Sometimes I find myself amazed at how much queer narrative has accidentally permeated superheroes. From the X-Men working out as a metaphor for the LGBTQ+ community, to the idea of the secret identity being treated like the closet for younger heroes.

And sometimes, writers do take note, and manage to convey it in such a strong line.

(for context, Monsieur Mallah and the Brain are some of the first gay characters in comics).

And another one:

"I was scared. All I ever wanted was to be normal. I don't want you to treat me like an alien. I just wanna be your friend."

On the one hand, I like and agree with what you’re saying about the X-Men serving as a metaphor for LGBT culture. I think part of what’s always made the X-Men so popular was that they represented all facets of outsider culture in a way that The Justice League/Avengers never could, and I feel that resonated with people a lot.

On the other hand, Monsieur Mallah is a (male) literal gorilla who falls in love with a man, which I feel isn’t really progressive for anyone. It’s kind of, like, ingress for our whole species.

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Yeah, but they're taking on a pretty queer framing by making acceptance and fear of rejection the main ethos around Brain and Mallah, as well as relating those sentiments to how Clark feels about himself.

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Yeah, that’s a fair point.

I was (mostly) kidding, I understand that, metaphorically, they represent more than just an Ape that falls in love with a Brain in a Jar, and that there’s a deeper level you can read into.

It’s nice when they use the comic book medium
To try and explore real world issues, but sometimes they don’t do it so good;

(Damn. I can’t tell if this is like hip and progressive or a misfire.)

I just realized there’s many layers of irony in me condemning the narrative of a fictional ape falling in love with a fictional man on a website that has maybe thousands of stories written about fictional humans falling in love with talking horses.

Look, I’m an idiot. No one should listen to me about anything unless it pertains to The Sopranos.

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I just realized there’s many layers of irony in me condemning the narrative of a fictional ape falling in love with a fictional man on a website that has maybe thousands of stories written about fictional humans falling in love with talking horses.

Seconded haha. I had to google who Mallah and the Brain are so I might be wrong, but isn't Mallah fully sentient like we humans are? If so, I don't see what the issue is with a sentient and consenting (insert species here) being with a human. I'm only talking romance and consent obviously. How they do it in the bedroom is between them.

If I turned into a worm and I'm still fully sentient, why would there be any romantic or consent issues between my wife and I? Yes, I'm using the "would you still love me if I'm a worm" question as a defense

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I’m never sure about that scene either. On one hand, Victor being the one who sympathizes with Kory on being discriminated against was a good idea. And the writers were clear on why one couldn’t just call out a racist in every situation.

But the moment to say why, they shied away from Victor saying he’s black. Now, considering the age it came out, I can imagine it was Cartoon Network’s production hitting the brake. The series was famous for getting production meddling at points.

But on the other hand, TT had an awkward approach to race, so it’s hard to venture on anything other that what made it into the screen.

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Oh, sorry. I’m really bad at catching on sarcasm as it is, and I just came out of an argument with another person who insisted the metaphor wasn’t queer, but just a general acceptance one. My bad.

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What I love about their relation in the comics is that it got confirmed the moment Brain got a robot body, and they first thing they did was to kiss each other.

But besides that one time of physical expression, I got the impression at times these two were just homoromantic, but ace. Or at least that there’s a possible narrative about it there.

Also, the worm example reminded me of Bee Movie. Studios will approve of that before a gay couple as main character.

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I think love that is transcendent of form - without the necessity of physical sex - and treated as acceptable is pretty progressive by itself. It's clear to me the two fell in love while MM was sapient, not beforehand.

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My sincerest repose

Does that make them X-Gays?

(Pweese Dont kills me.)