The bulge that dare not speak its name: Camp, clones, and the evolution of the gay superhero

In the last decade, there has been dramatic increase in the number of homosexual superheroes, or hero-characters that proclaim their same-sex status within comic book panels. While there is certainly an impulse to view this trend as step forward for political and social equality for the gay community, there is a need to consider both the compressive effects of commercialization on gay representation and how purportedly gay characters resonate culturally for gays. Cultural gayness, it will be argued, goes beyond a same-sex object of desire. Accordingly, camp, as a gay practice of appropriation, will be examined to demonstrate a how a particular character-type with origins in gay clone pornography has certain similarities to the modern day homosexual superhero.