Studios love magazine stories that breathlessly hype their summer popcorn movies, so you would think that Warner Bros. might have been happy with Alonso Duralde’s cover story about “Superman Returns,” which gushed, “Superheroes–let’s face it–are totally hot.”
There was a twist: Duralde’s “Superman Returns” story was not in Entertainment Weekly or Newsweek or Premiere. It ran in the May 23 issue of the national gay magazine Advocate, next to the headline: “How Gay Is Superman?”
The Man of Steel has been missing from the movies for 19 years, and now that he’s scheduled to fly into the multiplex on June 28, his worries may not be limited to Lex Luthor and kryptonite. Even at a time when moviegoers embraced the gay love story “Brokeback Mountain,” there may be a different challenge for a mainstream action movie that happens to be attracting a gay following.
No one suggests that Superman in “Superman Returns” is, in fact, gay. But, as several entertainment and cultural writers have noted, superheroes hold obvious–and growing–gay appeal. In addition to being good-looking, the characters often are portrayed as alienated outsiders, typically leading double lives. In the case of Superman, the beefcake character has struggled with romance, all the while running around in a skin-tight suit.
Beyond the Advocate cover, which features the film’s star, Brandon Routh, in costume, blogs such as the defamer.com, have been as obsessed with “Superman’s” gay appeal as Britney Spears’ parenting skills and Bradgelina’s new baby.
Defamer has posted a number of stories on how gay the “Superman Returns” posters and Topps trading cards make the character look, particularly in one trading card showing Superman literally coming out of a closet.
“If Warner Bros. marketing partners like Topps aren’t even going to bother pretending, why should we?” Defamer asked. “Be proud, our fabulously caped little Queer-El.”
Warner Bros. declined to comment. But the studio is reaching out to some gay moviegoers. Warner has bought “Superman Returns” advertising time on Logo, a year-old cable channel that calls itself “the channel for Gay America.”
Despite the provocative headline, the Advocate story didn’t suggest that Superman was gay or that the film contained any subplot about an implicit or overt gay relationship.
Rather Duralde, the magazine’s arts and entertainment editor, wrote that “the iconography of superheroes definitely pushes a button or two with many gay men.”
Duralde said in an interview that he tried to speak with openly gay “Superman” director Bryan Singer for the story but was rebuffed. “We got a no, for whatever reason. It’s anybody’s guess,” Duralde said.
Despite the gay-branding issues “Superman” might face, there are a number of hit pop culture products that have benefited greatly from gay and lesbian fans.
The 1990s TV series “Xena: Warrior Princess” had a loyal and large following among lesbians (which the show courted) and the rock band Queen maintained a huge audience of young straight males despite the gay imagery of its name, music and stage shows. In comics, it has become increasingly common to not only create new gay characters but also to rework the mythology of long-time heroes to make them gay, as is the case with both Batwoman and Colossus.
The “X-Men” movies, with their themes of a mutant race fighting for respect and acceptance, also are a study in how a studio can find a significant audience in both the gay and straight world.
“Mutant/queer connections,” Robert Urban wrote in an article about “X-Men” for the gay media Web site afterelton.com, “abound in the films’ plot premises, underlying themes, and story line. Even though none of the individual ‘X-Men’ characters are actually ‘gay’ in the movies, as a whole the mutants clearly function as a metaphor for queers.”
In the second film in the series–also directed by Singer–the character Iceman essentially comes out to his family as a mutant. In the most recent “X-Men” sequel, there’s a character named Angel whose mutant status is discovered by his father, who then rejects him for being different.
“Yes, it’s a popular series with gays, and I’m thrilled,” said Lauren Shuler Donner, who served as a producer on all three “X-Men” films. “But they are also popular with everybody who at some point in their life has felt like an outsider.”
Urban, who is gay, said in an interview that “Superman” faces a different challenge than “X-Men.”
” ‘Superman’ is a beefcake movie. ‘X-Men’ is not,” he said. “If you have too much beefcake out there, the 18- to 34-year-old [straight] men may think, ‘It’s not cool. It’s not us.’ “
