LGBT Character Of The Week: Extraño
Right off the bat, thanks to Perry Moore's fantastic article "WHO CARES ABOUT THE DEATH OF A GAY SUPERHERO ANYWAY?: A HISTORY OF GAYS IN COMIC BOOKS". If I hadn't read that, I would never have even heard of this weeks Character Of The Week.
Extraño was a member of the New Guardians, created in the 1988 Millennium Crossover. Chosen by the Guardians to be their replacements, all the members of the team were evolved into advanced humans with powers.
Extraño was a gay (although the writers couldn't actually say so) hispanic magician, he was written to resemble nearly every stereotype of a gay man. Extraño initially wore loose colorful garments and had a lively, jovial attitude. He referred to himself as "Auntie" and usually imparted parent-like advice to his teammates. During one mission he was attacked by an "AIDS vampire" called the Hemo-Goblin. He was subsequently confirmed to be HIV-positive but it's unclear whether he was infected by Hemo-Goblin or had already been infected prior to his introduction.
WOW.
More after the jump.
DC must be somewhat embarrassed by him, as he has pretty much vanished. Most of the New Guardians were thought to have died when attacked by Entropy, but as it turns out, pretty much all of them are still around or back these days. Except Extraño.
This is interesting as he was DC's very first gay hero, and quite possibly the FIRST openly gay hero. (at least one other gay hero, created before Extraño, remained in the closet at the time of his creation).
Despite his flamboyant nature, I don't really find him offensive, personally. Putting so many stereotypes into one character is unfortunate, but I hope someday we'll see him again, kicking ass with fabulous hair, and maybe becoming a bit more fleshed out as a character, and not just a stereotype. (hey, they did it for Apache Chief)
Sgt. Sausagepants
Posted to Comics on 10 April 2008
· Comments (9)
Other stuff like this: extrano, LGBT Character of the Week, New Guardians
Ugh! The more I read stuff written by Perry Moore, the more I dislike him.
Hero was bad enough a book, but this little list of his is just ridiculous. He leaves out possitive parts of history from the characters he cites (Karma being fat was somewhere in the 80's I think) and depicts others in a completely inaccurate way (Anole is neither ineffective or a wimp). He also seems to like to pretend the bad stuff he lists only happen to gay characters, which they don't.
I'll put it like this, Perry Moore is a hack.
>but as it turns out, pretty much all of them are still around or back these days. Except Extraño.
Really? The only two I've ever heard of outside Millennium are Floronic Man and Harbinger. And I'm pretty sure they're both dead now.
Unless they're back thanks to the Multiverse.
CJG:
I should clarify. Floronic Man and Harbinger are both back, or were. Yeah, they are dead now, but they did somehow come back from the Entropy Fight.
So did Ram, before Roulette apparently killed him in 2001.
Betty Clawman has a kind of vague powerset and in theory, is still in the dreamtime.
Gloss and Jet are currently members of the Global Guardians now, and Tom is back in the pages of Green Lantern occasionally.
So Extrano is the only one that hasn't reappeared since the Entropy fight. So if everyone else survived, why didn't he?
Perry Moore is a dumb ass - most of his info is either just plain WRONG or WAY out of DATE! and should stop saying he knows anything about comics.
I didn't hate Extraño as much as most seemed to...I actually know a few gay men who act just like him. If I'm not mistaken, they even tried to "butch" him up just a bit near the end of the run, when they gave him that crystal skull-thingy to hold. I remember his hair being more normal looking, and he didn't act so fuuu-LAAAAME-ing as he did in the beginning. I think he'd be a very interesting character to bring back, perhaps with a make-over of sorts. They could have him as the mentor of a group of super-powered GLBT teenagers.
The silliest thing about the New Guardians was that they were supposed to be the "next step" in human evolution, but one of the guys was gay (with no apparent interest in fathering children), one was like 60 years old (and also a villian...the South African guy), and the only other male, Ram, appeared to be made out of glass or something...oh, and the Floronic Man, of course (always popular with the ladies)...
...good luck on that next generation, guys.
I was confused by the Lipstick lesbian bisexual member of Gen 13. Used mostly for purposes of straight-boy titillation.
* * *
For the record - bisexual and lesbian - are two different things
What I found really weird about the article (Moore's) is all the Authority hate. I feel that Apollo and Midnighter come across brilliantly. They are the most mature couple in the team, the most normal (the most married too), and certainly no more violent than the others (in terms of body count, any way). Given that the Apollo rape implications were in the same series as similar suggestions regarding Swift, and some really nasty stuff with the others, and that Midnighter was the only one who avoided capture then saved the lot of them, I think it's a tad unfair to suggest that there's any discrimination there.
Extraño on the other hand...
ok, wow. im not even a great big comic guy, and that article pissed me off. what a tool!
Egg Fu was a reprehensible stereotype, but HE made a comeback - or at least his great-great-grandson did.