Grab your tissues for the first ever same-sex wedding between two gay superheroes….
Marvel Comics will make history this week as it publishes the first ever same-sex superhero wedding. Longtime boyfriends Wiccan (William “Billy” Kaplan) and Hulkling (Theodore “Teddy” Altman)–two members of the superhero team the Young Avengers–are the first gay superhero couple to get married in the history of the publishing label.
While there have been same-sex weddings in Marvel Comics in the past, this groundbreaking moment makes it the first same-sex wedding between two superheroes.
Wiccan and Hulkling are revealed to be married on the final page of Empyre #4 in a flashback to a quickie ceremony attended by other Young Avengers. The pair wanted to tie the knot before shipping off to crown Hulkling as the Emperor of the Kree/Skrull Empire.
Their marriage won’t come as a major surprise to Marvel fans. Their relationship has been fleshed out in past comics, and a celebration dinner in Marvel Comics #1000, released last year, led many to suspect that a wedding was on the cards.
“I’ve got a lot of love for Hulkling and Wiccan, both individually and as a couple” said Empyre writer Al Ewing.
“So it’s a good feeling to be able to deliver this kind of ‘shock ending’ for readers, which hopefully lifts fans’ spirits a little rather than bringing them down.”
The characters, created by Allan Heinberg and Jim Cheung, first appeared in 2005 in Young Avengers and have become major figures in Marvel comics since.
Derek Williams / 11 August 2020
Wonderful!