Among the countless people who celebrated National Coming Out Day earlier this week, one of them was none other than Superman himself. DC comics announced on Monday that in an upcoming November issue, Superman: Son of Kal-El #5, Jonathan Kent, the son of Clark Kent and Lois Lane, will come out as bisexual. Jon will share a kiss with his male hacker friend Jay Nakamura in the comic, written by Tom Taylor with art by John Timms. The announcement might be seen as part of a larger shift in comics over the last several years, as the Marvel and DC universes have begun to diversity their roster — from the popular Miles Morales, an Afro-Latino teen from Brooklyn, becoming Spiderman, to Tim Drake, otherwise known as Robin, recently coming out.
Steve Orlando certainly thinks so — though he has some caveats. Orlando is a queer comics writer who has written for heavy hitters like Batman and Wonder Woman, and also worked on Midnighter, a comic whose titular character in 2015 became the first gay male superhero to ever lead a book at Marvel or DC. Mic spoke to Orlando about what the Superman news means and how queerness has historically been treated in comics.
