Pause. Take a second to acknowledge how far we’ve come as a society that comic legend Stan Lee is executive producing a series about a gay superhero for Showtime. The project is based on openly gay writer/director Perry Moore’s novel Hero, which tells the story of Thom Creed, a teenager and the world’s first homosexual superhero, who wrestles with his secret identities when he’s not pinning villains.

Creed isn’t actually the first gay do-gooder. (Did you really think the super-chiseled men in tights running with the super-chiseled man-women were straight?) Whether their homosexuality was declared or merely implied, gay heroes have long existed in comics and have helped pave the way for this new series. Check out some of the gay do-gooders to grace the pages of Marvel and DC comics over the years. (Forget the indies'like indie rock and indie rap, it goes without saying that they’ve always been gay)…

Click here to see the gayest Comic Book Superheroes…