X-Men: Messiah CompleX

Writer: Ed Brubaker
Artist: Marc Silvestri

Marvel Comics


Off we go again!

Messiah CompleX is Marvel's newest crossover, hot on the heels of the as-yet-uncompleted Planet Hulk.

And yet, I've found myself eagerly awaiting its launch?

See, it's not just another crossover. it's an X-over, a crossover in the style popularized by the 90s X-titles, where the story is framed by two oneshots, but unfolds over the 4 or so main monthly titles, with each title's regular team handling the chores of their respective chapters, and all teams getting their involvement in the event.

Think Age of Apocalypse, the Phalanx Covenant, Onslaught. Think Scott Lobdell, and write the guy a royalty cheque.

Recap in brief: a stupidly-overpowered mutant witch decided to erase the mutant gene in existence; in an editorial fluke missed a couple hundred best-selling mutants, although she did manage to halt any new mutants from springing forward. Until now. Professor X has just registered a new mutant manifestation, so powerful it gave him a nosebleed (like, wow). The X-Men arrive on location too late, finding the area of the manifestation a burning holocaust, littered with the dead carcasses of kids and d-list villains: Reverend Stryker's remaining Purifiers (search Wikipedia under 'anti-mutant religious fanatics with big flamethrowers') taskforce has already been on the scene -before the X-Men's super-sonic alien technology plane, fliers and teleporters- playing Herod on the under-PG13 demographic, and engaging in a behind-the-scenes bloodbath with Mr Sinister's Marauders (see 'cloned mutant super-killers created by Silvestri in the 80s') -who also made it on the scene before the X-Men's super-sonic yadda yadda yak. Oh, and the new super-mutant is a newborn baby.


Marvel had requested an information and spoiler ban on the advance reviews of the issue, although it didn't hinder my writing this. The issue suffers from the same problems as the opening issue of Civil War. Marvel is so eager to promote the title that it has flooded the internet with information through the solicitations and interviews; there is nothing left for the issue to bring forward and surprise or entice the reader. We've known everything that's happening in here from a month ago. Marauders, Purifiers, new mutant birth, abduction, blah blah.

There's more review coming, so if you want to be spared the details:

Pretty but empty art, unsurprising and boring plot, forced emotional core, brings back creepy memories of Civil War #1.

And if you still want the long laundry list:

The Writing: This was an Ed Brubaker book? Is this what he's come to, really?

The issue serves as the opening salvo of the crossover, but it is strictly that, like an editorially directed shopping list of bullet points that have to be ticked off within a certain number of pages. There's no emotion, no snappy dialogue, not even any engaging action. It's a comic version of a press release announcing the crossover and its premise.

Not to say Bru isn't really pushing for an emotional reaction here. Burning holocaust, showing a dead kid, then going back in a flashback to show how the kid got charred, then more massacre, and when all that hasn't moved his point home, he goes ahead and plays the burning newborn babies card to really clinch in the drama. A bit over-done, when medium-baked would have sufficed. Just a few months ago Mike Carey managed to get tears in my eye with one terrifying scene 'killing' a Guthrie kid I had never heard of before, all within 7 pages of back-up story (X-Men Endangered Species). That was storytelling grace. Here we have the bludgeon effect, beating us into emotional submission until we 'cry' uncle. For the opening chapter of a crossover titled Messiah complex, the Herod analogies in the plot couldn't be more obvious if they stod up and spit in ur face.

It seems you can't open a proper crossover these days without at least leveling one fictional city and exploding a truckload of kids. Bru takes a page from Peter David's Writing handbook, and drops a reference to Civil War's Stamford in the opening chapter to play it safe an avoid other critics chastising him for the similarities.


At least this crossover isn't shy on actual villains like recent ones. The Marauders are back, as a random collage of the Acolytes, the Brotherhood and the original Mutant Massacre roster; the tables havesurely turned since their glory days in the 80s, since now the Marauders are the ones used as expendable cannon fodder.

The Purifiers and Predator-X also have a prominent role. Who? If we were supposed to be paying attention to New X-Men (of all titles!) all along, someone should have said something earlier... Bru doesn't explain more than a few morsels about who all these new names are, so you'd have to be patient to get to the pin-ups and bios in the back of the issue for more info. Lazy writing, not something I'd have associated with Bru before this. Narrative captions would sure have come in handy throughout this 'introductory' issue, although they're nowhere to be found. (btw: 'PREDATOR-X'?!? How very 90s of you mrKyle, mr Yost)

...until the last page that is, which feels entirely tacked on and editorially implemented, introducing the last player in the puzzle, the Predator-X. It's the only page in the entire issue to feature narration, and in the style reminiscent of the worst the 90s had to offer.

On to the art. Marc Silvestri is still considered a 'big' name and Marvel is obviouly proud to have him on board the crossover, providing muddy art, busy trite covers and poor storytelling. Well, not totally -Philip-Tan-bad, but still inappropriate for such big fracas.

Once more female characters enter the scene, it starts feeling like the invasion of the mutant Pamela Andersons! All the girls have perky boobs, apple-perfect bums, fluffy 90s hair and identical flawless faces.


Despite his butchering of Emma Frost, Nightcrawler and poor poor poor Beast (more like Bast here, although Silvestri had done an admirable job on the feline design during Morrison's closing arc of New X-Men), M.S. still manages to warm my heart with a stunning rendition of Angel - who is making his dynamic return with this issue. Not one chance is missed to feature Warren alone in a wide detailed panel, soaring in some sexy pose. Pity it probably took him as much time to do as the rest of the issue combined.

The storytelling is suffering throughout, going from one uninspired camera angle to the next, and the facial expressions are all frozen and unreadable. When Xavier first learns of the new mutant, I'm reading between the lines he's supposed to look content/happy/excited, but instead turns out evil, scheming, and twisted. Unless this is a shade of things to come?



The issue is closed by an array of gorgeous pin-ups by the best Marvel has to offer. The Simone Bianchi Marauders especially need to be made into a poster toute d'suite.

Grade: 4.5/10


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Marvel Zombies 2 #1

They're back, and they're hungry -- cosmic energy hungry!

After devouring the Devourer of Worlds in the end of the last mini, the Marvel Zombies have now scoured the galaxy and eaten everything in their path (including Ego the Living Planet, in a delightfully geeky segment), so they start to make their way back to earth. Their numbers include: Giant-Man, Spidey, Wolvie, the Hulk, Power-Man and new recruits: Phoenix, Thanos and Firelord -- although the newbies don't get much screentime as of yet.

Back on Earth, Kirkman loses the game by insisting on focusing on the mutants the 90s forgot: Forge, Fabian Cortez and the Acolytes. Barely anyone paid attention to them back in their glory days, so I see this as nothing more than geekboy masturbation, miring a story with great crossover appeal into unnecessary continuity.

Sean Phillips returns to the art duties, in his usual gory brilliance. He along with art buddy Charlie Adlard (Walking Dead) are responsible for the big Zombie fever currently taking over our medium, where it seems every month is Halloween! They deserve all the accolades they get.




Grade: 5/10
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Brave & the Bold #7

Power Girl and Wonder Woman have a girls' fight night out, squaring off against a trumped up Dr Alchemy. Superman acts as the damsel in distress, while the Challengers of the Unknown trudge on the complicated main storyline (do we really need it?).

Mark Waid forces the dialogue to project the differences between the two Super-Ladies (besides the neckline), making his hand too obvious. Just a one-off by-the-book crossover between these two leading ladies, without straying too far from expectations.

George Perez is still the selling force behind this title, bringing his timeless style to the DCU. Although he does Power girl a disservice on the cover, his rendition of Kara inside the issue is something else.

For your enjoyment, a slashfic moment from the issue:

Grade: 6/10
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Alanis Morissette - Underneath

New original Alanis song after 3 years. Excuse the pirated video quality.

Wikipedia reveals the nitty gritty:

"Underneath" is the second song known to be written and recorded during the 2007 sessions. The song had an unofficial premiere on September 15, 2007 at The Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles, at the Elevate Film Festival. The purpose of the festival was to create documentaries, music videos, narratives and shorts - regarding subjects to raise the level of human consciousness on the earth.

Morissette submitted her song, and then (like all other 14 videos) had the song's video written, directed, shot and edited in two days. The music video, while not having too much of a known plot - features Morissette and a few other characters around a pool, and swimming. The key symbol in the video tends to be water. Morissette also walks around, or lays down as she sings - either into or off camera. The song and video was met by a very receptive crowd. It is unknown whether this song will serve as an official single, and if so - if this video will be used or not. There is still no official announcement of the new album or when it may be released.

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Wolverine

From Vasilis Lolos' upcoming Wolverine short story, some concept sketches

Logan should always look this rugged.
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The Ultimate Anti-Piracy Ad

Source: The I.T. Crowd s02e03 (pirated)
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The Boys - Dragonette

I like them boys

Hot dog - God damn!
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Vote for Panel of the Week 26.10.07

Each week I'll be posting the 3-4 most memorable panels from the week and putting them up for a public week-long vote. The winning panels gets posted on the sidebar and earns boasting privileges over lesser panels...

Last week Joss Whedon's teen cyborg dreamer won fair and square against meander competition with a solid 45% of total votes!

This week, we finally get juicier competition, and 4 candidate panels, as Marvel ups the ante over DC:

CoolWebPoll

Panel A

Hulk Bored (Marvel Adventures: Fantastic Four #29)


Panel B
Marvel Zombies Eat Ego (Marvel Zombies 2 #1)


Panel C

Hellcat Claw Puny Phone (Marvel comics Presents #2)

Panel D

DC kick gay characters (Countdown #28)



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X-men #204 Advance Review

Writer: Mike Carey

Artists: Mike Choi and Scot Eaton

Marvel Comics


Mike Carey's run on the X-Men has been one long enjoyable game of Ten Little Indians.

...and then there was one.

Iceman is the last of Carey's X-Men registering brainwaves (though admitedly, not too loudly). Carey has slowly eased in the Astonishing X-Men cast into the book, first as supporting cast, and now as equal players. (More on the process of elimination in last issue's review)

This week's issue acts as the epilogue of 'Blinded By the Light'; Carey doesn't just wrap up the storyline, he provides a nice cap to his entire run to date using Iceman as his proxy; Bobby seems to be going from X-Man to X-Man, recounting the entire Carey run through the dialogue; it's not even obviously noticeable until you really pore through the text. Suave.

On to the plot in a hurry, before we hit 1000 words:

After their run in with the Marauders, Sam and Bobby have saved the day, but Cannonball has been left comatose. Bobby goes around being emo and angst-ridden, while Blindfold drops ominous hints for the deaths in the upcoming crossover. Cyclops is blue over Cable's death (why? Cable is one of the most oft-resurrected members of the Summers family, after Jean herself), but can't give too much time to grieve since he needs to fend off a worried Emma, rally the troops to (finally) figure out Sinister's plan, and bicker with Bobby to provide a recount of Rogue Team's scoreboard.

Over at the enemy camp, Sinister has meetings with his own lieutenants, while Remy finally gets some alone time with the comatose Rogue (so much sick-bed tending for one issue!)

Carey defines the limits of the allegiances between the three different villain camps: the Marauders, the Brotherhood, and the Acolytes. These are three very different sets of people with different priorities and agendas, and I was long expecting an explanation of how the three massive egos of Sinister, Mystique and Exodus manage to work together. It's all been built up nicely since the X-Men Annual earlier this year, and headed for an explosion during the Messiah Complex starting next month.

And now for our main feature, and what R&R (Rogue&Remy) fans have been waiting for since that solicited japanimation slash-fic cover. Without being allowed to give out too many spoilers in an advance review, yes, there is some brief resolution to Rogue's condition and a meaty sequence designed to please even the most hardcore fans in the R&R community.

During our conversation with Mike Carey last weekend in the Birmingham Comics Show, he went over his trepidations regarding the R&R issue, and how there are two extreme camps of thought (one for the R&R relationship, the other against) that are impossible to keep happy at the same time (bear in mind also, that R&R fans are the biggest and most vocal community online, with dozens of websites devoted to the romance). Carey had his work cut out for him with this issue. He has always been great about keeping an ear to the fans' thoughts, and even met with the admin couple from one of the fansites (whose name I forget, but I hope someone posts it here). Still, he -correctly for me- doesn't choose to make a statement in favour of either camp, but instead writes his own take on the character, and even does that unthinkable, attempting to look at the R&R relationship as a whole: The Jim Lee & Nicieza flirtations, the Lobdell romance, then the rift and the Seagle antarctic abandonment, the Davis mess, the Claremont happy retirement days, and the Milligan schism and further betrayal.

Remy is in full puppy-eyes mode, just like the girls (and some of the boys) like him, conflicted, trapped in the wrong side of the fence, everything he tries to embrace turning to dirt and it being his fault. Mike Carey resolves Rogue's condition with a sequence of surprising subtlety; I missed a crucial detail the first time I read through the issue, but even the second time I was confused as to what happened to trigger the events here. Did they or didn't they? And that's all I'm hinting at here.

Mike Choi is an ideal choice for this romantic wrap-up issue, capturing the fragility of the latter encounter, but also doing a stellar job in the other scenes, especially when it comes to the different character designs; Sinister has never looked scarier or sexier, black lipstick and all, the Goth Prince of Sadism, while I also appreciated the little details on Beast, with the marks on his snout from where he's shaved off his cat whiskers.

In the back of the issue we get the two (!) last installments of Endangered Species backup features. Beast has concluded his long journey around the Marvel Universe, turning every stone and looking at every possible aspect of the M-Day event and the mutant origins, finally coming up with a despairing conclusion, and a desperate final measure, as he tracks down the amnesiac Scarlet Witch to her hometown (last seen in New Avengers #26) in Transia.

Mike Carey has been a godsend on the X-Men titles, proving yet again he's got the rare gift of both rich characterisation -fueled by continuity but not constrained by it- and the ability to see the bigger picture of the thinly-spread x-franchise and channel it effortlessly to the reader. A single line could have resonance to more than 15 years of backstory, without being self-referential.



Grade: 7/10
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Birds of Prey #111

Story: Tony Bedard

Art: Jason Orfalas

DC Comics

[The title follows the life of Barbara Gordon, the original Batgirl after she was cripple by Joker's gunshot. Now she is Oracle, the world's premiere cyber-espionage expert, leading a network of female super-operatives]

Tony Bedard continues his interim run on the title, after Gail Simone's celebrated run, and before Sean McKeever's anticipated arrival. Not stress. No fuss.

''Nerds of Prey' is the first story where I can actually believe he had fun writing. Someone somewhere has hacked a disc with information leading to Oracle's identity and Babs will have none of that. She tracks his trace to an info-geek convention and attends in person to manually delete the information from the offline info network. Sadly for her, Calculator (her arch-nemesis since Infinite Crisis, a high-level intelligence super-broker with super-OCD) is hot on the trail of the same information, and is attending the convention to smoke Oracle out in the open. Of course they will randomly bump into each other, they will chat, dinner, date and flirt, and eventually come to stand-off Mexico-style.

Bedard finally gets the hang of the title, in a story that is ally not editorially-mandated. Babs kicks us, and the Calculator actually has a human voice, and acts as our POV character. He does fall into an easy trap here and steps on a pet peeve of mine:

Cyber-Space.

Now cyberspace has always been a darling comics sweetheart, and I'm always amused/slash/terrified at the different interpretation of the computer interfaces in comics. Technoorganic viruses, cyber-A.I.s who spring to life and materialize, computer programmes who gain sentience, and of course... -as in this current case- computer software who exist as cute on-screen cartoons which duke it out pokemon-style for dominance over the computer network! I cringe, I roll my eyes, I make angry fists at the comics page, but it's still there.

Jason Orfalas is filling in for Nicola Scott on the art front, and doing a better job of it; he sports all of her the good qualities, but none of the hindrances, with a good eye for anatomy and proportions. Babs is finally an attractive young woman, not a nerdy cripple, but a bona fide former superheroine. Here she looks it and she acts it! With more work on facial expressions and breakdowns, Jason'd be an ideal fit for the title.

Fun, but not too fun, Bedard and Orfalas are providing an entertaining supporting act while the main acts switch backstage. But don't get too attached.

Grade: 6/10
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Ryan Kelly's inked art for American Virgin #19

Clearly the art loses a lot of its punch in the colouring stage, as Kelly is a true force of nature when it comes to inks.

With the title's announced cancellation it's unlikelty we'll ever get to see a B&W reprinting of these issues. Meanwhile, enjoy these pages from Ryan's blog. (more in the link)
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Survivor China s15e05

Romance and Sabotage!

Birds are a-tweeting in each camp:

James and the Ogre! (Denise)



He actually finds her attractive? I can see how they match wits, but talk about redneck love!

Eric the Virgin? Damn it was about time he revealed what was special about him to get him chosen! And now he's earned his nickname. Mr Nice Guy all the way!

Jaime and Eric, sitting in a lake, k-i-s-yadda-yadda-bling. She's totally using his soft emo ass.

Now that Velentine's is over, cue in the surprise twist!

Two members from each tribe switch over to the other. For good?

Now that's more like it, put an early kibosh into everyone's scheming. Of course they all go for each team's strongest, but that's not where things stop being interesting.



Jaime and P-G should be crowned Queens of Survivor, right here and now! The take a twist and twist it even more, all the way back around to their best interests. Seeing as how their tribe has 3 old and 2 new, they decide to throw the next immunity challenges to get rid of the newcomers and head into the merger even-numbered with the other -original- tribe. Twist-errific!

The twist cleverly comes after a series of strictly brawn challenges, to give an advantage to the schemers, as it clearly requires them to throw the challenge in order to win. At this point only one tribe figured this out. I wonder if Todd realises what Jaime and P-G are about, will he tell his tribesmen? Will we have a challenge next week where both teams are trying to throw the match? ;)



James and Aaron are helpless in this new scheme of things, as all they've got left is their frustration; now they wait to get voted off. One of them keeps his cool against impossible odds, the other one caves in and plays Judas. But they're both helpless against the tide. At least one kept his dignity.

Aaron, you poor misguided fool. A sad sight to see him just give up and side with the opposition, without even telling them. Weak.


Quote of the day: My brain hurts - James


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Survivor China s15e03

Highly enjoyable!

The reward challenge was a boring as the reward itself. Pillows? And what's with having girl-on-girl fights every week? I'd rather switch over to WWF. Dave's naked strategy may not have made a difference to the other camp, but it was good for the eye candy and the fond S1 memories. The Ogre (Denise) was the most fun revelation of the game, sitting back dumbfounded as everyone wrestled, waiting for all the survivors of the other side to come gang up on her once they've dealt with her teammates.

The treasure hunt as a continuity challenge through every episode could become fun to watch! I'm still curious for the players to explain the logic behind choosing Leslie as the abductee. Easiest person to pull over to their side? How can she be so naive as to just chat everyone up? To add insult to injury, she then goes back to camp and tells her team members how much she loves the other team and how close she feels to them. Why wouldn't they vote her off from fear of turning against them post-merge? Not Survivor material (plus, she TOLD someone else about the first clue in the previous episode! grrr, that still bothers me). 'Mom' probably came in to proselytize rather than actually try to get to the money.


Immunity Challenge... That was more interesting, if only to see Ashley the Anorexic Waitress try to lift the small axe and swing it blindly like she was aiming for a stuffed papier mache ox. The choices of who to sit out from the challenge that involves both brain AND brawn? It was fairly obvious really: Denise (the Ogre) and Leslie (the Mom). Stupid AND weak.


In the final voting, Todd the Rat-twink voted against his own conspiracy? Why? How does he ever hope to get rid of the Three Bulls if he keeps going at it like that? And to think he was the one I was rooting for. Meanwhile, the Anorexic Waitress survives against all odds, despite single-handedly costing them the mission... Good-bye Mom, you had no chance!


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Survivor China s15e02

Immunity challenge this week? Giant ball mud-wrestling which quickly descends into dirty clothes-pulling and a Roman Orgy in mud. Yum.

Leslie, you're an idiot! You tell Todd the RAT-twink, the secret immunity clue? You TELL him? You don't go there and negotiate some sort of alliance, you don't ask for anything in return ,you only GIVE it to him. The individual immunity clue. Why? Because you're stupid, and he's smart. You pretty much concede to that, sweetie. Buh-bye

Speaking of the infiltration, what a wasted opportunity. You get sent into the opposing team's camp, without any rules or restrictions, and you spend your time making nice and braiding each other's hair? Then you hug and say goodbye? Is anyone's mind in the game? You don't make friends on your time in the enemy camp. You pretend to fall asleep and then get up in the middle of the night, you wreck their fireplace, you tear down their beds and you break their fishing gear in half. You have been given NO restrictions to play nice.

Dorks.


Ashley is voted off this week, and it's sad to see her go. Because you were so right sweetie, and you do look the most awesome of the bunch! Still, it's Rat-Twink for the win, all the way! No personal grudges, m'kay?
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Countdown #28

COUNTDOWN #28

Story: Paul Dini w/ Tony Bedard
Art: Al Barrionuevo

DC Comics

Only 28 left to go to end the torment.

Page by page:

Jimmy Olsen is kidnapped by a new Forager. Who? The Newsarama article said his is a redesign of a New God, but an editorial caption or a flashback or any bread scrap would be most welcome at this point, if only to explain why I should care at this point.

The Suicide Squad storms the cafe where Trickster and Piper are meeting Double Down, but the odd couple turn invisible and escape in a disappointing Gadget-Ex-Machina moment. So this whole time the Trickster has had an invisibility generator in his costume? One noone found when they arrested them, and one he never thought to use when they were captured by Poison Ivy, almost executed by Deathstroke, hidden in the warehouse of the Black Canary wedding, or mauled by a Golem? Double Down is the freakiest Rogue in DC's current repertoire (that's saying a lot), but the art in the last few issues hasn't done much to portray his powers since the Geoff Johns rule, with the deck of cards peeling off his inked skin, leaving behind visible muscle tissue. Here he's only a tatooed weirdo with a deck of cards.

Karate Kid and Una meet up with Brother Eye and something goes on with an old man and some kid. If I cared I would actually read the whole dialogue. But I don't (duh). Brother Eye's dialogue is creepy enough to make the effort, could we please have some off-beat moment in the future: I want to see him say 'Eye spy with my big Eye' :)

Speaking of Big Brother, Shadowpact is using Madame Xanadu to spy on Mary Marvel (or Black Mary, hehe) as she's using her new powers to-- wait, what ARE her powers? At this point, she's being shown doing pretty much whatever she wants. She's ageing people, she's bringing trees to life, she's transfiguring people into animals. She's a goddess, she's a witch, she's a bitch. Lovely.

The new Forager (man ,she looks UGLY! Why would someone commit this heinous crime to a Kirby design?) reveals DC's real plan behind offing New Gods left and right (Bardaaaaaaaaaa :-o ), as she enlists Jimmy to help retrieve the lost souls of the dead New Gods. Go Team Jimmy!

The Challengers of the Unknown are on Earth-8, the Earth mirrored after the Marvel Universe where the villains have brought on apocalypse and slain everyone. Captain Atom has somehow turned into an ass (the bug has been going around the DCU lately), and is sporting the Monarch armour, 2 decades too late. The challengers are kicking ass until not one but TWO yawn-inducing big surprise villains join the Big Boring Blue's cause.

On the art side, Al Barrionuevo is underperforming, dropping massively in quality compared to what he'd shown us in his debut series with Martian Manhunter. I guess he needs to make his art fit with the previous 23 bland issues of this title. I still don't really believe Giffen is doing breakdowns in this book.

The series is reading more and more like an endless random collage of 'Meanwhiles' and interludes in desperate need of a cohesive main plot to drive them to the finish line. It's not horrid, it's just aimless and dull with not a single redeeming value. Still a crime against our pockets.

28 boring Countdown issues on the shelf, read one out, burn it to ashes, 27 boring Countdown issues on the shelf.

Grade: 2/10
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Closeted Homosexual Professor Murdered at Hogwarts!

Shock. Gasp.

In unexpected news this week, J.K. Rowling outed Harry Potter's Professor Albus Dumbledore, fictional Headmaster of the Hogwarts School of Wizardry, a mere two books and 4 years since his death.

And everyone applauded, for a gay man who was never outed, not in his fictional lifespan, not in the books published or the movies released. Way to go to give us a great role model, ms Rowling!

As for the media circus?

Let's quote:

Gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell welcomed the news about Dumbledore and said: "It's good that children's literature includes the reality of gay people, since we exist in every society.

...and remain closeted in our studies not letting anyone know our real identity

And a spokesman for gay rights group Stonewall added: "It's great that JK has said this. It shows that there's no limit to what gay and lesbian people can do, even being a wizard headmaster."

... ... ... ...

"Dumbledore is gay," she said, adding he was smitten with rival Gellert Grindelwald, who he beat in a battle between good and bad wizards long ago.

This could actually fit, looking back. But I still couldn't prove this isn't something that Rowling tacked on after the fact; there was simply no hinting or nudging for the reader to make this jump on his own. If Dumbledore was always perceived as a gay character, why is there not a single hint in the series of 7 books? And what is the point of revealing it after all the books have been released?

Is it safe now?

Source: BBC News

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