The Twitter campaign to alter Captain America’s traditional sexuality was always going to be a struggle. In May, the hashtag #GiveCaptainAmericaaBoyfriend was trending like a Kardashian selfie on the social network. But given Chris Evans’ patriotic superhero has been shown to have feelings for both Hayley Atwell’s Peggy Carter and her grand-niece Sharon during his time in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, such a major canonical shift always looked about as likely as Hulk agreeing to attend anger management sessions.
And yet we’re certainly about due a queer superhero on the big screen. In the comics, Marvel has brought us gay X-Men Mystique and Northstar, while DC gave one version of Green Lantern a boyfriend in 2012 and even introduced a transexual character in Gail Simone’s groundbreaking Batgirl run – though the publisher rather ruined its LGBTQ cred when a different writer later introduced, and was forced to apologise for, the deeply offensive trans villain Dagger Type.
Of the above, only Jennifer Lawrence’s Mystique is currently appearing in comic book movies, and there has been little indication the big-screen take on the shapeshifting mutant has queer leanings. But for those hoping to see a little more diversity in superhero films, there is now a sliver of hope. For the writer of Wonder Woman’s current comic book adventures has confirmed what we pretty much all knew, that Princess Diana of Themyscira is bisexual.
“Yes,” replied Greg Rucka when asked whether his revamped version of the Amazonian warrior was queer. “I think it’s more complicated though,” he said. “This is inherently the problem with Diana: we’ve had a long history of people – for a variety of reasons, including sometimes pure titillation, which I think is the worst reason – say, ‘Ooo. Look. It’s the Amazons. They’re gay!’
“And when you start to think about giving the concept of Themyscira its due, the answer is, ‘How can they not all be in same sex relationships?’ Right? It makes no logical sense otherwise.
“It’s supposed to be paradise. You’re supposed to be able to live happily. You’re supposed to be able – in a context where one can live happily, and part of what an individual needs for that happiness is to have a partner – to have a fulfilling, romantic and sexual relationship. And the only options are women. But an Amazon doesn’t look at another Amazon and say, ‘You’re gay.’ They don’t. The concept doesn’t exist.”
Rucka’s right. No one should be too surprised that Wonder Woman likes women when she lives in a single-sex feminist utopia. But there are also strong historical reasons why the superhero should be considered proudly queer. Wonder Woman was created in 1941 by the American psychologist and writer William Moulton Marston, a famously leftfield, not to mention rather creepy, thinker on matters of sexuality and feminism who, as documented in Jill Lepore’s 2014 book The Secret History of Wonder Woman, lived in a menage a trois (and sometimes more) with his wife Elizabeth Holloway Marston (often considered the superhero’s co-creator) and their lover and cohabitant Olive Byrne. Both women have been cited as inspirations for the character, with Elizabeth believed to have contributed her famous phrase “Suffering Sappho!” and Olive her looks.
Will Monster director Patty Jenkins, who’s overseeing the new Wonder Woman movie, be brave enough to incorporate her subject’s queer identity, thereby making her the first major big-screen gay superhero? No one’s suggesting (and Rucka seems to be fiercely against) a full-scale “I’m transexual, Barbara” moment, in the vein of Simone’s Batgirl run, but there are other more subtle ways to offer a sly nod to recent developments. Although Jenkins’ film wrapped in May, it surely wouldn’t require full-scale reshoots for the film-makers to shoehorn in, say, an early flashback scene hinting at the superhero’s youthful dalliances on Themyscira.
Early trailers for Wonder Woman, along with Israeli actor Gal Gadot’s debut appearance as the Amazonian superhero in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, have given fans confidence that Jenkins’ take cleaves tightly to the character’s roots as a strong, empowered, independent woman. But it remains to be seen if Warner has the guts to really push the envelope, especially as the studio has cast Star Trek hunk Chris Pine as Diana’s traditional mortal love interest, Steve Trevor. One imagines the suits who helped ruin Suicide Squad (by handing the movie’s final edit to the guys behind the film’s startling trailers) might begin to get severely itchy fingers once again if Jenkins turns in a version in which Pine doesn’t get so much as a snog.
Warner Bros got nothing but bad publicity from leering all over Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn in Suicide Squad, but you have to wonder if the studio figured that it would add five goggle-eyed teenage boys for every fan who objected to all the shallow objectification. Likewise, celebrating Wonder Woman’s queer identity might seem like a risky marketing manoeuvre for a film that will be aiming to pick up the widest audience possible.
On the other hand, there’s an argument that it makes no sense for same-sex relationships to remain taboo for superhero movies in 2016 when the highest-grossing children’s film franchise of all-time, Harry Potter, achieved some its best box office results following JK Rowling’s 2007 revelation that Hogwarts headmaster Dumbledore was gay. More recently, we learned that Gobber, the amputee viking from the How to Train Your Dragon movies also prefers men, without any real associated fuss.
By celebrating Diana of Themyscira’s bisexuality, DC would in one fell stroke leap ahead of rivals Marvel in the diversity stakes and guarantee itself a whopping share of the pink pound come opening weekend next June. There is an opportunity here, beyond doing the right thing and offering acolytes a sly nod to the superhero’s famously unorthodox gestation. And perhaps the Amazonian princess needs a little something extra to shout about, a genuine distinguishing mark, for us to hear her voice through the cacophony of big-screen superheroes heading to screens over the next few years.
Never mind the lasso of truth, or her frickin’ invisible plane, as she prepares to hit the multiplexes for the first time in her own movie next year, a queer identity could end up being Wonder Woman’s new secret weapon.
