Written by François Peneaud
The EXILES series was more gay- and lesbian-inclusive than usual in Marvel comics, when it was written by Judd Winick . Jeff Parker, the writer of the latest iteration of the series who’s joined by artists Salva Espin and Casey Jones, continues that tradition with the parallel-earth analog of X-Men’s the Beast, here in his large, blue, furry version.
In the last issue of series, which lasted only for 6 months and is collected in the EXILES: POINT OF NO RETURN tpb, the Beast talks about leaving behind a deceased lover, who’s revealed to be Wonder Man (knowing the Earth 616 history of Wonder Man, one might advise the Beast to go back and check whether his boyfriend is really dead). When a girl-crazy teammate of his expresses surprise, he comments “You didn’t notice me rambling on about women, did you?”.
It seems to me this sums up pretty nicely the frustration one experiences with this kind of late, one-off reveal: it’s always nice to count one more queer character in comics, but then, this is yet another character most likely to never appear again – and what really prevented the writer from giving us an earlier coming-out, especially with the girl-chasing another character is defined by?
I guess we can only enjoy the addition of a bearish gay guy to the ranks of the Marvel super-heroes, and hope for another apparition somewhere down the road.
This version of the Beast appeared in EXILES Vol. 3 #1 and was revealed as gay in #6.
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