A Gay Latino Superhero To Join The Avengers In 2018

In order to make it in any area of today’s entertainment business, one must really consider the diversity factor, and this does not exclude the comic book industry, not even their largest representative Marvel Comics, who have long struggled with this issue, especially after making the jump into live action films.

The upcoming Black Panther film that features a black majority cast is already one of the most expected films of 2018, and it will surely break a box office record, still, the company has not been able to escape criticism for mostly having white straight males as superheroes.

However, it seems that Marvel is ready to explore new frontiers and tackle this modern issue, especially after in April the Vice President of Sales of the comic book company blamed its poor sales on retailers not ordering enough comic books featuring women or other people of color as their main characters and superheroes.

Reason enough why Marvel will be adding a homosexual Latino superhero called Living Lightning to their Avengers comic book series in 2018. Living Lightning, (aka. Miguel Santos) has been around since 1990 and possesses the power to control and embody lightning, a power that he gained while investigating a terrorist cell that his father worked for.

After that, Santos became a member of the West Coast Avengers, where he joined forces with the likes of Hawkeye, Iron Man, War Machine, The Human Torch, Spider-Woman, and others. After many unsuccessful attempts of dating women int he 90’s, Santos came out of the closet in 2005, during the second issue of the Great Lakes Avengers series.

Comic book writer Dan Scott and creator of Living Lightning has previously addressed the character’s homosexuality. “He’s gay. Get over it. Previous girlfriends? Beards. Or relationships that just didn’t work — because Miguel hadn’t come to terms yet with who he really is. Miguel is a gay superhero and a wonderful role model.”

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While Santos won’t be the first homosexual character to appear on Marvel, he is the first one to be Latino. Living Lightning will be joining the main Avengers in 2018 in a weekly storyline that will from Avengers issue #675 to #690.

Still, this doesn’t mean that Santos will immediately or ever make the jump to the silver screen, or if Marvel will ever put an openly gay or bi superhero in one of their blockbusters, but having them on print is a good place to start.

Article inspired by Hornet // A Gay Latino Superhero Will Appear in ‘The Avengers’ Comics, But Will We Ever See Him in the Films?