The Unicorn Scale: The Marvel Cinematic Universe

Sci-fi and fantasy, with their tropes of otherness and alienation, are the perfect narrative representation of queerness and the lived experiences of so many in the LGBT community. This metaphor has been used throughout Marvel comic books, and many of their fantastical superheroes have also been queer characters.

However, this positive representation of LGBT characters has not transferred onto the cinematic adaptations of the Marvel comic books. GLAAD even released a report criticizing the disappointing lack of LGBT people in comic book films, including Marvel Studios.

But how bad is the representation in Marvel movies? The Unicorn Scale is here to take a look! There will be SPOILERS for various Marvel franchises. If you’re unfamiliar with The Unicorn Scale, here's a quick rundown of how it works

What I Liked:

Marvel is making progress, even though it’s painfully slow. Valkyrie is Thor’s sister, and is bi in the comic books — explicitly so, as she has a relationship with anthropologist Annabelle Riggs. 

A scene was cut out of Thor: Ragnarok (2017), where a woman walks out of Valkyrie’s bedroom. In Thor: Love and Thunder (2022) an indication of Valkyrie’s bisexuality finally earns a passing mention on screen, a far cry from the full treatment some fans expected after Tessa Thompson, the bi actress who plays Valkyrie, announced:

“As new king [of Asgard], [Valkyrie] needs to find her queen.”

Marvel’s Eternals (2021) featured the first same-sex kiss in the MCU, and outside of that, it’s been slim-pickins. Compare the number of Marvel movies that are released each year with the number of explicitly queer characters, and the results are embarrassing. What’s worse, characters that are queer — and in particular bi — in the comic books are straight in the movies!

On that note, here’s what I don’t like about bi representation in Marvel movies.

What I Didn't Like:

The worst thing about Marvel Studios’s bi representation is how bisexuality gets completely lost in the transition from comic book to movie character.

Some examples: Mystique, who’s bi in the X-Men comic books, and even raises a child together with a female mutant. In the movies (of which there have been plenty to explore Mystique’s sexuality), she only has relationships with men: Magneto and Beast.

And then there’s another mutant, Psylocke, a telekinetic telepath who first appears on-screen in X-Men: Apocalypse (2016). In the comic books, Psylocke has relationships with both men and women, but no reference is made to this in the movie (that might have been due to actress Olivia Munn’s complete lack of dialogue, but that’s another representation issue altogether).

Thor’s brother, Loki, is also bi. But yes, you’ve guessed it, he’s straight-acting in the movies. The erasure of Loki’s sexuality is particularly frustrating, as he’s not only bi but gender fluid, visually symbolized by his shapeshifting abilities.

Marvel author Mackenzi Lee has said that “in the comic books, Loki is reborn as a woman and uses female pronouns,” while Loki’s father, Odin, even describes his son as “my child who is both [male and female].” With gender fluidity even more underrepresented than bisexuality in mainstream media, Marvel Studio’s decision to ignore Loki’s canon sexuality is disappointing. In the Disney series Loki, (2021–) his bisexuality is at last mentioned, but again, only in a Valkyrie-like passing mention.

There are far more examples of this, but I’m going to finish with the most infuriating one of all: Deadpool, who is bisexual in the comic books — he has crushes on Thor, Cable, and Spider Man. Marvel writer Gerry Duggan has described Deadpool as “omnisexual”, saying he is “ready and willing to do anything with a pulse.”

In the promotion for the Deadpool movies, it seemed as if Deadpool would be Marvel’s first explicitly queer character. The film was promised to be pioneering, to rock the boat and tear up tradition. However, I couldn’t have been more disappointed. Yes, Deadpool hints at his attraction to men: he talks about Wolverine’s balls, he asks a male bartender for a blowjob (which turns out to be the name of a cocktail), he calls a male cab driver “pretty cute” and, in response to a question about whether he has an off-switch, he quips: “It’s right next to the prostate. Or the on-switch.”

But this is the problem with Deadpool: he’s all talk and no action. After all the promises of a bisexual superhero, so far Deadpool’s only relationship in the movies has been with a woman. And that sums up Marvel Studio’s terrible attitude to bi, and generally LGBT, representation: not only do they shy away from bi characters but, they also love queerbaiting.

For example, director James Gunn once explained the lack of representation in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) by saying, "We don't really know who's gay and who's not. It could be any of them”, while Tessa Thompson told Rolling Stone about playing Valkyrie:

There were things that we talked about that we allowed to exist in the characterization, but maybe not be explicit in the film. There’s a great shot of me falling back from one of my sisters who’s just been slain. In my mind, that was my lover. 

Unless the audience are superhero telepaths, no one’s going to know a character is queer. Ultimately, Marvel Studios need to stop excusing their lack of LGBT representation with promises and intention: until we get to see evidence on-screen, they’ve still failed to deliver.

The Rating:

It’s a resounding one unicorn from me for Marvel Studios. Marvel comic books are a different story, but the movies have far more influence and reach. If they included more bi characters, then they could really make a difference in queer representation in mainstream media. Until that point, their attitude toward bisexuality, and queerness in general, is anything but super.