So. I gotta say this first. I am seeing all this talk floating around about Tony being “confirmed bi” and how great that is, and I get it. I really do. I’m queer. I get that representation is important. I get that you want your fave to be like you. I know. I want that too. But this– this isn’t it. This isn’t confirmation. In context, Tony set his dating profile as him being interested in men and women so that he could easily message everyone on the site and DDoS the servers. He then apologized to everyone for not being actually available to date them. That he would actually be interested in dating them is only an implication. Am I happy about it? Yes, of course I am. It pleases me. As I was saying, it’s a step up from the Evil Bisexual Stereotype of Superior Iron Man’s bisexual orgies and that one panel from the early ‘90s where he faked his death and the news was reporting that he’d been HIV-positive. Twenty years ago we clearly wouldn’t have gotten even this much. This is how long I have been in fandom, and if you think we’re hungry for representation now, we were hungrier then. (At one point in my life I could probably have composed a lovingly-footnoted essay of all the times Ray Kowalski on Due South described something as “queer.” I probably did.)
But this is absolutely deniable. Honestly, I think that the most likely stance is that literally nothing is going to come of this. They don’t even have to deny it, unless people press them for an explanation. They don’t have to deny it because, when it comes down to it, nothing really happened. Tony never said he was bi. There’s nothing to take back. And they don’t want to do anything that could upset the straight fanboys of the world because that’s who they’re thinking buys all the Iron Man comics.
Do I think Marvel could actually make Tony bi at some point ever? Yeah, sure. But this isn’t it. They’d have to do something undeniable. And we know what that looks like because we’ve seen them do it. Undeniable is Rictor and Shatterstar kissing, and then dating (and then breaking up, and then dating again). Undeniable is teen Jean Grey outing teen Bobby Drake to himself, and then the both of them confronting adult Bobby Drake about why he decided to spend his life in the closet, and then Bobby having an entire series of his own where he comes out to his friends and his family and tries to find love. With a guy. Because he likes guys. There’s no taking that back. And they could do it for Tony. They don’t even have to do as much as that! They could just make Tony say he’s not straight. But they didn’t even do that. We don’t have proof. We have hints. They’re nice hints, they’re definitely better than the previous hints, and they do make me very happy – but they’re not confirmation.
As for what you actually asked – any canon basis to think that Steve is something other than straight – the answer is also going to be that there is very little of it. Less than for Tony, certainly.
The one panel that shows up, out of context, on most of these lists is a panel from Avengers v3 #77. The context is that Clint has decided that Steve has problems getting a date and has decided to help him by discussing what he perceives as the flaws of his dating approach, in true Clint fashion:
It is usually not presented in context, but the next thing Steve says when we see their conversation continue is this:
You have probably seen that panel. Their conversation continues on from that:
I get that that one line out of context sure looks promising and that’s why it appears on “proof that Steve is bisexual” lists – but Clint then goes on, and man, if Steve were actually interested in men, now would be a good time to say it, because Clint even brings it up and gives Steve time to say something about it as he dismisses the idea. But Steve just says he’s happy on his own. I mean, yes, it’s a fun line, I can acknowledge that, but… yeah. In context it just comes across as, “Clint, stop it.”
Everything else I can think of isn’t specific lines so much as the acknowledgement that Steve had an awful lot of gay friends and teammates over the years and has been very, very accepting of them. As we all know, Arnie Roth, introduced as Steve’s childhood best friend in the early 80s (Cap #270-279 is the main arc, but he comes in a little earlier) is gay, as gay as they could get away with while not being allowed to say the word “gay,” and Steve is happy to see him again and incredibly, incredibly supportive of Arnie’s relationship with his “roommate” Michael, to the point where he is comparing their relationship to the feelings he and Bernie Rosenthal have for each other. So that’s… nice.
Steve has also served with a bunch of characters who were gay to various degrees in WWII. Brian Falsworth (Union Jack) and Roger Aubrey (Destroyer) were both on the Invaders, but the canonical situation is complicated; the Invaders are a slightly later retcon into Steve’s history, as the Invaders comic was set in the 40s but published in the 70s. Brian and Roger weren’t explicitly written as gay at the time, but a later writer decided that there was an issue of Invaders in which they seemed to have a certain subtext and then retconned them into being gay in an obscure Citizen V miniseries, which I vaguely recall hearing pissed off the original writer. (I haven’t read either; when I was diving through Invaders canon the second volume wasn’t on Unlimited and neither was Citizen V, and I haven’t checked again.) So I don’t know that Steve has ever acknowledged it on-page, but we can piece together that two of his Invaders teammates were gay.)
(Also, Percival Pinkerton of Fury’s Howling Commandos is gay by word of Stan Lee, last I checked, and I’m pretty sure Steve’s met him.)
So none of that is really proof of any sort because, I mean, you’d expect Captain America to be totally fine with his gay friends and teammates, but it’s nice that they exist and there’s surprisingly more of them than you’d think a guy would have in the 40s. Than I’d think, anyway.
There’s also that panel of Nextwave. You know. That panel. Of Nextwave. Where Monica Rambeau and Elsa Bloodstone are discussing the Avengers.
But, I mean. It’s Nextwave. I’m not even sure anything in Nextwave is canon. I love Nextwave, though.
Other than that, I guess, is just the usual reasons that we ship Steve with all the guys we ship him with, which is that many of his friendships get very… intense. Like, I can definitely see where you could write some Sam/Steve. And, uh, we all know there are a lot of reasons to ship Steve/Tony. And technically Hydra Steve declared real Steve’s love for Tony, so, you know… that’s a thing that happened.
favourite character meme: 2/3 movies → captain america: the winter soldier “Attention all S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, this is Steve Rogers. You’ve heard a lot about me over the last few days. Some of you were even ordered to hunt me down. But I think it’s time to tell the truth. S.H.I.E.L.D. is not what we thought it was. It’s been taken over by HYDRA. Alexander Pierce is their leader. The S.T.R.I.K.E. and Insight crew are HYDRA as well. I don’t know how many more, but I know they’re in the building. They could be standing right next to you. They almost have what they want. Absolute control. They shot Nick Fury. And it won’t end there. If you launch those helicarriers today, HYDRA will be able to kill anyone that stands in their way. Unless we stop them. I know I’m asking a lot. But the price of freedom is high. It always has been. And it’s a price I’m willing to pay. And if I’m the only one, then so be it. But I’m willing to bet I’m not.”
Rhodey is always worried about Tony’s well-being
—
both mental and physical. He protects Tony’s secrets even from the military. Similarly, the first person Tony wanted to share the secret of Ironman suit with was Rhodey. Even when Tony was “not a teamplayer”, he was working seamlessly with Rhodey. In fact, Tony asks Rhodey to lead and follows his instructions faithfully.
This perfectly portrays the level of trust and affection these two share.Rhodey is one of the few who can not only lecture Tony about his health, know all his secrets; have access to his tech… but is also perhaps the only one Tony will easily let lead without either questions or refutations.
So Tony’s dating profile was set to women AND men (we see two guys responding to it). And then this?
Tony puts the bi in billionaire officially confirmed, no?
are they going to comfirm this??? please?? Marvel, where tf u at??
they don’t got to it showed up twice in the comic it’s already confirmed
Yep. While it’s never been explicitly said, there’s a few subtle things here and there in the 616 universe to hint at Tony’s sexuality.
Most infamously, in Superior Iron Man Issue #8, Tony wakes up from a party he was hosting and there’s clearly a naked man in his bed as well as a partially dressed woman:
Now this wasn’t considered that hard proof of Tony’s bisexuality since 1) Tony’s moral axis was “inverted” during this arc (meaning he went from good to evil) and 2) it was a party/orgy and there’s a lot of naked/half-naked people about, so there’s no telling if Tony did have sex with the man in his bed (lets be real, he did, but we can’t prove it)
Otherwise? Outside of that moment? We have Tony remarking on how he thinks men are “handsome,” like his internal monologue in Tales of Suspense (1995) #1 refers to Cap as “handsome” and waxes poetic about his “azure eyes”:
Or flirtatious banter, like in Avengers: Prime #3…
There’s other instances aside from those, but they’re the ones that immediately popped into my head.
There’s also the fact he told the Illuminati he slept with Madame Masque, remarking she looks like Doctor Doom, and when pressed by Namor (”Why would you sleep with a woman who looks like Doctor Doom?”), he deflected the conversation:
In the Marvel Adventures comic universe, we have this gem of a conversation between Tony and Vision where he gives his perspective on gender:
He goes on to say that women are not a collective, and people should be regarded as individuals.
So this newest issue isn’t really any big surprise to people who’ve been following Tony’s story, but it’s delightful nonetheless to have it more clearly established Tony is open to dating both men and women.
(Also feel free to add any other comic moments you can think of; these were just some of the highlights)
LemonGrenade 