Northstar, aka Jean-Paul Beaubier, the brainchild of Chris Claremont and John Byrne, made his debut appearance in X-Men #120 (April 1979). Growing up in Montreal, Beaubier had quite a turbulent childhood. Not only did his birth parents die in a car crash and his twin sister was taken from him, but his adopted parents were later killed as well. During his teenage years, before his mutant abilities surfaced, Beaubier became an elite level skier. However once his powers – superhuman speed and durability, flight, and light manipulation – did appear he became virtually unbeatable and lost all interest in the sport.
Unsure how best to use his abilities, Beaubier became angry and rebellious. He even joined a terrorist separatist movement called the Front de libération du Québec, before eventually growing disgusted with their actions. It was then that Beaubier learned of a superhero group financed by the Canadian government known as Alpha Flight. After joining the team and adopting the name Northstar, he was reunited with his sister Jeanne-Marie. Although this reunion starts off well, over the year the twins have their fair share of relationship ending fights. On one occasion a fight between the two leads Northstar to quit Alpha Fight, but is needed once more shortly thereafter. Following a heated battle, Northstar discovers an abandoned baby girl dying of AIDS. He decides to adopt her and names her Joanne Beaubier.
It was the weeks leading up to her death that spurred Northstar to publicly acknowledge something about himself. Do you know what this was? In Alpha Flight #106, Northstar announces that he is homosexual, in an effort to increase media attention on HIV/AIDS safety and prevention. This was the first time an openly gay character came out in a book published by Marvel Comics. He later married his husband, Kyle Jinadu, in Astonishing X-Men #51, which marked another first – the first depiction of a same-sex marriage in mainstream comics. But wait, there’s more. The popularity of this reveal in Alpha Flight #10, which sold out in a week, also led to the issue being the only comic to be inducted into the Gaylactic Hall of Fame.
