The question "what was marvel comics's first gay kiss?" is very interesting because. Well. There are at least 6 different answers, depending on how you define a gay and a kiss and a gay kiss. Do both participants have to be homosexual? Does only one? Does it just have to be two homosexual participants or can it just be two men/women kissing? Are we counting lesbian kisses as gay kisses? I'll present my cases and you'll judge.
Admittedly, some of these kisses are gag kisses, and they're played for jokes. But should they still count? If they do, maybe I'm missing a whole lot of homophobic kisses between men before the year 1999. But this is what I know of. Feel free to educate me and let me know differently if there were any earlier gay kisses I missed. I didn't include mouth-to-mouth operations, no matter how gay they were (sorry, Storm and Yukio), because I feel like they can't really be considered kisses.
Beast (Hank McCoy) & Wonder Man (Simon Williams) in Avengers #14, cover date March 1999, release date February 10th 1999.
Hank McCoy kissed Simon Williams in 1999, but is this Marvel's first gay kiss? a few points against that: a) Hank is kissing Simon, but Simon isn't kissing back. b) Neither Simon nor Hank have been confirmed to be attracted to men. Yet. c) Honetsly, this issue is gay as hell but this is just ignored by the rest of the characters, implying Hank may have pulled this shit off before. So we have one man kissing another man, but neither men are canonically gay/bi or confirmed to be attracted to each other. it's a kiss but is it gay? is it gay if they're just homies who kiss each goodnight? (note: There is an alternate universe where Wonder Man and Beast were in a romantic relationship. but not in the 616)
2. Deadpool (Wade Wilson) & Mister Snout/Unnamed Bull alien of the Last Men in Deadpool #41, cover date June (!) 2000, release date April 26th 2000.
In 2000, Deadpool kissed a man. An alien man, but this is Marvel, if I don't count aliens as men, I'd have a problem. So is this Marvel's first gay kiss with a canonically queer person? let's see. a) Again, this kiss is one-sided. Additionally, we have no idea if Bull guy is also queer. b) This is meant as a joke. It's not a sincere kiss between two men, and it has no importance in the story whatsoever. I can't speak for the writer's intention, but I doubt this was meant as queer representaion. c) Adding to the lack of importance, the bull guy doesn't have a name (but the one Wade gives him). He's a non-character. You could still argue it matters since the canonization of Kitty Pryde's bisexuality was done in a similar way and still matters. d) No lips are touching. A minor detail, but Deadpool's mask is on in this kiss, and it's unclear if Bull guy has proper lips. Is it even a kiss?
3. Bloke (Mickey Tork) & Unnamed boyfriend in San Francisco in X-Force #118, cover date September 2001, release date July 25th 2001.
While I'm not at all sure what the intention in writing behind the previous two kisses was, I know for sure this was meant to be a proud and sincere gay kiss between two men attracted to each other. Peter Milligan & Mike Allred's X-Force (and following X-Statix) run was written to be controversial, political, and satirical. However, while this kiss succeeds where the previous two fail (explicit gay representation, lips touching, willing participation of both parties), it also has its problems. a) Bloke dies in this same issue. While it is a part of the new X-Force concept, it does lend itself to the "bury your gays" trope. b) The boyfriend is unnamed and is inconsequential, like the kiss is in-story. There's no story to it. There's a nice farewell moment, and that's it. This goes nowhere. We don't see Bloke or his boyfriend again. This is an indisputable gay kiss, but beyond the status of "Marvel's first gay kiss (technically)", it doesn't mean a lot. It's something that meant a lot with the removal of the comics code authority logo on the X-Force covers, but it's a bit disappointing as the first gay kiss. So what's the first meaningful gay kiss in Marvel Comics?
4. Marlo Chandler & Moondragon (Heather Douglas) in Captain Marvel #32, cover date July 2002, release date May 2002.
Indisputably, this is Marvel's first lesbian (or sapphic) kiss. This is also the first kiss with two canonicaly queer characters. It's meaningful, as it's a moment shared between two friends who find themselves attracted to each other, and it made Marlo separate from her husband and go on to discover herself and her sexuality (and also led to a romantic relationship between the two women? I'm sorry, I don't read Captain Marvel comics, I really don't know). This is Marvel Comics's first meaningful, proper, sincere gay kiss between two queer characters.
We can stop here. We found it. But Heather and Marlo seemingly aren't important enough to be featured on any article discussing important queer marvel moments. So let's keep going until we reach the "first major Marvel Comics gay kiss".
5. Sunfire (Mariko Yashida, Earth 2109) & Spider-Woman (Mary Jane Watson, Earth 8545) in Exiles #34, cover date November 2003, release date September 24th, 2003.
If we give a unique award/title for each kiss on this list, this would be "Marvel Comics's first meaningful gay kiss between two characters in a relationship with each other". This kiss is between an alternate version of Wolverine's almost wife and Mary Jane Watson. These are almost major characters. MJ and Mariko are queer characters (in their universes), the kiss is sincere, meaningful, and properly a kiss. Since we brought up the "bury your gays" trope, it's important to note (SPOILERS TO EXILES FROM 20 YEARS AGO) that Mariko does die a few issues after this, and MJ and Mariko do not get a happy ending at all. I'd like to note that, like the previous kiss, this one was also drawn by Jim Calafiore.
6. Phyla-Vell & Moondragon (Heather Douglas) in Guardians of the Galaxy #12, cover date May 2009, release date March 25th, 2009.
While Phyla-Vell and Moondragon were shown to be in a romantic relationship and closely embraced each other prior to this issue, this is the first time they actually kiss on-panel, on the lips. PLEASE correct me if I'm wrong about this, I tried to do some fact-checking, but there isn't a lot on the internet about the two of them, and going through their joint appearances issue by issue got tiring (though I promise I will try to read more about them in the future). This isn't a landmark for anyone but Heather and Phyla, but if we're in the business of granting awards, this kiss is "Marvel's first meaningful gay kiss between two characters in a relationship with each other in the 616". So gay, mutual, canonically queer, sincere, meaningful and properly a kiss. But while Phyla-Vell has appeared in an MCU movie (as a child) and she and Heather got more than a few Pride variant covers, they're still not a major comic couple. Which brings us to the last kiss on our list.
7. Shatterstar & Rictor (Julio Richter) in X-Factor #45, cover date August 2009, release date June (!) 24th, 2009.
While lesbians and dead, unnamed gays were kissing pretty sporadically through the 00s, it took until 2009 for the fan-favorite gay mutant couple to get a kiss. This was major, and I'm not doubting that. Rictor and Shatterstar had been queer-coded for almost two decades at this point. But is this "Marvel's first major gay kiss"? Are Rictor and Shatterstar a major Marvel couple? I don't know. You decide. Personally, I'd award it the "Marvel's first meaningful gay kiss between two men" title. It still means a lot to a lot of people, and it's also Marvel's first meaningful gay kiss between two characters who were both created prior to the year 2000.
That's all, an overview of "Marvel's first gay kisses". June 24th, the day I'm posting this on, is also the 16th anniversary of X-Factor #45 and the Ricstar kiss, I hope I wasn't too harsh on them for their special day (I love the two characters, I didn't mean to take away from what their kiss was, only put it in persepctive of other queer kisses). Feel free to share your favorite gay Marvel kisses, and Happy Pride!
On a final final note, I didn't give titles to the first three kisses on this list, so here they are now: Beast & Wonder Man - Marvel's first gay kiss (no special qualifications edition). Deadpool & Mister Snout/Bull guy - Marvel's first gay kiss involving a canonically queer character. Bloke & his boyfriend - Marvel's first gay kiss between two canonically queer characters.
