Northstar: The first openly gay superhero

Art by Joe Jusko

The terrorist turned good guy in Alpha Flight attempted suicide before joining the X-Men and ending up happily married. Here’s a look back at his long journey out of the closet and all the behind-the-scenes controversies and considerations about his sexuality.

Since legendary X-Men writer Chris Claremont began writing the series in the mid-70s, the X-Men has included many parallels between being a mutant and a gay person. Subsequent writers even let themselves be inspired by the AIDS threat in the real world and created a similar threat for mutants in the shape of the lethal Legacy Virus. So why not just skip the metaphors and have an actual gay character on the team?

For many years, Northstar seemed an obvious candidate as he was the only openly gay mutant in Marvel Comics, but with the X-Men being the best-selling Marvel series, the editors were hesitant to do anything that might create controversy and jeopardize the series’ financial success.

When Northstar was first introduced as a member of the Canadian superhero group Alpha Flight in X-Men #120 and 121 back in 1979, he was also kind of a mean guy. During his long stint in Alpha Flight, he did develop in a more sympathetic direction before finally getting inducted into the X-Men, though.

French terrorist

Following his debut appearance in the X-Men and a guest-appearance in Marvel Two-In-One #84, Alpha Flight was awarded their own series in 1983 with Northstar included in the cast. John Byrne, who had created Alpha Flight and wrote and drew the new series, later revealed that it wasn’t until Alpha Flight #1 that Northstar was intended as being gay. However, his sexuality could not be stated outright because of the comic book censorship that was happening back then, so John Byrne had fun trying to see how clear hints of Northstar’s sexuality he could sneak past the censors.

“The Comics Code Authority would not let me come out, so to speak, and say in so many words that Northstar was gay, so I had to be “clever” about it,” he wrote on his Byrne Robotics internet forum in 2009. “Based on the number of people who guessed what was going on, I would say I was successful.”

In an interview with Gayleague.com which is sadly no longer on that site, Byrne said that if he had continued on the series, he would not have let Northstar yell ”I am gay!” during a fight with a homophobe as it happened in Alpha Flight #106 written by Scott Lobdell, but would rather have introduced a boyfriend. Then the reader could have put two and two together when Northstar kissed the boyfriend.

However, Byrne wasn’t pleased with his work on Alpha Flight and left the series after 28 issues, but before that he had established that the French Canadian Northstar in his youth had been involved with FLQ (Front de Libération du Quebec) – a terrorist fraction of the Sepratiste organization which in the 70s fought for autonomous government for the French speaking Quebec province.

Northstar, whose civilian name is Jean-Paul Beaubier, has the powers of speed and flight and also used his mutant abilities for personal gain as a professional skier, so when he joined Alpha Flight, he wasn’t the typical boy scout superhero but had a questionable morale. On top of that he was also arrogant and sarcastic, and his condemnation of his twin sister Aurora’s sex life led to animosity between them. So, it was probably just as well that homosexuality wasn’t immediately added to the list of his “negative character traits.”

Saved from AIDS

Writer Bill Mantlo took over from Byrne on Alpha Flight in 1985 and managed to develop Northstar into a more likeable chararcter who also made up with his sister Aurora. It was implied that the reason Northstar had been so judgmental about Aurora’s sex life was that he himself felt attracted to their Alpha Flight teammate Walter Langkowski (Sasquatch), with whom Aurora had a relationship.

In 1987, Bill Mantlo intended to write both Northstar and Aurora out of Alpha Flight to make room for new characters. But when Marvel’s then Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter heard that Northstar’s failing health was caused by Mantlo intending for him to die of AIDS in Alpha Flight #50, Shooter intervened and forbid it.

According to an exposé by Andy Mangels in the Advocate #530, August 1989, Shooter simultaneously made an edict that there was to be no gays in the entire Marvel universe at all. Since then, the positive result of this homophobic ruling turned out to be that not only was Northstar saved from dying, but also lived to become an openly gay X-Man during more liberal regimes at Marvel in the new millennium.

A convoluted mess

Instead of dying in Alpha Flight #50, it turned out that Northstar’s failing health was caused by his unknown birth mother being a fairy, which should also explain the reason for him having pointed ears. Pure blood of Alfheim in Asgard ran through his veins and such purity was not meant for an earthly existence.

So far Northstar had managed well because he and his twin sister Aurora shared the ability to project a pure light when they were in physical contact. However, during their time of enmity, Aurora had her genetic structure changed so she didn’t need to be in contact with Northstar to project that light. Instead, it now turned out that they short-circuited each other’s powers when they touched.

That Northstar would become ill from no longer being able to project pure light when in contact with his sister did not seem logical, considering they had been raised separately and did not learn about each other’s existence until they both joined Alpha Flight as adults.

Simultaneously, living on Earth with pure blood of Alfheim in her veins should have caused Aurora psychological problems where it was causing Northstar physical problems, but she also had those psychological problems while they shared the ability to project the light that had kept Northstar healthy.

It didn’t make much sense, but all it took to cure Northstar was that Aurora transferred the ability to project light to Northstar after which he left for Alfheim, where he stayed until Alpha Flight #81 in 1990. Then it was suggested that Northstar and Aurora did not have a mother from Alfheim after all, but that that it was just a lie told them by Loki, the villainous half-brother of the thunder god Thor.

In Alpha Flight #85 Northstar chose to share the ability to project light with Aurora. This was accomplished by them hugging each other and wishing it true, after which the twins were once again able to project a blinding light by touching each other. Now they even had the ability to project light on their own, although only at half strength, but Northstar subsequently only seldom used this ability.

After this complicated mess, subsequent writers continued to have Aurora suffer from psychological problems and have not tried to solve the question of the twins’ biological parents.

Back in the closet

In 1992, Alpha Flight was written by Scott Lobdell and he wrote a story for Alpha Flight #106, in which Northstar came out as gay to the assembled press of the Marvel universe. The press in the real world also reported about Northstar coming out, however, and Marvel drowned in letters from various interest groups and individuals who had never read Alpha Flight before, but who now wanted to either praise or condemn the event.

According to a 1994 exposé in Hero Illustrated, Marvel’s then President Terry Stewart got very upset about Alpha Flight #106 in which Northstar came out, because he was called up on the phone by a woman who was angry that her son who read Alpha Flight now had asked her what a “gay” was. Terry Stewart instructed the editors of Alpha Flight that the words “homosexual” and “gay” in no way could appear in future issues of the series. Marvels PR-department was also told to turn down all media inquiries about Northstar.

And so Northstar was kicked thoroughly back in the closet and stayed there until the Alpha Flight series was cancelled with Alpha Flight #130 in 1994. Even when Northstar subsequently got his own four issue limited series, it happened without the use of the forbidden words, although a man named Raul appeared in Northstar #1. He was present in Northstar’s bedroom and Northstar later thought of him as being among the people who was closest to him, so it is possible to assume that Raul was Northstar’s boyfriend.

That same year, however, Jean-Paul Beaubier could be seen enjoying the company of the heavily implied gay Hector of the Pantheon during a guest-appearance at a wedding in the Incredible Hulk #418 written by Peter David. The two gentlemen also shared a pin-up in Marvel Swimsuit Special #4 in 1995, so it is possible to assume that Northstar and Hector met each other at that wedding and then subsequently had a relationship.

Art by Jan Duursema

Northstar’s suicide attempt

Scott Lobdell, who wrote Alpha Flight #106, went on to write Marvel’s bestselling title, the Uncanny X-Men, and in an interview by Clifford Lawrence published in Wizard - the Guide to Comics #41 in January 1995, he said that: “Northstar may end up joining the X-Men. He’s one of the new candidates.”

To the question if Lobdell would then pick up the gay issue, Lobdell replied: “If he appears in the book, yes. I don’t think it would be fair to introduce him into the book and not explore every facet of the character.”

However, Northstar did not appear in the book at that time. His next appearance would be two years later and not yet in the pages of the X-Men. Although he was not in the immediate cast when Alpha Flight vol. 2 was launched in 1997 with stories by Steve Seagle, Northstar began to appear from issue #6 in an ongoing sub-plot where he stated he was gay for the first time since Alpha Flight #106. In vol.2 #8, he said that being gay was not “a CHOICE. If it were, then NO ONE would choose to be something that would immediately make them hated and feared by the ignorant majority of this callous and intolerant world.”

And then it was strongly suggested that he had attempted suicide by “trying to escape Earth’s gravity” well knowing that he could not breathe in outer space. But he had fallen back to Earth and had been picked up by a fishing trawler. Northstar then set out to find his twin sister, but only succeeded in time for the series to get cancelled in 1999 after only 20 issues.

This time Scott Lobdell was allowed to then use Northstar, although only for a temporary team of X-Men. Now 100 percent out of the closet and having written an autobiography entitled Born Normal, Northstar guest-starred in Uncanny X-Men #392 and 393, as well as in X-Men vol.2 #113 in 2001. The very entertaining story even had Northstar beat up his homophobic teammate Paulie Provenzano.

Finally, an X-Man

Chuck Austen became the writer of Uncanny X-Men in 2002. Since Northstar’s “test-run” as an X-Man had gone over well with readers, the editors offered Austen to get Northstar as a full-fledged X-Man. “Northstar was offered to me, and he brought with him a wealth of opportunities for things I hadn’t seen done in comics,” Austen told Alex Segura Jr. in a 2003 interview with News@rama,com.

“I have a lot of gay friends, and many acquaintances, so it’s no big deal to have that different viewpoint represented in my life,” Austen said. “I liked the idea of adding that dynamic to the X-Men. Not that he’s flamboyant and harps on his sexuality, but that he gives a different point of view. Juggernaut says he doesn’t understand what women see in Gambit, and Northstar says, “I’D sleep with him”. And Juggernaut laughs, because he forgot for the moment that Northstar is gay. Didn’t see it coming. It’s like in my life when a gay friend makes a remark about Brad Pitt. “Oh, yeah. That’s right, you think that way.””

And so, in Uncanny X-Men #414, Professor Xavier head-hunted Jean-Paul Beaubier to teach Business and Economics at his School for Gifted Youngsters. The purpose was to have Jean-Paul as a counselor for students of gay orientation and to have Northstar on a team of X-Men, who besides Juggernaut also counted Archangel, Iceman, Havok, Polaris, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Jubilee and Husk.

Northstar’s adventures as a genuine X-Man could be followed every month in Uncanny X-Men for a while. At first, Northstar felt attracted to the unattainable, heterosexual Iceman, which in hindsight was amusing, because years later writer Brian Michael Bendis had Iceman turn out gay too, but at this point Nortstar was suffering an unrequited crush.

In Wizard’s X-Men Special 2003, Chuck Austen was asked if Northstar would ever find true love.  “Actually, Northstar WILL find true love,” Austen answered. “It’s going to take him a while, because he has to go through some changes to be ready for a serious relationship but stay tuned!”

And then, not an X-Man anyway…

However, as things turned out there wasn’t much to “stay tuned” for after all. With Uncanny X-Men #422, Northstar had his last inclusion as a full-fledged X-Man. From that point on there were issues in which Northstar didn’t appear at all, and when he did make an appearance, it was usually as a supporting character.

In Uncanny X-Men #425, Northstar was along for the bride’s bachelorette party when Havok and Polaris were about to get married, and in Uncanny X-Men #431 to 434 he accompanied Juggernaut on a trip to Canada, and then he disappeared completely from the series.

For a while it added extra excitement to an already great series that Marvel had let their gay readers have their very own superhero who was now completely out of the closet after almost 20 years of hesitation, but the joy turned out to be short-lived for fans of Northstar.

Northstar turned up in New Mutants vol.2 #2, 7 and 8 in his capacity as a teacher at Professor Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters, and in 2004 the school principal decided in X-Men vol.2 #157 to restructure the different teams of X-Men, and at that occasion it was made official that Northstar was no longer an active X-Man, and that he would only continue on as a school teacher. When Xavier’s school came under attack from enemies of the X-Men in X-Men vol.2 #163 and 164, which were Chuck Austen’s final issues as writer of the X-Men, it also became Northstar’s final appearance in the X-Men for now, when he helped defeat the bad guys.

Northstar’s death and resurrection

Writer Mark Millar used Northstar in Wolverine vol.3 # 25-28, 30 and 31 in 2005. In the story, Wolverine was killed and then resurrected by the underworld ninja-organization The Hand. They brainwashed him into working as their assassin, and during an attack on Professor Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters, Wolverine killed Northstar, who then too was resurrected by the Hand and brainwashed into working as their agent.

At the end of the story, the espionage organization S.H.I.E.L.D. succeeded at bringing Wolverine’s sanity back, but Northstar was left in S.H.I.E.L.D. custody as a drooling lunatic after several failed attempts to break The Hand’s control of him. The official cover-up story was that Northstar had died, which his former teammates in the X-Men believed right up until X-Men vol. 2 #189 and 190 in 2006, in which some bad guys brainwashed both Northstar and his twin sister Aurora into attacking the X-Men. The twins now had a concussive element to the dazzling burst of light they created upon touching each other, and the healing aspect of that light healed their minds in X-Men Annual vol. 2 #1 in 2007, bringing Northstar back to normal.

An X-Man again

In 2008, X-Men leader Cyclops called Northstar to have him check up on one of his former students in X-Men: Divided We Stand #1 and then, a year later, in Uncanny X-Men #508 writer Matt Fraction had Wolverine approach Northstar and ask him back on the team. Northstar, who was now a popular star of extreme snowsports and had a boyfriend, accepted the offer although he didn’t want to be the X-Men’s gay mascot. Wolverine admitted that having an out gay man on the team might buy them some good P.R., but they wanted him because tactically and strategically he’d be invaluable to the team.

Writer Matt Fraction found Northstar especially compelling because of the character's lack of self-doubt. "He's extremely confident in who he is and what he can do,” Fraction told Dave Richards in an interview for CBR.com, published 16 April 2009. “Having someone positive and assertive is kind of nice in a team full of people wracked with angst and self-doubt. And to write a guy who believes in himself supremely is a lot of fun. It's not Namor-like arrogance, it's just Northstar's biggest fan is himself. I think he earns that in this story. He's got a lot of great moments.”

"Plus, there's a reason why I wanted him to be in the extreme sports milieu (…) It's seems like he'd be an adrenalin junkie and that would be the kind of thing he'd be into. I also want to exploit that and have that in, of being famous. And I like that he's an unapologetic, out-of-the-closet gay man. That's great to write too."

A neglected X-Man

Despite Fraction’s good intentions, Northstar didn’t leave much of a mark in Fraction’s run on Uncanny X-Men beyond the initial appearance. Fraction’s cast was very large, and Northstar didn’t even make it to a cover appearance. As with his previous membership, there were once again issues in which Northstar didn’t appear at all. He got lost in the crowd.

And so Northstar fans had to look for an eight-page story published in Nation X #2 in 2010 for further development of his character. It was a fun story written and drawn by Tim Fish in which we learned that Northstar’s boyfriend’s name was Kyle and that Northstar split his time between his sports activities in Canada and his duties as an X-Man.

Then Northstar was selected for inclusion on a team of X-Men that went on a mission to the alternate dimension of Limbo in the 2010 X-Men: Hellbound three-issue limited series written by Chris Yost, after which he played an acceptable part in Fraction’s final Uncanny X-Men story-arc. But when Fraction left as writer of Uncanny X-Men with #534 in 2011, so too did Northstar disappear from the series, although only to reappear a couple of months later in an Alpha Flight limited series written by Greg Pak and Fred van Lente.

Getting serious with his boyfriend

Northstar was seen kissing his boyfriend Kyle for the first time in Alpha Flight vol. 4 #0.1 in which readers also learned that Kyle was also Northstar’s PR representative. In issue #1 it was furthermore revealed that Kyle had a sister named Stevie and in #2 that his last name was Jinadu.

Although Northstar wasn’t an official member of Alpha Flight, he joined up with the team when not only his boyfriend, but the entire country of Canada was threatened by the team’s arch-villain, the Master of the World. The limited series presented the best portrayal of Northstar so far in the history of the character, so it was a little sad when it ended with #8 in 2012, but luckily Northstar was destined for an even more prominent starring role.

Only a couple of months after the Alpha Flight series ended, writer Marjorie Liu used Northstar for her exciting new team of X-Men debuting in Astonishing X-Men vol 3 #48 in 2012. And once again, Northstar and Bobby Drake, Iceman, were on the same team, which also included Wolverine, Karma, Gambit, Cecilia Reyes and Warbird.

Marjorie Liu’s X-Men stories portrayed the personal lives of the X-Men outside of the mutant school setting, and Jean-Paul’s relationship with Kyle was the subject of the first story-arc. The couple was settling into an apartment in Hell’s Kitchen in New York City, beginning a new life living together after having dated long distance for “years.”

Northstar proposes to Kyle

Kyle continued managing Northstar’s business brand, and Jean-Paul, Northstar had promised Wolverine that he’d help out if there was any trouble at the school or if he needed a French teacher, and of course trouble immediately came knocking at their door.

Writer Marjorie Liu explained her view of the relationship between Jean-Paul and Kyle to Rolling Stone’s Matthew Perpetua in a 22 May 2012 feature published online: “I looked at relationships between police officers, soldiers, etcetera, and their spouses,” she said. “You have, for example, one partner who is always going off into dangerous situations, whose “team” at work is an important, integral, part of their lives, and then you’ve got the person left behind. Like Kyle, who has a perfectly wonderful life, a great job, but is a human man who has to watch his partner go fight aliens or giant robots, or insane supervillains at the drop of a hat, and there’s nothing he can do to help. On a bad day, he might even be a target himself. So, thinking about Kyle in those terms, empathizing with him, I’ve had to mull the strains and stresses that being with Northstar would put on him, those parts of his life that he feels are lacking, what he wants long-term that he’s afraid he can’t have, and so on.”

Northstar’s solution to Kyle’s dilemma was to propose to him in Astonishing X-Men vol. 3 #50 to ensure him of his love, but Kyle wasn’t immediately sold on that proposal, rejecting Jean-Paul at first because he felt the proposal was a band-aid on their problems and not out of a sense of committed love.

After being brainwashed by a villain into almost killing Northstar, Kyle changed his mind and – convinced of Jean-Paul’s love for him – accepted the proposal after all in the very next issue.

The first gay superhero marriage

Obviously not believers in long engagements, Jean-Paul and Kyle tied the knot in Astonishing X-Men vol. 3 #51, August 2012, with members of both Alpha Flight and the X-Men present, as well as some of Northstar’s students at the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning. Kyle’s sister seemed absent from the wedding, but Jean-Paul’s sister Aurora attended, although her more conservative Jeanne-Marie persona was in denial of Northstar’s sexual orientation in the recent 2012 Alpha Flight limited series.

And once again, Northstar managed to cause quite the stir in the real-world press by entering into the first gay marriage in the superhero community. “When gay marriage became legal in New York State, it raised obvious questions since most of our heroes reside in New York State,” Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Axel Alonso said in the Rolling Stone feature. “Northstar is the first openly gay character in comics and he’s been in a long-term relationship with his partner Kyle so the big question was – how would this change his relationship? Our comics are always best when they respond to and reflect developments in the real world. We’ve been doing that for decades, and this is just the latest expression of that.”

In Astonishing X-Men vol. 3 #53, Jean-Paul and Kyle Beaubier-Jinadu were seen in bed together on their wedding night, and in Astonishing X-Men vol. 3 Annual #1, 2013, readers even got to follow them on their honeymoon. Times – and the climate at Marvel - had certainly changed for the better since the great Northstar coming out controversy of twenty years past.

And they lived happily ever after?

For the rest of the duration of the Astonishing X-Men series, writer Liu had the American Immigration Council breathing down the Canadian Northstar’s neck for being in the country illegally. He hired superhero lawyer Jennifer Walters to handle his case, which got settled just in time for Astonishing X-Men vol. 3 getting cancelled with issue #68 at the end of 2013.

The series was immediately relaunched at the beginning of 2014 as Amazing X-Men vol. 3, but with new and changing writers and artists, as well as a new cast. Only Northstar, Iceman and Wolverine carried over onto the new team, with Warbird as a supporting character in the first story-arc, and the action now spinning out of the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning.

Alpha Flight guest-starred in Amazing X-Men vol. 3 #8-12 with Aurora now in her Jeanne-Marie persona and having forgotten her participation in her brother’s wedding – either that, or the writers, Craig Kyle and Chris Yost, hadn’t paid attention, cause Aurora said, “They told me you were married, Jean-Paul,” even though she herself had been present at the wedding.

And guest-star Thor said about the origin of the Beaubier twins: “They claim not to be of Alfheim, but I sense it within them. That, and the arrogance.”

However, nothing more was said about Northstar’s origin before the series was cancelled with issue #19 in 2015, and his husband Kyle didn’t even get to appear in the series. But Amazing X-Men vol. 3 #13 did feature a great story by guest-writer James Tynion IV about dating considerations for freakish-looking mutants like gay teen Anole and the swashbuckling Nightcrawler as opposed to a photo model-looking mutant like Northstar.

Replaced by Iceman?
Following Iceman admitting to himself that he too is gay in Uncanny X-Men #600 in 2016, Northstar appeared as a guest at a party in Iceman’s honor in Iceman vol. 3 #9 in 2018. It would appear that with the higher profile X-Man character Iceman out of the closet, Northstar has taken a backseat as the gay mutant icon in the popular X-Men universe.

For a complete list of all of Northstar’s Marvel Comics appearances, check out: https://cmro.travis-starnes.com/character_details.php?character=1089

And for an in-depth, although not completely up-to-date biography of Northstar, check out: https://uncannyxmen.net/characters/northstar