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In recent years, mainstream comics publishers like DC and Marvel have made great strides in increasing the
Unlike our first two trailblazers, Extraño and Cloud, Maggie Sawyer is someone fans of queer superhero
Maggie bears the distinction of being the first canonical lesbian in mainstream comics…even if it took
Maggie first debuted in Superman #4 (April 1987), and was created by John Byrne
She becomes a recurring character in the Superman books and eventually, a grudging ally of the Man
Maggie turns to Superman for help when her daughter, Jamie, goes missing
When Superman is surprised to hear that Maggie is married, she explains that she’s actually divorced,
“There were things happening in my head that I’d been denying for a long time
” When she and her husband finally divorced, he managed to deny her custody for not being “a
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It doesn’t take much effort to read between the lines and see what Maggie’s not
(Later, he tries, albeit half-heartedly to the modern eye, to convince Jamie’s father to grant Maggie
” He hammers his point home by trotting out a beautiful female assistant in a low-cut top and
Why the obliqueness? Well, remember, the Comics Code Authority continued to forbid queer characters until 1989
But according an article in the fan zine Amazing Heroes #144 (also discussed in the Extraño profile),
It’s also the second time a DC editor is quoted in that article as saying, essentially, “
I created the first gay super-hero, [Northstar], and certainly the first gay character in Superman
This nuanced, three-dimensional portrayal of a gay lead earned the book a 1996 GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding
In the 2000s, Maggie moved to Gotham and joined the cast of a different procedural, Gotham Central
During the New 52 reboot in 2011, she began a relationship with Batwoman, Kate Kane
DC insisted that their refusal was not because Kate and Maggie were gay, but because superheroes weren’
As of the 2016 Rebirth reboot, Maggie is back in Metropolis and the Superman books
She also appeared in live action in Smallville, played by Jill Teed
Unlike prior tentative television appearances, Supergirl put Maggie’s sexuality front and center via her relationship with
(It does, however, make her two for two on storylines where her engagement to another woman falls
She’s also been consistently portrayed as brave, upstanding, stubborn as all get-out, and unafraid to be
But hopefully DC can move away from their history of unthinking copaganda while still letting us keep
And hopefully the next time she gets proposed to, she can actually make it to the damn