Queer Superhero History: Maggie Sawyer

In caller years, mainstream comics publishers similar DC and Marvel person made large strides successful expanding the LGBTQ+ rep successful their universes, though they inactive person a agelong mode to go. But getting present was a dilatory and gradual process, with galore notable landmarks — and immoderate admitted missteps — on the way. In Queer Superhero History, we’ll look astatine queer characters successful mainstream superhero comics, successful (roughly) chronological order, to spot however the scenery of LGBTQ+ rep successful the genre has changed implicit time. Today: Maggie Sawyer!

Unlike our archetypal 2 trailblazers, Extraño and Cloud, Maggie Sawyer is idiosyncratic fans of queer superhero media are apt to recognize, arsenic she had a important relation successful the CW’s Supergirl. Maggie bears the favoritism of being the archetypal canonical lesbian successful mainstream comics…even if it took a fewer years for the comics to really usage that word.

Maggie archetypal debuted successful Superman #4 (April 1987), and was created by John Byrne. She’s a skipper successful the Metropolis PD’s Special Crimes Unit (SCU), which deals with superpowered menaces. She becomes a recurring quality successful the Superman books and eventually, a grudging state of the Man of Steel’s.

Note Maggie’s haircut, which sparked debates astir imaginable stereotyping.

Though immoderate fans mightiness person had their suspicions, it’s not until Superman #15 (March 1988) that Maggie’s sexuality becomes textual, though inactive referred to obliquely. Maggie turns to Superman for assistance erstwhile her daughter, Jamie, goes missing. When Superman is amazed to perceive that Maggie is married, she explains that she’s really divorced, and that marrying her hubby was a youthful mistake. “I was…confused, successful those days,” she says. “There were things happening successful my caput that I’d been denying for a agelong time. Things a due Catholic miss didn’t adjacent privation to consider.”

And the victor for Most Infuriating Montage of 1988 is…

During a flashback to her matrimony falling apart, 1 sheet shows her making oculus interaction with different pistillate successful a bar, portion her narration container says: “I yet started to travel look to look with myself. With reality.” When she and her hubby yet divorced, helium managed to contradict her custody for not being “a acceptable mother.” Not wanting to enactment Jamie done the symptom of endless ineligible appeals, she moved crossed the state to Metropolis — but present Jamie has tally distant and is astir apt determination successful the city. (Don’t worry, Superman finds her.)

It doesn’t instrumentality overmuch effort to work betwixt the lines and spot what Maggie’s not saying. Clark surely picks up what she’s putting down; later, arsenic he’s searching for Jamie, helium thinks to himself that “It surely seems ridiculous successful this time and property that idiosyncratic arsenic upright arsenic Maggie Sawyer should person to springiness up her kid conscionable due to the fact that she’s—” earlier his thought is chopped disconnected by the villain of the week. (Later, helium tries, albeit half-heartedly to the modern eye, to person Jamie’s begetter to assistance Maggie visitation.) And conscionable successful lawsuit immoderate scholar missed the hints, Maggie is besides shown with a pistillate named Toby successful her apartment, who calls her “babe” and volition yet beryllium intelligibly presented arsenic her longtime partner.

Two months later, Action Comics #600 (May 1988) kept up the heavy-handed hinting, erstwhile Lex Luthor tries to blackmail Maggie into dropping her probe of him by alluding to her “secret.” He hammers his constituent location by trotting retired a beauteous pistillate adjunct successful a low-cut apical and abbreviated skirt and commenting connected his and Maggie’s “similar tastes.” Later, Maggie tells her workfellow Dan Turpin (inexplicably called “Ben” here) that Lex tried to blackmail her and helium says “You mean…about…” (Maggie rejects Lex’s threat, of course.)

I anticipation Sandra recovered herself a bully woman and a caller occupation aft this.

Why the obliqueness? Well, remember, the Comics Code Authority continued to forbid queer characters until 1989. But according an nonfiction successful the instrumentality zine Amazing Heroes #144 (also discussed successful the Extraño profile), that wasn’t really the issue. John Byrne’s exertion Mike Carlin is quoted arsenic saying that Byrne could person utilized words similar “gay” oregon “lesbian” but chose not to, a prime Carlin agreed with: “I don’t cognize however astute it would beryllium for John to beryllium truthful blatant…We bash person to enactment alert of who’s speechmaking the books and whose parents mightiness get huffy if they spot thing similar that.” This is an incredibly illuminating quote, not slightest due to the fact that it speaks to however anemic the CCA had gotten astatine this point; immoderate deficiency of practice astatine DC and Marvel was intelligibly owed to choices made by DC and Marvel, not outer censorship. It’s besides the 2nd time a DC exertion is quoted successful that nonfiction arsenic saying, essentially, “Think of the children!” arsenic if queer children (and queer parents, similar Maggie herself) don’t exist.

Amazing Heroes #144 besides debated whether Maggie’s portrayal arsenic comparatively butch was a stereotype, with writer Mindy Newell quoted arsenic saying “She’s cigar-chomping, she’s got abbreviated hair, she’s truly tough…It mightiness person been much effectual if John had painted her arsenic a ‘normal’ woman,” portion Carlin argued “Do stereotyped dykes locomotion astir successful mini-skirts?” successful Maggie’s defense. Neither statement has aged peculiarly well, but much to the point, they stem from Maggie being the first; arsenic with Extraño, it’s intolerable for a solitary lesbian quality to beryllium each things to each readers.

Byrne, for his part, was quoted arsenic saying: “Whatever I accidental volition beryllium misinterpreted anyhow, truthful I’d alternatively fto my enactment talk for itself. I created the archetypal cheery super-hero, [Northstar], and surely the archetypal cheery quality successful Superman.” It’s a precise antiaircraft quote, and sentiment whitethorn alteration connected the effectiveness of his execution of either character, but there’s nary denying that Byrne did enactment hard to see queer characters successful comics good earlier it was successful vogue. (I committedness we’ll get to Northstar soon!)

Yes, the full bid is copaganda, but that’s superhero comics for you.

Within a fewer years, the scenery of comics had changed capable that Maggie could prima successful a miniseries, 1994’s Metropolis S.C.U. Written by Cindy Goff and drawn by Pete Krause, the bid is simply a procedural archetypal and foremost, but is besides the archetypal DC comic to prima an retired lesbian, and showcases Maggie’s struggles successful her relationships with her spouse Toby, her daughter, and her ex owed to her workaholism. This nuanced, three-dimensional portrayal of a cheery pb earned the publication a 1996 GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Comic.

In the 2000s, Maggie moved to Gotham and joined the formed of a antithetic procedural, Gotham Central. During the New 52 reboot successful 2011, she began a narration with Batwoman, Kate Kane. However, erstwhile Kate projected successful 2013, DC infamously forbade the marriage, causing Batwoman’s originative team, J.H. Williams III and W. Haden Blackman, to permission the book. DC insisted that their refusal was not due to the fact that Kate and Maggie were gay, but due to the fact that superheroes weren’t allowed to person blessed idiosyncratic lives. To beryllium fair, DC had torpedoed galore iconic heterosexual marriages astatine the time, each the mode up to Superman’s. But the optics of forbidding a lesbian wedding successful peculiar — what would person been the archetypal lesbian wedding successful comics, and lone the third same-sex wedding successful superhero comics past (with #2 occurring lone the twelvemonth before, successful 2012) — were highly bad.

I committedness Maggie was happier astir this than she looks here.

As of the 2016 Rebirth reboot, Maggie is backmost successful Metropolis and the Superman books.

But Maggie’s beingness isn’t conscionable constricted to comics. She was a recurring quality connected Superman: The Animated Series, wherever she was voiced by Joanna Cassidy and which premiered successful 1996, making her 1 of the precise archetypal LGBTQ characters successful children’s animation — although they were backmost to referencing her sexuality obliquely by showing Toby visiting her successful the infirmary alternatively than stating it explicitly. She besides appeared successful unrecorded enactment successful Smallville, played by Jill Teed.

Oh no, I’m successful my 2017 feels again.

However, she’s champion known for her appearances successful seasons 2 and 3 of Supergirl, wherever she was played by Floriana Lima (and besides portrayed arsenic Latina for the archetypal time, though Lima herself is not Latina). Unlike anterior tentative tv appearances, Supergirl enactment Maggie’s sexuality beforehand and halfway via her narration with Supergirl’s sister Alex Danvers. Over the people of 2 seasons, Alex comes to presumption with her ain sexuality, Maggie confronts her begetter astir his homophobia, and Alex and Maggie get engaged, lone to sadly interruption it disconnected erstwhile they recognize that they disagree astir whether oregon not they privation kids (Alex does, Maggie doesn’t — somewhat ironically considering that she was the archetypal queer genitor successful comics). Maggie was not the archetypal queer quality successful a DC unrecorded enactment property, but the prominence of her storyline makes it a important infinitesimal successful DC’s queer past regardless. (It does, however, marque her 2 for 2 connected storylines wherever her engagement to different pistillate falls through.)

Our archetypal 2 profiles covered highly obscure characters, but Maggie has been a regular portion of Superman’s milieu for 35 years, and there’s nary crushed not to expect that to continue. She’s besides been consistently portrayed arsenic brave, upstanding, stubborn arsenic each get-out, and unafraid to beryllium precisely who she is. Superhero comics person a agelong and troubling past with copaganda that they are lone present opening (just barely) to prosecute with, and arsenic with her chap lesbian cop/Batwoman ex Renee Montoya, it’s not wholly wide yet what that volition mean for Maggie’s relation successful the larger Superman narrative. But hopefully DC tin determination distant from their past of unthinking copaganda portion inactive letting america support the compelling, important quality Maggie has been for implicit 3 decades now.

And hopefully the adjacent clip she gets projected to, she tin really marque it to the damn altar.