The new DC Superman comes out as bisexual.

Do you remember that Marvel's Northstar coming out hype several years ago which soon faded away? Now DC has announced that the newly-dubbed Superman, Jon Kent, is bisexual   . The press release from Dc state that his sexuality will be revealed in November 9's Superman: Son of Kal-El #5.

"I've always said everyone needs heroes and everyone deserves to see themselves in their heroes and I'm very grateful DC and Warner Bros. share this idea," Superman: Son of Kal-el writer Tom Taylor says in the announcement. "Superman's symbol has always stood for hope, for truth, and for justice. Today, that symbol represents something more. Today, more people can see themselves in the most powerful superhero in comics."

Originally introduced in 2015's Convergence: Superman #2, Jon Kent has taken up the mantle as Superman after his father, the original Superman, decides to focus on extraterrestrial events such as the recent Warworld saga in Action Comics. Jon's sexuality has been teased in previous issues of Superman, Son of Kal-El - with an attraction to a fellow reporter named Jay Nakamura strongly hinted at in recent months.

"We couldn't be prouder to tell this important story from Tom Taylor and John Timms," says DC CCO/publisher Jim Lee. "We talk a lot about the power of the DC Multiverse in our storytelling and this is another incredible example. We can have Jon Kent exploring his identity in the comics as well as Jon Kent learning the secrets of his family on TV on Superman & Lois. They coexist in their own worlds and times, and our fans get to enjoy both simultaneously."

The timing of DC's announcement isn't coincidental, not only was October 11 National Coming Out Day, but Taylor has said leaks were making it so the news was going to be known by the general public sooner than later.

The timing especially works to potentially stoke pre-orders for this issue, Superman: Son of Kal-El #5. The deadline for comic book retailers to finalize their order copies of Superman: Son of Kal-El #5 is October 17 - four days from now. DC appears to be anticipating increased interest and giving readers and retailers time to adjust their orders prior it setting the issue's initial print run. I guess that is the only important point for the publisher of all this news.


Variant cover from Superman: Son of kal-El # 05. I have taken this news from Newsarama website
but I think it made national news also everywhere, I even have seen this in local Sky all news channel yesterday night!

The confirmation of Jon's sexual identity shortly follows another teen DC hero, poor Robin (Tim Drake), who came out as queer in last August's Batman: Urban Legends #6.

Eh, I'm more bothered by DC (James Tynion?) retroactively making the main DC version of Alan Scott gay.

With Jon Kent, I liked the character when he was still a kid and Dan Jurgens was writing him in Action Comics, but once BS Bendis took over the Superman books I stopped caring / stopped reading.

I agree with you, it's ridiculous to make such a retcon when the character has more than 80 years of History!
In a post on a Fb profile of an Italian artist, artist Kyle Hotz wrote that Steve Englehart was maybe the first to create/make a superhero character gay in an old Green Lantern story, but he doesn't remember when and where, although I imagine that at time it was more a "said, not said" thing...

I am really sick of established characters suddenly becoming gay for no readily apparent reason. If this is intended to foster acceptance, I suspect it's doing exactly the opposite.

tony ingram wrote:I am really sick of established characters suddenly becoming gay for no readily apparent reason. If this is intended to foster acceptance, I suspect it's doing exactly the opposite.

Well, in the case of Jon Kent, he's still a bit recent enough (especially the aged-up version!) to not be too "established" yet.  Don't know if there were any hints to this during Bendis' reign over the Super-books, but wasn't Bendis responsible for making Iceman (Bobby Drake) gay at Marvel?

I can't remember if that was Bendis or not.

tony ingram wrote:I can't remember if that was Bendis or not.

It seems Bendis was involved...

some images from that comic book and from Extraordinary X-Men # 1 are in this article.

Ah, yes. Not one of the most memorable runs the book ever had.