X-Men/Ho Yay

""It is a little bit of a mini-tragedy that him and Magneto don't, you know, have sex and become married and become best friends.""

- James McAvoy shares his thoughts on Charles / Erik

Well, what do you expect from a comic about a small minority generally indistinguishable at first glance, often not knowing their own identities until puberty or later, loathed by large parts of society?

Comics
""I won't stop. Your brother. Warren Worthington. Alison Blaire... anyone and everyone you care about will die.""
 * In The Seventies and The Eighties, X-Men's Mystique and her "friend" Destiny fell into this trope - with comics now subject to fewer restrictions, however, current references to Destiny (still posthumous after twenty years!) make no attempt to hide that she and Mystique were lovers. Late in Chris Claremont's first run on the series, he has the Shadow King refer to Destiny as Mystique's "leman," an archaic term for lover, paramour, or spouse. (Thank you, gayleague.org )
 * It was actually Claremont's plan at one point to reveal that Mystique was not Nightcrawler's mother, but his father, having impregnated Destiny while in the form of a man. The editors nixed this idea. But considering the enraged reaction of the fans to the revelation of Kurt's real father, it has been suggested that it be retconned to the truth.
 * In various incarnations of the X-Men, there is definite... chemistry between Professor X and Magneto, even to the point of them cracking open a bottle of red wine and discussing philosophy on their(!) balcony in Excalibur, series 2 issue 2. Charles has agreed to help Erik rebuild Genosha, so the two find it beneficial to SHARE A HOUSE! We get many scenes of domestic bliss with the two, such as Erik cooking breakfast for both of them.
 * In fact, in the final episode of the X-Men animated series, Jean asks "Did you love Charles Xavier?"; Erik's response is to be outraged that she could doubt it.
 * In the Ultimate universe, Professor Xavier says outright that he left his wife and family to be with Erik. Plus, caption box dialogue saying they were closer than brothers because of their uber-powers.
 * Their flashback with kid-Jean in the third movie is pretty close to a couple considering adopting a child. Sir Ian McKellen and James McAvoy both ship it. The latter referred to First Class as a love story and...well, just check out that quote at the top.
 * And the part in First Class where Erik is practically cuddling him. Okay, it loses something because Charles has just, but it still has the highest "are you sure he's not the love interest?" quotient in the movieverse.
 * Though the druggie psycho Magneto of the "Planet X" arc was retconned into being an impostor in an Author's Saving Throw, he was intended to be the real Magneto when it was written... so you gotta wonder why Mags, while in full-on baby-eating Complete Monster mode, saw fit to not kill Xavier, but instead... keep him unconscious and naked in a tank of something-or-other. (It's totally transparent, too. Magneto has an unobstructed view of Charles' ass.) He planned to release him once all humans are wiped out, and was looking forward to Charles someday looking over the new world and agreeing with him. At his most whacked-out, Mags still wanted to live happily ever after with Charles. Post-retcon, we can say the impostor got at least one thing right.
 * The Claremont-written novelization of the third X-Men movie had Iceman giving Angel his codename because of his unnatural beauty, which he goes on about in narration for some time. Of course, canonically, Angel is just that angelic-looking (even if not every comic artist manages to pull it off.)
 * Chris Claremont was frankly somewhat notorious for slipping this in where he got a chance (and we love him for it. Among other things.) One theory among old-timers about the whole Storm/Forge thing was that the editors freaked over the level of Les Yay in Ororo's night on the town with Yukio (not to mention the former's makeover) and told the man to write in a male love interest ASAP.
 * If so, it didn't stop the subtext; in a later annual Storm's heart's desire is to run away with Yukio.
 * This became canon in an issue of Black Panther. A scene depicted all of Storm's major romantic and sexual partners. Guess who was among them.
 * And then there was Dani and Rahne in New Mutants. This page lists some of the alleged Subtext, make of them what you will.
 * Dani does have the superpower of mentally bonding with animals and Rahne is a werewolf. Still...
 * This is pretty clear: Dani: '-you're not alone. Moira loves you, and I-' Rahne: 'I know. But that doesn't make me ache any the less.'
 * Whenever I read New Mutants issues by Claremont, I have the feeling that Illyana crushes on Kitty, and Warlock on Cypher. The latter also works on the last New Mutants series.
 * Although Warlock belongs to an asexually reproducing race and thus is a "he" only by default.
 * Don't forget Kitty and Rachel. In Claremont's later run on Uncanny, when Rachel discovers that Colossus is back with Kitty, she storms out of their (Kitty and Rachel's) shared room and acts all mopey and depressed.
 * And let's not forget the overly friendly way she hugs Kitty in the X-Women one-shot. Guess who wrote said one-shot.
 * Warlock's love for Cypher played a part in the sad story of Earth-8545, where Warlock fused with Doug Ramsey in a last-ditch attempt to cure him of the Legacy Virus - and instead ended up turning almost every human and mutant on the planet into cyber-zombies.
 * Wolverine/Gambit and Wolverine/Cyclops is lampshaded by Emma Frost, who in one issue comments on how Wolverine and Cyclops have a "Rad Bromance."
 * This Gutters Comic helps the Ho Yay so very much.
 * And of course, Nightcrawler addresses Wolverine as "liebchen" in a recent issue. http://asylums.insanejournal.com/scans_daily/351609.html#cutid1
 * And there's Beast addressing Nightcrawler in the same way in #502...
 * Speaking of Nightcrawler he has routinely referred to Colossus by German pet names.
 * And their girlfriends have complained that on double dates they often spend more time talking to and about each other than them.
 * Both completely destroy the het pairings of the parties involved, with Wolverine/Cyclops being the 'if I can't get you I'll get your girl' example and Wolverine/Gambit both spurning Rogue.
 * Let's not forget that these three can be threesome as well.
 * Wolverine is walking Slash Fic fodder. He seems to get scenes of chemistry with every other X-Man, male or female, ranging from the standard Ho Yay (in the forms of Colossus and Nightcrawler) to varying shades of Slap Slap Kiss (Magneto and Gambit) to I Love You Because I Can't Control You (mostly in his relations with Cyclops).
 * Speaking of Claremont and Les Yay, let's not forget Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew) and Lindsey McCabe.
 * Or Jessica Drew and Carol Danvers. Or Kitty and her many predatory older women. Or... you know, let's just not forget Claremont and leave it at that.
 * Or Jessica Drew and Sybil Dvorak, or Jessica Drew and Nekra Sinclair...
 * And, more recently, the Psylocke miniseries starts with Dazzler riding around on the back of Betsy's motorcycle. Later, when he's trying to persuade Betsy to kill him, Matsu'o threatens:

"Bling: Well, you know, it had its upside. [...] Having Rogue come riding to the rescue, and sweep me up in her womanly arms? Kind of hot."
 * Just to be clear, that's her twin brother (with whom she is naturally extremely close), the man with whom she was canonically in love for years (and who a large section of the fandom thought she was going to marry), and... the lady she's just started hanging around with, for the first time since they were both written by Chris Claremont.
 * When Rob Liefield and Fabian Nicieza wrote X-Force in the 90s, it was a catalog of testosterone, with Shatterstar, the Mojoverse warrior who was interested only in fighting. When Nicieza took over after Liefeld left, Shatterstar began figuring outt human emotions and struck up a friendship with fellow teammate Rictor. Jeph Loeb took that one step further, giving Shatterstar a very obvious crush on Rictor and developing a subtext between the two men that eventually became difficult to ignore and a Fan Yay (detailed extensively here). Years later, Peter David writing X-Factor reunited the pair and had them become a canon couple, to the disapproval of Liefield who said that his vision of Shatterstar was as a 'gladiator' and 'Spartan', apparently precluding him from homosexuality.
 * I guess Liefeld knows about as much about the Spartans as he does human anatomy.
 * In a 2005 story (Rogue vol. 3 #7-12) Tony Bedard established that back in the really old days (the flashback part of the story is set before Sunfire's first appearance, X-Men #64 (1970)) a 17-year-old Rogue was really close friends with a memory-stealing female mutant called Blindspot who also happens to be immune to her absorption power. To this day Blindspot loves to cuddle up with one of Rogue's old costumes, and at the end of the story Rogue gives her the one she then was wearing in return for having her memories restored.
 * The recent X-Women one shot by Claremont was written just so he could make it clear that Emma Frost, Rogue, Psylocke, Kitty Pryde and Rachel Summers are all lesbian/bisexual. The whole comic from start to finish is pane after panel of poses, lines of dialouge scenes and character moments that make it clear ALL these characters fancy the pants of each other and are shagging like bunnies when the "Camera" is off them. This Les Yay fangirl is definitely NOT complaining ;D
 * The Les Yay fanboy isn't complaining, either. That one-shot was an epic helping of AWESOME.
 * In The Nineties, the X-Men were a metaphor for being gay. There was even a mutant AIDS.
 * Maybe even now. Matt Fraction made them live near San Francisco...
 * The X-Men made San Francisco a temporary base in the early days when they couldn't go back to Xavier's mansion for a while. And this back in the 80s.
 * "You didn't ask so I didn't tell," anyone? (X Men First Class)
 * Young girl mutant Bling, looking back on almost being devoured alive by the vampiric mutant Emplate in X-Men Legacy #230:

Kurt has descended to earth for help Wolverine with his fight againts devils. Not protect Wolverine is not an option !
 * Considering that Bling! (the exclamation point is required!) is openly gay, this isn't suprising to hear from her.
 * In the recent X-23 comics, fandom went crazy over this little scene between Jubilee,who happens to be a vampire (better than it sounds) and X-23. X-23 and Jubilee. And this. Nicknamed appropriately, the "vampire Lesbian scene". Although the writers seem to be genre savvy, since they have Jubilee claim she was merely acting under the influence of her vampire instincts...sure.
 * Truly genre savvy writers would have known that excuse would convince no-one.
 * This troper also suspects X-23 had a little unrequited crush on Dust. Look at the lengths she went to in order to keep the bigoted Striker from killing Dust during the Purifiers' post-M Day attack on the school.
 * Kitty Pryde has been mentioned on this page already, but this troper believes special mention must be made of her relationship with Storm. The older woman is the only person in the X-Universe who actually calls her "Kitten" as a term of endearment, and the troper can attest to there being at least one fanfic out there dedicated to Ororo seeing Kitty as more than "the daughter she never had" (which is the type of relationship they share in canon).
 * Then there's the Mutant X short series where Ororo is a vampire who turns Kitty (and Forge) into her slaves.
 * In one issue of Unlimited, Marrow gets downright poetic about Kitty Pryde's loveliness (before throwing a dead rat into her lap.) As a Morlock, it's supposed to be jealousy of/distate for one of the "pretty" mutants who have it so easy, but that comes off as an Informed Attribute as it's very understated and Kitty's beauty and perfection is emphasized a great deal (the entire story is seen through Marrow's eyes.) The entire portion of the issue that isn't devoted to heroing is Marrow acting like a child teasing her crush while thinking about how lovely and perfect Kitty is.
 * So I summarizes, Logan is the most affected person by the death of Nightcrawler, he keeps a photograph of their happy days in his pocket, he said how much he misses him, looks at a photograph of him before heading out to one of his missions of uncanny x-force, hitting Dark Beast for attack a Kurt alternative. Then he puts on the same plane Kurt and Jean Grey, said how much he loves his voice, called AOA! Kurt "elf", without really doing it on purpose and at earlier stages, has left his school be invaded by horrible blue dwarfs, only because they vaguely look to Kurt.

Cartoons
"Tabby: Do I know what my girl needs, or what?"
 * Because of lines like this, people seem to see Boom Boom and Magma's relationship in X-Men: Evolution as pretty much Romantic Two-Girl Friendship:

"Jean: (to Magneto) How much do you love Charles Xavier?"
 * The Brotherhood itself was one big Ho Yay orgy with four boys living in a house together with only one girl. Of particular note was Lance and Pietro.
 * After Pietro betrays the Brotherhood, they are sent by Gambit to rescue him. Lance says "I can't wait till I get my hands on Pietro." I bet you can't.
 * Scott and Kurt don't escape either. Especially since in one episode, Kurt embraces Scott in order to teleport him out of the way of a falling object.
 * Evan, while filming Kurt and Scott washing Scott's car together (yes): "Scott can be pretty stiff, but Kurt usually takes care of that." Cue Spit Take.
 * The episode where they had to share a room, and Scott leaves that room in the morning absolutely COVERED in patches of blue fur.
 * Kurt to Scott: "You really are ashamed of me!"
 * Scott and Lance. More Ho Yay than their usual Foe Yay when Lance joined the X-Men in one episode.
 * There are also Kitty and Rogue (and their famous dance scene), Rogue and Jean, and the lesbian orgy that is the "On the Wild Side" montage with Jean and Amara grinding on each other.
 * Wolverine and Captain America, in a really sweet, sad kinda way.
 * The first scene Angel and Gambit have together is a shirtless Angel walking in on Gambit, who just broke in to his house, and asking him if he"likes what he sees". Wow...
 * Then once Angel gets to the Institute, Kitty and Amara are spying on him. Bobby sneaks up behind, asks them if they're "checking him out". Once they leave, he takes their place, even sneaking closer for a better look (my shipping goggle may have been on when I saw this episode though).
 * Ta-da! More Foe Yay really, but still ... just take a look.
 * "Dark Horizon" had Magneto carrying Xavier around and looking really worried about him. Xavier does not object.
 * Also in "Dark Horizon", Wolverine and Sabertooth tend to act like a couple who went through a really bad break-up.
 * Take one good look at the average episode of the '90s cartoon and it's possible to interpret Wolverine as flirting with every male character present, provided you squint a bit in the case of Professor X. And it would be remiss to not mention just how near-canon Rogue/Storm is. Heck, the first time we ever see Rogue's 'dere' side is when she's worrying that Storm's been crushed by debris. We don't see her express that amount of emotional attachment to her canonical love interest Gambit until nearly six episodes later.
 * Not to mention Magneto. He had a fair number of Foe Yay occasionally bordering on regular Ho Yay moments with Xavier, while his near-infinite patience with Magneto's villainy and the respect the two men hold for one another can't help but remind viewers of similar relationships. Somewhat Hilarious in Hindsight seeing as as several years on, openly gay actor Ian McKellen was cast as Magneto in the live-action films.


 * In Wolverine and the X-Men we have scenes of Rogue and Domino hand holding, looking into each other's eyes, and when Rogue goes to rejoin the X-Men... Domino looks like she was about to convince Rogue to stay with the Brotherhood with a kiss...

Films
"Interviewer: What is the most common question you are asked?
 * In the First Class movie: Charles and Erik. James McAvoy wasn't kidding when he called it a love story.
 * In a deleted scene, Charles projects Erik in drag (yes, you read that correctly) and remarks, "You've never looked more beautiful, darling."
 * Hell, for that matter, James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender. While doing interviews promoting the film they sang to each other and talked about how they would fly all over the world spreading love to the hapless populace if they had super powers. And then there was that time with the golf cart.

James McAvoy: How many times did you have sex with Michael Fassbender?

Interviewer: That is the question. And what is the answer?

McAvoy: Four."

"Erik: What did you do to me?
 * Darwin and Alex (Havoc) have their little moments. There is a scene where Darwin places his hand on Alex's stomach, and just a few seconds before Darwin dies, who does he reach out to? Alex.
 * Erik tells Emma that he wants her on his team to fill the "gap in [his] life" left by Xavier.
 * There's such a ridiculous amount of Ho Yay in this movie, that by the end it almost feels like Charles is cheating on Erik when he kisses Moira. Certainly the fact that Erik was absolutely devoted to  doesn't help things! And that's one example.
 * As blatantly homoerotic as the entire film is, the scene where Charles reads Erik's mind and then wipes away a tear takes the cake.

Charles: I accessed the brightest corner of your memory system. It's a very beautiful memory, Erik. Thank you."


 * On the villainous side, the Azazel/Riptide pairing is as popular as Azazel/Mystique.