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| Boscie books are an entertainment medium largely regarded as kid’s stuff because of the larger-than-life super heroes who are the most popular stars of com- ics. In recent years, though, as writers and artists ave worked to produce more sophisticated stories, comics have earned the readership of many adults as _well. Consequently, comics have more and more

: often dealt with adult issues. While comics remain a : literary genre devoted principally to fantasy adven- ture, they have also begun to address topics such as Bsex, drugs, unwanted pregnancies, alcoholism, di- _vorce, and death. With Alpha Flight #106, though, comics take a look ata subject that, until now, they ‘have almost never addressed: homosexuality.

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Alpha Flight is a very unusual book to begin with. It _made headlines when it debuted some years ago be- _ cause it was the first comic book to feature a team of ‘Canadian superheroes, created by Canadian writer- rtist John Byrne. The teams’s adventures have been andled by other writers since Byrne left for other rojects, but the book, while somewhat diminished in opularity, has continued to feature unique stories with its often bizarre cast of characters. One team “member, Sasquatch, has been through a lot of weird ‘doings. At one point he’d been killed, and his spirit came back in the body of a woman, his deceased Alpha Flight teammate, Snowbird (no relation to Anne Murray). Since then he’s regained his original body, but now another Alpha Flight member, Northstar, is ausing controversy withouta gender switch. Inthe latest issue of Alpha Flight, Northstar confesses to the Canadian public that he is a homosexual, some- hing that’s been hinted at about the character for some time in the series. This revelation even made the TV news in a few places, the first time that;s I phappened since Superman and Lois Lane announced heir engagement last year (bizzarro comparison, huh?), Northstar’s revelation has gotten a lot of publicity for Alpha Flight, both positive and negative, and the effects it will have on the book’s sales and its upcoming storylines remainsto be seen.

Another question is what effect this will have on the sharacter of Northstar himself. Ina way, this revela- tion makes sense forthe character, Northstar has eeys been something ofa cynical, aloof character with a quick temper, rather withdrawn and bitter, The fevelation of Northstar’s sexual orientation provides

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further motivation for the character's rather outcast nature. Asa mutant (an individual born with super- human powers), Northstar has found himself as some- thing of a societal outsider. Intensifying that feeling of isolation is that fact that he is a French Canadian, an avowed Separatist, who even has some past links to terrorism in Quebec. Asa mutant anda Quebec sovereignty advocate Northstar is doubly isolated in society, and his homosexual nature makes his insular, bitter personality still more understandable,. Strictly from the standpoint of writing it’s a logical extension of the character, so long as the book’s writer is care- ful not to let this one trait define the character, mak- ing hima stereotype. Acomparison could be made to the popular character Iron Man, who isa recovering alcoholic. Iron Man’s stories do not deal exclusively with his alcoholism nor should Northstar’s stories deal exclusively with his personal life.

Alpha Flight and Northstar aside, the new develop- ment in Northstar is a significant development in comics. It’s the biggest ‘‘coming out’’ ofits kind in mainstream comics, an earlier and lesser example being the Pied Piper in the pages of Flash. It’s clear, though that this sort of thing is still pretty taboo. Marvel comics, the company that publishes Alpha Flight, is the biggest comics publisher around, and it usually heralds any new comic event with gratuitously hyperbolic advertising. In the case of Northstar’s announcement, though, there was more or less no publicity preceding the story; no wonder, since it’s an issue that may be offensive or disturbing to some, and Marvel isn’t known forrisky innovations these days. As the top comic company Marvel puts out some great stories, but they often avoid dealing with controversial characters and themes (they can’teven seem to bring themselves to kill offa character these days, as witnessed by the rivals of Jean Grey, Iron Fist, Adam Warlock, Thanos, The Swordsman, Drax, The Red Skull, Dracula... the list goes on and on). That said, it’s rather surprising that Marvel put outa story like this in the first place, though comics on the whole are becoming less and less wholesome, what with maniacal mass murderers like Lobo and Wolver- ine dominating much of the industry’s sales,

Northstar is simply the latest aberration to creep into a medium that is becoming more and more permissive. What's next? It’s hard to say, and one wonders if censorship may be looming on the horizon for comics again, That could get very ugly if one considers the altercations comics have had with censors in the past. In the nineteen-forties comics were at the height of their popularity, and guys like Superman and Batman

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