It's helpful that DC Comics will soon reveal that one of its classic cartoon superheroes is gay, even if it's not going to be Batman. Anything that helps our immature culture get over its moral/political obsession with sexual orientation qualifies as a Good Thing, for reasons ranging from individual civil rights to the mental health of closeted adolscents to national politics (don't we have some actually important problems to solve instead?).
But DC is not the first: Marvel's character Northstar "came out" back in 1992 (and now they're planning the first gay superhero wedding). Nor was Marvel first.
In this, as in pretty much everything, the tragic comedian Lenny Bruce was decades ahead of the curve, creating the first Gay Superhero, "Mask Man," way back in 1971:
Let's hope the townspeople's response this summer is a little more constructive than it was back then.
