Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Rob Liefeld has no idea how gay his defense of "not gay" comic character is.

Rob Liefeld, of Levi's 501 commercial fame, raised his voice recently against outed creation, Shatterstar. Now, I haven't read anything about this character in a long time or anything by Liefeld in at least as long, but here's what I remember: He wore a hairstyle that combined the ease of the ponytail with the effort of a middle school girl's towering hairspray nightmare. He wielded pointlessly double-bladed swords. Every word he spoke was banal in a most quintessentially 90s comic book way. And now he's making out with another comic book dude. Congratulations, your first spark of personality, 'Star!

Except co-creator Liefeld came out (snicker) against it. Go Here: http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2009/07/liefeld-cant-wait-to-someday-undo-shatterstar-development/ For This:
"As the guy that created, designed and wrote his first dozen appearances, Shatterstar is not gay. Sorry. Can’t wait to someday undo this." says the outraged Liefeld. He went on the give this astounding defense of why Shatterstar is not gay: “Shatterstar is akin to Maximus in Gladiator. He’s a warrior, a Spartan, and not a gay one.”

I don't think he's being homophobic, really. If anything he's just likely trying to get people to remember he's still alive without laughing. But what I do love about this is the way Rob tries to back pedal in the middle of his defense with "and not a gay one." It's like while he was talking the light bulb finally went off over his head and the little voice came on. You do realize that in defending your "not-gay" character you are likening him to some of the gayest shit in modern popular culture, right?

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