A Christian pastor has condemned the trend for gay comic book heroes.
Steve Pauwels, pastor of Church of the King, Londonderry in New Hampshire said "sodomite supremacists" are even trying to turn Captain America gay.
Writing in Barbwire.com, he said: "When I was a teenager, Captain America was probably my favorite comic book hero. Every month I'd eagerly look forward to the newest issue of Captain America and the Falcon. The Falcon, you ask? He was the red-white-and-blue Avenger's African-American partner — "partner" as in crime-fighting teammate, not as in the fellow who, after a full day of busting bad guys with Cap, did things with him in the dark that would make most comic aficionados go, Ewwwww."
Back in the mid to late 1970's, "partner" still just meant "partner" and nothing more, he said.
"But, of course, that semantic status quo couldn't be allowed to endure — and the meaning of a once innocent word has significantly warped into something icky. As, alas, has occurred with such previously serviceable terms as 'gay', 'queer' and 'marriage' – the 'homosexual rights' movement churns on like a lavender Pac Man, omnivorously gobbling up everything in it's path."
He continued: "Of course Captain America — that most heart-thumpingly patriotic of Marvel Universe good guys — has to succumb!"
In the early 1990s, he added, Marvel character Northstar was a pioneer as one of the first openly gay superheroes in American comic books with a crush on X-Men member Iceman, who himself "came out" at the end of 2015.
Same-sex couple Wiccan and Hulkling revealed themselves a few years ago.
In DC Comics, Wonder Woman officiated a lesbian wedding and male crime-fighter Midnighter has a husband, the superhero Apollo.
Comics Alliance editor-in-chief Andrew Wheeler recently said: "We'll know we've achieved success when Captain America can have a boyfriend, and Wonder Woman can have a girlfriend."
Pauwels wrote: "Any non-libidinous connection between dudes has become fair game for pro-deviancy revisionism. Unsurprisingly, even Jesus and his twelve male disciples haven't escaped the plundering efforts. I suppose it's unavoidable that a cause this godless would wind up at blasphemy."
He said one destructive aspect was the effect on male friendship: "Two men can't embrace each other in public any longer without people's suspecting something."
