Superhero movies and comics have the power to transport us to whole new worlds.

Back on Earth though, LGBT History Month has began, so we thought we’d take a look at some of the superheroes who make up part of the LGBTQ+ community.

Phastos

Released in 2021, Marvel's Eternals tells the story of ten incredibly powerful beings banding together to protect planet Earth.

These ten beings have been on Earth for 35,000 years, and among is the MCU's first openly gay superhero: Phastos, played by Brian Tyree Henry.

A master inventor, Phastos uses cosmic energy to create advanced weapons for the Eternals and help humanity progress from the shadows. The film features Phastos' husband, Ben Stoss, and their son, Jack.

Valkyrie

While Phastos was the first openly gay Marvel superhero on screen, he's not the first queer character we've met in the MCU.

Valkyrie, played by Tessa Thompson, was first introduced to the Thor movies and wider Marvel movie universe in Thor: Ragnarok in 2017. She was a hit with fans and will feature heavily in future Marvel films, especially as she has now been crowned King of Asgard by Thor himself.

She also starred in the 2022 movie, Thor: Love and Thunder. Before its release Thompson seemingly confirmed her character's queerness at Comic-Con when she said Valkyrie’s first order of business as king is to “find her queen”.

Valkyrie was bisexual in the original comics, and Thompson (who is openly bi herself) has previously tweeted that the character’s sexuality had a big part to play in shaping how she portrayed her.

Deadpool

Deadpool is a very un-PG anti-hero that burst onto our screens in 2016. Though not explicitly stated in the movies or comics, he’s widely thought to be pansexual.

Pansexuality is defined by the LGBTQ+ charity Stonewall as “a person whose romantic and/or sexual attraction towards others is not limited by sex or gender.” However, this doesn’t mean that if you’re pansexual you’re always attracted to everyone. Miley Cyrus is one celebrity who has said she identifies as pansexual in recent years.

Deadpool is considered pansexual (not only by fans, but by writers of the comics too) because when he flirts, which is quite often, he makes no distinction between genders. In the comic books, he even has a fling with Death.

Batwoman

Although the original Batwoman (created in 1956) was introduced as Batman’s girlfriend in the comics, her re-make in 2006 depicts her slightly differently. It’s established that she’s Batman’s cousin in this iteration, and that she’s a lesbian.

Her sexuality is revealed when Kate Kane is kicked out of the military because she broke the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell clause. This was a real-life law in America, introduced by Bill Clinton in 1993, that allowed LGBTQ+ members of the military to serve as long as they kept their sexual identity a secret. The law was repealed in 2011 by Barack Obama.

The Batwoman series arrived on our screens in 2019 and explored this part of the comics. In the first season the character was portrayed by Australian actor Ruby Rose.

Iceman

Coming out can be a huge moment in people’s lives, and can sometimes be really difficult to do. It’s also something that, while you may come out to lots of different people, you usually only have to do so with everyone once.

Not in Iceman’s case. He was depicted as something of a ladies’ man for most of his comic book life, until in 2015, his younger self time travels and comes out as gay.

This left the series with a bit of a conundrum as the older Iceman (or Bobby as he’s known in the day) was still being portrayed as straight. To fix this, Bobby’s younger self visits his older self and confronts him about his sexuality, eventually leading older Bobby to decide not to continue to hide who he really is.

The character's original creator - the late Stan Lee - had no idea that the current writers had depicted him as gay, although he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme in 2015 that he didn't mind a bit: "I don't care what happens as long as they tell good stories, and they do."

This article was published in August 2019 and updated in February 2026