The smart money is on Batman or Aquaman or Wonder Woman but, frankly, a case could be made for all or any of them: who is the comic book superhero who has been suppressing their homosexuality all these years?

The speculation has begun after DC Comics co-publisher Dan DiDio let slip at the Kapow comic convention in London that an established character would be revealed as gay.

We already have lesbian, flame-haired crime fighter Batwoman and the gay male couple Apollo and Midnighter. Next up, it would seem, will be a character previously assumed to be straight.

The writing has been on the wall for a while. More than a year ago DiDio was interviewed in the Advocate talking about gay characters and the need to reflect society as it is. Then, the intention was to introduce completely new characters. He said: "One of the things we're very focused on doing for these types of stories is rather than [change an existing] character, we want to make sure that this is the basis of who that character is right from the start."

Now the intention seems to be that a character previously thought to be straight will sensationally reveal themselves to be gay.