Joe Anthony Myrick (or JAM) is a writer/editor who contributes to both the comics team and the music team.
The idea of open queer identity was something '90s television was largely not yet ready to tackle, and most attempts to do so were censored heavily.
I rocked into downtown Auckland in my full Xena garb.
What was the campest thing you did on Xena?
I mean, the whole of Xena is an ode to camp – I was an aide-de-camp through every season. "There's so many things I want to say to you," Gabrielle says before Xena cuts her off. I mean, she’d had Marcus as a boyfriend.
Looking back, Xena: Warrior Princess was actually quite ahead of the times.
This inclusivity that everyone’s aspiring to now, we were doing that way back in the 90s.
He covers the big figureheads of the industry (Marvel and DC), as well as lesser-known indy parties and some personal favorites like BOOM! How did that feel?
The New York gay scene gave Xena its early edge. What the '90s television show had been unable to give its audiences, the contemporary Xena graciously supplied its readers, offering a sustainable, nurturing romance from the start.
The Xena television show was littered with intimate moments between the two, which were often read as romance, but could easily be denied as otherwise.
This was never made official onscreen – but a comic book continuation of the series made the subtext of their romance overt, in a satisfying win for the couple's 'shippers.
Xena: Warrior Princess #2– by the creative team of Vita Ayala, Olympia Sweetman, Vasil Georgiev, Rebecca Nalty, and Ariana Maher – definitively establishes Xena and Gabrielle as lovers, with the debut issue of the sequel comic featuring the pair sleeping in bed together, and the following issues depicting a pivotal in-continuity kiss.
With this move, the series casually integrates the Xena-Gabrielle romance theory into canon, in an exciting move for long-time fans of the franchise who've long wanted the pair to be able to be together, as a loving couple, openly.
Why The Xena: Warrior Princess Reboot With Lucy Lawless Was Canceled
Xena: Warrior Princess is a classic of 1990s pop culture, but star Lucy Lawless almost returned for a canceled reboot of the show in the 2010s.
As the Xena: Warrior Princess comic book continuation progresses, Xena and Gabrielle continue to share intimate moments...
Xena and Gabrielle's proposed romance never stood a chance, as something ahead of its time, but in the modern world of comics, these barriers have thankfully been surmounted.
The kiss in 2019's Xena: Warrior Princess #2, and the confirmation of their long-standing romance, validates many of the TV show's intimate moments.
We didn’t know that was the case when we began the show.
A long overdue kiss finally confirmed the queer love story at the heart of Xena: Warrior Princess. In Warrior Princess #4, Xena goes to great lengths to care for Gabrielle as they trek through the Russian Taiga.
But by the end, we were like: totally; they’re a couple; they’re married. It ain't Joxer.
But it wasn't all subtext between Xena and Gabrielle — the pair actually kissed. Running the Lilleth Fair or Miss Sappho 2024.