The comics industry does this often. They feel like they can't tell more stories with the same character, so they change them by killing them off or changing an attribute or aspect, but invariably they have to change them back or suffer from failing sales.

Anyone else remember Crisis on Infinite Earths? They killed off both the flash (Barry Allen) and supergirl, and while they were absent for over a decade, they were brought back.

Gay superman? Yeah, that was covered in the Wildstorm book The Authority. Midnighter and Apollo are the gay versions of Batman and Superman. It makes sense when you realize that the guy behind the Wildstorm imprint (Jim Lee) is now running DC. Don't get me wrong, I actually love the Wildstorm books, but that's because it's full of disposable characters.

Being edgy in comics is meh at best and never works long term. It's a quick flash of interest similar to J.J. Abrams' style of storytelling. Now every "event" is just to reset everything to try to tell better stories (tell me that doesn't sound like a DNC wet dream). But they are going to find the same problem as Marvel is going to have, in trying to tell a story that does not involve the iconic characters people know. No Iron Man or Captain America? Good luck chumps!

I wish the publishers well, but I seem to be buying WAY more back issues than new books. This trend will eventually revert.