to LGBT fans out there. Apology accepted.
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Although Mikel DOES say that all gay guys aren’t necessarily immediately compatible, Starman said he thought Tas’ human form was pretty hot. Robinson ALSO leaked that he’s planning a romance between two gay heroes in his book, so I’d expect to see Starman and The Tasmanian Devil hook up pretty soon.
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