Shatterstar and Rictor: A bromance turned into a sexy relationship

When Mexican mutant Rictor from Marvel Comics’s X-Factor series fell in love with the other-dimensional warrior Shatterstar from Marvel’s X-Force series, the couple made comic book history by sharing the first on-panel gay kiss in mainstream superhero comics. But being boyfriend with the adventurous Shatterstar wasn’t always easy for Rictor.

Although neither character was originally conceived by their comic book creators as being bisexual or gay, it just seemed like a natural progression of their character development as their lives continued to evolve within the pages of Marvel’s line of X-Men related titles. Finally, writer Peter David made it official that the two close friends Rictor and Shatterstar were actually lovers and wrote them that way when they both co-starred in his X-Factor series beginning in 2009.

Rictor, whose real name was Julio Esteban Richter, first appeared in 1987 in X-Factor #17 by Louise and Walter Simonson and Shatterstar was created by artist Rob Liefeld in New Mutants #99 in 1991. Both characters ended up in the X-Force series in the mid-90s written by Fabian Nicieza and a friendship began to develop between the two young men. In X-Force #34, Shatterstar had gone to the effort of learning Rictor’s native language, Spanish, so they could speak privately on topics of a personal nature without their teammates listening in. But Shatterstar had also confided in Rictor that he had a “wife” waiting for him back on the other-dimensional Mojoworld he came from. What was a guy to think?

A sexual awakening

In X-Force #43, Rictor and Shatterstar went to a nightclub and Rictor encouraged the grim Shatterstar to loosen up and party. While Rictor was dancing, a girl came onto Shatterstar, who was so overwhelmed by the experience he left the club. When Rictor caught up with him, Shatterstar admitted that he was a virgin and that the stirrings the evening had awoken in him had scared him. Rictor admitted that he was a virgin too and asked Shatterstar flat out if he even had “what it takes.” Shatterstar said he was “bioengineered to fully simulate physical human interaction,” but that he didn’t have “the emotional requirements… attached to such actions.” Rictor promised that they would work it out together.

But then writer Jeph Loeb started out on X-Force with the very next issue and due to a difference of opinion with team leader Cable, Rictor decided to take some time off from the team and go be with his family in Guadalajara. Shatterstar objected, telling Rictor that he needed him because he was his best and only friend. Rictor said that he’d always be there for Shatterstar, “all you gotta do is ask.” In Cable #22, Shatterstar went to the airport with Rictor to see him off and pleaded with him to the last to “please change your mind.” When Rictor had left on his plane, the empathic Cable felt Shatterstar’s pain of the heart.

Happy reunions

Jeph Loeb wrote a story about Shatterstar’s origin in X-Force #59 to 61 that left a lot of questions unanswered. The main point was that Shatterstar was killed by his arch-villain Mojo and then reborn in the body of a comatose mutant named Benjamin Russell. Anyway, Rictor returned to X-Force to see his best friend through this crisis and Shatterstar was happy to have him back. Then, in X-Force #70 written by John Francis Moore, Shatterstar decided to leave X-Force and go with Rictor to Mexico and help end Rictor’s family’s black market business.

In X-Force #76, the villain Arcade had trapped Shatterstar and Rictor, holding Rictor hostage to force Shatterstar to fight his old teammate Domino. When Shatterstar lost, Rictor was released and the combatants let go, because it was all just a test for Mojo to evaluate Shatterstar’s capabilities. A further adventure of Shatterstar and Rictor was chronicled by writer Fabian Nicieza in X-Force ’99 Annual. In it, the two friends were offered individual accommodation but preferred to share a room.

After that, Shatterstar appeared without Rictor in a few X-Force and X-Men miniseries. And then a now powerless Rictor joined the cast of Peter David’s X-Factor series with Shatterstar following suit in issue #43 in 2009.

Making comic book history
In X-Factor vol. 3 # 45, Shatterstar was mind-controlled by a villain into attacking Rictor and his teammate Guido, but as soon as the mind-control was broken, Rictor and Shatterstar re-united with a kiss. It was the second on-panel gay kiss in Marvel comics history, but the first high-profile one. The kiss was repeated in #46 and in #49, Rictor explained to Guido that although he had been dating female X-Factor member Wolfsbane, he had been involved with Shatterstar long before her. Guido was amused that Rictor seemed to “swing both ways” while Shatterstar told Rictor that he came back for him, because “my thoughts kept returning to you. To our friendship. It meant a great deal to me.”

“The main reason I introduced Shatterstar into the series was to give Rictor somebody to play off of,” writer Peter David told Justin Gilbert Alba of Comicsverse.com in September 2018. “When I brought him in, I had them face to face with each other for the first time. I thought to myself, “You know what? This is the 21st century. We’ve been hinting about this for years. Why not just be upfront with him?” So, I had the two of them kiss. You have to understand that to me it was no big deal. It was, in fact, panel five of a six-panel page. It was not like this was a full-page thing and, “Oh, my God, they’ve kissed,” and all that kind of thing. It was, to me, a throwaway moment. It didn’t really mean much, but it meant a lot to a lot of people, obviously. It, I mean, meant so much that I wound up reading Google notices about it in Russian newspapers. I’m seeing the stuff that’s written in Cyrillic, and I can make out, “Peter David and Shatterstar,” and the rest of it’s in Russian. It just had a huge impact, and I was very pleased with it.

“Honestly,” X-Factor editor Jody Leheup told Dailyxtra.com in January 2010, “we knew this was going to be a cool moment for the fans, but it hadn’t really occurred to us that it would be so important to gay — and heterosexual — comic fans as a whole.”

“There was absolutely no trouble getting it approved at all,” Peter David added to Dailyxtra.com. “As for fan opinion, it was certainly the storyline that I got the most requests for. It seemed to me that the time was right.”

Controversy

Shatterstar’s creator Rob Liefeld was very critical of his character being turned gay. In 2009, Liefeld wrote on his message board that he had "nothing against gays, I have gay family, nuthin' but love here. Ditto gay characters if that's what their true origins are. As the guy that created, designed and wrote his first dozen appearances, Shatterstar is not gay. Sorry. Can't wait to someday undo this. Seems totally contrived.” Then he added: “Shatterstar is akin to Maximus in Gladiator. He's a warrior, a Spartan, and not a gay one."

“The only person who gave me serious pushback was Rob Liefeld, God bless him,” David told Comicsverse.com, “because the story broke, and it had a news cycle, and that was fine, and it was all wearing down, and then Rob Liefeld came forward and said, “No, no, no. Shatterstar is not remotely gay. He’s like an ancient Greek warrior.” We’re going, “Dude! If you had the slightest knowledge of history, you were aware of what the Greek warriors did before they went into battle. They banged the young boys who accompanied them.” Of all things for Rob to say. Apparently, 99% of comic book fandom was aware of Greek history, something that apparently Rob didn’t know about, and so it suddenly had this massive resurgence as everyone is piling on poor Rob. I mean, I felt bad for him, to be honest. But other than that, no, I didn’t really get a negative reaction from fans.”

Peter David told Dailyxtra.com that he “was saddened” by Liefeld’s comments, because “I thought it brought out all the worst possible sentiments. First there were the Liefeld fans who believed that I “made” Shatterstar gay because I was trying to somehow hurt Rob. It just goes to show you how people view someone being gay; that it’s some sort of insult.”

In X-Factor #200, the controversy inspired David to include a scene of Shatterstar and Rictor watching the movie Gladiator and Shatterstar saying that apparantly he liked gladiator movies.

Relationship troubles

Dailyxtra.com wondered how long it would take before David threw a wrench in the relationship between Shatterstar and Rictor. “I think it’s far too premature to speculate what Rictor would do should he and Shatterstar break up,” David said. “The more interesting dynamic will stem from the fact that Shatterstar, who spent most of his life having no interest in or concept of sexuality, is now the equivalent of a kid in a candy store. Here’s Rictor, fully prepared to commit seriously to this relationship, and there’s Shatterstar, who wants to explore all manner of possibilities and wants Rictor to be his companion and guide in that regard because he loves him and trusts him. To some degree, I’m keying his personality off Captain Jack Harkness from Torchwood: Swashbuckling, enthusiastic and sexually curious about anything with a pulse.”

And so, in Nation X: X-Factor #1 in 2010, Rictor stopped Shatterstar from flirting with the gay mutant Northstar, who didn’t think Shatterstar was his type anyway. Shatterstar told Rictor that “jealousy doesn’t become you” and Rictor said he wasn’t jealous, but just didn’t want him making an idiot of himself before then stopping him from making a pass at Iceman, who would come out as gay years later. Shatterstar concluded that Rictor seemed insecure about their relationship before running into former X-Force teammate Boom Boom and giving her a kiss in front of Rictor.

In X-Factor #207, Rictor got fed up with Shatterstar’s adventurous attitude to sex and told him to go to hell. Shatterstar insisted that he wanted Rictor in his life to share all his sexual experiences with, but Rictor did not want an open relationship. Shatterstar once again insisted that he needed Rictor as an emotional anchor for everyday life, and the two guys ended the argument with a kiss and Rictor yielding to Shatterstar’s need. But just as they were about to have make-up sex, Rictor’s ex-girlfriend showed up looking very pregnant.

Crazy ex-girlfriend

Wolfsbane accused Shatterstar of having turned Rictor gay and pushed him out of a window in her anger in X-Factor #208. The half-naked Shatterstar seemed mostly amused by her accusations of him mind-controlling Rictor, teasing her with comments like “it WAS what you thought. Happy? I know I was…” But when things calmed down, Wolfsbane let Rictor believe that he was the one who had gotten her pregnant and Shatterstar no longer seemed amused.

While Rictor was tending to the pregnant Wolfsbane, Shatterstar went wild and crazy in Las Vegas from X-Factor #209 to finding out in issue #212 who the real father of Wolfbane’s child was, the Asgardian wolf-prince Hrimhari. When Shatterstar returned to Rictor in X-Factor #213, the two guys agreed to support Wolfsbane rather than disown her for leading them on, but their teammate Monet did urge Shatterstar to “stake out your territory” in X-Factor #216. And so, in X-Factor #220, Shatterstar had a heart-to-heart chat with Wolfsbane and concluded that her lying about Rictor being the father of her child had been a tactic to win Rictor back from Shatterstar, and Shatterstar the warrior could respect tactics of war.

Wolfsbane flashed Shatterstar her naked, pregnant body in X-Factor #221, and then he ended up having to defend her from mythic creatures who wanted her baby. In X-Factor #222, Wolfsbane and Rictor had an argument about her ways of getting people hurt that ended with Wolfsbane slapping Rictor and Shatterstar telling him: “I can see why you two were lovers. She has a great deal of fire. Plus, she looks GREAT naked.”

Their fate: Left in Limbo

Wolfsbane’s child was born in X-Factor #224 in 2011, and then in issue #225, Shatterstar seemed a little hurt when Rictor had good news about getting his powers back and couldn’t wait to tell… Wolfsbane. The next issue, Shatterstar tried to hook up with teammate Layla in retaliation, but she turned him down while their teammate Siryn told Rictor, that she had noticed that Shatterstar and Rictor hadn’t been spending much time together lately.

In X-Factor #238, Shatterstar and Rictor were back together and eager to accompany Wolfsbane on a search for her lost child. After completing the mission, the two guys returned to X-Factor in issue #245. Their last appearance together was in X-Factor #259 in 2013 where they were travelling in time on Mojoworld. Shortly after, the series was relaunched as All-New X-Factor without any gay characters on the team.

Shatterstar appeared in a Deadpool: Bad Blood miniseries in 2016 by his creator Rob Liefeld. The inclusion of Shatterstar caused some fans to worry considering the changes made to the character since Liefeld's departure on X-Force and his comments on the matter. “Please don't worry. Shatterstar's sexual preferences are not my concern and will not be changed,” Rob Liefeld commented on Twitter on 13 November 2015.

Since then, Rictor appeared in the 2017 Iceman series written by Sina Grace. In issue #9 Rictor told Bobby Drake that he and Shatterstar were on a break – maybe for good, so in Iceman #11 they went on a date only to have Rictor realize he still only had eyes for Shatterstar. If they hooked back up is unknown at this time of writing.