Fans slam Marvel’s Pride post for failing to include any LGBTQ+ characters whatsoever: ‘I’m crying’
Marvel has been met with backlash after failing to actually highlight any queer characters in a ‘Pride’ post (Marvel, @MarvelUK/ X)
Marvel Studios has released a montage in celebration of Pride without highlighting any LGBTQ+ characters from the MCU – and fans aren’t exactly thrilled.
As far as the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the LGBTQ+ community go, it’s not exactly been a happy marriage, to say the least.
Yes, there’s Shea Coulée and Zoe Terakes’s unidentified Ironheart roles – but we don’t even know what they are yet. Yes, there’s Phastos from The Eternals – the sequel to which (maybe) has been cancelled. And yes, there was Michaela Coel’s role from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever – which was cut from the film’s release in certain countries. See what we’re driving at here?
To cut a long story short, Marvel has plenty of queer comic book characters whose sexualities have been quietly sanitised for the big screen. So much so, in fact, that a Pride celebration post from the studio has been met with backlash for failing to actually focus on any queer characters.
Below is the Pride celebration tweet from Marvel’s UK & Ireland account, which features various shots from across the Marvel Cinematic Universe, all cut together to make up a montage that comes together as a lovely rainbow.
Shots from across the Marvel Cinematic Universe are used to demonstrate the Pride flag, and we very briefly see characters like Loki, Captain Marvel and Valkyrie – three characters who have all been hinted to not be entirely straight.
The post has been met with severe backlash from fans because of its focus on lighting and objects rather than queer stories and characters.
“I’m crying man,” one X user wrote. “They don’t have enough queer characters for a pride post and made it ab[out] coloured lighting.”
Another commented: “When you have no queer characters so you use a rainbow,” and a third added: “Omfg I feel so represented by that random purple galaxy shot, it’s so gay, thank you Marvel.”
Why don’t you show off all the Lgbt+ characters? Oh wait you haven’t got any
— Adam Idah CSC (@RealLoganMac) June 3, 2024
marvel REALLY needs to start adapting their queer characters because this is just embarrassing
— Kuri (@Kuri_spider) June 3, 2024
The post has also been criticised for failing to explicitly mention Pride, in favour of a fairly non-specific caption with a rainbow emoji added onto the end.
Yet another fan referenced a gay character that briefly appeared in Avengers: Endgame, played by director Joe Russo, who is straight, asking: “Where’s my favorite queer marvel character Joe Russo?”
“You guys get it right? Like you all know what month it is? Ok cool”
— Ron (@CDRonmusic) June 3, 2024
Posting any random out of context still from X-Men 97' would have been gayer than this.
— Rizzo Hutchings (@rizzohutch) June 3, 2024
Other fans have pointed out that the MCU does contain several canonically queer characters, but were met with arguments that those roles have been “mishandled, sidelined, or aged down.”
One wrote: “Maybe if you stopped erasing queer comic identities and stopped aging up or down characters that are meant to be in relationships u would have actual queer characters to post.”
PinkNews has contacted Disney for comment.
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