Rictor - Sexual Orientation

Sexual Orientation

In early comics featuring Rictor and Shatterstar together (most notably Jeph Loeb's X-Force), there was a persistent subtext that the two were in a relationship together. Over the 1990s, Rictor certainly developed a close—and somewhat ambiguous—relationship with Shatterstar. Although Shatterstar was initially introduced by creator Rob Liefeld as an asexual killing machine, writer Peter David reflects that the character's "prolonged exposure to humanity" changed this. X-Force writer Jeph Loeb hinted that Shatterstar had romantic feelings for Rictor and was planning on making the two a couple, but he left the title before this could happen. Though the romantic subtext between the characters was never quite explicit in Loeb's series, fans nevertheless picked up on it. Over the course of the characters' appearances, Rictor and Shatterstar's relationship would evolve from a subtext in 1990s X-Force comics to Marvel naming them one of the company's top ten supercouples in 2010. In 2011, writer Peter David won a GLAAD Award for the portrayal of Rictor and Shatterstar's relationship in X-Factor.

In 2007, a joke in Peter David's X-Factor v. 3 #14 features Rictor insinuating to Madrox that he and Quicksilver might have been romantically or sexually intimate, which he later denies only on account of Quicksilver being "evil". This was the first explicit hint of Rictor's ambiguous sexuality. With regards to this scene, as the writer continued to develop Rictor's personal relationships, David expressed the idea that:

Although creator Louise Simonson did not initially conceive of the character as being gay or indeed non-heterosexual, canonically, Rictor has had romances with men and women. In X-Factor v. 3, under the pen of Peter David, Rictor dated both Rahne Sinclair (Wolfsbane) and Tabitha Smith (Boom Boom). Although in X-Factor #21 in 2007, Rictor had begun a sexual relationship with Rahne, she later left the team "under abrupt circumstances" because editorial had decided to move the character to another book. This created an opening for David to bring back Shatterstar. David was drawn to revisit Loeb's unresolved Rictor-Shatterstar romance because of fans' requests for Shatterstar to return "and to see Rictor and Shatterstar pick up where they left off." David remarks it was the storyline he got the most requests to write. Because neither character is a "household name", David was given more freedom by Marvel to interpret the characters and write the storyline as he wished; there was no trouble getting the storyline approved. David writes Rictor's embrace of his love for Shatterstar as a maturation for the character, whom he sees "fully committed to the gay lifestyle... honest about it both with others and himself."

In X-Factor #45, in 2009, Rictor kissed Shatterstar. The two characters' first on-panel kiss became the first male-male kiss between two mainstream male superheroes in mainstream Marvel comic book history. X-Factor editor Jody Leheup knew that the kiss would make "a cool moment for the fans" but stated it had not occurred to him that it would be such an important scene to gay and straight comic fans. He also remarked on the need to not over-hype the scene as he and David "really want things like this to be seen as normal." David felt this was an interesting direction to take Rictor in, which particularly allowed the character — currently, emotionally vulnerable — to deal with the abruptness of Rahne's departure without having to have Rictor so much as break the fourth wall and resign himself to Rahne being in another book. Shortly after X-Factor v.3 #45, Peter David confirmed Rictor's same-sex sexuality in his blog and expressed his desire to develop the relationship between Rictor and Shatterstar further. In X-Factor #210 (2010), Rictor seems to suggest he has always known deep down that he was gay and was in the closet. Explaining Rictor's prior straight relationships, David compares him to real-life "women who eventually decided they were lesbians had involvements with men that they ultimately considered unfulfilling."

For David, the relationship opened up other avenues for character development in the series. For example, he was able to explore Strong Guy's "liberal hypocrisy": his socially liberal personal values alongside his discomfort around gay people, in that character's reaction. Peter David expressed that he does not want the relationship to become boring by having no problems. However, he wishes to avoid killing off either character; he opines that both characters are too well-established to fall into the pattern of killing off the more minor character to elicit angst in the more major one. One major facet of the relationship is that this is Shatterstar's first real relationship, meaning the two men might want very different things. As David sees it, newly out bisexual Shatterstar is "like a kid in a candy store", whereas Rictor is ready to fully commit. David feels that these issues are interesting because they are new to superhero comic books; he does note, however, that the view he brings to the characters comes from the perspective of a heterosexual writer and his own personal experiences, and might not be the same as a gay writer's.