X-Man Comes Out!

Manuel here fanboying over the increasingly diverse Marvel COMICS universe which recently outed original X-Man Iceman in the newest issue of All-New X-Men. If we must succumb to a superhero-filled world, we might as well celebrate these types of storylines:

I love her shrug

That’s Jean Grey sort of breaking the news to gorgeous Bobby Drake (played in the films by Shawn Ashmore) who seems taken aback by this realization. Marvel has always been at the cutting edge of progressive diverse representation, especially the X-Man whose central conceit has lent itself to so many subtextual storylines about discrimination and persecution. Indeed, when I first heard the news of Bobby’s “coming out” I couldn’t help but remember the following scene from X2 (arguably the best of the X-Men films precisely because it so skillfully mines the mutant-as-gay metaphor while offering great action set pieces that feel generous towards all its characters and not just the franchise’s golden boy Wolverine):

The question now becomes: will the Marvel Cinematic Universe ever catch up? With Black Panther and Captain Marvel (now with writers attached!) coming soon, Michael B. Jordan’s Johnny Storm coming our way this summer and a number of non-white members of the X-Men cast in the upcoming Apocalypse storyline (here’s hoping Bingbing Fan’s Blink gets a chance to shine!) we may be slowly moving towards a superhero slate that isn’t entirely lily-white (I’ve yet to catch up on Daredevil past the pilot but I couldn’t shake off the whole “white guy vs foreigners/immigrants” storyline it seemed to be painting) though it seems it’ll remain straight for the foreseeable future.

How long until we get a prominent LGBT character in the MCU? With total media domination (Netflix shows! ABC* spinoffs! Movies scheduled until 2098!) it's a matter of time, yes? 

*Is this the part where I'm informed that there's such a character already in either Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D and/or Agent Carter, two shows I started watching but grew tired of midway through? And if so, does this just add further credence to the idea that television continues to be more open to representing diversity than the box-office beholden franchise world of cinema?

Twins: Iceman is a Multiple Man

While we're in Gemini, we're celebrating twins each day at 2:22 pm

Whatever happened to the X-Men franchise's young Shawn Ashmore? He played Iceman in three X-Films from 2000 through 2006 though the character essentially peaked in 2003 in the franchise's single best film (Bryan Singer's X2: X-Men United) where he proved a key player. About four years ago he and his twin brother Aaron Ashmore (also an actor, most famous for playing Smallville's Jimmy Olsen) were still getting press but you don't hear much about either of them these days.

They're both still acting, Shawn still (mostly) in the movies though its low budget horror instead of big budget Hollywood franchises and Aaron (one minute older) still in television where he hops from shortlived series regular gig to series regular gig post Smallville. At 31 years of age neither are as famous as they once were. Those superhero franchises help, whether they're part of the Marvel or DC universes. Hollywood's a difficult place to maintain a career, let alone grow one. More after the jump...

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