'ello, your friendly neighborhood Nime is back! With another self-righteous rant! Aren't ya'll excited?

... I don't care if you say "NO! Please sweet Jesus/Father Zeus/the Almighty/Jade Emperor/*insert deity here*, MAKE HER STOP!" The show must go on, and that's final.

And yes, I'm perfectly aware that I'm speaking to myself. Thank you very much *glares*.

Ahem. Anyway, let's get started.

Rightio, so who's Northstar exactly? Well, Northstar, aka Jean-Paul Beaubier, is a mutant with super-speed and light generation abilities. Due to his speed, he appears to defy gravity and fly.

He is also probably Marvel's most iconic gay superhero, being the first openly gay hero in the Marvel universe. He was officially outed in 1992, but there were hints of his sexual orientation in the earlier issues of Alpha Flight (the team which Northstar first joined as a superhero, which also serves as their comic title). It had been stated by John Byrne, the 'creator' of Alpha Flight, that


At that time (1992), this outing caused quite a controversy, which isn't that surprising. There were bigots writing in to say how "disgusted" they were, and how Marvel shouldn't "promote the homosexual lifestyle" (note: these exact same phrases appeared in the Young Avenger letters pages, which debuted in 2005. And here I thought we've moved on and become more open-minded, but you just can't cure people of their bigotry).

Anyway, that was then, this is now, you'd expect people to be less uptight about it, right?

Nah. In all the time that he's been outta the closet, in all 16 years worth of Marvel comics, he had never ever - and I mean never - hooked up with anyone. There was a (one-sided) crush on Iceman (... you do know who he is, right?) and former teammate Walter Langkowski (aka Sasquatch in Alpha Flight), but that's about it. You'd think there would be an ex or something, but zip. Nada. The closest he'd ever gotten any action was at the wedding of Rick Jones, where he was seen to be chatting with Hector (mostly forgotten gay character in the Incredible Hulk). You know things are bad when the only time he had ever gotten close to being in a relationship is flirting. And even the flirting is a one-time incident. That's a sad, sexless life, innit? No wonder he's so uptight all the time.

Furthermore, Northstar had suffered countless cases of bad writing - he's either shelved, gets no screen time, cannot fulfill his potential, or - during the few arcs in which he is featured - constantly PMSing. They also bring up his homosexuality every single (ok, fine, 9/10 times) time he appears in the book. I know it's shocking, but there's more to the character than his sexuality and catty behavior, ok? Yeesh. I'm beginning to suspect that Northstar's sexuality is treated like a joke.

Oh yes, before I forget, he had also been killed in 3 different realities in the span of one calendar month. A single calendar month! That's almost as many times Jean Grey (aka Phoenix, Marvel Girl, White Phoenix, Has-So-Many-Codenames-That-I-Can't-Keep-Track...) has ever died, over the span of at least 20+ years. So Northstar's the condensed version, I suppose. ("As many deaths in one single month! Saving 20+ years of cash spent on comics! Buy now! Only at Marvel!")

... Okay. I've cheated a bit, as I've only mentioned the Earth-616 version of him (the main Marvel Universe). The Earth-1610 (or more commonly known as the "Ultimate Universe") version of him - let's call him Ultimate Northstar - is happily dating Ultimate Colossus (who is not homosexual in Earth-616. He hooked up with Kitty Pride for a while). However...

In the latest arc, Northstar was paralyzed from the waist down (and shown 'dead' in the issue before). This basically means stripping him of his powers, as I don't really see much use of going superspeed above-waist only. And they just have to ram the 'sexless' thing down our throats, don't they?

Ah, such is the way of mainstream comics. Remember kiddies: you just can't cure people of their bigotry.

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Extra reading:
Northstar
Ultimate Northstar
Ultimate X-Men
I'll also include the link to Jean Grey, just so you can count how many times she had died.

Similar articles:
Who Cares About A Dead Gay Superhero? - This article points out how gay superheroes are treated in today's mainstream comics.
Northstar, a Redshirt in every universe - It is here that I learned of Northstar's quick multiple deaths
A Challenge to Marvel - An account of Northstar's bachelor life... kinda.

PS. Don't think I took what was in those articles at face value. I checked on stuff, from multiple sources (wikipedia is my friend). So it's not some part of a "gay agenda'' or something silly like that.

'Sides, you just don't mess with comic geek wannabes.

PPS. I give you a challenge, dear readers: see if you manage to find all the references I've used in this. Cookies are available for those who managed to spot them! The sad thing is that I'll most likely keep all the cookies; not because the references are obscure, but because nobody is reading this.

The Olympic torch came to HK, and everyone was dressed in scarlet, a vain attempt to capture the joy and triumph of China. It was a great affair; it was grand, it was glorious, it was...

It was disgusting. Immoral, a lie fed to us by the government, wrapped in blind patriotism and obscuring ignorance.

First off, less than one-third of the torch bearers are athletes. Think: the Olympics is supposed to to a golden opportunity for athletes from all over the world to meet and compete in friendship. Is this the proper way to honor this event?

And they have the gall to call the people wishing to express different ideas "disrespecting the Olympics".

As said above, less than one-third of the torch bearers are athletes, while the others are either celebrities, loyal lapdogs of the Chinese government, or bigwigs with enough power and spare change to buy a place on the team. The team is unable to deliver the true message of the Olympics, as stated above, and the torch bearers are from a horribly limited stock.

The HK Olympic committee claims this list of torch bearers is a "true representation of Hong Kong". That is complete and utter bull crap. Where are the 1,000,000 people living below the poverty line, the true athletes in the game known as life? What about the social minorities who remind us we humans are a diverse species?

The people who dared to speak up, expressing other ideas other than those permitted, were dragged unceremoniously, sprawled on their bottoms, into the police cars. It was hideous, yet another stain on the already sullied reputation of the HK police force.

For those who do not believe me, just watch the news clips on the arrest.

And I could do nothing but wear midnight, among the sea of red. Red for joy and triumph, for the pride of China.

Red, for it was stained with the blood of our free will and morals, the death of truth and justice.

So I wore the darkest shade of midnight, mourning all those dear to us.

And with luck (I pray, I pray, and wishes that it will come to pass, despite the waning hope) I might not have to mourn forever.