In a modern day odd couple, the openly gay Pied Piper gets shackled to the homophobic villain Trickster in DC Comics’ groundbreaking new series, Countdown.

By Lawrence Ferber

The almost scandalous sounding news first broke at February’s New York Comic-Con: A gay character will hook up in the pages of an upcoming mainstream superhero comic book. Hook up? Yes, we’ve seen gay characters—even gay superheroes—for some time now, but to see them explicitly hook up, onscreen, as it were?

Make that shackled up, actually. And not with a trick, but with the Trickster, a heterosexual, prank-prone villain who packs a clever and dangerous arsenal of Joker-style toys/weapons. Nonetheless, this was a significant development and represents a major part of DC Comics’ biggest comics event of the year, Countdown.

In the much-hyped yearlong weekly series, kicking off May 9 with Emmy Award-winning animator Paul Dini as head writer, one of Countdown’s main storylines follows the Pied Piper, an openly gay supervillain turned good guy whose sonic-based abilities include hypnotizing men and rats with a specially rigged flute. In an attempt to help the good guys by keeping tabs on villains’ whereabouts and plots, Pied Piper ingratiates himself with a group of baddies known as the Rogues Gallery, but ends up on the run shackled to The Trickster—who’s not exactly homo-friendly—and forced to tackle a great mystery together. It’s an entertaining riff on buddy movies like Midnight Run and Partners (although sans the flaming, limp-wristed gay stereotype of the blissfully forgotten, latter 1980s flick).

“The main purpose of the storyline is, through their eyes, to see the underbelly of the DC Universe,” says DC Senior VP Executive Editor Dan DiDio. “We find out they’re villains on the run, that something has been happening to the villains of the DC Universe, and they’re trying to unravel this mystery. But to add a level of drama and comedy and characterization, we’ve shackled these two together and, in binding them, it leads to a lot of potential for these two to learn more about each other and overcome their own differences as they take on whatever problems arise. And we do find they have greater differences than similarities.”

Of course, one of the blatant differences entails “the fact Pied Piper is gay and Trickster is homophobic,” DiDio adds. “Trickster has hidden his feelings, but we find he has some real problems with Piper’s lifestyle. It causes a level of conflict between the two of them.”

Countdown debuts a week following the climax of another major, weekly yearlong event book, 52, which made mainstream headlines in 2006 when it introduced a lesbian Batwoman and her (on-off) girlfriend, former detective Renee Montoya.

In addition to 52, the past 12 months have proven prolific for queer, queer-inclusive and queer interest comics as well, superhero and otherwise. Marvel’s underrated teen superhero series, Runaways, written by Joss Whedon, features a lesbian couple (well, technically one of the girls is a shape-shifting alien), while Whedon’s beloved yet cancelled TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer has begun an all-new eighth season in comic book form (from Dark Horse Comics). Manga fans enjoy a massive supply of BL (the umbrella term for gay-themed) and Yuri (lesbian-themed) books, with standouts including TokyoPop’s BLU label’s Innocent Bird, about an earthbound angel’s crush on a demon in priest’s clothing, and May’s debut collection of short stories by modern master Fumi Yoshinaga, Lovers in the Night; NetComics’s continuing Korean schoolboy-meets-teen-gang-member romance/drama, Let Dai; volume 4 of ALC Press’ Yuri Monogatari lesbian anthology; and Yaoi Press’ saucy Yaoi Hentai collections, which caused a stir earlier this year when family-friendly Wal-Mart accidentally featured the adults-only title on their Web site.

Gay-created indies include the mammoth Young Bottoms in Love anthology; Glen Hanson and Allan Neuwirth’s Chelsea Boys: Steppin’ Out hardcover; and, produced by the LGBT-inclusive WeHo Church, a brazenly sexy, pro-homo twist on religious tract strips, Adam and Steve.

Back at DC, The P.L.A.I.N. Janes, the first graphic novel from their new young readers line, MINX, features a gay teen. Manhunter, written by out creator Marc Andreyko, sees a recurring gay character, Obsidian (aka Todd Rice). The casts of Brian K. Vaughan’s must-reads Ex Machina and Y: The Last Man are LGBT-inclusive, while brutal Batman-esque superhero the Midnighter (who’s married to Superman-esque Apollo) is featured in the re-launched series The Authority, his own eponymous, outrageous spin-off title (which recently saw him go back in time to assassinate Hitler), and a six-issue team-up miniseries, Grifter and Midnighter (debuts May 14).

DiDio feels that these LGBT representations in mainstream titles, including Countdown’s, are important on a number of levels. “First, it’s truly reflective of our time, our world and our audience,” he shares. “It’s important to have a cross-section shown and not live in a myopic world. For people to have an opportunity to read about these characters and learn about them and cheer them on [just like any other characters]. And by incorporating storylines like we did with Batwoman and Renee Montoya in 52, they sample stories they might not normally pick up.”

For your information, Batwoman will resurface in 2007, although DiDio is keeping the wheres and whens under wraps.

Pied Piper and Trickster originated in DC’s The Flash as enemies of the titular character. Born deaf, the Piper, aka Hartley Rathaway, made all things aural/sonic his passion after his deafness was miraculously cured. He became a villain wielding new sonic technologies and the ability to hypnotize, but the Flash helped reform him. As a result, the Piper came out of the closet and devoted himself to a number of altruistic causes (“gone straight,” as it was amusingly noted).

During the first issues of Countdown (which begins with issue No. 51 and literally counts down every week: No. 51, 50, 49, etc.), we follow Pied Piper and Trickster as they join the Rogues Gallery and—via a devious deed—prove their mettle as evildoers. But both clearly have ulterior motives: Pied Piper’s is to ultimately help the good guys, while we’re not entirely sure about the self-serving Trickster’s. “He’s an opportunist, a bit of a mercenary, so it’s always for personal gain, but we’re not sure what side of the fence that falls on,” DiDio teases.

Over the weeks following, the pair ends up on the run shackled together, gets captured, jailed and breaks free. DiDio abstains from divulging specific details about the hows and whens, but does hint that many other secrets and details about the characters will be revealed over Countdown’s year.

“The good part about this story is this will all be revealed,” DiDio responds to this pithy inquiry. “We’re going to do a lot of soul searching. We find out more about Piper’s personality. What makes him tick. That’s what makes this fun. In the process of learning about this, they develop a stronger bond.”

Enough of a bond that Trickster ultimately grows curious enough to become, well, a trick?

“No, definitely not,” he laughs. “We wouldn’t have much of a story then, would we?”

Comic Relief

By Lawrence Ferber

A pile of religious tracts—those typically propagandistic, comic book-style pamphlets depicting a sinner’s condemnation to hell unless he forgoes his evil ways—was the last thing one expected or wanted to find on a community outreach table in the West Hollywood gay club, Rage. But these recently arrived tracts, titled Adam & Steve, didn’t portray gays going to hell. It showed them going home for a night of hot male-male action… with God’s unconditional approval and love.

With a cover depicting a pair of sexy young twinks engaged in a liplock at a gay bar, Adam & Steve—one a churchgoing (and shirtless!) Christian, the other disenfranchised by religion’s rejection of gays—agree to go home together for a night of lust with the stipulation that they attend the former’s liberal, pro-queer church come morning. Not your typical pre-hookup negotiation.

Conceived and written by Pastor Terry Brewer, 51, of the seven-year-old WeHo Church, Adam & Steve (also accessible online at tinyurl.com/2t2z6v) counteracts exclusionary messages regarding gays put forth by the church, and even “progressive” and liberal houses of worship.

“I lead this church, and it’s mostly a gay congregation,” Brewer explains, “and I felt for a long time like the message the church has sent gays—most churches—is they’re not acceptable. Churches like ours exist, but still communicate that God’s love is conditional and you have to clean up your act. I wanted gays to know God’s love is unconditional. Not that I was suggesting this was the way to be in the world. More like this is a way to be. And there’s not a way to be that will deny you God’s love.”

So does Brewer hope that “would you like to go to church with me in the morning?” becomes a hot, successful pickup line?

Brewer laughs. “I’m not sure everyone is as comfortable with my ending of the story as we are, or gay churches are comfortable with the authenticity of this,” he adds. “But we don’t play games and pretend we’re one thing Sunday morning and live differently other times.”

Brewer is so pleased with Adam & Steve (which was illustrated by a heterosexual artist, Jake Myler) and its accessible comic book format that he’s contemplating a similar adaptation of his upcoming book, Did God Make Me Gay?

“I just finished it,” he shares, “and instead of having it published as a book, it might be more effective as a graphic novel.”