Archie Comics Introduces a New Gay Teen, Kevin Keller, to Riverdale

Here's a new comic book development.  Kevin Keller, a new character that will be introduced in Veronica #202, will be an openly gay teen.  His freshman storyline, titled "Isn't It Bromantic?", seems to be about him meeting up with Jughead and being Veronica Lodge's newest romantic crush.  Jughead, ever the trouble-maker, seems to be doing his best to put off Kevin coming out to Veronica in order to maximize her broken heart.

According to writer/artist Dan Parent: "In the last year or two, we've been introducing a lot of new characters: Diverse characters, characters with different ethnicities. With trying to be diverse, we wanted to have everybody at the table.... We knew at some point we wanted to introduce a gay character, and when I came up with the story idea, we felt it worked in context with this story."

Gay characters in comic books are certainly nothing new anymore.  Marvel Comics' X-Men have Northstar, Karma, Shatterstar, Rictor, Anole, and Bling!  The Young Avengers have Wiccan and Hulkling.  DC Comics has created its fair share of GLBT characters, including one of my favorite genderqueer lesbians, Comet. 

But Archie Comics has always aimed for a youger demographic of comic book readers.  It's a starter publication for future comic book fans.  Kind of like the comic book equivalent of marijuana.  I remember talking my mom into buying me those Archie Comics digest books everytime we went to the store.  I still buy those little books for D'Angelo when he's in the mood.  It should be interesting to see where things go with Kevin.