Anole (comics) - Alternate Storylines

Alternate Storylines

A scrapped story plot in New Mutants vol. 2 involved Anole committing suicide after coming out at Parent's Day and being shunned by his parents and two closest friends, Josh and Julian for his sexual orientation. The storyline was originally written to take place in issues 8–10.

The storyline involved Anole's parents and others becoming outraged when some parents witness his instructor Karma kissing another woman. Anole reacts to his parents' outrage by defending her and outing himself. Rejected and disowned by his parents, he seeks solace in Josh and Julian, but also finds himself rejected by them. This causes him to commit suicide. The story resulted in Josh discovering Anole's body while attempting to apologize for his reaction, serving as impetus for him to reform his attitudes while Julian would maintain what would later be revealed to be a facade of indifference. Northstar, as Marvel's "highest profile homosexual," would be a key character in pointing out Karma's difficulties being accepted because of her sexuality by the students' parents, as well as the absurdity of a gay student killing himself over rejection in a school for outcasts. Weir and DeFilippis stated that in addition to being a message about intolerance, the story would serve as a key factor in redeeming Elixir from his initial introduction as an anti-mutant bigot while solidifying Julian's character as "cruel".

Though issue 8 was printed and issue 9 drawn, Marvel put a hold on releasing the issues due to the storyline's controversial nature. Both writers state that ideas to "soft-pedal" the issue were fetched to them, including eliminating Karma's lesbian kiss, having it off-panel, or Northstar never actually stating his sexual orientation. The writers compromised, depicting the same-sex kiss on-panel and silhouetted. Regardless, Marvel eventually decided to scrap the issues, intending to release issue 10 as issue 8. The writers objected, noting that issue 10 featured the school still dealing with Anole's suicide and would leave Josh's change in character unexplained. Weir and DeFilippis convinced editors to allow them to write a new story last minute from the artwork of the old storyline and changed the dialogue while removing all references to the suicide and changing the reasons for Josh's reformation. Weir and DeFilippis later stated that they were happier with losing this plot, as they did not like the direction it would have taken Julian as a character, noting that, "he Julian who developed since then is not a guy who'd have a problem with Victor being gay. In fact, he'd wipe the walls with anyone who did."

Pink Kryptonite staff writer Megan Parker ("Elf Girl") expressed displeasure with the original storyline and relief with the final changes, stating that, " off a gay character to further a straight character's development to a 'better human being,'" was understandable as an intended message about intolerance, but "just a bit overused."