Iceman having his first gay kiss with former romantic interest Romeo / Image via Marvel Comics
The writer who helped to bring Iceman out of the closet has a bone to pick with Marvel Comics.
While Marvel Comics is considered one of the most progressive comic book companies today, it seems their push for diversifying its characters and employees came with a heavy hand.
Sina Grace is an openly gay comic book writer who helmed the coming-out saga and standalone series for one of the X-Men’s founding members. But according to Grace, Marvel didn’t have good faith in him as a writer and employee. Instead, they tried to micromanage him to a stifling, cowardly, and almost homophobic, degree.
Adult Iceman is confronted by his time-traveling past self about his (their?) sexuality / Image via Marvel Comics
Grace chose to post his frustrations with the publisher through a Tumblr post. In the post he said:
Grace then shares that his PR was micromanaged even further. Every comment he’d made about the company had to be pre-approved and pre-screened.
Ice-man and Pyro share a morning together after enjoying a passionate night in X-Men: Gold #31 / Image via Marvel Comics
This is important to remember as Marvel tried to cover up the pre-review fact later on. After Grace introduced a drag queen character to the X-Men universe, originally named Shade by then later renamed Darkveil, Marvel’s head publicist acted like he promoted the idea without Marvel’s permission.
By the end of the Tumblr post, Grace was so fed up that he outright called Marvel “cowards.”
Of course, these words could be seen as the disgruntled opinion of a former employee. But it would be wrong of us not to listen and learn from Grace’s words. Especially when Marvel Comics, and soon the MCU, continue to promote itself as being diverse and representative of all people.
If you want to read Sina Grace’s full comments, you can do so by clicking this link to the Tumblr post.
