It’s June and that means, among other things, it’s Pride Month here in North America, celebrating LGBTQ2S. For anyone that’s not down with that, and that doesn’t or won’t subscribe to the simple notion that love is love, well, stop reading, and maybe stop visiting this site as well. It’s a great big world out there, and there’s room for everyone.
Fandom of any sort can be brutal and vile, but it can also be there to cheerlead and be supportive. Credit should go to all the comic book companies out there, big and small, for publishing stories that embrace creators and stories that speak to multiple exeriences, not just that of the white male with a Twitter account and twelve followers who thinks that there’s only one way to tell a story or one way to love.
I’m a Marvel Zombie, as regular readers of this column know, and the last few years I’ve been following the romance between Hulking and Wiccan, which came to the forefront in the 2020 crossover Emypre, which found the duo getting married while also front and centre during another major battle featuring the Kree and Skrulls (of whom Hulkling is now the dedicated ruler).
Hulking and Wiccan are now the stars of their own self-titled book (first published digitally as an Infinite Comic), which finds them navigating the waters of marriage and being away from Earth. Conflict arises when the two are somehow pulled into an alternate reality where they are not only not married, but they’re in love with other people.
Will they get back to their reality? Will they reconcile?
Come on, you know the answer to this, but still, Hulking & Wiccan is worth reading for the genuine love writer Josh Trujillo and artist Jodi Nishijima manage to convey on the page. Hulkling & Wiccan is the closest comic I’ve read that feels in line with the classic romance series’ that publishers use to put out fifty or sixty years ago, except with a wiccan named Wiccan and a Kree/Skrull Emperor as the leads.
Hopefully, there are going to be people out there who come across Hulking & Wiccan and while reading it, feel as though they’re seeing themselves represented within its pages.
Because love is love. Happy Pride, friends!
