There's been a lot of static around here lately about comics publishing giant Marvel's handling of gay themes and issues. If you checked out the recent mainpage editorial about outspoken (vitriolic?) anti-gay author Orson Scott Card, you may be disappointed to learn that in addition to their adapting his novel Ender's Game as a comic book series, the publisher put the writer in charge of the recent Ultimate Iron Man miniseries.

Additionally, recent developments in both the Ultimate X-Men (with gay characters Northstar and Colossus) and Young Avengers (with gay superheroes Hulking and Wiccan) series have gay comics fans appalled and at the treatment of the few gay characters that comics have to offer.

One reader points out that Marvel has generally had a fairly gay-friendly past, so perhaps bringing these points to their attention would do some good. If you'd care to contact them, here's the information. To contact the Ultimate editors directly, here's their email. And here's Editor in Chief Joe Quesada's Myspace page.