Jon Kent, DC's current Superman, will come out as bisexual in an upcoming comic

Today, DC Comics announced that an upcoming issue of Superman: Son Of Kal-El from writer Tom Taylor and artist John Timms will reveal that its eponymous hero—Jon Kent, a.k.a. the current Superman, the son of Clark Kent and Lois Lane—is bisexual. Appropriately enough, seeing as how Jon is a Superman, his new love interest is a reporter, specially Jay Nakamura. The two met earlier in the series, and a press release from DC says that, after “Superman mentally and physically burns out from trying to save everyone that he can,” Jay arrives to take care of him.

The press release also proudly declares that, “Superman’s symbol has always stood for hope, for truth, and for justice,” and now it “represents something more” since “more people can see themselves in the most powerful superhero in comics.” This is all happening in next month’s issue of Superman, available on November 9, with another issue coming before that on October 19 that will presumably set up what happens. (DC is hoping you’ll buy both, most likely.)

It’s worth noting here that DC hasn’t always had an immaculate track record when it comes to LGBTQ representation. It was nearly a decade ago at this point, but J.H. Williams III and W. Haden Blackman walked off of their very good Batwoman book after DC decided that Batwoman wouldn’t be allowed to marry her longtime partner Maggie Sawyer.

That was supposedly a “no superheroes can get married” thing and not a “no gay superheroes can get married” thing, but the damage was done. Whether it’s because of that or not, the publisher has made a more conscious effort in recent years to turn things around—like with this summer’s DC Pride collection and the company’s decision to start foregrounding the fan-favorite Harley Quinn/Poison Ivy relationship.