Aline (DC Comics) - Bifrost Database of Gay Comic Characters

Character Overview

Gender: Female

Orientation: Lesbian

Publisher: DC

Character Type: Secondary

Alignment: Neutral

AKA: N/A

Character Details

Summary: A minor character that appeared in one issue of the Watchmen series alongside her girlfriend, Joey, Aline is an active supporter of gay causes and a member of GWAR (Gay Women Against Rape). This series was published during the period that the Comic Code Authority (CCA) prohibited the depiction of illicit sex relations, sex perversion, and stories undermining the sanctity of marriage." There are only a handful of gay Watchmen characters; Aline and Joey are two of them.

Database Links: Watchmen Wiki

Important Issues: In Watchmen #11, Aline and her girlfriend, Joey, argue on a street corner about their relationship shortly before their death. They are two of only a handful of gay Watchmen characters.

Depiction of Aline, with a dark coat and her hair tied in a knot, speaking to someone on the street.

Articles about Aline

The remarkable thing about the couple Joey and Aline is that they embody everything that traditional comic book readers are likely to find objectionable in women: loud, assertive, opinionated, and so butch-looking that people call them fella[s]. Joey especially is rude, bossy, prone to violent outbursts, and even physically assaults Aline in public. Yet, by taking an interest in these women and depicting them against the “Hiroshima lovers” shadow in the context of Adrian’s alien attack (Figure A3), Moore rewrote the comic book assumption that such people are unimportant and have no rights to exist. Their deaths are a reminder that every life is a “thermodynamic miracle” and an indictment of the type of heroic ego that would justify mass murder as a master plan. (Read more)

William Leung, "Who Whitewashes the Watchmen," Hooded Utilitarian, May 2013.

Moore and Gibbons put a lot of women, racial minorities, and sexual minorities in Watchmen, but when they kill them all and give the actual story to the straight, white men, they’re sending the same message: If you’re not a straight, white male, you’re going to die and probably horrifically and you’re going to not matter in the narrative. And those of us reading who aren’t straight, white, and/or male are possibly going to be the only ones who care. (Read more)

Erica McGillivray, "Queer comic book characters: Normalization through marginalization in Watchmen," Sliver of Ice, October 6, 2009.