Sure, the repeal of Proposition 8 is a major political and legal victory for gay rights, but it pales in comparison to a much more significant event in LGBT equality.
An affectionate gay couple made the cover of a Spider-Man comic! And we're not talking about the usual pair of media-friendly, lipstick lesbians either. You've got two bears canoodling while Spidey frets over his mistake that the picnic he's been invited to wasn't a costumed affair.
With all this forward momentum, now seems like the perfect time for gay comic book characters to head to Santa Ana and get hitched. Here are the five couples who should send out their invitations in the mail before an appeal reaches the 9th Circuit Court.
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1. Batwoman and the Question
At first, this comes off as slavish fan service, marrying off these former lovers who also happen to be the two most prominent–and most attractive–lesbians in DC Comics. But that's not the reason I think Kate (Batwoman) Kane and Renee (The Question) Montoya should get back together and make it legal. There aren't many married superhero duos in comics, and I think it would make for a pretty awesome series to have these two crimefighters righting wrongs together–and on their own while–navigating newly married life. Greg Rucka, sir, come back and write that series with J.H. Williams III on art. Pretty please.
2. Wiccan and Hulkling
This is the couple that everyone is cheering for to succeed. Who doesn't want to see a (suspected) mutant with quasi-mystical powers make it work with a Kree–Skrull hybrid who was raised human on Earth? Of course, these two teenage Young Avengers might be a little too young to be thinking about marriage. They might want to think about sharing an on-panel kiss first.
3. Moondragon and Phyla-Vell
Gay or straight, these interstellar lovers are my favorite couple because they've stayed true to and in love with each other despite sheer amounts of shit they've had to endure: Moondragon turning into a giant dragon, Moondragon dying, and Phyla currently being dead. If you can sustain a relationship through those extenuating circumstances, you can certainly survive marriage.
4. Glenn Danzig and Henry Rollins
Don't you want to live in a world where Danzig and Rollins* spend Sundays at Pottery Barn arguing over which duvet cover goes best with their four-poster canopy guest bed?
5. Hopey Glass and Maggie Chascarrillo
The only way I could have picked a more obvious couple is if I had chosen Katchoo and Francine from Strangers in Paradise. So what? If you've been a regular reader of Love and Rockets, you know these best friends/on-again-off-again lovers have been practically married since the mid-1980s (even if one of them ended up married to a guy for a while). It's about time these native Californians were able to make it official.
BONUS DIVORCE PICK: Apollo and Midnighter
Yes, these superheroes are already married, but what made The Authority, the series they starred in, so revolutionary back in the late-1990s and early 2000s was how it was able to culturally set the table for the incoming millennium. It wasn't just ahead of its time, it was defining what that time was going to be. So if The Authority wants to reclaim its title as king of the zeitgeist, what better way than have Apollo and the Midnighter become the first gay superhero couple to get a divorce.
*Don't worry, die-hard fans. I am, of course, referring to the fictional Glenn Danzig and Henry Rollins. The real-life Danzig and Rollins have converted their guest room into a decoupage studio.
