June 25, 2021 | Arts / Entertainment

Meet Q-Force, Netflix's new gay superhero team

Netflix will be adding a new LGBTQ-focused series to its line-up this September called Q-Force, an animated super-hero series featuring the voice talents of Sean Hayes, Wanda Sykes, Laurie Metcalf and Gary Cole

The 10-episode series is about Steve Maryweather, AKA Agent Mary, who fell from grace as the top spy when he came out as gay. "Unable to fire him, the Agency sent him off to West Hollywood, to disappear into obscurity. Instead, he assembled a misfit squad of LGBTQ+ geniuses. Joining forces with the expert mechanic Deb, master of drag and disguise Twink, and hacker Stat, together they’re Q-Force."

But when the team never sees action, they go rogue. And with their first case successfully solved, "they get the reluctant approval of the American Intelligence Agency, and are officially upgraded to active secret agents in the field."

The bad news: they are forced to accept a new member, a straight man called Agent Buck.  

Now, the series is receiving backlash for leaning too heavily into queer stereotypes, despite having a gay showrunner (Gabe Liedman, a writer on sitcoms like Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Broad City) and LGBTQ+ voice actors like Sykes and Hayes.

"I can understand the frustration people are sharing online," wrote Farid-ul-Haq at The Geekiary. "There’s a difference between actual well-written queer representation and tokenization or exploitation. The teaser trailer seems to be relying too much on problematic queer stereotypes and making Q-Force look like an animated series that’s going to offer a whole lot of ammo to anti-LGBTQ+ folk."

Others are saying the criticism, itself, is an issue.

CBR's Reuben Baron argued: "If anything, a lot of the responses to Twink in Q-Force betray internal prejudices within the gay community where those who do fit certain stereotypes of campiness, femininity or hypersexuality are shunned for acting "stereotypical." While it's important that people understand not all gay men fit such stereotypes, it's equally important to understand that those who do fit those stereotypes are equally deserving of respect as their peers."

The series will premiere on September 2 on Netflix. Check out the trailer below and judge for yourself.