What’s All the Fuss?

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If you never read the issue, you probably didn’t know that Savage Dragon #49 featured a kiss between two gay superheroes. This was over 14 years ago, in May of 1998.

Finally finding his way home after being trapped in an alternate dimension for years, an emotional response was evoked from veteran superhero, Super-tough, after being reunited with his old sidekick Young-tough, now known as Mace (whose face was permanently scared from the nega-bomb explosion that sent Super-tough to the other dimension). Erik displayed the scene on a splash page on the second page of the issue.

Anyway, Erik Larsen never made the kiss into some big promotional gimmick to hype sales. Sure it was shocking at the time, but it also helped advance the story. If you didn’t read Savage Dragon, it’s likely you never even heard about it.

  • http://twitter.com/forwardnotion H. Lambright

    Fun fact: DC didn’t make Alan Scott gay for hype and increased sales. A fan asked at Kapow! Comic-Con if they were planning to change a character’s sexuality since they changed characters’ race, gender, body size, handicapability, etc. They said yes. BAM! Bleeding Cool got a hold of it first. Then, because comic sites seem to take their cues from BC nowadays, they all pulled the same story. DC never did a press release until *after* comic news sites made it a big deal. I guarantee that if the fan had never asked the question, we wouldn’t have gotten the news smack we ended up with. It probably would have been just as unsurprising as this kiss was in Savage Dragon, the one in Starman, or the one several years before either of those in Milligan’s The Enigma from Vertigo.

    • Craig_O

      And yet they rode the wave leading the media believe it was one of their “iconic” heroes. They didn’t let on that it was an off-shoot character from an alternate universe. DC intentionally sat back and let the hype build on what “iconic” character it would be. Maybe the fan let the news out early, but your fooling yourself if you think DC isn’t competing with Marvel for headlines. By touting that it was an iconic character, they stole the thunder from Marvel and their lesser known Northstar character. It’s just business…I guess.

  • http://www.facebook.com/justin.crouse.10 Justin Crouse

    That page was a genuine shock. I did not see that one coming. I also love how it echoed the Dragon/Alex kiss from the previous issue…Larsen in the master of the callback.

    • Craig_O

      Agree with everything you stated here!

  • Jrcarter9175

    Thing I remember most is Howard Niseman going through every gay slur he could think of.

    • Craig_O

      Yeah, Niseman was the biggest bigot ever. He was a great character to have interacting with Dragon. I love how Erik changed his character over time and actually managed to make him somewhat likable.