DC Comics has announced that the new Superman, Jon Kent - the son of Clark Kent and Lois Lane - is bisexual, a move that has caused inevitable uproar and disgust amongst US conservatives and Republicans.
In the forthcoming comic book Superman: Son of Kal-El #5, the new Man of Steel will come out when he kisses his love interest, Jay Nakamura.
Heaven forbid that a fictional comic book character who literally has impossible superpowers has any kind of character development but, somehow, Republicans have managed to work themselves up into a frenzy about two male comic book characters kissing each other.
Many state-level senators and hopefuls tweeted their disgust including Arizona Republican Wendy Rogers who said “Superman loves Louis Lane. Period. Hollywood is trying to make Superman gay and he is not,” therefore demonstrating her impeccable research on the story and spelling Lois Lane’s name wrong.
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Superman loves Louis Lane. Period. Hollywood is trying to make Superman gay and he is not. Just rename the new vers… https://t.co/931Otp9kpO— Wendy Rogers (@Wendy Rogers) 1633985574
Bisexual comic books for kids. They are literally trying to destroy America. https://t.co/dI6MR64W23— Josh Mandel (@Josh Mandel) 1633971293
Why does Hollywood have to ruin everything? #Superman— Josh Barnett for Congress (AZ-01) (@Josh Barnett for Congress (AZ-01)) 1633985730
Fox News even ran an entire segment on the topic on Laura Ingraham’s show, bemoaning that other characters like Aquaman (they actually show a picture of Aqualad), Robin, and Loki all now identify as LGBT+ with Raymond Arroyo adding: “We just wanted them to catch the bad guys, not a Venereal disease.”
Fox News crying over Superman, Aquaman, Robin, and Loki.. “We just wanted them to catch the bad guys, not a Venerea… https://t.co/00n8SXyq8a— Acyn (@Acyn) 1634006996
As you can imagine, many people have been quick to mock the Republicans for their embarrassingly bad take on the issue and the fact that many of them have failed to realise that the bisexual Superman isn’t Clark Kent.
People do realize that Jon Kent, Clark Kent's son, is a fictional character and that Superman isn't real, right? A… https://t.co/1e25KTaDRn— Wajahat Ali (@Wajahat Ali) 1634000274
@WendyRogersAZ A. It's not Hollywood, it's a comic book. B. It's Lois Lane's son. C. "Thooperman" reveals what a ha… https://t.co/rMRUyTjQW1— Kurt Eichenwald (@Kurt Eichenwald) 1633989495
I am surprised Republicans don't hate Superman, he is an illegal immigrant without any papers— Alex Cole (@Alex Cole) 1634002046
@JoshMandelOhio Let's spin the wheel to find out what's destroying America today! https://t.co/uGnhHCSDWH— Libertarian Party OH (@Libertarian Party OH) 1633972139
Speaking to The New York Times, Tom Taylor defended the move to have a bisexual Superman and said that just having another white man as the hero would have been a “missed opportunity”. He said: “The idea of replacing Clark Kent with another straight white saviour felt like a missed opportunity. For so many people, having the strongest superhero in comics come out is incredibly powerful.”
This isn’t the first time that the US right-wing have been up in arms this year about an LGBT+ comic book character. In March, similar outrage was expressed when Marvel announced that they would be introducing a gay Captain America to their comics.