The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special has a surprisingly gay twist
Drax (Dave Bautista) and Mantis go to a gay bar in The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special. (Disney+)
Marvel’s most dysfunctional family has given new meaning to the phrase ‘make the Yuletide gay’, by going to an LGBTQ+ bar in The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special.
The Disney+ special sees Drax and Mantis (the world’s most surprising pairing after Julia Fox and Kanye West?) embark on a mission to secure the best Christmas present possible for Chris Pratt’s Peter Quill AKA Star-Lord.
They settle on securing Kevin Bacon as a present (because, why not?), and find themselves in Los Angeles.
Despite the fact Mantis (Pom Klementieff) has literal glowing antennae and Drax (Dave Bautista) is six-foot-something, covered in tattoos and beefier than John Cena, the two Guardians of the Galaxy are welcomed without a second glance.
(On second thought, it’s obvious why Drax would be welcomed into a gay bar based on that description, but the point stands).
The pair receive shots from a sufficiently snarky, muscled, tank-top wearing bartender (Flula Borg), before Drax is approached by a friendly group who ask him to dance.
Drax refuses, but does not refuse more drinks, while Mantis breaks it down on the dancefloor.
It’s a heartwarming sight to see Bautista’s alien destroyer (not a euphemism) doing tequila with an elderly gay Santa Claus, despite Marvel’s fraught relationship with the queer community.
Aneka’s (Michaela Coel‘s) lesbian relationship in Marvel’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever amounted to a single kiss on the forehead.
The (tiny) moment of affection between Coel’s Aneka and Florence Kasumba’s Ayo was cut from the film’s release in Kuwait according to the The Hollywood Reporter.
The outlet said the queer kiss, as well as a scene in which a woman gives birth to a child, were part of a small amount of edits “amounting to just over one minute” of cuts.
Chris Pratt has also been a point of controversy, after he was accused of regularly attending the “infamously anti-LGBTQ+ megachurch”, Hillsong Church.
However, he has denied he ever attended the institution.
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