Voltron: Legendary Defender’s creative team shook the fandom to its core at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con when it announced the show’s seventh season would address Shiro being a gay man and introduce his same-sex partner, but the show’s depiction of a queer relationship understandably left many fans cold.

Even if you weren’t there in the San Diego Comic-Con hall where it was first announced that Voltron: Legendary Defender’s Shiro is a gay man whose relationship would be explored in the show’s seventh season, fans made sure the world knew.

Even though Steven Universe is technically about a bunch of sentient rocks whose humanoid physical forms are just hard light constructs, the show’s gems are presented as female and the emotional relationships between them are coded as queer.

Steven Universe is, without a doubt, one of the most groundbreaking television shows airing right now because of its strong messages about queer positivity, inclusion, and the power of love. As much of an impact as the show has had on its fanbase, it also helped creator Rebecca Sugar become more comfortable with her own identity.

This week Steven Universe has returned with what is rapidly becoming one of its most compelling storylines so far, as the Crystal Gems come to terms with the shocking revelations surrounding Rose. Yesterday's “The Question” not only gave us one of the show’s sweetest episodes, but also a major milestone in the series’ championing of representation.

Though the newest season of Netflix's Voltron: Legendary Defender might not be the longest seven episodes of television you watch this year, the new plot developments it introduces are some of the most exciting in the franchise's history.

A same-sex relationship may have been left on the cutting room floor of Marvel's Black Panther film, but the comic that showed how two Wakandan women fell in love has been recognised as a standout graphic novel for LGBTQ representation by GLAAD.

Watching a drag queen get into costume is a lot like watching a superhero transform from their civilian identity as they get ready to fight the battle of their lives. It should come as no surprise, then, that the queens of RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars' third season look phenomenal as comic book heroes.

Star Wars Rebels came to an end this week, tying up the story of the Ghost crew while also giving us a glimpse at their futures. One moment in particular had Rebels fans playing matchmaker for two members of the team - and while executive producer Dave Filoni wouldn't give us a concrete answer about them, he was happy that it was being interpreted as such.

Little Women is a classic novel about four sisters finding themselves and their purpose in life during one of the most tumultuous times in American history. To celebrate the novel's 150th anniversary, the story has been modernised to bring us a group of girls who might face new challenges in a different (but still tumultuous) world. Their sisterly bond is, of course, timeless.

Every year, the LGBTQ+ advocacy group GLAAD recognises and awards a selection of television shows, films and books that feature powerful portrayals of queer people. This year, a number of Marvel's comics were recognised for the contributions they have made to queer culture, but those nominations were bittersweet for one incredibly disappointing reason: They have all been cancelled.

Every time I've found myself explaining the basic premise of Mark Russell and Mike Feehan's Snagglepuss: Exit Stage Left, people's immediate reactions have been the same. At first, there's light shock that DC would make a comic about a gay, closeted, anthropomorphic mountain lion and noted playwright. But then, after hearing more of the plot - how Snagglepuss becomes the newest target of the House Un-American Activities Committee's crusade to oust subversive voices from Hollywood - their reactions shift.

Oscar-winning screenwriter John Ridley has been writing an excellent politically-charged superhero story in The American Way: Those Above and Those Below. For his next DC project, he's going to get inside the heads of heroes such as John Stewart, Renee Montoya and Katana to see what it feels like to be a superhero when you aren't just another white guy.

In May of 1963, thousands of black protesters -- many of them school children -- marched on Birmingham, Alabama to draw attention to the city's entrenched segregation. Later that year in September, Marvel would publish the very first issue of The X-Men, a series clearly influenced by the Civil Rights Movement.

It's been interesting to watch Bobby Drake unsteadily make his way through life as a newly-out gay man in Sina Grace's Iceman series. He's very much the same Iceman who's been cracking wise with the X-Men since the '60s, and yet he's also a vastly different Bobby who's grappling with a new sort of emotional struggle.

When the 1982 Swamp Thing movie was getting underway, costume designer William Munns debated whether to give the plant hero a penis. The dong analogue didn't wind up happening, which is good. Swamp Thing has never needed a penis to be sexy.

When you think of a visual novel, you probably think of pursuing super sexy romantic interests (or pigeons). Most of the interactions in these games involve choosing which way to compliment your virtual crush. At first I thought Let's Meat Adam would be another dating simulator (only this time with goats). But it's actually a game that takes a complex look at issues within the gay community.

When William Hanna and Joseph Barbera's original Flintstones cartoon first aired back in 1960, it was a clever, campy celebration of suburban sprawl and a very particular kind of middle class American Dream™. In Mark Russell and Steve Pugh's recently-ended Flintstones comic series, that same dream is explored in a much darker, funnier way.

The duality of superheroes is nothing new. Stories about the tangled web of public and private personas have driven superheroes for decades. But in the first issue of Iceman -- Bobby Drake's first ever ongoing series -- we get a bit of a twist to that duality: Presenting Bobby's life as a fascinating mix of success and mess.