On January 1, 2022, Twitter user @deathcarpets posted a statement that would loom over the Marvel Cinematic Universe for years to come: “getting queerbaited by marvel is like losing chess to a dog.” The tweet came hot on the heels of Marvel’s first gay kiss in Eternals, but also right after Yelena Belova hung out totally platonically with Kate Bishop, much to some fans’ dismay. The joke was that the MCU’s LGBT+ representation would always be surface level, and expecting more would just be setting yourself up for disappointment.
But now, after multiple false starts and half-truths, queer identity is finally taking a front seat in the MCU. It just took 16 years and dozens of projects.
