Contributed by Ronald Byrd
In what is presumably a few years in the future, 32-year-old Charles Mowbray, heartbroken when Jeremy, his boyfriend of six years, leaves him, undergoes “a series of injections and some electrotherapy” to change his sexual orientation. A week after the procedure which “chemically altered the gene that predisposed [him] to homosexuality,” Charles (or “Chuck,” as he renames himself), starts pursuing women and hits it off with Lisa Killing, who accompanies him back to his apartment. However, Lisa leaves when Jeremy returns asking forgiveness; despite the procedure, Charles cannot deny his love for Jeremy, and the two are reconciled.
Heartthrobs was a four-issue DC/Vertigo anthology of various stories relating to sex and relationships, many of them rather macabre or pessimistic; Charles’s story (“Genes and a T-Shirt” from #1) was one of the most straightforward and romantic.
