They’re Married!
After 8 years of waiting, LGBTQ comic book fans got the gay wedding of their dreams.
In the recently released Empyre #4 by Al Ewing, Dan Slott, Valerio Schiti, Marte Gracia and VC’s Joe Caramanga, Marvel superheroes Wiccan and Hulkling got married! The moment is revealed when Wiccan is concerned that Hulkling has been replaced with a body-double. Wiccan then utters the words, “That is NOT the man I MARRIED,” over a photo of him and Hulkling kissing at a small ceremony.
For fans of the series, this moment has been a long time coming. In April of 2005, Marvel Comics published Young Avengers #1. The comic series by Allan Heinberg and artist Jim Cheung introduced comic book and superhero fans to Billy Kaplan and Teddy Altman, aka Wiccan and Hulkling. Starting out as founding members of the Young Avengers group, the two have served within multiple rosters of the team and eventually moved onto other groups like the New Avengers or Strikeforce.
Simultaneously, the characters have been depicted as a couple for the majority of their existence. Then in 2012, Hulkling proposed to Wiccan in Avengers: The Children’s Crusade #9 by Allan Heinberg, Jim Cheung, and Mark Morales. That issue also depicted their first on-panel kiss. Since then, it was assumed that the couple had been in an everlasting engagement period. But, the recent Empyre issue reveals that the two have been married, unbeknownst to readers, for some time. And now that they know, Marvel readers are very excited!
https://twitter.com/grizzlygaymer28/status/1291413193986699264
HULKLING AND WICCAN OMG GAY RIGHTS 😭 https://t.co/sxYpShr9zS
— god of mischief. | zai ❖ (@fkhryzairhys) August 5, 2020
https://twitter.com/Ted_Altman/status/1291108057443962881
MCU?
With this exciting reveal, one can’t help but wonder if this will influence the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And perhaps it will, though that won’t be for possibly another 8 years. At the moment, the two characters have to first appear on the big screen. Though, they are on their way.
Wiccan is set to make his first MCU appearance in the upcoming Disney+ series WandaVision. A Superbowl trailer from earlier this year revealed that Wanda Maximoff (The Scarlet Witch) will be getting pregnant and birthing twins within the series. Based on comic book history, this would suggest that Billy Kaplan, the reincarnated son of Wanda and other Marvel hero Vision, is on his way into the MCU. Plus, there are rumors that Hulkling will be appearing in Captain Marvel 2, and that Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige is working on a Young Avengers Disney+ show.
But, of course, we are a long way off from those two appearances. While WandaVision is still slated for premiering this December, production delays due to the coronavirus pandemic will possibly lead to pushing that show’s premiere back. In addition, Captain Marvel 2 is slated for a 2022 release date. That premiere, however, might get delayed as well. Then the Young Avengers show hasn’t even been confirmed yet, let alone scheduled. With that all in mind, we are a long way off from seeing the two characters enter a relationship AND we’re even further from an eventual wedding. That said, it’s exciting to know that a gay superhero wetting on our big and small screens is now a strong possibility.
In the meantime, we can look forward to a married gay couple (with kids) in the upcoming The Eternals. Plus, lesbian fans will also get representation thanks to Tessa Thompson’s Valkyrie and her future Queen in Thor: Love and Thunder. So, it seems that the Marvel Cinematic Universe will make up for its earlier representation blunders in the near and distant future.
“That said, it’s exciting to know that a gay superhero wetting on our big and small screens is now a strong possibility.”
“wetting” ???