LOS ANGELES--Out, out and away! - for Superman on National Coming Out Day.
Jon Kent, the son of original Superman Clark Kent and journalist Lois Lane, turns out to be bisexual in DC Comics' latest iteration of the superhero's adventures. The young man kisses reporter Jay Nakamura in issue five of the comic book "Superman: Son of Kal-El," which will be released on Nov. 9.
"It's not a gimmick," the writer, Tom Taylor, said in an interview from Melbourne, Australia, wearing a T-shirt with a rainbow-striped Superman logo.
"When I was offered this job, I thought, 'Well, if we're going to have a new Superman for the DC Universe, it feels like a missed opportunity to have another straight white saviour," he said.
National Coming Out Day is observed on Oct. 11 to support lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. "We didn't want this to be 'DC Comics creates new queer Superman,'" Taylor said. "We want this to be 'Superman finds himself, becomes Superman and then comes out,' and I think that's a really important distinction there."
Reactions have been mostly positive, Taylor said. "I'm seeing tweets of people saying they burst into tears when they read the news, that they wished that Superman was this when they were growing up, that they could see themselves," he added. "People are saying for the first time ever they're seeing themselves in Superman - something they never thought was possible."
Jon Kent cares about climate crisis and refugees. "He is as powerful as hope, faster than fate and able to lift us all and he's a very new hero finding his way, fighting things his father didn't as much," Taylor said, who wants this to be the new normal. "I hope this isn't a headline in a few years time. I hope this isn't trending on Twitter. I hope this just something about a person and good rep for everybody that that represents."
