One of Marvel Comics' most successful new creations on recent years has been Allen Heinberg's Young Avengers, a series that resonated with fans, critics, and those happy to see new gay superheroes in the forms of Hulking and Wiccan, two of the series' most popular characters. But Hulking wasn't exactly originally intended to be gay, according to author Perry Moore.Moore, who's become an unexpected spokesman for the gay superhero fanbase following the release of his novel Hero - which centers around a
I remember when Northstar was killed, a friend of mine who writes for TV but used to write for comics, Alan Heinberg – I begged him to make two of those Young Avengers gay. Begged him. Begged him... [and t]hey did! They did. But originally, one of them wasn't going to be a guy – the Hulkling. He wound up doing the couple and did a great job with it, but now he's writing Gray's Anatomy and other things. He's a great writer and I'd like to see him do more comics, but he's making more money doing writing in Hollywood. NRAMA: I remember seeing the first pictures of the Young Avengers and thinking Hulkling was just a really butch female... PM: He was, originally!
After-the-fact gender reassignment may not be entirely unheard of in superhero comics, but even though would've meant that Marvel would've been robbed of their two flagship gay characters - instead of Northstar, their previous solo gay character who had almost singlehandedly created the idea that the company was homophobic through many years of mistreatment, including a somewhat embarrassing "He isn't gay! He's actually a fairy! No, with wings and everything!" backtracking and being murdered twice - I personally wish that we'd seen the character stay with his original gender. Not because superhero comics need a non-femme superheroine, but because then we would've been spared a character having to be named "Teddy." Perry Moore II: Looking At The Gay Landscape [Newsarama]