For anyone who has been reading superhero comics, complaining about the abundance of comics tied to the X-Men franchise is a familair pastime. However, for gay readers, there just may be reason to pay attention to one new series, Young X-Men.

Young X-Men is the latest X-book to focus on younger mutants and one of the heroes featured in Young X-Men is Anole, a gay character whose outing was nixed in 2003 but was eventually outed in 2006. Anole isn't the only gay mutant in Young X-Men, however.

Find out about the new gay after the break!

ANOTHER DAY OF WONDER:
Has it been a year already? In a week-and-a-half, it'll be time for the third Wonder Woman Day. The event, organized by gay writer Andy Mangles, raises money for domestic violence shelters and crisis hotlines. This year, the day is being celebrated in Portland as well as Flemington, New Jersey with creator appearances and a silent auction for Wonder Woman original art. The art being auctioned includes work from gay artists like J Bone, Tim Fish, Patrick Fillion and JA Fludd.

WARM UP YOUR VOCAL CHORDS FOR A "ONE OF US" CHANT:
Get your Barrowmania hats back on, cuz a certain Scottish actor has come a-courting. In an interview with the National Post of Canada John Barrowman talks about his love of science fiction, declaring himself a "G-Double-E-K":

"I grew up watching Doctor Who," he says. "I'm of the Star Wars generation; I love science fiction. Star Trek: The Next Generation, Battlestar Galactica ... love 'em."

"I love every morning, getting up to go to work because that little boy inside of me jumps with excitement every time I'm going to fight an alien or shoot a rocket gun or be on a spaceship or be with the Doctor or get onto the TARDIS," he gushes. "So every time I'm working on it, I'm really, really happy."

Barrowman: "G-Double-E-K"

Okay, so there's a little optimist Lyle on one shoulder and a cynic Lyle on the other. The optimist is going "Aw, sah-woon." while the cynic is muttering something about people who say they like Star Trek and follow the sentiment with a series of imitations of Checkov asking about "nuclear wessels".

METAPHORS FOR QUEER RIGHTS MOVE TO SAN FRANCISCO, FILM AT ELEVEN:
It's been a pretty high-profile change to the status quo, so you've probably heard that the X-Men made a move to San Francisco with the 500th issue of Uncanny X-Men. But editor Axel Alonso gave us an interesting teaser when he talked with the San Francisco Chronicle recently:

Q: Is there a chance we might see one of the X-Men come out?

A: Yes. Yes. The city being what it is, certain characters whose sexuality might have been ambiguous are going to feel free to be who they are. I will qualify and say that I never go into the situation with a mandate or an agenda. It has to come along naturally. We're not going to rush into it. But I see it happening.

San Francisco, open your Golden Gates...

Considering the current team working on the X-Men, I see more than a little reason for optimism. Alonso is the editor responsible for Peter Milligan's excellent run on X-Force/X-Factor and the current X-Men writing team includes people responsible for some notable gay moments in comics. Uncanny X-Men is co-written by Ed Brubaker, who created Holly, the temporary successor to Selina Kyle, in his Catwoman run. The adjectiveless title (currently called X-Men: Legacy) comes from the pen of Mike Carey who's was very gay-inclusive on Vertigo titles like Lucifer and Hellblazer, even though in most cases that was a matter of including gay people amid those titles' high bodycount. Finally, Astonishing X-Men has the mind of Apollo and Midnighter creator Warren Ellis working for it.

From the way Alonso phrases things, it sounds like any gay mutant who might come out would be one who has been quietly coming to terms with their sexuality for a while ... so who's been pinging your gaydar? Anyone think it might turn out that Beast wasn't joking when he came out a few years back?

The new Infinity Inc.

By the way, speaking of Peter Milligan, is anyone reading his gender-twisting work on Infinity Inc. at DC? There's nothing specifically gay about the series, so far, but the series includes one guy who sometimes deals with his insecurity by turning into a woman (leading to plenty of gay teasing from one friend) and another guy whose struggle with narcissism is complicated by his ability to clone himself. Of course, the series is already has its final issue scheduled to come out in a few months. Sigh.

AFTER THE BREAK: New life for the gayest video game never to get a US port, Calvin and Hobbes gets mashed up and more!

In this week's unintentionally Joss Whedoncentric edition, Marc and Lee review the latest installment of the comic book series Buffy Season 8 as well as the Astonishing X-Men.

Turning to television, along with their usual review of Doctor Who, Marc and Lee give a preview of the next movie in here!'s "Everyday Gay Heroes" series, Solar Flare.

And in the return of Lists, find out who are the nine greatest lesbian and bi female characters in the sci fi/geek world.

Check it out after the break!

In this week's episode of Angry Puppy, Marc and Lee talk about breaking movie news (keywords: Jake Gyllenhaal!), George Takei's Secret Talent, Jack and Ianto's Weevil-hunting clinch, some new X-Men books, and much, much more.

• "It's Spawn but gay":
  Gay comics site Pink Kryptonite interviewed Prism Comics co-founder Charles "Zan" Christensen this week. The discussion included his gay-themed comic Mark of Aeacus, the development of Prism and other queer comic creators. Prism has been very effective as a comics advocacy group, working to make it easier for gay readers to support LGBT and LGBT-friendly creators, and Zan's been a big part of that empowerment.
  

• If you dare wear short robes...
  Long time comic readers likely know artist Colleen Doran. A Distant Soil stands out as an early example of a gay male character with a dedicated female fanbase. She also co-pencilled the infamous Legion issue where Shvaughn Erin was revealed as transgender. Right now, Doran is sharing unpublished art from her 1987 Marvel mini-series Fallen Angels, including this scene of X-hottie Jamie Madrox (aka The Multiple Man) in a robe so short it "nearly gave (Fallen Angels) editor Bob Harras a heart attack". It's a fun example of Doran's challenged the exclusionary tendencies of comic book fandom. Besides, it involves Madrox, who's been hinted as having a bisexual side. Doran promises pages that took inches off of Harras' headline all on their own. I wonder if she means this newly-posted page of Jamie fighting for his clothes:

  

  Doran muses that "it’s not every day you get to draw a mighty Marvel mutant in a struggle with a sentient mutant cybernetic lobster for control of a pair of pants." Sadly, true. (BTW, that's just a portion of the art Doran shares, be sure to visit her site for the full pages and more of Doran's wonderful work.)
  

• Uuuuh, yeah, I guess you could say our priorities are misplaced:
  I don't know how to react to this except to shake my head. Parenting game site What They Play asked its readers what they would find more offensive in a video game. The site's users answered that they'd be more offended by two men kissing than a "graphically severed human head". Seriously? At least gay kisses placed a distant second to a heterosexual sex scene. I know American audiences are generally more tolerant of violence than sexuality but still ... these people would rather their kids play Mortal Kombat than The Sims?
  

• Apocalyptic anticipation:
  Since I know there's a lot of anticipation for the third installment in the Fallout series (which has been gay-inclusive in the past) I thought some Week in Gay Geek readers might be excited to see some new teaser screens.

  

  The apocalypse looks pretty good.
  

• Attention Q-Mart shoppers:
  YAOI readers might want to take note that publisher 801 Media announced on their blog that some of their earlier titles are almost out of stock, so if you've been procrastinating on one of 801's titles, "now or never" time might be coming soon. I've had my eye o Ichigenme, a title from Fumi Yoshinaga (one of the creators I highlighted in my look at YAOI comics) since realizing how Yoshinaga nimbly mixes gay issues with escapist romance.
  

• The week in comic mash-ups:
  The first movie I ever saw in the theatres was Race for Your Life Charlie Brown, so I'm probably likely to like anything that puts the Peanuts through a new creative filter and that includes this illustration of the Peanuts characters as the Watchmen characters:

  

  Since I always quibble, I do wonder about how the characters were matched up, Snoopy as Rorschach is brilliant and Charlie Brown as Dr. Manhattan actually makes some twisted sense... but Linus as The Comedian? (I see him as more of a Night-Owl myself) and Lucy as the Silk Spectre? What do you think? How would you mix Peanuts characters with Watchmen mystery men?
  

• I wonder, wonder why the WonderCon:
  For those of you who are heading out to Wondercon in San Francisco this weekend, local alt-weekly the Bay Guardian takes a look at what's gay at the convention. Meanwhile, Prism Comics has an even fuller agenda for gay fans. The San Francisco Chronicle also takes a look at the con's gay content. In addition to those panels, the Prism Comics booth is a place where you can usually find a wide variety of LGBT comics.
  
  
• Wolverine adds three hunks and Morrison creation:
  While most gay bloggers have been quick to notice the increasingly hunky cast of the Wolverine movie (which now includes Ryan Reynolds, Taylor Kitsch, Daniel Henney, along with Hugh Jackman), it's the news that Dominic Monaghan will be playing Beak that has gotten my attention. Beak? Beak? My inner Grant Morrison fanboy is pretty excited to hear that one of his characters is going to be a part of one of the X-Men films. Now, if only we could see signs of how Morrison pushed the franchise (creatively as well as its gay metaphor) forward in his New X-Men run show up in future films. Oh, and because the excuse doesn't come up often, here's an illustration of how abtastic the Wolverine film is getting:

  

  There aren't many guys who can manage to still look hot despite being stuck with Sally Brown's hairdo, but Jackman certainly manages it. (I'd link you to the Tim O'Neil comic I stole that joke from, but I can't find it anymore ... can anyone with better Google-fu help?)
  
  
• Wii old school gamers love the Commodore:
  One way of establishing your nerd credibility -- at least if you're old enough -- is by reminiscing about Commodore. (I get to mix my Commodore geekery with my marketing geekery by being able to tell people how my parents bought me two of Commodore's failed C64 emulators ... anyone remember the Commodore Plus 4 or the Commodore 128?) Wii owners are going to get the chance to indulge in that nostalgia when Commodore classics become available as Wii Ware titles in Europe. Now, if only someone would realize how the genius Dan Dare video game needs to be introduced to a wider audience. (And is Dan Dare the nexus of video game, anglophile and comics geekdom?)
  
  
• Turok the Guykiss Hunter:
  Well, this could have made it interesting, a conceptual storyboard for the Turok videogame reveal a cut scene where the game's dinosaur hunter locks lips with another guy.

  

  I'm not sure how the Turok franchise just keeps on going. No matter how much I ignore it, it keeps coming back (unlike Quantum and Woody or other Acclaim title I liked). Is there a quality about this one the rather generic title and bland story descriptions are hiding?
  
  
• Boys on film:
  The Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson comic The Boys was optioned for a possible film recently, which I have to admit has me a bit worried. While Ennis' history as a comic writer is mostly gay friendly (we did have complaints about his work on Midnighter and I'm not sure if there's a gay-friendly angle to The Boys' infamous "hamster" cover), his edgy style of humor is the type where some of his gay jokes can take on a homophobic undercurrent if mishandled by the screenwriter (and from what I've read about The Boys the title does have the occasional crude gay joke), this is one film I'll be keeping a cautious watch over.