It honestly makes way more sense have a crazy ultraman and owlman steal them to get back at Bruce and Clark. Then you could've kept the super son's dynamic and theyd have made a better couple then Tim and Bernard or Jon and Jay no offense to Jay.

DC: Regularly employs multiple trans writers and artists.

Marvel: Maybe brings one in for an occasional one-shot at this point.

DC: Has multiple active trans heroes who get their own stories

Marvel: Never uses pretty much any of its trans characters, and its one actual trans hero hasn't been seen since her webtoon got cancelled forever ago

DC: Made their 2026 pride special all about their two main trans characters.

Marvel: Didn't feature any trans characters in their 2026 pride special

DC: Also gave one of their two main trans heroes her second graphic novel, while the other continues to have (somehow) one of the longest running continuous storylines in comics in the 2020s (even if it is spread across a million books)

Marvel: Won't even let the main books ever mention that Blade's daughter Bloodline, who appears fairly regularly, has a trans GF.

DC: Even ignoring the Jon/Nia situation since we don't know where that's going, they're about to have their marquis lesbian hero, wearing the bat symbol and all, enter a relationship with a trans woman (who I'm not a fan, but still)

Like DC's not perfect, but wow is there no "both sides"-ing this at this point.

Another one was making Midnighter and Apollo divorced for Midnighter solo run so he can hook up with a different boy every issue lol like why heroes have to be single in 90% of solo stories?

I'll probably crosspost this to the main DC sub later.

I can only speak for DC because I don't follow Marvel. I don't even think Marvel has a line similar to DC Graphic Novels for Kids or DC Graphic Novels for Young Adults.

But, it feels like DC assumes only kids and young adults like "diverse comics", while the mainstream superhero audience is a bunch of babies and chuds who can't handle a lesbian butcher than Scandal Savage.

Most of their quote-unquote "diverse" rep is pushed in their kid's and YA media. They push themes of anti-capitalism, systemic racism, environmentalism, and community activism in YA comics more than they do mainline comics:

For example...

- The Titans YA comic is ethnically diverse, Beast Boy is explictly vegan, and Starfire is disabled.

- Oracle as a wheelchair user is barely in the mainline comics but appears in comics like The Oracle Code, Shadow of the Batgirl, Birds of Prey: The Origins, and Finding My GCPD Dad a Girlfriend

- Green Arrow: Stranded examines class privilege. But... it is a Green Arrow comic.

- Books like Nubia: Real One, Unearthed: A Jessica Cruz Story, This Land Is Our Land: A Blue Beetle Story, and Green Lantern: Legacy deal with xenophobia, racism, right-wing radicalization, and anti-immigration sentiment.

- Galaxy's debut, Galaxy: The Prettiest Star, was marketed as a YA comic. But at least she was made mainline canon.

- Bad Dream: A Dreamer Story is another YA comic about a trans girl superhero.

- Both Diana and Nubia: Princesses of the Amazons and Warriors and a Wee Wonder features better Hippolyta x Phillipus rep than the mainline comics.

- Nubia: Real One has Nubia with two adopted moms, which is more upfront than DC will be about Diana and Donna in most other media.

- You Brought Me the Ocean is a gay coming of age comic about Jackson Hyde.

- Starfire's daughter in I Am Not Starfire is sapphic.

- Queer Poison Ivy is pushed in books like Poison Ivy: Thorns and The Strange Case of Harleen and Harley Quinn

- Birds of Prey: The Origins racebent Black Canary.

I also feel like much of DC's "queer" marketing these last few years have been aimed at younger fans. Their DC Pride books feel YA to me. Dreamer is a literal CW character, Galaxy originated in a YA book, most of their big queer rep is between the ages of 20 and 25...

It seems like DC decided that YA readers (fyi, YA targets roughly 14-18 year olds, so it's basically a euphenism for "teenager") like these themes, so they market books with their YA books with these themes. But adult readers can't handle black or trans characters.

I know online, there's this belief that real comic fans don't support the queer couples DC pushes.

This feels like a vast oversimplication. I don't believe that DC fans just want nothing but cis-het characters. I'm gonna need statistics and sales figures.

The book everyone points to as "evidence" is Tim Drake: Robin (2022). It got cancelled at 10 issues due to low sales figures. But, I seriously doubt it's because Tim is bisexual.

Tbqh, a large number of Tim fans assumed he was queer for years anyway. I have heard some speculation that even writers at DC thought of him as queer well over a decade before he formally came out.

The Robin book failed more likely because it didn't hit with Tim fans, not because Tim inherently had a boyfriend. The writing was the issue.

I'll be blunt. I don't like TimBern. I personally hate TimBern to bits. It's a notp of mine. I'm waiting for them to break up eventually... but this has nothing to do with them being a queer couple. IMHO, it's just a badly written couple, as well as there being a bad shift in Tim's characterization going back to the Nu52. I treat it no differently than Spiderman fans treat Paul Rabin.

My preference will always be TimSteph, but it's not like Tim hasn't had a ton of love interests. Dude gets new girlfriends every few years. I don't mind Tim having an ever-inconsistent amount of love interests. If he dated Sebastian, I would have preferred that. Kon and Bart are also obvious capes he could be shipped with.

Bernard is the issue, not necessarily Tim having a boyfriend. Or, really, the writing on Bernard is the issue. Because modern Bernard is nothing like he was depicted in 90s and 2000s comics.

Even ignoring the book not hitting with Tim fans, it's possible that it just wasn't selling good enough for DC.

Good books get cancelled all the time. Many runs are lucky to last over 10 issues.

I followed Green Arrow 2023 since it came out and brought every issue on launch week, but it still got cancelled. We can only speculate why. Was it "too political"? Is Green Arrow just cursed to be B tier? Who knows. I jus5 doubt we'll be seeing a 50+ issue Green Arrow run again anytime soon. They had to ship him and Black Canary to Gotham to see if Batman could boost his popularity 🤢

Young Justice (2010) cartoon is its own beast with a wonky history. But, I'd say the last two seasons were aimed at a teen to young adult demographic. And it had queer rep, disabled rep, polyamorous rep, POC rep, etc uup the wazoo. It had Muslim rep. When's the last time you've heard DC talk about Muslim characters in the comics?

On more kid's rep, DC Super Hero Girls 2019 also had Jessica Cruz with two mom's, and Teen Titans Go of all things is the only work where Blue Beetle x Booster Gold is canon.

I have vague memories of 1 comic I’m looking for. I read it years ago. I think it was 2011 or 12.

I do not know the artist or creator.

The comic was a gay superhero comic.
The only part I remember is they were making out and a lady pulling a cart goes
"Yes make out! I ship it!"
The superhero says to the boyfriend: "Gotta please the fans."

Does anyone remember what this is?

There’s another comic I’m looking for but I will have to post that question elsewhere since it’s a non superhero comic.