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Marvel Makes It Official On 'The View': Northstar Will Marry His Boyfriend In Historic X-Men Issue
Using the chatty mouths found on the ladies of The View (of all places) to make one of its biggest announcements in years, Marvel made it official on Tuesday morning: Northstar will propose to and marry his boyfriend Kyle in a landmark story arc for The Astonishing X-Men.
First teased with a mysterious "Save the Date" issued in March, it has since been speculated by countless fanboy sites and industry blogs that Northstar would be the character tying the knot. The announcement on The View today put an end to the churning of the rumor mill and gave a thumbs up to everyone's best guess. For the first time in Marvel's history, two men will marry.
"In Astonishing X-Men #50, gay X-Man Northstar will propose to his boyfriend Kyle, with a marriage in an upcoming issue," Whoopi revealed on Tuesday's episode. “That’s kind of amazing," she added. “When I was a kid and I used to read these magazines, you never saw an array of people."
Issue #50, the proposal, will hit stands tomorrow with the marriage issue slated for #51 in June. (Yay! A June wedding!)
Though I always cry at weddings, this one, if you don't mind me outing myself as a lifelong comic book geek, will unhinge the flood gates. The X-Men universe was my playground in young childhood, my escape from bullying in my pre-teen and teen years and my nostalgic way to relax in the evenings in these, my adult years. It's not exactly coincidental that right around the time Northstar said "I am gay" in 1992 I, for the first time, considered echoing those words.
Oddly enough, being able to relate to the X-Men always helped me feel normal. With my nose stuck in between the pages of each and every issue, deeply inhaling the musky scent so that as many senses as possible were able to experience the story, I finally did fit in somewhere, no matter whatever the kid up the street shouted my way.
Twenty years after Northstar came out of the closet, I still know firsthand the significance of what having an out X-Man marrying his boyfriend will mean to the countless young LGBT. It's a landmark moment in pop culture, a storyline decades in the making for Marvel and a watershed for comic book fans young and young at heart alike. Kids outside the bubble of politics (a world that itself has rapidly evolved toward marriage equality in recent months) will finally have a major mainstream and accessible character making his dreams of marrying his partner come true. If Northstar can marry his boyfriend, why won't they be able to in the near future?
It may seem fun and trivial and no more than a pop culture meme destined to fizzle as soon as the honeymoon ends, but let me assure you: the moment Northstar slips that ring on his boyfriends finger, gay kids around the world will be forever changed.