Marvel introduces first drag queen superhero

The comic book world has become that much more fierce and fabulous, with the introduction of Shade, the first drag queen superhero.

The character briefly debuted in the pages of the groundbreaking Iceman series last month and represents the growing mainstreaming of drag culture.

Iceman (Bobby Drake) is a founding member of the X-Men, created in 1963, who ‘came out’ in 2015. He is currently the only queer Marvel superhero to be headlining a monthly comic series.

Not much is known at this point about the scene-stealing Shade, other than that she has the mutant power of teleportation through her hand-held fan. It’s been confirmed, however, that she also appears in this month’s issue of Iceman and other comics.

Iceman writer Sina Grace revealed on social media that Shade was inspired by RuPaul’s Drag Race luminaries such as Shea Couleé, Monét X Change, The Vixen and Dax ExclamationPoint.

Some are already calling for Shade to have her own comic or television series. After all, who wouldn’t want to enjoy the exploits of a drag queen superhero?

Grace earlier spoke to The Advocate about the Iceman comics: “I really wanted this series to push readers to new and better stories about the whole queer experience and how it applies to being both a mutant and a superhero.”

Grace added: “There’s a million different queer perspectives and we’re only scratching the surface.”

The superhero genre is becoming increasingly representative of the queer community. One of the most famous characters is Batwoman (Kate Kane), who was reintroduced in 2006 as a lesbian woman. Recently, the DC hero stepped into the world of television, as played by Australian actress Ruby Rose.

Here’s my original design for Shade. @StockmanNate did a great job interpreting my chicken scratch, and I’m really grateful that @Toonfed kept working at getting the makeup just right haha. pic.twitter.com/dg0glM3aaT

— Sina Grace (@SinaGrace) December 20, 2018

Sina Grace (a writer for Marvel) has confirmed that @Daxclamation, @SheaCoulee, @monetxchange and @TheVixensworld were the inspirations to create a new mutant in X-Men called Shade. Shade is the first mutant in the history of X-Men that is also a drag queen. pic.twitter.com/rh4AQ4z9Ci

— ❄️🎄 𝖙𝖊𝖆𝖒 𝖒𝖆𝖓𝖎𝖑𝖆 🎄❄️ (@lgbtvelour) January 10, 2019