Marvel’s Avengers are getting a gay teammate, and we’re excited to see him.
The comic book company announced their upcoming plans for their most popular superhero team (besides the X-Men of course) next year.
Those plans have revealed a teammate named Miguel Santos, or more appropriately, “Living Lightning.”
And who is Living Lighting? He got his name after looking into an evil group called the Legion of Living Lighting. During that, he gained the power to control lightning and turn into it himself.
Lightning has already been a member of the team before in the 1990’s Avengers West Coast.
Now, the hero will simply be rejoining them during the “No Surrender” storyline that will take place between Avengers issues #675 and #690.
“We [were looking] for an entry-level character, a person who makes sense coming into the world of the Avengers and, to some degree, being the viewpoint of the reader,” editor Tom Breevort talked to Comic Book Resources about the upcoming “No Surrender” storyline.
“He’s suddenly been thrown into the deep end as one of the key players in trying to keep the world safe and deal with these massive crises that the Avengers deal with,” Breevort adds. “He gets to see that from a ground level and very human perspective… This isn’t a level that Miguel is used to or comfortable with having to work on.”
And if you’re wondering why we’re talking about Living Lightning here, it’s because Miguel Santos is gay.
While Santos originally dated women, one issue of the satirical series Great Lakes Avengers sees the character come out, and then comic book writers decided to keep it. This made him the first gay Avenger.
“He’s gay. Get over it,” said GLA writer Dan Slott, “Previous girlfriends? Beards. Or relationships that just didn’t work—because Miguel hadn’t come to terms yet with who he really is. Miguel is a gay superhero and a wonderful role model.”
Now the question is, how many centuries will we wait before we see him go to the big screen.
h/t: NewNowNext
