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.
Marvel’s queer representation has always felt tossed off. Joe Russo plays a gay man in Avengers: Endgame, Loki and Sylvie are confirmed to be bisexual in Loki, Phastos has a husband in Eternals, and America Chavez has two moms in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, but in all these instances, the sexuality of characters didn’t matter; it was just an offhand mention or a single shot that could easily be forgotten (or edited out for foreign markets that censor LGBT content).
But in Agatha All Along Episode 4, Agatha and her coven summon Rio Vidal, the Green Witch, to help them on their journey down the Witches’ Road. Agatha, however, is antagonistic towards Rio, so her involvement isn’t exactly welcome. “Old times” are bitterly referred to, but it isn’t until the coven discusses their battle scars around a campfire that we actually see what went down.
“A long time ago, I loved someone,” Rio says. “And I had to do something that I did not wanna do, even though it was my job. And it hurt them. She is my scar.” This prompts Agatha to walk away, and Rio follows, leading to a moment where they almost kiss. For the first time in MCU history, a character’s sexuality actually affected the plot. If Agatha were straight, there would be no possibility of interpersonal romantic drama within her all-female coven.
It makes sense that Agatha All Along would be the show to take this step forward. A call from a worried boyfriend in Episode 2 confirmed that Joe Locke’s Teen is queer, and even in the series that birthed this one, WandaVision, we saw a baby Billy Maximoff, who in the comics would go on to become Wiccan, a gay member of the Young Avengers.
Still, this is a big step forward for the MCU. Scenes can be touted as “the first gay moment” or “the first gay kiss,” but those brief moments don’t matter nearly as much as allowing queer people to have the same messy breakups and awkward exes as the rest of the franchise. Expecting queer representation from Marvel may be like losing chess to a dog, but after years of patience and persistence, the dog has finally been put in check.
