USAToday:

Wedding bells are ringing for the X-Men, and Marvel Comics is getting topical with its newest superhero marriage.

In Astonishing X-Men issue 50, out Wednesday, the openly gay mutant hero Northstar proposes to his longtime boyfriend, Kyle, with a same-sex wedding featuring a super guest list to follow next month — as well as sure controversy in some quarters.

President Obama recently came out in support of gay marriage, but Marvel's views evolved a while back. Alonso says he and his team began having conversations about such a story line shortly after New York legalized same-sex weddings last June. "Most of our characters reside in New York, and our stories always work best when we reconcile them against the real world, so it raised some questions."

Marvel has focused on bringing a more realistic flavor to its characters and books, such as introducing Miles Morales, the half-black, half-Hispanic Spider-Man, last year.