Michael Davis: Brokeback Marvel
Over the last 30 or so years some comics have tried to bring the "real world" into the medium. One of the first and best examples was written by my fellow ComicMix columnist Denny O’ Neil. His epic story about Green Arrow’s sidekick Speedy becoming hooked on drugs is a classic. That story was written over 30 years ago and could have been written today. It still holds up.
I will resist the urge to ask Denny why Speedy had to get hooked… hee hee hee.
Denny may not remember, but I often think back in fondness to a day I gave him a ride home from DC Comics. That, for me, was a good day. Denny most likely was thinking "tuck and roll" as he looked for an opportunity to jump out of the car.
That story Denny wrote was on the forefront of comics that tackled the real world. Since that comic there have been many comics that tried the real world approach — some of the finest have been Marvels, Kingdom Come and of course the granddaddy of them all, Watchmen. Now all of those comics and many others have dealt with the question, "What would happen if superheroes really existed?"
Well, none of those comics dealt with what really would happen if those superheroes existed in the real world… and tried to get a date.
If you think we’ve come a long way in butting out of people’s personal affairs, remember this: the last anti-miscegenation law prohibiting people of different races from marrying was repealed on November 7, 2000. Seven years later, an interracial couple breaks down one of the last barriers to a normal American family life: the newspaper family comic strip.
Chiller
Some wag said 9/11 marked the death of irony. Well, that was certainly ironic.
I just read where the Anglican church, now controlled by conservative African bishops, are threatening to lower the boom of the American branch — the Episcopalians — to the point of tossing them out over the issue of appointing an openly and actively gay bishop and the issue of offering blessings to same sex couples. 
