The Sandman has great LGBT rep

 

Netflix character poster for The Sandman. (l-t-r: Dream, Desire, Joanna Constantine, Death)

The Sandman makes having LGBT rep onscreen look easy, putting other studios in the same genre,  comic book adaptations, to shame. (Pause to stare long and hard at Disney.)

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The Sandman TV show on Netflix is a live action adaptation of Neil Gaiman's comic book, in the same universe as DC characters such as Lucifer Morningstar and John Constantine.

The Sandman clearly shows us what good LGBT representation can look like, if studios like Marvel/Disney weren't so terrified of embracing it.

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Note: 'Good' does not necessarily mean that all the LGBT characters are good/pure heroes or without flaw. 'Good' in this context means that the LGBT characters are part of the story, they have motivations and character depth, they're diverse.

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Case in point, the LGBT representation is one of the main talking points so far about the show.

On day 4 of its debut, I typed in a search on twitter and noticed this result:

Image description: twitter search results for "thesandman" come up as "TheSandman" trending, "TheSandman gay", and "TheSandmanNetflix".

This is because fans are talking about all of the LGBT representation on the show.

LGBT rep from the main characters, who are integral to the plot. Characters who are interesting and who have depth.

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Now for comparison, this is a search I made last year (October '21) after previews of the mcu movie Eternals release:

Image description: twitter search for "phastos", first result is "phastos", followed by "Phastos hiroshima".

I took this screen shot of one of my many searches in 2021 for the character name "Phastos", because I wanted to document fan reactions to the 'first openly gay character' from the mcu. Well, let's just say that Phastos and his onscreen husband Ben didn't take the Internet by storm. 

And hardly surprising as they're both side characters, Ben is only a cameo, and as the popular search results show the most talked about point for mcu's 'first openly gay' character was apparently he helped humans make the atom bomb.

And that was about it for Phastos in the entire movie, which is a great waste of potential. We knew nothing of his life with his husband Ben or their child; does Ben have super powers? Does their child? Do they know Phastos is immortal and will outlive them? 

How can brief cameos of one kiss (shot in the dark at night, compared to the much longer scenes of het romance shot in bright lighting and daylight) ever answer all of the questions we have?

And in fact, why should we even care about these characters when it's clear that the studio does not?

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The mcu have pulled the same nonsense with the recent Thor Love and Thunder, after much self-hype for Valkyrie finding her queen, all that actually happened in the movie was she briefly mentioned a long dead ex-girlfriend, and briefly kissed a nameless Extra on the hand in one scene. 

All while the hetero relationship is taking center stage of the story, just like Eternals.

None of that is LGBT representation, Disney. And don't you dare try to suggest the rocks somehow make up for the lack of PROMISED LGBT representation onscreen.

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It's actually appalling, and I wish fans would wake up and stop falling for this obvious baiting. 

Disney/Marvel Studios will keep taking your money while only providing mere seconds of half baked scraps onscreen, easily cut from the movie and not mattering to the overall plot.

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Aren't you hungry for more?

Watch The Sandman on Netflix and be inspired to see yourselves be PART of the main story for once. With characters who have depth, and motivations, and spend more than brief seconds on the screen.

The Sandman has: many mlm and wlw characters, and also multiple androgynous characters including Desire played by a non binary actor (Mason Alexander Park):

Image description: an androgynous white character dressed in glamorous black clothes with feathers, wearing makeup on their face, reclines on a red chair.

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The Sandman is a perfect example of how LGBT representation can look, what a studio is actually capable of providing with the right direction. 

So please, watch it. See for yourselves.

Image description: Netflix poster for the Sandman showing a diverse cast of characters.

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My review: The Sandman is a must watch piece of media.

This show of 10 episodes has the most LGBT representation onscreen together for any live action adaptation of a comic book that we've seen so far (August 2022).

The Sandman is a beautiful exploration of story, characters, visuals and dreams. Compelling and inspiring. A welcome breath of fresh air; watch it and feel inspired.

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Together as fans we must say, this is what we want, and we demand more of it.

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Have you spotted any LGBT characters in comic book movies/media lately? Tell me!

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