Hello I'm grumpy about Queer Women on Krakoa again and this happens so much I am just going to do a fucking thread about every problem and why the scraps we've been given are nowhere near enough.

I wanna preface this by saying with the exception of The Kate Situation, this isn't an issue with the actual writers of these books. I know for a fact that several of them would be thrilled to make things gay as hell, but are hamstrung by Disney and Senior Editorial edicts.

I also want to say that this is just one aspect of a larger problem, the gesturing at more sexually liberated and queer X-Books while refraining from explicitly confirming anything. Nola tackled the broader issue excellently here: https://womenwriteaboutcomics.com/2019/12/the-performative-horniness-of-dawn-of-x/

So

Here's literally all the explicit* sapphic content we've gotten in an X-Title in the 2 years since Dawn of X hit.

That's it.

*we'll get to Kate in a bit

Mystique and Destiny finally being confirmed as a lesbian marriage is long overdue but still welcome. The fact that Destiny being part of the broader No Clairvoyants plotline isn't an inherent problem, but becomes one when they're THE ONLY SIGNIFICANT WLW IN THE ENTIRE LINE.

Bling and Mercury making out is fun! It's cute and nice to see a couple of young queer ladies get to be openly into each other given the emphasis X-Books have on teen books.

But it's a single panel of a book they aren't even an actual part of, and they haven't shown up since.

And finally, Kate.

Kate Pryde is incredibly important to me.

I have written a whole essay about how she (and Magik) helped me figure my shit out and be myself

So when she finally kissed a girl on page I was thrilled. I cried! I was so overjoyed.

That was 8 months ago.

Since then, it hasn't come up once. She's never mentioned it to anyone, she hasn't kissed anyone else and the entire moment has gone unaddressed.

Monthly comics are a long haul story, but after 40 years, lighting this fuse and then expecting us to wait for nearly a year is cruel

On top of the wait, she hasn't even been officially recognized as queer BY Marvel.

On their big Pride one shot variant, there's a whole host of X-Folks, but Kate is notably absent. (As is Betsy, fwiw, but thats a much older problem).

You can't have it both ways.

So all that joy I felt? That, ugh, pride? It's hard to feel it now, because a character I love being openly queer after decades is being treated like a forgotten moment that no one will commit to. It's swiftly joining the other Big Problem Krakoa has: Playful Hints.

While explicit confirmation is a rare sight, X-Books have been more more happy to wink and nudge at Gals Being More Than Pals and it is a goddamn problem I am utterly sick of.

It would be annoying but tolerable if we were getting actual wlw content alongside it, but with the utter drought we've got it isnt a playful wink at the audience or a compromise for a writer who can't ACTUALLY make them gay, it's actively hurtful and needs to stop.

The poster child for this is, tragically, Karma.

She's gay! They did it! She's been gay for YEARS! Sure she has literally never had a named girlfriend that had a substantive role, but she's crossed the lesbian finish line and that's something.

Between Hickman, Brisson and now Ayala, Xi'an still doesn't have a girlfriend. In this era of sexual freedom and queer vibes, they STILL can't be bothered to give the actual longtime lesbian X-Man a partner.

Now while that would be annoying on its own, it is amplified by Xi'an and Dani constantly holding hands, sharing personal secrets and deep feelings and then

Nothing

Culminating in the worst offender, the final panels of the most recent New Mutants issue:

If this IS leading to an eventually romance between the two: great! I'll love it! But that doesn't change that stringing it along like this, with ALL of the baggage of sapphics on Krakoa, is an irresponsible decision.

And if it isn't leading to that, its just outright mean.

Again, my rage here is not at the queer non-binary writer of New Mutants. I know they are trying to do the best they can in a broken system.

But even knowing it isn't Vita's fault, I can't help but hope the X-Office writers notice the problem they've made, intentional or not.

It isn't 1986 anymore. It's 2021. You have to do the work. If you want your comics to be Queer and Exciting, they need to actually be queer. And as far as queer women are concerned, the current X-Office hasn't done the work, and they need to change that or stop toying with us.

ALSO THE FACT THAT THERE ARE NO NOTEWORTHY TRANS MUTANTS ON KRAKOA IS A GODDAMN TRAVESTY AND I EXCUSABLE BUT ALSO CAN'T KEEP YELLING OKAY I'M DONE

And the thing is

I love these books

I wouldn't be this upset if I wasn't

The Krakoan Era has been maybe my favorite time reading comics since I started and helped me find myself.

But that doesn't mean they can skate by without their problems being rightfully called out.

Okay one actual last thing

The reason I specified queer women here is, while not to the degree I would like, other romances ARE getting spotlighted.

Het ones. Gay ones. Bi ones. They're all here.

Just

Nothing with two women.

And it's INCREASINGLY noticable.