Avengers Academy’s Striker is Gay & a victim of abuse
Since day 1 of Avengers Academy, the character of Striker has been the handsome, egotistical, fame-whore spouting one arrogant come on after another to the girls. Turns out that’s all an act to be filed under “me thinks he doth protest too much.” Brandon Sharpe a.k.a. Striker is the latest young Marvel character to come out of the 4-color closet. I’m glad it was in Avengers Academy as I’ve felt that is really one of the most compelling of the whole Avengers line. Neither the flagship Avengers title nor Secret or New possesses the charm and appeal of Avengers Academy.
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Not long after learning that former child hero Julie Power a.k.a. Lightspeed (from Power Pack and The Loners) is “bisexual,” Striker takes the opportunity to open up share his sexuality and an unfortunate part of his secret origin with a kindred spirit. It turns out that being gay isn’t Striker’s ONLY secret to tell… As a child star Brandon had a “bad touch” manager who ended up a crispy critter when the frightened boy’s powerful electrical abilities first manifest. It’s pretty dark, but in keeping with the various “doomed to do evil” origins shared by the rest of this tortured team of youths broken by Norman Osborn’s Dark Reign and hopefully reforged in the light of this “Heroic Age.”
All that plus a meddling time traveler with a mission and more roster additions with both X-23 (FAST BALL SPECIAL Mettle!) and “the horror men call Hybrid” joining the team. The former is welcomed with open arms (any many questions) by her new teammates after a brilliant introductory speech and the latter is there under false pretenses and basically intends to eat them all.
Also be sure to read the letters page where writer Christos Gage skips thru Strikers history and points out the clues that might have led an astute reader to come to the conclusion that Striker is a “friend of Northstar.”
Gage also mentions that "we’ve come a long way in terms of there being plenty of positive depictions of confident, proud gay youths in comics and popular culture in general" and felt we’ve not really seen as much of "gay characters who are struggling with their identity" and "the prejudice gay people endure all too often in society."
via CBR
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12/17/2011 at 2:06 am
I like this very much.
12/17/2011 at 2:21 pm
OMG gay superheroes are the new bedbugs this season… they’re everywhere! I think I see one crawing out of my woodwork now. Hold that thought. OK back. I was a bit nervous about throwing sexual abuse into the backstory. Its a sensative issue and if handled wrong can further that whole “you’re gay, you must have been molested” misconception. But from his words on the letters page of Avengers Academy #23 I have a gread deal of newfound confidence in Christos Gage’s ability to take Striker and the readers down this particularly dark and winding road of self discovery without offending (the LGBT crowd at least – if the BBB (Bigoted Bible Bangers) are offended than someone is doing something right).
12/18/2011 at 9:03 pm
I read the first storyline of Avenger’s Academy. It was good, but with so many other things on my pull list, it got weeded real fast. I decided to give it another shot since all my pals were talking about it when they moved to the old West Avengers Compound. I gotta say, I’m enjoying it and will most likely be adding it once again to my list. The characters are interesting, I love seeing old C & D list characters (Wiz kid!?) and I love me some Julie Powers. I’m looking forward to seeing where these kids go next!