For those who might be willing to remember the very cringe-worthy, briefly lived (thankfully) character of Extraño, a gay magician from Peru, from DC’s 1988 crossover, Millennium, this is what you remember, gay stereotype extraordinaire:

Yep. There really cannot be enough mockery. That damn thing cries out for a caption contest. I believe I’ve mentioned that I’ve never been a big DC fan. This can be counted as one reason why. A gay character who looked like the bastard offspring of Mandrake, an unknown pirate, and Liberace, with apologies to Liberace. The character spoke with a lisp, called himself “Auntie” and gave lots of unsolicited advice. I’m sure you’re thinking it couldn’t possibly be worse than that. Wrong! Extraño goes up against a villain by the name of Hemo-goblin (oh yes. Feel free to cringe), contracts HIV, and was eventually killed off in a Green Lantern. I know it was the ’80s, but fuck me, there was just no excuse. I never expected to see this character, or even the name, again.

Extraño is back though, at least marginally, in last week’s first issue of Midnighter and Apollo. What is great is how Extraño is characterized there:

Nice, right? This is in the hands of openly bi writer Steve Orlando, and if he’s handling things, I’d be happy to welcome Extraño back. Full story is at The Advocate.