Christian Jimenez on what Marvel can learn from Joss Whedon’s Angel…
Spider-Man: Far From Home represents the official end of Phase Three of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It also coincides on a curious beginning and end. In Avengers: Endgame, Marvel finally introduced an openly gay character onscreen, and Marvel President Kevin Feige and film producer Victoria Alonso have promised a gay superhero will debut in Phase Four. When this will happen remains a matter of speculation.
This might not be much of an issue except, as Captain Marvel shows, the genre of comic book films has mainly been male-led. In fact, superhero romance is almost always has a heterosexual male trying to save a girlfriend or wife. It is hard to find almost any representation of non-heterosexual romance among superheroes.
Coincidentally, 2019 also marks the twentieth anniversary of Joss Whedon’s Angel, a spin-off from Buffy the Vampire Slayer that ran on The WB from 1999 to 2004. While Angel began as a neo-noir series it seems legitimate to label Angel and Spike, another vampire, as superheroes. So, what lessons can the MCU learn from Angel?
The connection might be obvious given that Whedon directed the first two Avengers films and helped created the first phase of the MCU. However, the record is mixed and Buffy was somewhat more conservative – and less heroic – than Buffy fans may want to remember. It is well known among television executives that many shows in the late 1990s experimented with having sexy women share a kiss to boost ratings which came to be known as the “Sweeps Week Lesbian Kiss” in shows like Ally McBeal or How I Met Your Mother. It would be wrong to say Whedon played into these television tropes directly – but he did not resist them entirely either.
In season six of Buffy, for instance, when a social worker enters Buffy’s house, Buffy nervously assures the female social worker about Willow: “Well, she’s gay. But we don’t … gay.” Obviously, the show is making fun of homophobia and not endorsing it; yet it is slyly assuming Buffy is homophobic and does not rebuke her for this.
Beyond some (admittedly mild) homophobia, Willow being framed as a gay superhero is problematic since Whedon used Willow’s witchcraft as a metaphor for being a lesbian. While some superheroes are magical like Doctor Strange, Willow’s power and character are more in the vein of the supernatural and not like mutants such as Wolverine, or those given power like Captain America. There is the added problem that she becomes an evil Dark-Phoenix-like antagonist after she is openly a lesbian – which is obviously a mixed message. In contrast, both Spike and Angel began as villains but progressed to becoming heroes and never regressed.
Angel being marked as a superhero, especially a comic book hero, is explicit from the beginning. In a season one episode, “The Ring,” someone compares Angel to Captain America. In season four, Gunn, a street fighter who helps Angel, references Daredevil in one investigation. The season five opening episode has children discuss The Punisher (a Marvel anti-hero) comic book. And Whedon has long acknowledged the influence of Marvel writers on his own writing.
That Angel (or his dark self, Angelus) was gay or had gay elements was hinted at in various points in the series. In season one (“Expecting”), one of Cordelia’s friends, Serena, both mocks and lusts after Angel saying the “good ones are always gay.” In the next season, after a major rift between them, Angel buys Cordy a ton of clothes and she praises his “gay” taste in fashion (“Disharmony”). Again, like Buffy, Angel used the “gay” trope mainly for humor – it was also tied to evil.
When a rogue slayer Faith appears in the first season, she helps destroy a night club. Interestingly, the chaos begins by Faith stealing a boyfriend, Billy, from an unnamed girl. Yet the scene begins with Faith trying to seduce the girl before turning to the boyfriend. Outraged, the girl says for Billy to do something. Faith knocks the girl out then Billy and the entire club begins to fight one another as she dances indifferent to the melee she helped start. Homosexuality was tolerated but mainly as a comic or “evil” foil to the “good” heroes.
But after the third season, Angel goes much further than even Buffy which had a gay couple (Willow and Tara) onscreen. Whereas Buffy never once is hinted at being attracted to Willow or vice versa, Angel was slightly more open that Angel might have had bisexual affairs. In a flashback sequence in season five (“Destiny”), Angelus tells Spike that: “I do love the ladies. It’s just lately I’ve been wondering what it’d be like to share the slaughter of innocents with another man. Don’t think that makes me some kind of a deviant, hmm?” Since Angelus is evil, it might be he is lying or simply mocking Spike.
However, an astonishing revelation comes rather nonchalantly in the two-part series finale (“Power Play”). Wesley, the bookish magician of the group, notices Angel has been acting weirdly. Spike doesn’t care and he takes Illyria with to investigate a mysterious demon Wesley has picked up on. Illyria warns Spike, Angel is conspiring to destroy them. In their conversation, Illyria says: “You’ll have proof soon enough [that Angel is evil]. A corrupted ruler on such a path sees treachery and betrayal all around him. He cannot suffer intimates and will eventually turn against them.” To which Spike responds: “Guess I don’t have to worry about that, cause Angel and me have never been intimate. Except that one time …” I’ve seen the finale several times and missed that critical little exchange and what it means.
Since the series is close to its end, there is not much follow-up to what Spike meant – but all the evidence suggests Angelus has had bisexual affairs and Spike and him were “intimate,” at least, once. The bisexuality of Angelus is just another interesting character detail but it does not define the character or change much of the canon of the series or the wider Buffyverse. It also fits the characters fairly well with Angel and his attention to detail and Spike and his obsession with soap operas and painting his finger-nails. In short, the bisexual potential of both heroes was simply there and only needed a slight (textual) shove.
There are numerous MCU fans nervous about what it means to introduce gay characters, and are largely split into two camps. One camp is not overly concerned with gay representation itself but fearful contrived stories are going to start appearing. The other camp is a little more vocal that creating gay character is just political correctness and the MCU has prospered by not being specifically PC.
What this brief examination of Angel on its anniversary should prove, though, is one can have one’s cake and eat it, too. The Spike-Angel “intimate” moment is there for those curious (or attentive) to pick up on it. The majority of fans probably didn’t – and still don’t – notice it and yet it is there. While there have been many criticisms of Angel and how it ended – few people think the ending is a bad one or played for humor. Angel, Spike, and their allies have a final stand-off with their enemies but the show ends in a fade to black with the battle (which includes a dragon) about to begin (“Not Fade Away”).
What should one conclude? On the one hand, gay characters are much more numerous than they were previously on both television and film. Yet nervousness about showing them remains present. Even Game of Thrones, which was infamous with nudity, rarely depicted homosexuality. In the books, Daenerys and Cersei have several love affairs with women. The HBO series frames them as both heterosexuals – and heterosexuals only.
On the other hand, the superhero genre has very few gay heroes – or even villains. The DC Universe, to be sure, has gay characters like The Ray. Yet, overall, gay superheroes remain rare onscreen. Angel can be considered an imperfect work-in-progress with the series using homosexuals mainly as fodder for jokes. The grim ending is anything but funny and that Whedon allowed bisexuality in demonstrates a growing tolerance for seeing gays as gays with or without superpowers.
The MCU has so far followed this trajectory and allowed homosexuality in mainly as a source of intentional or unintentional humor. But gay superheroes being allowed their own complex lives has not yet been tried. But Angel shows such complexity can be shown and done – subtly, perhaps even too subtle for some – and done in a way that does not alienate either hardcore fans or those new to the superhero genre, by using humor and dread in the right amounts depending on the story being told.
Christian Jimenez
