Just how DOES Superman prefer Lois? As a blonde, brunette, or redhead?

Batmen were quite controversial during the Second World War. Americans thought they symbolised how class-ridden the British Army was and that it would be demeaning to enlisted men to ask them to be servants. Brits thought batmen allowed their officers to concentrate their full energies on leading their men rather than digging foxholes and preparing their own rations.

Also 'Iron' is rhyming slang for a gay person, iron hoof = poof (- I know, I know, it doesn't rhyme), but it hasn't been in common usage for about fifty years, so I find it hard to believe that it would put anyone off a role-playing game. An urban myth maybe? Althought the story did remind me of a Bridget Fonda/Phoebe Cates film that came out in the 'Eighties called 'Shag'. I was very disappointed to discover that shag was some sort of American dance.

http://www.thisiscolchester.co.uk/essex/local_interest/famous_faces/television/joneill.html

And while I despise Marvel for refusing this story, I must admit that at the same time I'm glad they did, because Hellion could never had become the awesome character he is if he was a homophobic bigot (but too bad they didn't kill Anole, so he wouldn't take the place of better characters in Young X-Men).

Like previous poster, Matt Bird, after seeing the movie Celluloid Closet it's hard not to shake my head in sad amusement at the well-intentioned cliche of the gay suicide. If Anole had died off he would have been one line in Elixir's Marvel Universe entry as a catalyst for change into a hero rather than having his own full-fledged hero entry himself... in that what-if universe, the best this gay teen could do with his life was squander it so that the straight, white male, the default American, could feel guilty for a bit but move on, romance Wolfsbane and Wallflower and get kudos for saving the world. Ironic that the teen bloodbath that was Yost&Kyle's New X-Men had brought Anole to the forefront as he helped save the world, demonstrate a bullheaded fortitude/perseverance that Defilippis&Weir didn't credit their creation with, and show that he's got more of a character range than a one-note tragic victim-suicide.

The more modern/useful story about tolerance is how do people keep living in a world where diversity continues to exist rather than one where a representative of the majority culture wrings his hands because his insensitivity caused the death of the victim-minority. I do understand that in the real world a disproportionate number of teen suicides are from those struggling with their sexuality... the thing is, many of us that did struggle with it and the fear of rejection, violence, etc. moved on to grow up, get jobs, and be (mostly) just plain folks trying to do the best we can.

FYI The name derives from the character’s lizard-like appearance, although the anole family is closer to the iguana than it is to the chameleon.

Both of Anole's original powers - his climbing ability and his colour changing ability - are based upon the actual abilities of anole lizards.

The fact that anoles are more closely related to iguanas doesn't really mean anything...he's about as closely related to any of the three lizard families as he is to any other. (And he doesn't look much like your standard anole or chameleon...not a bad match for an iguana, actually.)

Besides, the writers of that series proved themselves prior to the issue in question time and again in dealing with homosexuality-related stories and characters. There was a moment where Dani Moonstar tries to set Karma up with this gal who works at the little local coffee shop, assuming that they'd love to meet each other simply because they're both lesbians; Karma chastises her and the scenes offer some great commentary. There was a moment where Northstar's sexuality is mentioned by Hellion, and the other students are basically on the "who cares?" train and a brief discussion about fundamental differences happens. I'm sure they could've done this seemingly trite story idea in a well-rounded and well-written fashion.

If you recall the context of this book when it came out--That Marvel was trying to sell it as a kids' book when in reality the series was actually very mature and had a lot of nods and references to old continuity, then the very idea that they wanted to tell the story makes sense. This was a book about "real" teens dealing with the same ol' X-Men stuff in new, modern ways. It was never intended to be a "kids" book., and it's sad that a story that might have been a little cliche but could've actually been written very well was killed because Marvel was trying to appeal to that market at the time (they also tried to sell the Emma Frost limited series and the awkward Namor re-imagining as "girly teen romance" type of books--go back and read those solicits).

If readers stretch "Anole" to "anal", then I guess those readers have nothing better to do with their brain cells. I would surmise those same people snicker every time they hear "Uranus" too.

FYI The name derives from the character's lizard-like appearance, although the anole family is closer to the iguana than it is to the chameleon. The "e" at the end is of alone is pronounced, so it sounds nothing like "anal".

Like the recent 'urban legend' of "Jedi Master Soon Baytes", some topics seem to be trending toward the puerile lately.

Oh, it's just so obvious. 'Anole' looks like 'anal'.

Funny how certain ideas stick with creators!

At the risk of sounding dense, why is "Anole" such a bad name for a gay character? Is it a slang thing I'm not aware of, or are people just riffing on pronunciation (in which case it seems like a bit of a stretch to me, unless other people pronounce the word a bit differently than I do)?

It reminds me of an essay I read once in which the author describes playing a role-playing game which the other players found impossible to take seriously because it featured a gay superhero character named "Ironskin." I found this absolutely impenetrable until the author went on to explain that "iron" is a Cockney slang term a gay man (the players all being British). Apparently they found it inconcievable that it wasn't intentional on the part of the people who wrote the game, while, as an American, I found it hard to believe it was anything but a coincidence (I have no idea whether the people who wrote the game were British or not, but it was published by an American company).