Hem hem!
So. First of all, the whole Dumbledore-is-gay-and-loved-Grindelwald-thing? ******** AWESOME comes to mind. I mean, seriously: Gay in the Potterverse? And said gay came from one of the most powerful, revered, and well-loved characters (both within the book and within the fandom) ever? Uh. Hell yes. Absolutely wonderful. Also adds to JKR's ongoing themes of advocating anti-intolerance, anti-bigotry, etc. which I've always admired.
Second of all! I actually do have an example of a "canon slash" (this is contradictary and I do not care) instance in fandom. Young Avengers.
SPOILERS BE BELOW.
So, Young Avengers is a relatively new, unfortunately hiatus'd, (MINI SERIES COMING OUT IN JANUARY FTW) western comic from the Marvel side of things. Now normally I'm not into western comics; just never really found my niche there. But my goodness did I find it in YA.
So there are two characters, Billy and Teddy. Their super hero names are Asgardian (later Wiccan to avoid inappropriate puns; yes this is canon) and Hulkling. They're gay. For each other. On top of which, they are completely adorable. Canonly. Ohyes.
What happened is basically this, in a nutshell: Wiccan (who was named, at the time, Asgardian- have you gotten the pun yet?) and Hulkling were fighting bad guys in a cathedral along with the rest of the Young Avengers. During this Hulkling is snuck up on by a bad guy from behind with a knife, and Asgardian prompltly yells for him to get out of the way. Hulkling punches the bad guy out. All is well.
Now, the original exchance in the original comic was:
Asgardian: Hulkling! Behind you!
Hulkling: I got him! *punch'd bad guy goes here*
Asgardian: You certainly
did.
Hulkling: Yeah, thanks to you.
Asgardian: No, thanks to
youAwws were had.
Now, for some reason the exchance was changed in the TPB
Asgardian: Hulkling! Behind you!
Hulkling: I got him!
Hulkling: Thanks for watching my back.
Asgardian: It was a pleasure.
Pfft, innuendo says what?
That particular exchance, coupled with the fantastically loving look exchanged by the two in the art, prompted fan speculation on the letter page. One letter was all it took, asking if Hulking and Asgardian were meant to be a couple because the flirting was sort of obvious. (Not in so many words but that was the general idea.) Anyway, this prompted the fan letter section of the YA issues to be completely monopolized with letters about the relationship between the two: An overwhelming amount of them actually very supportive of the idea. Heinberg himself said that the positive feedback was overwhelming, and that he was surprised the fans caught on so quickly. His plan was not to introduce the idea until at least the twelfth issue, but because of the amount of feedback he got, he went to Marvel and asked if he could play his hand early. They said "Sure." Thus, Teddy and Billy were revealed as a couple in the sixth issue through one of the other characters, Kate, in this exchance:
Kate: So Billy, about your new code name-
Billy: Why do I need a new code name?
Kate: Because you're not an Asgardian, you're a warlock. Plus you need a name that won't become a national joke when the press finds out about you and Teddy.
So, Teddy and Billy were outed as gay and a couple, Billy changed his superhero name to Wiccan, and all was well. And so, my ship sailed.
The plans for Hulkling and Asgardian were actually going to be different int he beginning. See, Hulkling is a shape shifter. He was originally actually going to be a girl, but assume male form when fighting. He was still going to be in a relationship with Wiccan, though I'm not sure whether the writer intended to have Billy still be gay but have Hulkling shapeshift into male form for his boyfriend's sake, or to have Billy be heterosexual. Either way, it's speculated that this was probably the closest that the writer, Allan Heinberg (who is openly gay) could get to a confirmed homosexual couple in comics. There was going to be some big to-do about it, but he went to Marvel and (once again, not in so many words) said, "Ah, can we not make a big deal outta this?" And Marvel supported the decision, thus Hulkling was confirmed to be the obstensibly male and adorable Teddy.
A quote on Heinberg's take on it:
"It was something I hadn't seen before," Heinberg said. "I hadn't seen gay teenagers in a comic book. First of all, in a relationship with each other; second of all, in a relationship that was sort of untroubled, where they were just in love with each other and where their sexuality wasn't an issue. It's much more of an issue for those kids that their parents find out that they're superheroes than it is that their parents discover they're gay."
Their relationship, while not exactly downplayed, is handled in the way I think it should be: Not some big HAY WE'RE GAY DON'T YOU KNOW deal, making it seem like a gimmick, but almost like a total given. And that's what I love about it.
The two are my current OTP. If. Y'know. You couldn't tell.
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