Brazilian newspaper puts two gay Marvel characters kissing on front page to troll homophobic Rio mayor

Marcelo Crivella, the evangelical Christian mayor of Rio de Janiero in Brazil, has demanded that a Marvel comic book featuring two male characters kissing on the cover be removed from sale.

A former Pentecostal bishop, Crivella insists the Avengers comic poses a threat to public morality by pushing "sexual content for minors" and has even dispatched police raids to gather up copies of the offending title.

The cover of Avengers: The Children's Crusade that so offended the mayor depicts Hulkling, a Kree-Skrull shapeshifter, embracing Wiccan, the son of Scarlet Witch and Vision.

The country's courts are continuing to debate the issue, with one judge halting the police crackdown on Friday as an assault on free speech before another ruled a day later that LGBT+ material should not be so freely available.

But their efforts were in vain after Brazilian newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo featured the kiss prominently on its front page, snubbing Crivella as publicly as possible.

The miniseries by Allen Heinberg and Jim Cheung ran between 2010 and 2012 and has been available in Brazil since its conclusion.

Only Crivella's intervention has made the romance between Hulkling and Wiccan an issue.

The mayor has previously branded homosexuality "evil" and posted a video on Twitter on Thursday arguing:

Books like this need to be wrapped in black sealed plastic with a content warning displayed on the outside.

Guys! We need to protect our children.

Fortunately, there is considerable resistance against his point of view in Brazil, not least from Rio public defender Rodrigo Azambuja, who reminded Crivella:

Under Brazilian law, all families are equal.

HT: Huffington Post

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